THE OWL CREEK CHASE

by tad Elliott

The day started at the golf course in Aspen. I went down there to pick up Noah Hoffman’s and my skis from Cork, and to hitch a ride to the start. Mr. Hoffman was generous enough to drive Noah, me and James Southam up to Snowmass. Getting to sit next to James in the back seat and talk about ski racing was not a bad way to start the day. At the Snowmass Nordic center I picked up my bib and chip from registration and went out on the Snowmass golf course to warm up. I thought to myself “Man, this is one hilly golf course.”
Ten minutes to start I still did not know how I was going to get my backpack back to the start. I asked Noah how he was getting his gear back to the start and he said “Follow me.” All spandexed up and ten minutes before the gun blew; Noah and I were running through the icy parking lot, sliding all around to the shuttle van. We ran back, hopped on skis and got our lane assignments in the starting gate. After that excursion my heart rate was up and I was ready to go. I started second row right behind Zack Simons, pretty cool.
The gun went off and I settled in about mid pack. I managed to stay on my skis around the first sharp turns and road crossings. I went into the first climb around 14th and felt comfortable. We went into the first major decent, and I went from 14th to about 6th. Damn, my skis are rockets. Huge thanks to Cork who went to the finish area and tested skis at 6.00 a.m. I looked back and Noah was right behind me. NICE. Noah passed me and on his way by said “This pace is way too slow.” So three km in Noah took the lead and put the hammer down. He would stay there for the rest of the race except for a mere ten seconds. I moved up to fourth behind Lars Flora and Andrea Golovko. Golovko was not feeling the love and pulled over, done for the day. Now I am in third and feeling good. I looked back and the pack was shattering. After the rolling climbs we hit the descent to the base of the first major climb. I sat up and stretched and Southam skied by and I jumped in behind him. Going up the climb past the start of the 15k, I passed back Southam and even passed Flora to sit in right behind Noah. At the top Cork was there to give me a feed of Gatoraid. Now the group was Flora, Noah and me. Hitting the descent I was able to tuck in behind Flora and give him the pole push. I was way stoked on that. Next was a steep climb and Flora fell off Noah. I passed Flora to ski on Noah’s heels. I looked backed and we had a gap. Noah yelled, “Come on, Tad! Let’s go.” Up the rest of the climb I followed Noah. Going into the rolling terrain between the climbs I tried to take the lead a couple of times to help Noah out. By doing so I slowed the pace down considerably. So I had to concede and follow Noah, completely at my limit. Now hurting, a lot, at the base of the climb I got dropped. I fell back the whole way up that monster climb watching Noah make it all look easy. Hitting the descent down Buttermilk I was hoping that I would see Noah at the bottom. No such luck. I skied all alone into the golf course. It was cool coming into the course, and hearing the Aspen coaches cheering me on and giving me back splits on the guys behind. The last five km of skiing was the easiest of the whole course, thanks to all of the cheering from everyone lining the course. Heading into the out and back right before the finish I could finally see Noah who was coming at me.  both of us had huge smiles on our face.
I crossed the finish line and Noah and I exchanged congratulations. Travis Jones came into the finish area with a smile that touched his ears. We exchanged high fives and he talked to us about the race. I went on the cool down with Southam and Noah, exchanging war stories the whole time. It did not start to sink in how I had performed until I got called up to the podium and exchanged the fist pound with all of my idols.  

Thank you Tad for a great read and awesome skiing