Well my first World Cup Final race, Over and I finished. Yessssss.
I was very nervous and anxious coming into the race this morning. Partly because in training the previous day, guys were killing it. I mean just throwing down on the training course and a few of us Americans just stood back and where like, we have to race these guys…..
nervous as well because I really needed to finish this bad boy and get it under my belt. Crashing this first race was not an option…
And let me tell you, the course today was nothing like I have ever seen before. Bullet proof ice, I mean serious ice, like if you had to stand in tennis shoes on the track we skied, NOPE!! not happening
The first run I skied solid. Not great but well enough for me to realize I could hang. Which was a great feeling. I got 39th and was super pumped on it cuz i knew I could ski faster. The key was that I cleared the mandatory jump line. If i didnt clear it was a 4 sec penalty. Only 20 guys cleared the jump out of 72. But bad news I had 5 penalties for not making a proper tele turn during the race. So 5 secs tacked on to my time. All and all a good first run which gave some confidence.
Second run, the game plan was to attack!!!! Oh i attacked alright. I was 4 secs Faster!!! BooooYaaaaa….. But bad news….I got to the bottom and new that I racked up penalties for not making clean tele turns. Arrgh, I had 11 penalties. Yikes not good, and I did not clear the jump (only 12 dudes did clear it). So a total of 15 secs added to my time which set me back. I ended up in 46th, dropped back a few spots. 11 penalties will do it. But bright side, I clean that up and bammmmm I am right where my goal is set. (which is to beat half the field). Finished 6th within the US. All and all, today was better then I expected!!! These guys are flipping good. Real good. Tomorrow there is a skate at the finish, and I am actually excited about it. Hopefully these fools Im racing are not as acclimated as us mountain boys are. Gotta reach that goal.
Life in Norway…..super cool. having a great time with the team., Food, ahhhhhh not great not bad. The organization, (FIS) has been suppling our food. Every day some random dude shows up at the door and drops of food for us. Which consists of bread, cheese, some kind of random meet, eggs, OJ, Milk, Shrimp paste, More bread, and Jam…
Oh and there are some new pics posted on this facebook thing, thanks to my teammates.
Alright, thanks for reading…..
Tomorrow is another race day.. booooyaaaa
