Race Block 1

Well I'm right in the thick of it now. I have just finished my first block of racing. It started with a trip to Rossland for what was supposed to be a classic sprint and a classic individual distance race. From what everyone has told me Rossland is traditionally the home of snow, and reportatly has some of the best powder skiing in the world. Unfortunatley, by the time we got there on Thursday afternoon it was home to a lot of rain. It was simply pouring down rain, washing what little early season snow they had recieved away. When we took a quick trip to the race site I thought there was no way that this race was going to happen. Everything was a sheet of ice, brown and basically a mess. As they were not allowing anyone to train on the course my friend IG and I headed down the road further to the Paulsen trail network. While it was still raining heavily these trails were really neat to ski, complete with little warming huts and wood fires along the way.

[A typically Christmas scene in Silver Star style]

The organizers did an amazing job to make these races go. They cancelled the sprint but decided to run an individual start 9km classic race (no complaints from me). I was really happy with how I performed in this race. Typically, I have struggled to ski the 10km distance well, either starting too hard and blowing up or taking it easy and having a lot of gas left in the tank. This wasn't the case and I powered through to a strong performance finishing in 24th place.

Sundays race went ahead as planned with only a few minor modifications to the course. The course had some very tricky corners but I managed to stay upright and ski through to 24th once again. Thanks to the awesome team at Rocky Mountain races, I had great skis in both races with awesome kick and good glide.

The next races were orignally scheduled for Whistler, however, due to a lack of snow these got rescheduled to skiers paradise aka Silver Star/ Sovereign Lake. This is one of my favourite places to ski with great snow and an awesome trail system. The format of these races changed a little as well with the skate sprint being changed to a classic sprint. While sprinting is not my favourite event, I was fairly happy with my form. Given that I haven't raced a sprint in over a year thought I would be struggling to stay on top of my skis and ski fast however as soon as my start time neared I felt good and was happy with my performance. Not that I made the top 30 (I was 34th) it still felt like I was skiing fast and I am hopeful that I will qualify for the heats one of

these days.

[Athletes battle the snow in Silverstar]

Yesterday was the event I had been most looking forward to, the 30km individual skate race. As is often the case we woke up to a snow storm so I new it would be a tough day. I felt like I was skiing well, smoothly and with good power. I had an early start position which meant that I could catch a ride with some of the leading skiers who started in the later positiions. My energy was good throughout the entire 30km and once again I had solid skis. I ended up in 15th position. (my goal was top 15). Once again Kris Feeman showed everyone that he is in great shape finishing over 1.5min ahead of second place!!

Now it's onto Kalli's place in Collingwood for Christmas. Conveniently, the next series of races are being held there as well so it won't be too long until I am pulling on a bib once again.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,

Andy

#silverstar #racing