For just under a month I have been on the road travelling with the Sun Valley Gold Team. Late Monday night I returned back to Sun Valley from Rossland, British Colombia, Canada after the Nor - Am Heywood Race series. It took around 14 hours to get home, and I am very glad to not have to drive anywhere far for the next week or so! Over the past 25 days I have driven 2500km or 1500miles, crossed the American Canadian boarder twice, passed through 4 separate American states (Idaho, Oregon, Montana, Washington) and 1 Canadian (British Colombia), as well as a time zone and have spend approximately 30hours in the van! I had never realised how big the USA really is. To give you an idea of where I have been, I have put together a little map showing my travels. |
It was a fantastic experience racing in Canada and it was great to once again catch up with some other Aussies. Due to a large amount of rain early last week the race organisers were required to shovel snow from anywhere possible cover the race course and as a results only a 3.75km loop could be sustained. As such the skate sprint that was scheduled for Saturday was cancelled and replaced with a 7.5km classic (2 laps of the course). I managed to finish in 22nd position, which I was pretty happy about considering that I may have skied the first lap a little bit too hard (oops....). The race on Sunday was originally a 10km classic however the 5km loop was not in suitable shape for skiing, so the race was changed to a 11.25km (3 laps of the 3.75km course).
Being Australian I believe I had a little bit of an advantage to racing in the conditions present over the weekend, as they were very similar to a typical Aussie winter. I am not sure of it was a result of such experiences or that all of the training I have been doing is finally paying off, regardless I posted my best result yet for the season on Sunday, 18th overall in the open women!! I am stoked to finally get a top 20 finish in the senior women category (goal #2 = CHECK).
I was not the only Australian who had a successful weekend. Team mate Mark Pollock, who is skiing for BSF, managed to gain the required FIS points to Qualify him for the World U23 Championships, which will be held in Jan/Feb 2015 in Kazakstan. Congratulations Polski!!
Once again, I need to make a special mention to the Sun Valley coaches and wax technicians for all of their fantastic work over the weekend. My skis on Sunday were bomber and the amount of cheering and support around the course was fantastic!
Once again, I need to make a special mention to the Sun Valley coaches and wax technicians for all of their fantastic work over the weekend. My skis on Sunday were bomber and the amount of cheering and support around the course was fantastic!
I am now back in Sun Valley, and will stay here until US Senior Nationals, which will be held after Christmas! I know that this post is quite long, however I feel the need to show the 2.5 - 3m high Christmas tree that we decorated last night.
I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas break, and until next time: Keep dreaming the impossible and living the dream!
I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas break, and until next time: Keep dreaming the impossible and living the dream!