Latvia!

I wrote this yesterday, but didn't get to post it since the internet wasn't working:

This morning we drove from Otepaa, Estonia, to Madona, Latvia, where our next two races will be. All I knew about Latvia before today was that it is located directly below Estonia on a map. After driving through a relatively unpopulated country side, complete with large, empty looking concrete apartment buildings, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was beginning to envision that we’d be staying at a hotel similar to the Linnel, but it turned out to be quite the opposite! It looks like big log house, and when we came in, we found incredibly nice rooms, and a fun wooden spiral staircase going upstairs! We had lunch at a small café, which was in another grey concrete building, but inside incredibly well decorated, there were couches at all the tables, and the food was really good! So far, even though on first sight Latvia looked like it might not be as nice as the previous places we’ve been, its turned out to be surprisingly pleasant!

Yesterday was the last day of Junior Worlds, which included the junior relays as well as the U23 pursuit races. Since I wasn’t in the relay, I got to cheer all day, which was a lot of fun. The sun came out, and it was a perfect day! Both the relay teams beat their places from last year by one (girls were 7th and the boys were 10th).

Tomorrow we have a skate sprint, followed by a skate 10/15 k on Thursday. Then we drive from here to Joulumae, Estonia, where there is a classic sprint on Saturday, and a classic 10/15 on Sunday!

 One of our wax rooms at world juniors...this was only one of the walls of skis.

Team USA cheering squad!!!!

The stairs up to our rooms in the hotel in Latvia.

Mom and I at the venue in Otepaa.

10k mass start pursuit! I ended up finishing 50th! I started out really fast, it was so exciting to be racing with all these faster girls, and I went a little too hard too early. I got up in to the first group, 12 seconds out of first at one kilometer, but then I died, and dropped back to about 47th at the end of the classic part, and managed to hold on for 50th at the end! (In a pursuit, everyone starts together, skis half the race on classic skis, comes through an exchange zone, and then skis another half on skate skis). Our race was 10k, so 5k of each. I was also excited to find out that I had the 25th fasted time in the exchange zone!

Lapping through in the pursuit.

My grandmother, proudly supporting team USA!!

Today was our first race in Latvia, the skate sprint. It was a really short, and fast course, only 1 k, just over 2 minutes for the women's race. I didn't feel my best, but I qualified 22nd, making it in to the heats. I felt much better in my quarterfinal, and had a really good, fun race!! I ended up 20th overall, 4th junior!