It’s now March and the end of the season is right there on the horizon. The shorter season due to the weather has really seemed to accelerate the end. I can’t believe we only have a couple of weeks left to the season. The son has been in 4 races now. It’s been a fun season for a variety of reasons. First, my wife has travelled with us to the “away” races. In the past years she has only attended the race at our home mountain. That was due to the early morning wake ups or the fact that she had to stay home to work. This year she made a concerted effort to come skiing most weekends and her desire to see “The Son” race more. The Son has done reasonably well in past years and she didn’t get to experience much of it in person. This year was going to be different for her. Secondly, it’s been a fun season because The Son has done well which always helps matters. His first race resulted in a very nice 3rd place for U10s and the third race was an even better 2nd place U10 finish. I skipped over the second race for a reason. The Son had a great first run and sat very comfortably in 2nd place with a few tenths separating him from 1st. Unfortunately, he crashed and went down hard in the second run. At age 9 kids often think that falling in a race is embarrassing and The Son probably milked the crash as worse than it was as a result. We’ve had some conversations since about it and hopefully the next time he crashes, and there has been a next time, he recognizes it as him pushing the limits rather than an embarrassing event. He’s learning and it is one of those life lessons that we all have to learn at some point. The fourth and final race, a GS, didn’t go as planned either. The Son really wanted to do well and put some pressure on himself to win. He exhibited nerves like I’ve never seen in him prior to a race. We inspected the course together, a ritual I hope to continue for as long as possible, and talked about the one make or break turn. A fall-away turn on the steep pitch near the top, gate #3. We talked about setting up for it and really getting some good edge angle. The Son is in the starting gate and I’m exhibiting some nerves too. I “hide” myself behind his coach so that he can’t see me and I don’t distract him. He fires out of the start gate, a really good start for him, and nails turn one. HIs coach gives a good exclamation cause The Son is off and looking good. He sets up for gate #3 just as we discuss. Next thing you know he is flying superman style down the pitch. I give out a groan and start skiing down to where he stopped, 2 gates down the hill. “Dad, what happened?” he asks. I can only say I don’t know. People who could see tell me later that his ski pre-released and that he was totally on them just prior to the release. He’s bummed and so is this dad. He seems to be in a decent mood at lunch time and is telling his coach and others he’ll take his second run. He wasn’t really into it but he got into the starting gate and took off. Prior to the run he wondered what he should race for. I told him it was quite simple – get the fastest time of the run. He skied the top pitch well but a little tentatively, but as the hill flattened he seemed to go faster. A fellow dad spoke up and said he was flying at the bottom – and he was. He crossed the finish line and the PA announcer came on to read out his time. It was seconds ahead of anything that had been announced before. I got down to the bottom and found the The Son around the finish coral and he was beaming. “Dad, Dad, did you hear my time?” Yes, yes I did. It was a good end to the race season and another lesson he can take with him on this journey.