Rosie Brennan: Back At It

May 10, 2015

Back At It

The first day of training is much like the first day of school. Excitement to see all your friends who have been on various adventures, excitement to start moving towards all the goals you just spent all spring planning, and chaos in scrambling to get all your equipment together. We started off with a bang, rollerskiing and treadmill testing on day 1 and continued to progress into a more regular training pattern. Now, at the end of two weeks and a few sore muscles later, it feels like I never even left.

Some things have changed however, I have been nominated for the U.S. Ski Team! This holds a particular significance to me outside of the obvious. I was named to the U.S. Ski Team when I graduated from high school and spent two years racing for both Dartmouth and the U.S. Ski Team before being dropped in 2009. Whatever the reasons were for dropping me, it was impossible not to feel some amount of devastation as it felt like there was no point of doing this if the National Team staff didn't believe in me. How was I going to make it? I was lucky a girl though and I was surrounded by coaches, friends, and teammates who did believe in me and didn't let me walk away. I think I had one of my best summers of training that summer with the help of Ruff pushing me along when I needed it most.

I am a stubborn one and I believe strongly in hard work and not in talent. I have carried a bit of doubt with me ever since being dropped. It's not something that just disappears, but I did my best to push it to the back of my head and continue to believe in my effort. Finally, 6 years later, I'm back, and well, let's just say it feels good! It was something I really needed to prove to myself how important hard work is.

I have a few more teammates now, but other than that, things are staying more or less the same for me as I will continue to train with APU and Erik Flora. I'm looking forward to all of it!