I joined the Microsoft ski racing team again, and Tuesday night was our first race of the season. If you look at the results, you’ll notice that I’m the only one of our 12 members who wanted to ski. I guess we’ll start off the season at the bottom of the points which is good. We wouldn’t want anyone to get their hopes up.
The mountains have been dry for a couple weeks so the snow was hardpacked. Thankfully the groomers had taken care of some of the runs so it was actually a lot of fun. The racing was fast and the course held up well. I lost both my races but I was fairly happy with my times. I placed in about the 43rd percentile which is up 10 points from my average last year. Since you get moved up or down weekly depending on how fast you ran, you’re basically guaranteed to win 50% of your races. My goal is to move up in the overall time rankings.
There is an old news segment on YouTube which shows what the racing is like. It’s over 20 years old so the gear and skiing styles are a bit goofy.