On Friday night, I drove back to North Creek for Saturday's HURT Mega Relay at Garnet Hill. Teams of 3 or 4 people take turns skiing laps around a 4 km loop for 6 hours.
Red sky at morning, skiers take warning:
The weather wasn't promising, and the race had been postponed once due to no snow. When 50 kids trooped into the lodge at once, I thought one of the local high schools had shown up to steal glory. But it was an outdoors club from Ridgewood NJ high school.
Snow was dirty in places, and there were a few rocks poking through. But it was safe to use good skis. I teamed up with Ed Lis and Brian White, who I've skied this race with the last couple years. We agreed to ski 2-lap shifts.
As I started my third shift, it began to rain steadily. When I came in at the end, Ed wasn't there. Nothing to do but head out on another lap. I caught up with another skier, who told me HURT was ending the race early due to the weather. Then the Hand of Doom stormed by me and told me, "Everyone's just skiing as many laps as they can!"
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At 2:20, I finished my third shift: I wasn't skiing fast enough to complete another lap. Brian, Ed, and I won the men's division, and Peru Nordic also took the mixed division.