Wine and Peanut Butter

This past weekend HURT held the world-famous*-one-and-only**6-hour-nordic-ski-relay-event better known as the "Mega-Relay" at Garnet Hill in North River.  With the January thaw coming in hard and vicious in the days leading up to the event there was major doubt that organizers would be able to pull it off and that skiers would put away their bikes and paddle-boats for a ski race.  But as micro-climates and elevation would have it, the white stuff stayed around enough to treat venturesome skiers to a great day of skiing.
*not really
**not actually true

After all the laps were counted and all the chili was eaten once again the W.I.N.O.S. (women in need of skiing) dominated the Women's division and walked away with full glasses and big smiles.  They have YET to relinquish the title and have an undefeated winning streak that rivals some of the great winning streaks of all time.  They only are a mere 550 Mega-Relay wins away from toppling the winning streak of the great nordic enthusiast* and Pakistani squash player Jahangir Khan's streak of 555 consecutive wins in squash from 1981 to 1986.  

Here they are rocking their winning smiles.

In the Men's division the day was not so glorious.  The thin and underrepresented HURT men's team consisting of Chris Y., DPK and Eric H. floundered their way throughout the day and limped to a 2nd place finish...but miles away from the first place Peru powerhouse of Rose, Allison and Wellford. The trio from Peru skied fresh and fast all day and appeared to be a team of four instead of a heavily taxed team of three.  Here they are posing at the finish.

Needless to say, when Directress 1 and Directress 2 arrived in the afternoon to assess the effort by the boys, they were clearly disappointed.  They were subject to quite a tongue lashing and in a furry emotion Directress 2 vowed to revamp the HURT men's program and bring an end to the Peru dominance in the 6-hour relay discipline.  Our keen eyed photographer nabbed the moment for posterity.  

The Mixed trio team of Sherry, Alec and Richard, that HURT sent in faired little better than the men.  However they filed a formal recommendation to the organizing committee that if under 16 and over 45 equal 1.5 laps for each lapped skied...surely an over-70 skier should reap the fruits of their longevity and get a 2-1 advantage.  Such a protest has been sent to the FIS committee and is under review*.

Anyways...what's done is done. and now the focus shifts to the HURT-athon on February 12th.  Plan on this 15K classic race to be one of the highlights of the racing season.  HURT has landed a new title sponsor for the event. The race will feature great podium and age group prize packages and on-the-trail raffle items will be given to random bib numbers.  VERMONT PEANUT BUTTER and their lifestyle-nut-butters will featured at the event, along with other HURT supporters.  We look forward to making that race a fun, hard, exciting day of racing for everyone. Register today!