After a long, but relatively easy day of travel yesterday, we all got to bed early and met up at 6:45 for our morning jog. Not all of our team has arrived yet, but those who are here, started getting on our schedule for the week.
Sorry about the blurry picture, even the camera was tired.
Liz Kantack and I are coaching the J2’s this week so that group is featured today. We will try to spread the wealth in our later posts.
Our racing starts on Monday so today we are keeping the training easy and getting used to our new surroundings. This year the JN’s are set up like an Olympic village. Everyone stays together and uses public transportation. This means we go when they tell us to go etc… It should be a fun, interesting experience.
Not your typical morning jog, but it helped wake us up. Above the group, you can see one of the enclosed walkways that lace the city streets.
Hannah and Haley at the breakfast buffet. 
Half boy, half smile, Ian shows off his jacket at breakfast.
Sam gets his uniform.
Upon arrival at the venue, we scraped our skis and threw on some kick wax for our ski/course inspection. Each team has a storage “shed” for ski bags and a nice wax room. The wax rooms are not big enough for the kids to crowd into, but they are great for the wax tech’s. As long as the weather is realtively nice, the kids can do the basic prep work outside and then hand over their skis to the wax crew.
We are living in the center of the city and everyone gets bused out to the venue at specific times. This morning we found out that 7:30 means 7:30 :). We had 1 tardy boy have to find a ride with the wax techs.
All of the teams are staying at the hotel (it’s a bit bigger than most VT hotels). The J2’s race first so we go out early on training days too. Todays schedule was J2 boys depart at 7:30, J2 girls at 8. This means that all J2 boys from each division go out together in the 2 big yellow school buses. It is a good way to get the teams mingling together a bit.
The last 1/4 km includes this climb. In the background you can see a couple of the team wax trailers.
Ian, Sam, Hammish and Tyler take a picture break towards the top of the last hill. The course is in great shape and will be excellent for racers and spectators. It is nice rolling terrain with lots of loops through the golf fairways.
Our J2 boys finished their ski just as the J2 girls arrived in the stadium so we got a picture.
If you click on any picture, it should get bigger!
After the morning ski, everyone hops the bus for a ride back to the hotel. This afternoon we are planning a shopping trip in the city. The coaches are looking for healthy snack food, the kids will no doubt be looking at everything. Supposedly there are 50 miles of walkways in the city so maybe we will go exploring. We are also looking forward to the rest of the team arriving. And to Jack, who broke his foot 2 days ago and couldn’t make the trip, “hang in there, heal quickly and keep smiling”.
