YEAH!!! what a weekend! congrats to kikkan! this is a huge step forward for the US XC Ski team.It was a team wide goal this season to pick up a world cup win so everyone around here is extremely fired up. I am sure we will have more to fallow.

I don’t have a whole lot to add about my race for the weekend. It was a good day for me and despite missing the A final it was a fun scrappy race. I feel like my fitness is where is needs to be right now and with a few weeks to tune up before the Canadian world cups I’m stoked about the races to come.

This was an incredible trip to Russia. Even though it was a 4-day trip we had a little bit more time this year to check out the area and experience the culture. There’s one thing that’s for sure…. Russian people love the XC skiing. It could be the Vodka, but these fans get down. I’ve never been mobbed for pictures and autographs after a race like I did on Sunday. And Despite some of the stereotypes the Russian fans that I met were some of the kindest I’ve ever encountered.

On Sunday, when I was getting mobbed after the sprint I experienced one of kindest things I’ve ever seen from a ski fan. A father and his son, who was about 6, came up to me outside the stadium. They didn’t speak any English but managed to come up with the word ‘present’ and the little boy took this candle wrapped in a box and a bow from his father and handed it to me. I was shocked for a second and tried not to accept it but the father insisted that I take the candle as a gift. I stood there thinking if I had anything I could give them but I had come right from the race and didn’t have anything with me. Then I realized I still had my race bib on under my jacket so I stripped it off and handed it to the boy and his father stretched it on over the kid’s jacket and we took a few pics. I’ve never seen anyone so excited to get a skinky used race bib and I’ve never seen a stranger, who i don’t think had much money, show such kindness. I’m pretty sure they didn’t know my name or anything they just knew that I was a racer in the world cup and wanted to give me a gift for coming to Russian and racing. It was cool, and I look forward to racing there again.

I took some pics and a little bit of video. I wasn’t able to get any race footage video so most of it is just travel and town clips. It’s kind of lame but I’ll post it anyway. We’re back in the US now so stay tuned for training updates leading into US Nats. and go to Kikkans blog or web page and read about her awesome day!!!

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