Moving Right Along

Brrrrrrrrrr...

Last weekend was too cold for me to race. So cold that they cancelled the sprint and went with the distance race last second (which at that current time was a calculated -21C, which was under legal race temp). I was worried with important races coming up that I wouldn't chance burning my lungs up and so I started our race at Bohart Ranch knowing that if I felt my lungs were working too hard in the cold I was going to pull it. This is never an easy decision for me, but for me, at this point, it just made sense.

After Bozeman we headed up to Rossland, BC for some NorAm races. I love doing these because it is always a good American contingent along with some amazing Canadian skiers. My goals for these races were lofty and after missing two important races in Bozeman, I didn't really want to give up opportunities to score good points and build confidence going into US Nationals.

My goal the first day of racing was to win qualifying. I missed it by .3 seconds over a good friend of mine, Dakota Blackhorse - Von Jess. I was wasn't too upset though because I know how amazing of a skier Dakota is. I skied through the rounds well, got lucky in my semi-final and worked all the way to the finish of the A-Final where I ended up in 4th place, .01 seconds in front of Dakota. Dakota is one of the best sprinters in the nation so I am always humbled when I can grab a hundredth of a second from him.

The second day of racing was a 15k Classic. I have been working on my classic skiing quite a bit this year and especially my herring boning. I am glad I did because our course was on elf the hardest I have ever skied. It skied well but the hill were reminiscent of all the World Cup courses I have skied, where I get to the bottom of it and go, "You're kidding me." I wanted to start off the race conservative and ski into it which is what I did. I had the 4th fastest 1st lap, the fastest 2nd lap, and the fastest 3rd lap. Unfortunately I got beat out by the guy who had the fastest first lap by almost 20 seconds, and he only beat my by 3 seconds but I was happy with it. 

I love Canada and look forward to coming back soon! 

Onto US Nationals!!! And Christmas!!!

In the netting after the sprint!