Hi Friends of MNC Pro!!

This is Annie McColgan checking in from Anchorage, Alaska. The sun doesn’t come out for much time these days, but when it does, the mountains are beautiful. Skiing at the Kincaid trails at the base of the ocean is a pretty unique space indeed. We were supposed to be skiing in Fairbanks for our first weekend, but with cold temperatures, the race organizers quickly and smoothly moved the venue to Anchorage. While it was tough to initially get settled in Fairbanks to turn around and head to Anchorage, I’ve been super impressed with our whole team’s adaptability and ability to handle change. We were able to get our flights changed and our place to stay early in Anchorage, and we made the hop over to Anchorage. I had spent Thanksgiving in Anchorage with my buddy Novie McCabe, and so I really had a flip flop, flying to Fairbanks from Anchorage on Monday, and back on Thursday. All things considered, everything went smoothly, and we made it to some more pleasant and temperate skiing. However, we were still pretty bummed to leave Fairbanks, as the courses there were pretty awesome. Not to mention the massive blow-up of me carrying NCAA Champion Kendall Kramer at the Fairbanks airport, welcoming travelers to Fairbanks. The guys at TSA thought that was pretty funny.

Kendall and I in the Fairbanks Airport. This is the kind of airtime you get for being the national champion runner up

December in Alaska for racing has its challenges like this. Prepping ourselves for early cold racing was important, as the lungs can take a pretty heavy beating. Making sure you are layered up for the race and doing an extra-long warmup to prep the body is very important. For me, I also love to put hot water in my water belt to warm up my core before the race. However, other racers faced some bigger challenges than us due to moose on the course! One racer from UAA, Murphey Kimball, actually had to ski backwards in his sprint qualifier to get away from the moose. There is a rule here in Alaska that if the moose ruins your race, there is nothing you can do. So, you just have to get lucky and hope that no moose is on the course when you go by!

From the Instagram of GRP Coach Pepa Miloucheva, watching from the sidelines as the moose chases boys off the sprint course.

Perry has been killing it on the waxing side of things, being adaptable this weekend with some hard windblown klister conditions and making us some baller skis out there. Thanks Perry!

We had some decent races to start out this week. I qualified for the heats on Saturday and skied a decent quarterfinal for a girl who is a bit more of a distance specialist. Adaptability was still the name of the game on the distance day as they changed the course literally that morning, as they couldn’t groom a section of the 5k, turning what was going to be two laps of five, into three laps of about 4.3, which I enjoyed. For me, the longer the better! This distance skate day went slightly better but I’m still feeling like I’m blowing out those racing cobwebs. Still, it was one of my best super tour results, and if I can be in the mix early, I’m hoping that it is a good sign for later!

Outside of skiing, we’ve been keeping busy. I’ve been doing a lot of my remote work and reading, Colin has been baking bread and working on his leather crafts, and Connor is keeping up with every Bills game in the morning. The Bills are one of the many sports we have been watching, including World Cup skiing and Biathlon (Go Chloe!)

Again, I can’t stress enough how being adaptable and relaxed has really helped this week. With all the change and adversity at the beginning of the season, it’s amazing to have a team and coach that enforces having positive mindsets through this change. What I have found is that having perspective is the best thing. For us as the new team on the block, there were a lot of obstacles to get this new suit to a the start. It was not lost on me that it has taken the work of a whole community to get us here, and it was pretty dang cool as bib one in the qualifier for me when the volunteer asked, “What team are you?” and I said, “Mansfield Pro!” All of a sudden, the travel and the cold seemed like relatively small obstacles to the ones that we have already overcome as a team. I can’t wait to see what else we accomplish. We are looking forward to our skate sprint on Friday and the Classic 10k on Sunday. Tune in on Zone4 timing to check out our splits!! Thanks all, and hope to see you all in Vermont soon!

Annie Checks in From Alaska!

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