Toggenburg Race Report

February 6, 2005

 

Preface: every once and awhile anyone who tries to write will suffer from writer's block. Writer's block is a common affliction in which a blank screen or page stares at you for hours and you are incapable of forming any coherent ideas. One way to relieve writer's block is to simply write down any and all ideas that come into your head. So here we go.

 

Toggenburg, as we all know, is named after a breed of goats originally raised in the Toggenburg region of Switzerland. Consequently almost all the trails at Toggenburg refer to goats in one manner or another. The first Central New York Ski Racing Council race in February was held this week at Toggenburg. Surprisingly there is a connection between goats and the month of February. Stay with me here.

 

February was not always the second month of the year. In the older Roman calendars February was actually the last month in the year. As you know the name February is derived from the Latin word, februare, which means, "to make pure". February was the month in which the Romans had their springtime festivals for the God of Fertility Lupercus. The festival involved sacrificing goats and dogs. Goat herders and eventually priests would then cut up the skins of the sacrificed animals and twist them into thongs (in this case small whips), and then they would run through the city striking anyone who came in their way. Apparently the idea was that this running about with thongs and whipping things stood for the purifying of the land so that new "pure" life could spring forth. Okay now here is the real stretch.

 

And spring forth with pure speed and the sure-footed agility of a mountain goat is exactly what Sarah Fellows did in the J4 Girls division slalom race this last Sunday. Sarah finished in 14^th place out of 42 racers. This was Sarah's first top twenty finish and may mark the springtime of a budding racing career. Sarah was overjoyed with her performance. "It's very satisfying to finally have all my hard work and Coach Lapham's coaching pay off", beamed Sarah in a post race interview. "I'm so happy for Sarah. I knew she could ski real competitively and that it would just be a matter of time before she bloomed." Coach Lapham commented.  Also continuing to climb this in the standings was Alex "Double Jeopardy" Verbeck. Alex moved up to 31^st place. Alex continued to ski consistently and strong.  "She is right on track. Each week she is improving and skiing more aggressively. I'm very happy with what she's doing right now," Coach Lapham noted.

 

This was not to be Barclay "Bode Miller" Talbot's day. He had to sacrifice his first run of the day with a disqualification (DSQ). But in pure Barclay fashion he went from goat to great and turned in the second fastest time of the second run. Barclay could not be reached for comment. Coach Lapham had only this to say, "Don't get your thongs too twisted up about this. He'll be back."

 

Weather permitting next week's Council race will be held at Skaneateles on Saturday. And then the race that everyone, racers, parents, club members, priests and goat herders are eagerly anticipating, the Cazenovia Dual Slalom on Sunday, February 13^th. So make your sacrifices to the snow gods and pray for cooler weather and lots of snow.

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