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Song Mountain Race Report
February 16, 2003

The alarm rang at 5:30 am. As he did every morning he reached over reflexively to shut it off and let out a muffled groan. As quietly as he could he rolled out of bed so as not to wake his wife, put on his slippers, and left the dark room. He padded down the hall to her room and silently opened the door and went to her bed. At the foot of the bed the dog lifted his head and gave him a look as if to say, " are you out of your mind, do you know how cold and early it is". "Lazy mutt", he replied under his breath. "Time to get up, it's race day", he said softly while gently rolling her shoulder. Her response was unintelligible but sufficient. The dog was already back to sleep and snoring. A short time later they sat together in the front of the SUV, illuminated only by the dashboard lights as they waited for it to warm up. The dashboard thermometer read minus eight. The defroster fans were going full bore and were just beginning to make a dent in the frost on the inside of the glass. All the ski gear had been packed the night before, which meant all they needed to do in the morning, was dress and drive. After five weeks of this he was finally getting the drill down. She was in the passenger's seat already dressed in her race gear and already to go back to sleep for the drive. Her coat lay over her backwards as a blanket, proudly displaying her team name on the back. He put it in drive and headed down the driveway. He could hear the snow crunch underneath the tires as he rolled forward.

About forty-five minutes later he could see Song Mountain off to his left, he turned off Route 80 at the Burger King and headed toward the slope. They pulled into the parking lot underneath the alpine slide. The lots were already bustling with activity; racers and their families unloading ski gear and sending morning greetings. She grabbed her skis and poles while he lugged the large duffle bag with her boots, extra clothes and lunch. He'd be a spectator today and wouldn't ski. He was tired of buying a full day pass and spending half the day standing by the race course. He liked the racing enough but really wanted to be at his home hill, his club and on the deck.

He had hiked up to watch the teams do their course inspections. The exercise did little to warm him on such a cold day. Each team came down in a knot or straggling line with the coaches out front loudly telling them what they needed to be doing throughout the course. One team, in blue jackets, caught his eye. They always did. They always put someone in the top ten each race and they certainly outperform their team size he thought to himself. They had only six skiers today, appeared to all be quite young and had just two coaches. He watched them intently. The young female coach out front was stunningly attractive and gave her racers directions without raising her voice. She was their natural leader. The older male coach said little, gave more individual instruction, and vaguely reminded him of a grizzled veteran bike racer he had seen at a summer road race. As they passed the team name on the jacket became visible, Cazenovia Ski Team.

It was going to be a long cold hard day for Caz. Their top Female-5 racer, Kaitlyn "The Tiny Tenacious Tiger" Button had struggled with illness all week and finished 22 out of 40 racers. In the Male-5 group, Barclay "Bode Miller" Talbot finished in 18th, while Sam Concilla, and brother Benny "Hana" Concilla ended up in 43rd and 46th place respectively. In the Male-4 division Billy "the Kid" Reed grabbed a 39th place finish.

The day, however, belonged to Courtney Button (the Picabo Street of Perryville). Coming into the race Courtney knew she had to ski well in order to secure a place on the Central division State team but she did more than that. She skied the best race of her career and had her highest finish this season (5th place), earning her a spot on the State team. "I knew what I had to do and I did it," beamed Courtney. "Annie and Coach Button prepared me well for this race and gave me the confidence and encouragement I needed. I'm so happy and I know everyone in Perryville shares my joy."

Following the awards ceremony and the State team selections they both were back in the SUV, waiting for it and themselves to warm up. The dashboard thermometer struggled to read 8 degrees. As he pulled out of the lot she was already half asleep. Both were tired after a long day on an extremely cold hill. He reached over and snugged up her jacket about her face, feeling her warm pink cheek. He smiled to himself, thinking about that small but impressive Cazenovia team. He already looked forward to what they would bring to the hill next year but that would have to wait. For now his racing season was over.