November 26, 2012

One down...

The Ostersund Range, pre-World Cup preparation.
Finally, the World Cup season has started!  Yesterday was the Mixed Relay here in Ostersund, Sweden and while it wasn't the start I had hoped to have, it was nice to get things underway. 

After a decent double pole, I was tripped up and fell going out of the stadium, landing in last right away.  After some effort to catch back up in the first loop, I used 2 extras to clean in prone.  Heading into standing I felt good - just trying to focus on my own race.  But the effort and the early season rust were stacked against me, and after using all 3 extra rounds, I still had 2 penalty loops to ski.  I skied my last loop as hard as I could and managed to tag off in not-quite-last place.  Susan, Jay and Lowell had solid races and were able to move us up to finish in 17th place.  It wasn't what we were envisioning, but I know I just needed to get a little of the jitters out and dust off my racing legs.
The view of the tracks from our hotel.  That green grass on the side is now covered with a nice dusting of white.
The women don't race again until Thursday's Individual, so we have a nice break to reorganize.  The weather is slowly improving; things even look a little wintry here after a dusting of snow fell last night.  It should be a fun week of racing here before we head off to Hochfilzen and hopefully some more sun!
Luckily, even in the dark the stadium has some nice views.

2 comments:

xteleman said...

ski fast, shoot straight, have fun

Anonymous said...

Hang in there! Sometimes the best performances follow the worst ones! We are all pulling for you back in the USA! Good luck!