As the sun rose on the morn of HURT's great snow sacrifice it was learned that their leader, coach, wax guru, and good luck charm had fallen on his sword in order to bring the desperate HURT team a few flakes of December snow. Stanley, summer training extraordinaire, laid his own life down so that HURT faithful could focus on bringing some major speed to their killer Hills Rd. interval session.
We caught up with HURT skiers for some final thoughts about their fallen coach.
Brian H: Stanley: "You are the fatest bunny anyone had ever seen. but i loved you and will never forget the way you basicly owned our house and did what you want. I will never forget the softness of your coat and I will never feel anything so smooth or fast as that pair of Fischer carbonlites you waxed for me at nationals. i'll miss you little guy' :')" Stanley The Bunny 2008-12/16/11 Rest In Peace
Sean H (saratoga biathlon): "When you were not eating the furniture, peeing on the couch & pooping anywhere you felt like it.....you were mildly amusing. I wish you could have coached Saratoga Biathlon, then we might of had a short at beating HURT."
The Director: This is a big blow going into the season. My feet just are not as lucky as his.
A. Luban: black armbands shall be worn in tribute!
DPK: I never met the guy. But I heard he was one hell of a guinea pig...and that's saying something.
45 degrees and raining?!? on December 15th?!? Ground that isn't even frozen?!?
The Director is taking things into his own hands. Another weekend in December will go by without a NYS ski race and things aren't looking good in the extended forecast. Time to change the winds. This Saturday at 9am meet with your skate rollerskis in Burning Bush for a killer set of intervals. 10 x Hills Rd at L4. Let's get the whole team out to show winter that the time has come to end this non-sense. Park at the Burning Bush public park in the Country Knolls neighborhood in Ballston Lake, NY and we will ski down to the start of the interval loop. See you there. If you ordered a team suit, you can come and pick it up then.
The following report was filed by the new HRT team news room reporter Maudry Angen on Monday after chasing HURT across the state as they skied in their annual "Festival of Pain" and Kingston Rollerski race.
(Article originally posted at www.sortafasterskier.hrt.uk.co)
Monday morning saw headlines across the country read "HURT SKIS LIKE A BUNCH OF WOMEN" and as the Director flips through the pages of his morning post a big grin slides across his face. There is no bigger compliment. This past weekend saw HURT nordic take a page out of the Norwegian women's team playbook and dominate the annual rollerski race and "nordic free-swag-and-nordic-emporium-extravaganza" known to most as the Kingston Nordic Ski Race. It was done the same way that the Norwegian women made the world cup opener in Sjusjoen look like child's play. With pure dominance and disregard for other mere mortals on skis.
Two time defending champion HURT rendezvoused in Albany with members from as far away as Syracuse in order to drive down en-mass to stake their claim to their FIRST three-peat of the season. The Director (who made his own rollerski race debut) was joined by Chris Yarsevich, David Paarlberg-Kvam, Austin Huneck, Tim Huneck, Martin Donnelly-Heg, Jan Mares, Seth Mares, Adam Luban, Ed Luban, Brian Halligan, (Sean Halligan - HURT for a day), Alec Davis, Matt Tornianen, and Roger and Joan Henry .
HURT ran away with championships in both the 5K classic and 5K skate race and MDH was able to shave even more time off his 5K double pole record.
In the skate race, usually uncontested champion, Sean Halligan was pushed to the limit by Sufferfest champion Austin Huneck until in the last few 100 meters the back wheel of young Huneck's rollerski goes flying off. After a dramatic crash and subsequent shedding of poles Huneck was able to skate-board in on one ski to ensure a 1-2 finish in the skate race. When asked to comment after the race, young Huneck shrugged his shoulders and said "I guess that is where they get the expression 'the wheels came off the bus' from"
We caught up with the Director after the race and he offered the following statement.
"It was a huge effort by everyone today. We had fast skiers with fast wheels, fast skiers with slow wheels, slow skiers with fast wheels, slow skiers with slow wheels, fast skiers with loose wheels, and even a couple loose skiers with well....nice legs. We covered every competition category and are truly ready to three-peat in the NYSSRA points series as well. We will see you on SNOW!!"
Check out the coverage from the weekend.
HURT MEMBERS: PLEASE PLAN ON A TRAIL WORK PARTY on 11-27-11 at 2:00pm. Bring rakes and clippers and hand saws so we can keep our training ground free of pine needles. More details will be found in your email. Hope to see you there.
The Kingston Rollerski Races are Sunday, capping a fun weekend of training. The HURT Festival of Pain kicks off tonight, with a loosely organized (i.e. doing it alone), 90 minute over distance run. Tomorrow, will feature the famous Feeling It 40K skate rollerski, and Sunday the fun Kingston Races. Bring on the training volume!
High School Ski teams have started practice. That means performing baseline strength tests for all the young skiers.
The Director was disappointed by merely being tested physically. After putting on a clinic during the physical strength tests (pushups, situps, box jumps, etc) he was ready to really set the standard with his mental sharpness (contract negotiations, owner/manager/player labor negotiations, signing bonus deals, etc).
Not only is November 15th HURT's youngest athlete's first birthday (Anna), but it is also the day of the Drive for 25. Help the National Nordic Foundation raise money to develop our nation's nordic ski talent.
Sufferfest morning dawned cold and clear, but dark workings were on the horizon. During warm up, the first attempt at sabotage took place. Star HURT skier Austin Huneck’s front rollerski wheel suddenly became loose. A legion of Peru skiers looked on with guilty faces, keeping oddly quiet during the whole affair. After sprinting back to the cars, and a quick repair by father Huneck, they made it back to the start just as the gun fired.
With the race on, Peru quickly went to option two, and viscously started hacking away at Austin’s legs. Here is an official Associated Press picture showing the carnage and near crash.
Austin managed to pull it together and then made quick work of the field, dropping everyone after the first rise. Austin Huneck claimed his second Sufferfest win in record time. HURT did not field a large squad this year, with some of the team traveling to secret training locations and some others not wanting to drive so freakin’ far. But both Yarsevich (non-wheel doped) and Tim Huneck (recovering from pneumonia) put in strong showings for 5 and 6th place. Dave Burt also put in a solid pre-season effort. Gabriella Frittelli won the women’s division and the one pole division, nice work!
The team now looks forward to the Festival of Pain and the Kingston Rollerski Races.
