I am sitting in the Reno airport waiting to get on my first of three flights that will hopefully get me back to Maine today (tight connections!!!). If you are an avid follower of the blog, you will know that last time I wrote a blog post (a week ago) it was because I was avoiding writing a paper... well I hate to admit, that is still the case.
Junior Nationals came to a close yesterday- four races in six days! Parker, Bria, and I all had moments to celebrate, and moments we will try to forget. Overall, it was a great week in Cali, with some summer weather, and spring skiing conditions.
MONDAY: Skate sprint-
The most exciting day of Junior Nationals, all three bobcats qualified for the heats, but Bria was sick and decided to skip out on the heats in hopes of coming back stronger later in the week. The first hard effort at altitude was HARD. P-money skied a great qualifier and was sitting in the second lucky loser spot for the semi's until the last quarter where he got knocked out by .09 of a second. He ended up 13th, a good result against some fast OJ boys. I skied a conservative prelim in hopes of saving some energy for the heats. I had a great quarter, and ended up winning my quarter and moving on into semi #1. My semifinal was fast&furious out of the start, but then came to a standstill at the top of the first downhill as no one wanted to lead down the hill. I ended up fourth in the heat and moved onto the B- Final. I was ripped about how my semi shook-out and went into the B-final with a little bit vengeance... and it worked, I won the B-Final for an overall place of sixth (one guest skier in the A-Final).
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| Bria in the Prelim |
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| Parker in the Prelim |
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| Halie in the her quarter |
P-money led the charge with a 3rd place finish in the 10k skate race. This was four laps of a brutal 2.5k course. Parker skied a great race, and gained on his competitors through the race. Racing at 7,000 ft is a completely different game, if you redline too soon there is no coming back. Those of us from sea level had to adjust our race plans to accommodate for the fact that you can't race like you race at sea level. I skied the first lap conservatively and came through the lap in about 6th place, right where I wanted to be. I tried to turn it on for the second lap but simply came up short, altitude, and racing all the heats from Monday caught up to me. I ended up 14th.
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| Racing in the rain |
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| P$$ ON THE PODIUM!!! |
FRIDAY: 10k/15k Mass Start Classic-
Today was a tough day to be a Bobcat. All three of us struggled to find our groove. I can't speak for the other two, but I hope to forget this race ASAP. Deep in the pain cave for most of the race, and a collapse at the finish leaves me only remembering bits and pieces of the race. All three of us finished, and with the number of people who passed-out each race it actually turned into a goal just to finish the races for those of us from sea level. The temperature reached 60 degrees for the OJ girl's race, and the tracks turned into 6 inches of slush for us to plow through for 10k.
SATURDAY: 3x 2.5k Classic Relay-
The last event of JN's was fast and furious, as cooler temps hardened the tracks, and made for some ripping relays. Parker and I both skied the 1st legs for our teams, while Bria anchored the Far West team. Relay's are always exciting and it was a good last hard effort for the season. It was all smiles at the finish.
New England reclaimed the Alaska Cup, proving once again we are the best division in the country even at 7,000 ft. I'm going to credit the new uniforms for this success... Parker and I were a little hesitant about the new design, but learned to embrace it.
We had a big group of past, present, and future Bobcats in Truckee this past week. It was great to reconnect with a lot of them and have their support so far from Bates. A huge Thank You to Auburn Ski Club for hosting and making this event possible with such little snow. Time to go back to reality and grind out the last month of school.
We return to the East Coast with more racing experience, another championship in the books, a little tougher, and a lot tanner.
Until next time I have to write a paper,
Halie Lange
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