Bretton Woods Nordic Marathon.

For our second week at Bretton Woods were to be working at the the nordic center, located down the road from the ski resort at the hotel. This weekend was the annual nordic maration so there was a lot of work to be done. On friday, we showed up at the mountain at bright and early and were directed to head over the the nordic center. Once at the nordic center we propmptly met up with Pete, the nordic director. Pete asked us if we brought our snow shovels. We laughed. He was serious. We were in for a day of serious snow shoveling. The problem was the lack of snow on the nordic trails. the warm weather and rain just before the event was really causing problems. There were many parts of the trails with very thin or almost no cover and we needed to move snow around in order to properly cover the trails. A lot of snow was built up on the other side of the fencing from the wind blowing it around so we were to get that snow back on the course. we shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and then after that, we did some more shoveling. After the few section we worked on looked absolutely beautiful, we took a break for lunch. Matt owes me two dollars. After our much needed break from shoveling, we headed back over to the nordic center to hangout ant watch tv. Just kidding, we went back to shovel. We headed out to a long straightaway just after the start of the course that was in much need of some snow. it was about a half mile long. i looked at it and died a little inside. We got to work and had this section done in under an hour. After shoveling we headed back to the nordic building and help retail set up for a gear sale.

Saturday was a bit of an easier day with a lot less shoveling. today was the day of the nordic marathon. In the morning, we set up fencing at the starting line, got everything up for the timing and scoring crew, and got the PA system set up. I can still hear the announcer lady in my sleep. she was persistant. When the race was ready to start we headed over to the starting line to check it out. once the race had started, we set up a food station at the finish and provided refreshment for racers at the finish line. i was shocked at hoe the the full marathon actually took. skiing for 4 hours straight seems pretty crazy to me. Nordic people are crazy. Saturday turned out to be a pretty fun day and it was cool to see a great nordic program at work.