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!