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.