The next race, two days after the sprint, was the 10k classic time trial. I was wearing bib 50 and started at 11:50, right when the sun was starting to warm things up. The snow that was icy and fast in the morning would turn to slush in the middle of my race. My first lap ended up going really well and I passed through the stadium on the edge of top 30. The second lap however was a whole other story. The snow really slowed down, my kick started slipping, and I hit the wall. At 7k I reached the longest hill in the course. It was a brutal south facing slope that never seemed to end and had tracks that resembled wet piles of slush. Actually they didn’t resemble slush, that’s exactly what it was.

Ankle deep gooeyness! My legs started to tire, my arms had a deep burn, and I felt exhausted. It was a feeling that I should not have had halfway through the race. The last 3k was not much better and I struggled to get over each hill. The finish line had never looked so sweet. I ended the 10k in 46th and my pal Noah Hoffman had an impressive 12th place finish.

After hitting the wall so hard in the classic race, I was concerned about the skate race which would be twice as long and probably twice as hard. Luckily, we started the race early in the morning and the sun was dimmed by the passing clouds. The snow actually remained hard and fast through the entire race. For the start I had bib number 50 again in a field of 100 racers. The first kilometer was going to be extremely tricky with a bottle neck bridge right out of the stadium and some sketchy switch backs in the first part of the race. As the horn sounded for the junior mens’ start I concentrated on taking up as little space as possible, and trying not to cross my skis with anyone. But as I looked down at my skis I failed to notice the pile of kids that was blocking my progress though the bridge. I, along with 30 other kids, skied right into the middle of it. I didn’t fall over at first, but three or four kids near me did, and they landed on my skis almost breaking my poles. There was absolutely nowhere to go. I tried going backwards, but other skiers were flowing into the pile of swarming bodies. Left and right were blocked, and one of my skis was pinned down by at least two people. I tried jumping over the top, and the only thing I accomplished was a near breaking of my pinned ankle. It was hopeless, I was at ground zero and all I could do was wait and watch as the entire field skied around the outside. As I stood there thinking about the rest of the race I saw Noah Hoffman running around with one ski in his hand. He had broken his binding and was trying to find a replacement.

What seemed like ages later, the mess cleared and I began to ski again. Now in 90th position I had lost 40 places in less than 200 meters. This crash took all the pressure off the race though, because now there were no expectations and all I could do was see how much ground I could make back. That’s what I did, slowly and surly picked off the skiers ahead of me, one by one. About a half an hour into the race, Noah came flying by. He had apparently found a replacement ski from a German coach and he was getting a better ski in a few kilometers. At least that’s what one of our coaches told him as he passed me like I was standing still. So he skied off ahead and I kept on going, getting feeds all the time and feeling better and better. I finished strong and ended up in 40th making up 50 places over the race. Noah, as I learned at the finish, had been dead last after the crash and 40 seconds behind the next skier. He had skied the first 10kilometers 30 seconds faster than any other person and had made up 70 places to finish in 27th. WOW! Imagine what would have happened if there hadn’t been a crash!

Finally the relay came around and I was eager to make up for my bad luck and mediocre performances in the last three races. I was more nervous than usual because if I had a bad race, there were other people depending on me. I had more to loss. That’s why I hate relays. Thats is why I love them. You can lose the race for your team, but racing for them pushes me harder and it can make a victory that much sweeter. Anyway, I was the scramble leg for the 4×5k relay (classic/classic/skate/skate). I made it past the bridge in 9th place (out of 22 teams) and worked hard over the first k to get into 3rd. At one point in the race, just after the start, I tried to jump ahead of an Italian in the tracks. His skis were overlapping the next person skis, but I was learning to be aggressive and it was all or nothing. As I jumped onto his skis he yelled something I couldn’t understand. He grabbed me with both hands and threw me aside (He was like 8 feet tall by the way). I somehow landed on my feet and decided that I really didn’t want to be in front of him anyway.

I skied past him and the two other skiers, because I really had nowhere else to go and I didn’t want to be in the middle of the group for some of the sketchy corners that lie ahead. I glanced back and saw the next closest racer about 5 meters behind me. I was gapping the WJ relay field! I made the sketchy corners and still had a significant gap. LIVIN THE DREAM!!! I had been off the front for almost a k and on one of the longer downhills their faster skis caught and passed me. This was about half way into the race and the biggest hill was still to come. By the top of this hill I had lost 7 places and was struggling to keep up. (If you thinking I went to hard to early and wasted energy off the front, your probably right, I haven’t decided yet, but I think it was still the right thing to do in that situation). I brought in my leg in 9th place only 10 seconds behind the main group. Max Treinen was next and he maintained 9th. Then Noah did his skate leg and made up two places. And Kevin held 7th place. It was a great day. No crashes! And we almost got onto the podium.

I don’t have any pictures of me racing yet, but here is one of me watching the U23 races while trying to get burn/tan.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm and is filed under International, Ski racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.