USST Camp - Lake Placid Edition

Hey from New York-

My time out here has been great so far. Dan and I flew out on Wednesday and while the weather was not so pleasant when we got here, it has made a change for the best since we have been in Keene Valley. We have had glorious blue sky days with temperatures being in the 50s and 60s.

We have been training in Lake Placid for the last two days now and things have been great. Yesterday we did the Climb to the Castle which is a skate rollerski to the top of Whiteface Mountain in Lake Placid. It is 5 miles long and goes up about 2000 vertical feet. In short, it hurts, a lot. And not only does it hurt your muscles, it hurts your sweat glands, your fingers, toes, ears, nose, and lips. Everything hurts. And as if it wasn't hard enough to ski up an average 8% incline, the last 2 kilometers is headwind which they calculated at about 50 MPH. Enough to make a 6'1" man like myself stop mid-stride and go, " maybe it would be faster to walk." Regardless, my race was great compared to the last time I did it. I felt much stronger and fit. If it hadn't been for a lapse of about a minute where I thought my left leg was going to detach from my body, I would have finished with the likes of Billy Demong (Olympic gold medalist), Garrot Kuzzy, (former US Ski Team member), Tim Reynolds (just some guy), and Mike Sinnott.

I am attaching an article from Fasterskier.com about the race because I want people to see how fired up people get about this race. If you look at the comments at the bottom there are excuses and after accusations. It's mostly about rollerski speed going up to the castle. Every year, no matter what, people always say that someone did a better or worse job because of the speed of their rollerskis. I just find it entertaining because of how riled up people get. If you look close you'll see my comment. I like to true and loosen the tension with sarcasm.

We will have photos up soon and will let everyone know about the remainder of the camp. I miss all of you. Dearly.

Sylvan