Having One in Houghton

You know the expression, "you're having one!"? As in, you ski past a coach when you're feeling really good in a race and they pump you up by telling you "C'mon, you're having one!". It's one of the most motivating things to hear, because it means that A. You don't look like you're riding the bonk train and B. You're probably doing pretty well in the race! 

For me, having one means having a race that surpasses your own expectations while simultaneously pumping up your confidence. Up in Houghton, for most of the week at US Nationals I felt like I was finally having mine. A lot of people have written about the weather in Houghton last week, and it's true, the temperatures stayed mostly in the single digits, the sun never came out to play, and the wind kept you on your toes. But somehow it didn't seem to bother me much. After all, cross country skiing is a winter sport, and I would choose plentiful snow and the accompanying wintry conditions over skiing on dirty, warm, thin snow any day. Every day was an exercise in bundling, the more layers the better. I practiced my best "babushka" look, pulling my buff over my ears to avoid frostbite and made sure to Rock tape my face. I also had warms toes and fingers every day thanks to my awesome Toko gloves and Salomon boot covers! 

In the 10k skate, I knew I was in for a battle. Slow snow and skate skiing are tough for me because in skating I thrive on fast, firm conditions where I can extend my glide (or "use my length" as Pepa says). I didn't have the fastest time of the day or even an awesome placing (I was 18th), but I was actually really happy with the way I skied the race. 10k individual is always a mental battle, and one that I hope to conquer sometime really soon!

Bundled up and pushing hard in the 10k (Photo Skinnyski.com)

I've been looking forward to the classic sprint at Nationals for a while, and even though the conditions were equally slow as the skate day, I knew that the gradual climb into the finish would favor a long and powerful stride. During my qualifier warm-up I did a race-pace lap on the course and hit the wall after the second hill (with 500m left to go), which made me reassess my race plan. I knew the course was long, but I didn't think it was that long! My mantra for the day became "ski the first two hills like a 5k, and then go". I executed it well and found myself with plenty of pop for the entire qualifier and crossed the line in 4th! I was excited, but then instantly the most nervous I have been in a very long time. After all, a lot can go wrong in sprint heats. Instead of focusing on that, I turned my attention to the first thing I could control, my quarterfinal. The same tactic I'd used in the qualifier also worked well there, and even though I was in 5th at the bottom of the downhill I slowly picked off the skiers in front and led my quarterfinal to the finish. 

Skinnyski photo of my quarter

Pysched to race my semifinal against some fast and TALL girls, Heather Mooney from Middlebury and Becca Rorabaugh, APU

I ran out of gas a little in the semifinals, but was able to advance to the A final in lucky loser position. At this point, I was resolved to just enjoy the day. It was my first time ever making the A Final at Nationals, so at that point, whatever happened, happened, and I was thrilled to even be there racing against such fast girls. But, as it turned out, I did have a little left in the tank. When my former Park City teammate (now APU skier) Rosie Brennan started to string out the pack, I was able to follow Becca into 3rd. At that point, I couldn't even believe I was in podium contention,  but instead of pinching myself I focused on moving my arms and legs as fast as I possibly could and held my spot. I crossed the line feeling the best mixture of exhaustion and happiness.

Following Rosie out of the start..

Photo Christopher Schmidt

Post race hugs are always the best, and this one was up there! Congrats Rose on an impressive week and good luck in the World Cup!!

A very snowy podium

The classic sprint was such a high that I was a little worried about having enough energy for the 20k mass start two days later. After all, a sprint is over in just a few minutes (or maybe more like 5 on the Houghton course), but the 20k in slow classic conditions was bound to last over an hour. However, I was able to stay with the lead pack through most of the first 10k lap, and even though I ended up getting dropped by the 5 person pack I stubbornly stayed in 6th place until the finish. I was really happy with the result for a couple reasons, first because it was my first top ten in a distance event at nationals, and second because skiing alone for 12k is really mentally tough, but I managed to push through it. I was also excited because Rosie won the race again, and my GRP teammate Caitlin Patterson was second!

GRP green right up there with the APU blue! My other teammate Kaitlynn Miller finished 13th, making it an awesome day for our team

And then I skied alone...

And skied alone a little more...

And finally crossed the line alone!

 And just like that Nationals week was almost over, and we just had to conquer the skate sprint. It was back to skating in slow conditions, and even though my body was tired at this point, I also had a ton of confidence from the previous two races. I advanced to the semifinals in a lucky loser spot, and even though I ended my day with a 5th place in my semi, it was another top 10 finish and a good way to end the week.

The 3 GRP ladies had the misfortune of all having to compete in the same quarterfinal for just 2 auto-advance spots, but at least it was fun to race with teammates that I train with all year long!

Attempting to stick with speedsters Caitlin and Jennie Bender on the climb

Now that I've had a little time to process my week, I have to say I'm really happy with how things went, and looking forward to the rest of the season! We also had awesome skis all week at Nationals, and I know our wax techs Nick Brown and Bryan Cook worked way harder than we did and slept a lot less, so huge thanks to them. I'm still waiting to hear if I'll be able to compete in OPA Cups over in Europe in February and March, but for now I'm just focusing on getting in a good training block before the SuperTour in Craftsbury in two weeks. As a bonus, the skiing at Craftsbury has been absolutely incredible since we've been back. I'm racing the Eastern Cup in Rumford this weekend and then I'll take a weekend break and go cheer on the Wildcats at the UVM Carnival. Shoutout to fast kitten Annika Taylor who placed 2nd in both races at the Bates Carnival this weekend. Let's see if she can one-up it (see what I did there??) at Trapp's! So for now, go GREEN and go CATS!!