Home For Christmas!

Being home for Christmas, I finally have time to catch up! Two weekends ago, we had the first Eastern Cup, in Craftsbury, VT. Despite a lack of natural snow almost everywhere in the East, Craftsbury did a phenomenal job making and preserving snow in the weeks before the races, and put on a fabulous event. On Saturday we raced a classic prelim in the morning, one lap around the man-made loop. That afternoon was a classic prologue, two laps, and Sunday we raced a 5k skate (three laps).

            The first race of the season is especially nerve-wracking for me, the first test after the summer and fall of training to see where I really am. Although many of us had raced in West Yellowstone, this was my first time back racing against the people I’m used to racing all year. I was happy with my races though; it was good to get to go hard again! Although no part of it was a burden, it was a big relief in a way to have those races under my belt.

            After the race on Sunday, our team drove up to Mount Sainte Anne for a mini training camp before we all headed our own ways for Christmas. We had four days of great skiing, fresh snow and many kilometers of trails! We did a time trial one day, a classic 10k, but most of the time we just got to ski easy. It was so nice to be able to go an hour and a half or more without having to double back on the same trail!  It ended too quickly, and suddenly I was home, for the first time in a while! With lots of family festivities, and a couple time trials to get ready for US Nationals, I’ve been really busy, but it’s a nice break from schoolwork before winter really ramps up!

it was really fun to get to see all my old teammates at Craftsbury!

the skate race

the junior podium for the prologue

in Quebec we took a hike to a waterfall one of the days, Rachel and I are admiring it

team photo!

          We drove up to Rumford today for a week of racing at nationals. We got to ski the sprint courses today, and there's solid snow cover all the way around! I’m really excited to race, and afterwards, I'm home for a day, and then I fly out for Youth Olympics!


Results can be found here http://uscrosscountryskichampionships2012.org/results.html for US Nationals.