On Friday the 6th of March I travelled from Sun Valley, Idaho down to sunny California to compete at US Junior Nationals. The weather was anything but winter, and thanks to the tremendous help of the organizers we had enough snow for the event. My first race was the Skate Sprint, held on a 1.3km loop. In the time trial I qualified in 4th place, which was a big surprise to me, and it put me in a good frame of mind for the rounds. The first set of rounds I achieved 2nd place, just enough to qualify for the Semi-finals, as I was trying to save some much needed energy if I was to last through to the A Final. The snow had already begun to soften up, and It was looking more and more like an Aussie Winters afternoon. I was really feeling the nerves at this stage, because I really wanted to make it through to the A Final, and the fun thing about sprint racing is anything can happen. Next up was the Semi-final, I needed a top 2 to guarantee a spot in the A-Final or if my heat was faster than any of the other heats I could sneak in with a 3rd. After a quick, hard fight I came in 3rd and I achieved lucky loser sending me through to the A- Final. By this stage, everyone was either just wearing their race numbers, or had a t-shirt on, the sun was draining my energy just by touching my skin.. Shade was a lifesaver! The A-final, was extremely tough, I stated out in 2nd place, but my strength wasn’t enough compared with the other girls, I finished in 5th place! Achieving my goal of top 6 for the day.
The next race I had was the skate 5km, the weather was not anywhere near as nice as the previous days, it was raining and the temperature wasn’t pleasant.
I did not have a great race by any means; there were a factor of things that were against me. Number 1 thing was that I was tired from the sprint day, and I just needed that extra day to recover from dehydration and fatigue. I was more optimistic for the next race the 10km Mass Start Classic.
I did not have a great race by any means; there were a factor of things that were against me. Number 1 thing was that I was tired from the sprint day, and I just needed that extra day to recover from dehydration and fatigue. I was more optimistic for the next race the 10km Mass Start Classic.
The weather had turned around and the sun was shinning, although it wasn’t nearly as hot as the sprint day. I have never thought about myself being a distance skier, I have always been able to go fast for a short amount of time, so I wasn’t as nervous for today, all I wanted was for the sprint. As the loop was only 2.5km we had to do a tedious 4 laps. Thank goodness there wasn’t any more because when you’re tired, you can and will begin to lose track of the laps!
I focused on skiing my own race, and skiing smoothly. I ended up achieving 8th place, exceeding my goals, as I never even thought I could get top 10.
2 top 10’s at US Junior Nationals for me was a dream week. I was really feeling in form, for the first time this season!
A huge thank you to all the coaches and wax techs for a awesome week, also a shoutout to Rojo Outwear for supplying me with some killer jackets, and Fisher Australia for hooking me up with some ripper skis!
After my week in Truckee California, I headed back to home Sun Valley, Idaho for USSA Super Tour Spring series. Currently I am recuperating for the next and last set of races for the season! Until next time.. Train Hard, recover Harder.
I focused on skiing my own race, and skiing smoothly. I ended up achieving 8th place, exceeding my goals, as I never even thought I could get top 10.
2 top 10’s at US Junior Nationals for me was a dream week. I was really feeling in form, for the first time this season!
A huge thank you to all the coaches and wax techs for a awesome week, also a shoutout to Rojo Outwear for supplying me with some killer jackets, and Fisher Australia for hooking me up with some ripper skis!
After my week in Truckee California, I headed back to home Sun Valley, Idaho for USSA Super Tour Spring series. Currently I am recuperating for the next and last set of races for the season! Until next time.. Train Hard, recover Harder.