All that for pie?

Pouring rain, dense fog, spring temps and a slushy ski course greeted HURT skiers desperate for ski action yesterday in Osceola for the annual "Pie Race".  With treacherous winter storm conditions sidelining many HURT racers from last weekends opener in Lake Placid the Director was not about to let Mother Nature keep his team from raking in the points again.

So, under strict orders many brave souls drove west with trunks packed with their water skis and floaty-wings.

Poles were rendered next to useless on the soft deep snow of Osceola that had been saturated by the day of rain, visibility and course conditions made "survival" and "keeping equipment from breaking" the main goals for the day.  With legions of high school skiers skiing the course first, the human sized craters that blanketed the trail made for quite a memorable/forgettable "ski race".

The visuals tell the tale....

Visual approximation of the ski trails

Team photo after the event

Mid-race action. 

We interviewed some of the HURT athletes after the event about their experience....

Matt F:  "The more you fall, the more points you get right? I got a "6"!  BOOYAH!"

Chris Y: "Even my pie is wet."

DPK: "Poling would have been nice."

Owen P: "Thankfully my coach made me do a no-pole workout on Friday....I was good and warmed up...tired....but warmed up."

Ed L: Home course advantage!....these suckas don't ski enough on the TUG! 

Bernadette: I drove 6 hours for this?  at least the pie is here.

Seth: "Now I remember why I moved to the U.P! "

Let's all hope the weather rights itself and we can get some real ski racing in. Results here.  Kudos to the Camden crew who ran this race for all.  We thank you and hope you are dry.

Shock Wei-ves

From the desk of the HRT newroom!....shocking report!

The NYSSRA race season is poised to begin a little more than a week from now and most teams are getting together their plans for the season push for the championship.  Last week the HRT news desk picked up a message from the Peru Nordic rumor mill that Andy "Layer of Waste" Wei had been seduced by the black blood brigade and sold his soul to the Denizens of the North.  

Initially it was thought that this was nothing but a nasty rumor/misinformation/news report designed to intimidate, confuse and bewilder the nordic ski community.  How could Andy Wei leave a tried and true winning program for the champions-of-second-place?  Didn't he just drop some serious coin for the HURT racing kit?

Does the unassuming Mr. Wei really moonlight as a serious headbanger/thrasher?  

The HRT newsroom dove deep into this story...following leads to Boston, Glens Falls, Germany, The pits of hell, and Peru, NY to find the truth and get questions answered....

These pictures tell the tale...

Kiss Rocks Boston...special guest Andy Wei....1994

Dusseldorf Metal-Fest 2009

Peru Nordic Weekly training - Peru, NY

The following email was sent from an undisclosed location somewhere between the earth's mantle and outer core....

Dear HURT,

      I have always been a big heavy metal fan, have given in, and signed with Peru... just fits my style better... their blog entry on training zones based on Metallica songs... was 1) hillarious, and 2) works!  Hard diagonal striding uphill on frozen Marwes to "Battery" is awesome...

We caught up with the Director Koziol after the news of this event....

HRT: Are you surprised at the 11th our roster deal offered to Andy Wei by Peru?

D:  Shocked.  Even for Peru this type of coercion is out of their normal bag of tricks.  They really must be gunning for the title this year and are going no-holds-barred.  We suspect that we will see some HURT clad effigies in Andy Wei gear midway up Russian hill. 

HRT: What is your response going to be?  

D:  I am going to be tossing a lot of support to our young talented junior squad this season.  We are excited about the Connor H. threat from the Syracuse area.  We are going for young stars and this guy has a bright future on snow.  The thing about HURT is that we find ways to bounce back.

HRT: If it doesn't pay off, will you be dethroned or resign in disgrace?

D:  for sure, it will be done Napoleon style.