My Hero

Trial races start in 4 days and things are looking good. I came down with a head cold a few days after arriving home from Vernon, but that quickly passed and I was able to spend a relaxing Christmas at home. Now I feel healthy and ready to go.

As part of preparation for these trial races, our coach decided that we should compete in a Bow Corridor Regional "fun" Race held here in Canmore this past Sunday. It was a team sprint where you compete in teams of two and each person completes 3 laps of a 1.2km course, while you tag off to your partner, alternating each lap. We have a total of eight girls on the team, which made it easy to divide into 4 teams. Unfortunately my partner (Kate Brennan) arrived back to Canmore at 1am in Sunday morning, after spending Christmas at home, and was not quite ready to do a race. But luckily my good friend Kelly McBroom came to the rescue.

Kelly was born and raised in Canmore. Growing up, she was one of my greatest arch rivals in the sport of cross-country skiing. We were always battling for the podium at every Alberta Cup and regional race. Kelly being the talented person she is also competed in Alpine ski racing. Luckily for me, Kelly decided to make the switch at age 15 to only compete in Alpine racing. And she is doing awesome! She is now on the Canadian Alpine Ski Team, pursuing her dream of going to the Olypmics one day.

Click here to view her blog.

OK, back to my story. Kelly was on a week break from downhill skiing and training, so I called her up and asked if she wanted to be my partner for the race. After a little bit of convincing (and reassuring) she agreed to do it. What a sport! Kelly hasn't done a cross-country race in ages and has NEVER competed in a classic sprint in her life. But she did great!..besides the fact that she fell on the first downhill of the course... I guess she misjudged her carving capabilities in those skinny cross country skis. Oh well, she definitely held her own, and I think we both had a lot of fun that day. Thanks a lot Kelly, you ROCK!

Lining up for the start of the race.

Me tagging off to Kelly McBroom (in her National Apline Ski Team suite)

Way to go team!

Great Start

Hi guys,

So far, 4 Noram (basically Canada Cup) races down and they all went great. Continuing from my previous post, I completed a 15km mass start skate race on Thursday. It was a little bit of a difficult start as I was placed in the forth row back from the start line There were roughly 30 girls ahead of me and I had to try and push my way up to stick with the lead pack. I managed to do quite well dodging my way around some fallen racers with no broken equipment on my part. I felt strong that day and attacked on every hill. I crossed the line in 15th spot, 7th Canadian and 2nd U23 once again.

Friday was the classic sprints. I decided not to do them in order to make sure I didn’t over do it at the start of the season; saving myself for the races in January.

On Saturday was a 10km individual classic night race, which started at 5pm. I completed three loops of a 3.3km course that was lit with lights. It was one of very few races I have done in the dark. It is actually quite fun, except they were missing a light on the steepest downhill of the course. You literally could see nothing and felt like you went temporarily blind for about 200m. Luckily I didn’t fall. The race was OK for me. I had a little trouble with skis and waxing. Having decided to try a brand new pair of classic skis, they were too stiff for the conditions and I did not have very good grip for climbing the hills. So I ended up in 25th spot, 10th Canadian and 4th U23. Not bad… I still feel very strong and it was a good learning experience.

As psychologist Terry Orlick says, “Every race is an opportunity to learn, practice and perfect.”

Now I am home for Christmas. Time to regroup; focus and fine-tune myself for trial races starting on January 2nd. Weeks are just flying by, but things are going great and from the last couple weekends I have gained a lot of confidence and am ready to take on anything that comes my way.

Me, during the skate sprints Saturday Dec 6th

4 of my teammates managed to make it to the final heat of 6 that day

Go Alberta World Cup Academy!

Thanks to the great waxing support we had both weekends!

First Races

So I completed my first races of the season on the weekend and I’m happy to say they went well. Saturday was a skate sprint followed by a 10km skate on Sunday. I’m not much of a sprinter, but they went surprisingly well. I qualified 17th, and in my first heat I was put up against many strong skiers mostly from the United States. I had a great start and set myself in a good position. Unfortunately I had trouble on the last downhill toward the finish. I did not use drafting to my advantage, and was unable to make up the time on the final stretch, so I was unable to continue on to the next heat. But I felt like it was a good effort and it was nice to get that first race out of the way.

Next was the individual 10km skate. This means that everyone starts out 15 sec apart and is individually timed. It was my kind of coarse with lots of climbing and fast downhills. I had quite an early starting position because my points from the previous season were not great. I knew I would be passing quite a few of the skiers that started around me, but to my surprise I passed ALL of them on the first lap, which meant I was skiing the second lap completely by myself. I kept a good pace and felt strong. I finished in 25th spot, 9th Canadian overall, and 2nd U23.

I can already feel a huge difference from last season, and it was a lot of fun to go out and race this past weekend. The next set of races were supposed to be in Whistler, BC, but due to lack of snow they have been changed to here in Vernon, BC. So the team is spending another week in Silver Star. There will be a 15km mass start skate on Thursday, Classic sprint on Friday and finally an individual Classic 10km on Sunday.

Stay tuned!