Well I hope everybody got a chance to get out and ski a least a little this weekend. The conditions were great with good snow coverage and tolerable temperatures. Certainly the best so far this season. Perry Bland and Damian Bolduc were representing the club in the second marathon of the New England Marathon Series. Sugarloaf located in western Maine was in the heart of last weeks Nor'Easter and saw a solid two feet of new snow. This 46km race was a mass start which promptly funneled into a fairly narrow trail. The plan was to get a good start to avoid difficult passing once in the woods. The plan went well. Perry and Damian skied together in the top twenty for the first 5km. At this point Damian made a break and moved up a few places but still stayed within sight of Perry. After the 700 foot climb at 9km Damian was feeling great and set his sights on a group of three skiers about 30 seconds up. Perry was moving up as well. Going into the second lap of the race Damian got into some trouble with muscle cramping in his quads. Soon after, Perry overtook Damian and gained a few more spots to finish 17th with a 3:05. Damian continued to suffer as his cramps progressed into full muscle spasms. Not one to quit he pressed on, but cautiously, taking extra time to drink in the feed zones and stopping to stretch. Even with the difficulty Damian still managed to finish respectable in 37th place with a 3:20 and survived to ski another day. Both are looking forward to the up-coming Rangely Ski Loppet in March, which should be a real battle with some other club members in the mix.