My kids are hardcore?

Yesterday was the final day of the All-Akita Junior High Ski Meet, the penultimate competition for students at that level. I had planned to drive out to Hanawa where it was being held (maybe 20 minutes from Kosaka) and catch what events I could, but when I got there the schedule indicated that my school wasn't participating in the day's events. Dammit, dammit, dammit! But then, I ran into one of my coworkers from the School in the Sky who informed me that yes, Kosaka and SitS would surely be entering contestants into the competition. Whatever the issue with the schedule was, I apparently had about an hour to kill before the boys' 5km cross-country ski relay would begin. Fortunately I had brought my computer, so wasting time wasn't hard.

Hanging around the start/finish lines of the course, I found a few of my students who had raced in the previous day's events and came to cheer on their classmates today. I learned from them that we had a team of four guys who would each complete 1 lap of the 5km course. It went up and down, over the river and through the woods, and all over the place, but there were a number of "stations" one could run between to see the skiers as they passed. As the race lasted over half an hour, this was one hell of a workout...good fun, though. Coming into the final lap my students were excited enough to pop - our team had a commanding lead on the rest. We did indeed finish first, after which it was back to the tent to huddle around the space heater and dig into a big kettle of soup someone's mom had had the brilliant forethought to provide.

I wasted time with my students and a few other teachers, got some lunch, and putzed about more until the time came for the awards ceremony. Here was the part that bowled me over...the events of the ski competition weren't limited to cross-country, but this is the area Kosaka excels in. We didn't just claim first prize for the relay, no. In the guys' division we walked out with all of the first place trophies for cross-country events! Ladies and gentlemen, here are your champions.