Redemption

After another disappointing skate race on Monday, it was starting to look like I wasn't even going to make U23 World Championships, let alone the Olympics. Spirits were low to say the least. Fortunately, I like classic skiing much more and had some faith in myself to ski my way on to some team today. Health issues have bogged me down all week but today, I just had to put everything aside and get the job done. We woke up to warm temps and falling snow, every wax techs worst nightmare. Cami and Ruff helped us all stay calm and were extremely prepared. We all went out to test skis and all found our skis with just plain hard wax worked the best. Although there are always those moments on the start line were you begin to second guess yourself and see the girl next to you is racing on hairies (waxless skis), my skis kicked and glided for the most part so I had no excuses. I just kept skiing along and soon found myself in the lead pack of about 8-10 and was pretty psyched. A few k into the second lap my stomach turned on me and I was dropped from the lead pack but seemed to have built a fair gap to the next pack. Half-way through that lap I was caught by my Dartmouth teammate, Ida, and jumped in behind her and skied out my stomach pains as best I could. Together we dropped the girl that was skiing in our pack and continued to ski together the entire last lap. Unfortunately my skis were a bit slower than hers and I was unable to stay with her in all the transitions at the end so I ended the day in 9th place, which I believe is my best distance finish at nationals! I was pleased with my effort and do believe I salvaged enough of a race to make the U23 world championship team which will be departing for the Black Forest in Germany in a few weeks here. Now I am doing what I can to take the pain away from my sorry knee.....and hoping for another good day on the classic boards on friday. (classic sprinting is my favorite event!)