Where to begin?

WHELLLPP......we here at the HRT Newsroom are trying desperately to dig ourselves out from behind the piles and piles of headlines about HURT skiers doing awesome things and having great races.  It certainly isn't been easy.  With so much racing and so many things to share you may be here for a while....

We, at the Newsroom, took one week off from skiing to travel from District 12 to the great city of Panem to encourage the powers-that-be to stop turning the U.S.A into a dumpster fire....and we missed a whopper of a weekend in Lake Placid.  So let's start there.  The Lake Placid JNQ was the final stop on the qualification circuit for HURT juniors looking to grab a spot on the Mid-A Junior National Team, the NY Eastern High School Championship Team or the NY U16 Championship Team.  When the snowflakes all settled on Sunday the list of the qualified athletes included many tributes skiing in green.  The following HURT kids will have the chance to represent Mid-A in Lake Placid at JN's: Eliza Blood, Emily Atamanchuk, Nino Manzella, Dan Manzella, Brian Beyerbach, and Seamus Tombs.  This group has also qualified to ski at Eastern High School Championship at Mountain Top Resort and are also joined by a long list of HURT athletes that include: James Conway, Brendan Tomb, Casey Tomb, Michael Halligan, Julianne Burns, Maggie Borgos, Anna Wiedmann, Bryce Beyerbach, and Alex Fragomeni.  Both Bryce and Alex, thanks to some very crafty birthday/birthyear planning, have secured a spot on the U16 trip to Maine as well.  Congrats to all the kids who survived and thrived in a very intense and competitive month of qualification.

A full breakdown of Mid-A points can be found here: http://www.midaxc.com/home/announcements/mid-afinalrankingslist

All junior skiers who are interested in securing their spot on the EHSC team need to visit this link: https://www.skireg.com/new-york-state-eastern-hs-championship-signup ASAP and submit your deposit for the trip.  Don't wait to get a spot on the team.

A link to secure a spot on the U16 trip is here: https://www.skireg.com/new-york-u16-championship-team

Frago nabs a podium spot on Sunday in LP!

Racing kept right on going at the Craftsbury Marathon, Eastern Cup at Rikert, Shenendehowa Classic and SBC Mini Marathon.  On Saturday it was the HURT Open/Masters team who got into the action with Chris Yarsevich leading the way for the team and Aaron Huneck, Greg Stevens, Roger Henry, Richard Dixon, Sherry Dixon, Eric Hamilton and Alec Davis rounding out a solid Masters turnout.  It is clear that classic skiing is on the mind of racers who are looking to tune up for a Empire State Games distance race next weekend and a 15K Hurt-athon on February 12th.  

Ed Luban and Carol Fisher took it up a notch at the Craftsbury Marathon and Carol was the 11th Female and 3rd M7 in the 25K and Ed was the 4th M7 and 44th overall in the 50. Kudos to them for enjoying the blueberry soup!  

It was the Beyerbach brothers who tackled the Eastern Cup field and despite an unfortunate miscalculation on the Sprint day, had a great two days of racing. It was Brian who led the way and grabbed two top 35's in a deep EC field.  

Following the Shen Classic Race, on Sunday the Saratoga Biathlon Club opened their trails once again to the NYSSRA community and held their annual mini-marathon 15/25K freestyle race.  On this day there was no question who the class of the field was as Brian Halligan skied to an easy victory.  DPK followed in a hard fought 5th with Eric Hamilton and Alex Fragomeni joining from the HURT squad.  If ever there was a hunger-games moment from the weekend it was in the 15K skate race that saw 5 enter and only 3 survive. (2 DNF, one for a broken ski, the other for two broken poles, a dislocated thumb, and a sprained shoulder). The infamous "first hill" at SBC saw a pileup minutes after the start that would define many a-skiers day.  

Full results from the weekend can be seen here

Matt T rolling to 3rd and DPK grabbing a ride. 

BH....this picture is fast.

While all this racing makes for great updates, perhaps the biggest news of the week is that the Bill Koch Program of HURT Nation are truly THRIVING...nay....BURSTING with young talent.  You don't believe me? Check the pics...

Phew....we made it through the stack. Enough updating for now. Please tell me that there is no racing on Tuesday....

-Katness Everdeen

HURT contributing editor. 

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!

Welcome to 2017....a whole new world.

It's a New Year and HURT Nordic kicked things off with a bang with a two-day JNQ event at the Gore Mountain - North Creek Ski Bowl.  The full 2.5K FIS loop was unveiled with its "A" Climb, twisting descent and perfect corduroy.  With a combination HS race on Saturday, the new venue was introduced to almost 600 competitors. And the JNQ/Masters Sunday Skate race had triple digits as well.   This weekend marked a big step forward for HURT nordic's ambitions to host a big nordic race event and the HRT Newsroom was on hand to file a report....."2017-bigly-style"


Special Report: HRT Newsroom

Since 2017 has clearly marshaled in a seismic shift in the way journalism functions, foreign policy is crafted, domestic policy is crafted, and the way our national leaders weigh in on cable programming....the HRT newsroom will not be left off the leading edge of the ineptitude curve.  So in a dramatic move we asked Dave PK to live-tweet every aspect of his day on Saturday.  He served as race organizer, Junior coach, HURT ski tech-team leader, and racer and thus we felt a running record of his live tweet-o-grams would give you a true inside look at our JNQ weekend.

This is by far the best picture of the day.  For other pictures, and results from both Saturday and Sunday... see the facepages and other haunts on the interwebs.  And come to the North Creek Ski Bowl to see how awesome this place is.

Hope that the rainy weather stays away.  We hope to see you on Jan. 14th at Garnet Hill for our Mega-Relay.  Registration is still open!

Carbo Load with Pie and Bread

This Saturday was a busy weekend for HURT-nation and folks were traveling in all directions looking for strong starts to the racing season.  Coach Halligan took a tough U18 crew to the first NENSA Eastern Cup in Craftsbury for the individual classic race followed by a pursuit freestyle on Sunday.  Brian Beyerbach led the way on the results sheet with a 67th overall finish for the weekend.  Nino Manzella had a real strong finish right on his heels. Dan Manzella capped off the HURT boys show with a strong performance and a marvelous classic effort on Saturday.  In the women's race it was Eliza Blood who grabbed the top HURT spot with a 73rd place finish in a very deep and dense race field.  Emily Atamanchuk and Briana Fitzgerald got there first taste of Eastern Cup Racing with strong efforts on both days.  Full results for the overall weekend can be found here: https://www.nensa.net/results/

The NYSSRA points series opened with two races: The Osceola Pie race and the North Creek Nordic Fest. The North Creek Nordic Fest was met with mid-winter snowy conditions on Saturday and even though the concurrent high school race was cancelled due to tricky travel HURT made a strong showing on the course in the club race and on the podium.  Here are some shots of the steps.

The women's podium featured NY skiers (now Castleton College skiers) Emily Cromie (2nd) and Megan Greene (1).  4th place Castleton skier is featured in this picture even though the 3rd place was grabbed by fast skiing NYSSRA-regular Gabriella Frittelli.

You have to show up in the junior girls race to get on the podium!

Paul Allison, Doug Diehl (not pictured) and DPK take the steps on the masters podium. The Directress #2 waits patiently to get her dad's podium bell. 

Seamus Tomb (1) Alex Fragomeni (2) and Will Davis (3) in the boys 5K.

Podium finishers were joined by Casey Tomb, Brendan Tomb, Julie West and Alec Davis.  Full Results can be found here: 

Unfortunately, heavy rains drowned out the scheduled Sprint Race slated for Sunday morning but it was still a strong start for an event that looks to grow and bring lots of folks to the great venue at Gore and to the great business in the North Creek Region.  All award winners walked away with homemade dessert breads from Cobble Creek Farm!  Thanks to UHTA (Upper Hudson Trail Alliance) for hosting the event with us!

Not to be outdone, the baked goods kept coming at the Osceola Pie Race and HURT sent a Western delegation to the Tug Hill for the goods.  Ed Luban had a great day on home turf in the deep deep lake effect powder and once again lived by the old standby rule...."You have to show up to beat me!"

visual approximation of skiing in the Pie Race POW.

The Odd Oddsmaker Odds Take 2 - Season Kickoff Edition

Alright....the masses have spoken.  The interweb-nation may have decided that they are collectively over reading the "top 10 buzz-feeds" Buzz Feed", special-edition-fake-news-breaking-conspiracy-stories crafted by middle schoolers in Moldova, and the nonsense spewed from certain politician's tweet machine....but the web has come alive with a resounding "WE WANT MORE" when it comes to NY nordic ski racing reports from the Odd Man himself. 

So....here is goes.  World Cup racing moves to Davos, and New York racing revs up this weekend with a NYSEF opener (non-series). The following weekend (Dec. 17th) the NYSSRA points series and NENSA Eastern Cup series kick off in North Creek and Craftsbury respectively.  Winter is here...racing is here...time to place your money on the ladies. 

If you ever have a pundit ask you how to heal a nation divided, look no further than HURT-Laydz-nation.  Half the group hails from Shen....and the other half from Queensbury.  Blood rivals. Section 2 powerhouses. Queensbury has, and maintains, the upper hand in this storied history. But don't turn your back on the young upstarts from the suburban jungle of Clifton Park.  With no real hills to train on, the CP gals have turned to the creative training ideas of the French. Mademmoiselle A. Weidmann leads this crew of giggles as they look to close the gap on the Q-squad.  The youth, energy, hunger, and team unity are hallmarks for this half of the Laydz.

Odd-maker Odds:  3:2 that Shen will have the loudest cheering section at any nordic race North of 30 degree Latitude. 

Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Stack your team with Sweden.  Nilsson, Ingemarsdotter, Falk, Haag....just like picking Park, Weidmann, Burns, Caron, McGill.  They will have their days. And with well paced money you may just win big. 
You looking for a safe bet? Hit a bad stretch of betting after placing the college savings on Huneck? Here is a good way to get your coin back.  Let it ride on Qbury and Norway.  When Johaug gets banned for a few years...Bjoergen will come back and Weng will beat her.  They are deep, they are strong and they just keep coming.  E. Blood leads this squad once again but on any given week you could be looking for big results from Gengel, Atamanchuk, Falla, Borgos, Oestberg, even the youngest Beyerbach...it really doesn't matter. You'll be making a winning bet.  Don't give them the championship plaque just yet...we all know that a lot can happen in a season.  But they have talent and history on their side.

Odd-maker Odds:  4:1 that they will leave more glitter on the trail this season than this guy.

Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Norway.  Just Norway.

So....You think all the HURT Laydz are from two schools? Soft-spoken but steely-eyed Briana Fitzgerald would like to beg to differ.  She brings top 10 section speed from Scotia and a dedication unmatched.  This is your Parmakoski bet.  You won't be disappointed.  You may not win the big money, but you will have your principled Green Party vote.   

Who can heal a nation divided? What kind of leader can lead with such grace, dignity, power and strength of will?  Who has the god-like character traits of Athena and resolve of Joan of Arc?

Boom. 

Look for total domination in the U8 races.

And her army is growing. 

Be frightened.  Be very frightened.  Gurlz Rool.  Boys Drool.

The Odd Odds-Maker Odds are BACK - 2016-17 HURT Nordic Fantasy Ski Team Recommendations

Welcome to December!  After a long absence the ODD ODDS-MAKER is back to help you place your bets for the upcoming NYSSRA race season and help finalize your Noah Hoffman fantasy team.  While the World Cup Season is in full swing and headed to Norway, you still have a couple weeks before the NYSSRA season kicks off at North Creek Nordic Festival on December 16th, 17th and 18th.  That gives you plenty of time to search for vacuum-pennies and place bets in Vegas that will be sure winners.  After extensive research of the past off-season training, here are our top sure-fire picks in the men's field.


Brian Halligan:  Has put aside the gun for the coaching whistle and clipboard in recent months.  And then decided to run collegiate xc (and ran really well).  And then switched the blue-an-white of his old Saratoga days for the blue-an-gold of the Qbury coaching staff.  And he is a media mogul.  His performances this year will be a wildcard and unpredictable.

Odd-maker Odds:  5:1 that he will place 2nd at a snow-shoeing event wearing a HURT nordic suit. He will place second because he was trying to get the perfect interview of the winner.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Petter Northug.  He'll either be first, or 55th.

Brian Beyerbach: HURT's young stud and speedster looks to have a big year on the podium.  From the REG to NEG the QBY kid will be BIG.  Rumor has it he even skied once with Jessie D.  His hair is always appropriately coiffed and he is seen below utilizing his unconventional training method of reduced-hours on skis and 6 hours a day of mineral spring baths. For a nice complexion.

Odd-maker Odds:  3:1 that Jessie D. is actually Jessie Durham, his lab partner in Chem class.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Frederico Pellegrino.  Young stud that will score in a lot of races.

Mikey Halligan: A skier that strides to the beat of a different drum.  And it is syncopated.  With a sick drop.  MC Mikey-Fresh* looks to bring significant swagger and rhythm to the double tracks this season and is now upgraded from solo-training to team workouts.
*TM

Odd-maker Odds:  13:2 that you will hear his beats piped in the speaker system at the Ski Bowl more than once this year.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Iivo Niskanen.  He is just silky smooth.  So is MCMF*.
*TM

playing his new beats on his new iphone 9 mini.

Chris Yarsevich:  HURT Dad Of The Year has gone all in with his new BKYSL training program.  Towing more kids.  Eating more lollipops.  Planting ice cubes and spending A LOT of time snapping ski boots into automatic bindings (think...many squats).  Looking healthy, looking fast and he will be a force in most Masters fields.

Odd-maker Odds:  4:1  He drinks the most post-ski hot chocolate this season
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Ivan Babikov.  Both M2's and both fast classic skiers.

Aaron Huneck and Owen Putman: Shen grads and PG super-duo look to keep the nordic skis sliding this winter.  Putman with his RPI training (consisting of tossing tires at the gym and flexing for the college co-eds) is looking to prove college doesn't mean a drop off in performance.  Huneck, taking a different route, has turned to a life of entrepreneurship and flexible hours to maximize his skiing potential.   

Odd-maker Odds:  1:1  That Huneck sells a pair of skis to buy a cow. For the good milk.  Ends up  purchasing land with the intent of building ski trails and shack, finds out that the trails are great for mountain biking, sells his skis to buy a mountain bike.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Lari Lehtonen and Martti Jylhae (two WC dudes you've never heard of from Finland, that must be good skiers because they are from Finland)

Alex Fragomeni and Bryce Beyerbach: New kids on the block.  Rivals. some top talent in the U16 ranks.  If they don't try and trip each other with their poles this pair may make real waves this season.

Odd-maker Odds:  12:2 that they finish tied in a section race tied for 5th....down to the 1000th of a second.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Reese Hanneman and Eric Bjornson.  They appear to be friends, but there is only a world cup spot for one of them.

  Dave Paarlberg-Kvam: Elementary Art teacher and Father-of-one-soon-to-be-father-of-two is desperate for one last competitive run in a great snow year before he drowns in sea of kid boogers and tears (his own).  November has shown that he may get the snow he desires.  Whether or not his performance is up to the challenge remains to be seen.  We do know that as the father of toddler he has become a master of pacing and making smooth transitions.  Look for better performances in longer races.

Here is DPK prepping a pair of skate skis

Odd-maker Odds:  7:2 That he places 7th in a race with a viral infection and throw-up (not his) on his bib.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Lukas Bauer.  He isn't dead yet.

The Tomb Triplets and the Manzella Bros: We are giving a special shout out for this quintet of HURT juniors and their laundry pile.  It is everywhere. Omnipresent.  At any given NY race venue there is enough left over equipment to outfit all five of them at a moments notice.  This means they are always ready to go. Always. Ready.  When you are always ready to race, you are always a threat.  

Odd-maker Odds:  6:1 That at some point there will be an article of clothing belonging to someone in this group that will be on a bus to Canajoharie.
Noah Hoffman fantasy equivalent pick: Krogh, Sunby, Dyrhaug, Aukland, Roethe....any five Norwegians really.  Norway always rolls with the best team bus.  QBury's Nordie van and the Tomb-mobile are contenders for top HURT Nordie vehicle.  Although we do know this is openly disputed by the other half of the HURT juniors from Sweden (Shen)

We hope you have enjoyed this edition of the Odd-Odd-Makers-Odds.  Stay tuned next week when we bring you our top picks in the Women's Field.

Getting pumped up for the race season?!? Register now for the North Creek Nordic Fest and share the info with your friends.  There will be great skiing and amazing racing all weekend, December 16, 17 and 18th!  See you there

November kick off

There was no waiting for the snows of December and January to kick off the 2016-2017 race season for HURT nordic.  With not one, but two major club events this November, the race team has started off the season in a dramatic way.  The HRT newsroom was on-hand to get the scoop...

The NYS Rollerski Champs:  On November 19th, HURT nordic held the first NYS Rollerski Championship in Saratoga State Park.  We caught up with promoter and co-organizer Brian Halligan after the race for the first of many hard-hitting interviews this season.* 

*by "caught up" we mean we approximated what it would have been like to talk with the interviewee.  But whatever...the definition of journalism has become pretty fuzzy in recent weeks

HRT: So Brian, how was the race and what gave HURT the idea to host this event?

BH: Well Chuck, Kingston Nordic used to host a rollerski race for years and we looked to tap into that late November enthusiasm but bring it north a bit.  We loved the major swag from that race and tried to get some of that here as well.  

HRT: We knew that event well.  It was truly a special event.  It must have been hard to duplicate the flat-fast course, full-speed 180 degree turn in the final stretch, the errant soccer balls from nearby fields, and oncoming traffic that Kingston was famous for.  How did you manage to compensate?  

BH: Well, we contacted Greg M. to consult with us and help with our organizing effort.  We can't thank him enough.  Despite our closed roads and pristine pavement we held 2 great races (5K Classic and 10K freestyle) were able to get donations from Toko, Polar, Concept 2, Accelerade, US Ski Poles and Rudy Project so that helped.  The fact that we had Saratoga sulfer spring water to serve helped us really make this event unique.  We hope to carve a real nice pre-Thanksgiving tradition up here.

HRT: We heard your shout-out to the event on your new podcast at kickzonemedia.com, did that help bring out the massive crowds to the event?

BH: Not that I know of, but I do know from my extensive podcast analytics that the number of people in Minnesota who googled airfare rates from Minneapolis to Albany increased by 2300%.  So that is something.

Check out pics below and results here: 

HURT Nordic Thanksgivng Camp.....in NEW YORK: On November 25-27 HURT held their first (hopefully annual) junior nordic ski camp in North Creek, NY at the Gore Mountain Ski Bowl Park.  Aided by some early season cold temps, a little natural snow, and a great snowmaking system, HURT was able to get some solid on-snow time on the 1.7K loop that was blown in.  We "caught up"* with campers during the Thanksgiving potluck on Saturday night to ask how things were going....

*See above

HRT: Hi, Nino and Dan....how is camp going? Is it as good as expected?  

N: Yeah...it is great to be on snow and great to be here with a bunch of my teammates from school.  The skiing has been pretty nice.  Not as deep as we would like...but it is a good start.  It is sweet to be up training with HURT skiers from other high schools.  It mixes it up a bit from our normal practices. Thanks to Coach Tomb for letting us stay at his place and it is great that all the coaches worked so hard to make camp happen.  It is a blast.  What's burning? Is that the turkey? Or did someone leave a terrarium heat lamp on a rug?

HRT: ummmmm......gotta go.  We hope to see you at the North Creek Nordic Fest in two weeks!  Register now for the weekend races 

Here are some pics from camp: