Wow nationals was quite an experience! We ended up racing twice out of the 4 races scheduled.
Each Day seemed to repeat the one before, temps hovered in the -10 range. It was cold!
Skiing at Kincaid Park was Awesome, great scenery, the occasional moose, and glimpses of Mount McKinley made for spectacular skiing (besides the cold weather which we all seemed to acclimate to)
COLD as you can see.
My week started off on a bad note, having my race skis and poles broke by the airlines. Bummer. Thanks to the Fischer Rep. I was able to get some extra skis.
The next few days were filled with training and figuring out how to stay warm well still being able to move. Saturday's sprint races got pushed to Sunday, and then Sunday they got put on hold till later in the week.
Monday came and the freestyle race was on! My race was not exactly what I was looking for, and it being the only race that ended up counting I was sorta bummed.... oh well
Durango had some great racing, especially by Tad taking 9th overall, and Alicia racing up as a J1 in 64th overall..... Tad ended up being named to the U-23 World Championship team, and Alicia to the J1 Scando trip
Tad Ripping it up!
The Tuesday and Wednesday races were postponed or canceled. With our flight departing Thursday at 1 a.m. it seemed our Nationals trip was over.... but as we were loading up the last of the waxing equipment, we got the call that our flight had been canceled due to no flight crew!? And it sounded like the next available flight was not till Saturday morning! So back to the hotel.
We ended up getting a flight for Friday morning, and since we were around we all started preparing for the sprint race Thursday.
Thursday morning warmed up just enough and the sprint race was on!!
I failed to make the heats but still had a decent qualifier finishing 41st in U-23 and JR field.
The wind picked up all day and by the time the heats started it was a freezing wind chill.
Alicia and Tad made the rounds, so the rest of the team and I braved the cold to cheer them on.
After everything had been repacked, we headed to Gwenny's family restaurant with $160 in airline vouchers! All you can eat ribs were the special and boy were they good! Somewhat of an eating contest followed and it seemed Tad had eaten the most ribs. Stuffed and ready for some more fun we headed over to the local lanes to try are hand at bowling.... Josh was the #1 bowler and was laying down quite a few strikes! I on the other hand, probably should have been bumper bowling! good fun.
Off to the airport, flights were on time and we made it back to Durango around 4 p.m. on Friday
This next weekend Durango Nordic will be up in Aspen for the Owl Creek Chase and JOQ events.....
Till next time
Lars
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