It's been a crazy week! Currently in Finland to kick off the end of the world cup season, after an absolutely amazing time in North America. First, I got to be home for a week and do some ski touring, school, and hanging with the fam. Then, I went to Canmore for the first time (beautiful place) to get back into racing, and it went pretty well! Nice to feel solid and get some good fun racing in. The altitude there felt a bit high for me, so it was nice to head from there to the flatlands of the Midwest! Then, I hung out with somewhere between 20 and 40 thousand of my best friends at Theodore Wirth Park! Last, I went to northern Wisconsin to experience the biggest nordic race in the US, the Birkie! It's been a ton of great days in a row.
Also, sorry for the no pictures, I know it’s not like me, but I can’t get them to upload on my school computer.
How I approached the Minneapolis World Cup:
I've been looking forward to these races from the day we heard they were on the calendar. The opportunity to race at this level in front of my family and friends doesn't come around much, and I really wanted it to be fun for them. This spring, when talking about focuses for the season with my coaches, these North American races were the top of the list. That, and generally feeling better every race weekend have been my main objectives this year. But, going into these races, I'd found a balance where I've been feeling generally good, so I was mostly just happy to be in the mix for these races. And the biggest thing that made me relaxed in Minneapolis was that when we showed up on race weekend, the atmosphere was incredible from the start, so any nervousness I had about making it cool for my family eased, because I felt like just being in such an amped-up crowd was enough for them. From there, my biggest desire was to make a sprint heat. After doing that in the qualifier (with my best qualifier yet!) I started to feel looser, like I could just go out and ski. Like whatever happened, it didn't matter that much because I was healthy, I made it here, and was able to participate. Sometimes the biggest gift is just the ability to compete with your friends. When you can figure out how to feel grateful for being there, along with a continued desire to do well, that seems to be a good combo for doing well.
10k day
Coming into Sunday, I really didn't have a specific goal in mind, but figured that with a strong qualifier and generally feeling good, I could have a good day; but again, I was just stoked to get out for some loud warmup laps! My name (and other people's, so I've heard) were being chanted from over an hour before the race, when we started warming up! (Katie Eichten said that her Spooner, WI skiers started it...thanks guys :) All of that going on and our team generally feeling happy to be racing in the US made it just feel like a good day to be a skier. The boys were doing well as early starters, which was encouraging! I started and just tried to think about skiing with a slow-ish tempo but good power for the first lap, and just added energy and tempo as I went. The cheering along the entire course also got progressively louder, culminating with a hair-raising USA chant on the last 2 hills. Hard to say that didnt spur me on, and coupled with the whiteboard splits, I knew I was doing pretty well, and felt like I could just keep digging deeper and deeper that day. It was one of those races that didnt really even hurt (although I'm sure my memory of it is skewed towards the stuff afterwards). Also, being an earlier starter, right before the best-seeded 15 skiers, finishing and being in the lead wasn't the craziest thing ever, so I really wanted to savor those first moments in the leader chair. I thought it would probably be good for top 10 at first. But I was watching splits, with my teammates starting to come over and check it out. The big names weren't matching my times at 5-7k, but those guys always good at pacing, so I was thinking I was still probably getting beat, but as they got further into their races, my lead wasn't changing, and it started looking like a podium. Zanden said that and was already crying. That had me teary and so glad they were right there watching it. Luke was the first one to mention that I might "win this thing", and hearing that was crazy. It took a few more minutes for the last Norwegian distance kings to cross the line, and they still weren't able to do it!!! Then I got to celebrate with these guys that I've been skiing with for soooo long, some over 10 years, like Luke! And all the US teammates were so fun to be around then. I can't imagine having something like this happen without such a great team around me. I'm actually sure it would be at least 50x harder. And would be 80x less fun when something like this happens. It's just the absolute best to be able to celebrate everyone when something happens, because then big things happen more often! I also got to celebrate immediately after with my family and girlfriend and grandma and aunts and uncles and my parents' childhood friends and tons of other ski friends I've met along the way. That's the beauty of a US world cup. My timing truly could not have been better. If you'd told 14 year old me I would have a day like this in my career, I would've believed it because it is the kind of thing I dreamt about from the first races I ever did. Big thanks to everyone that put in hours and hours of work in to make it happen. And to everyone that came out and made it so special!
The other thing about a US world cup is how many kids can then actually see it in real life. It's really cool to see the impact you can make as an athlete. We hear about it, but it's so cool to see it in real life and really interact with those kids that like skiing. Also, the accesability to skiing and this race provided by Loppet and Share Winter Foundation are not to be slept on, because being in a big city like Minneapolis is a huge opportunity for anyone to see it.
Since then...
It's been really hectic. I think the timing of it all with a result like this from an unpredictable american skier at the first US world cup in forever spoke to people, so I've had a few interviews! Some of the stuff I'm saying in this is starting to feel like a broen record, but at least I'm getting some practice with it! And it was also pretty hectic to be at the Birkie, but that at the same time was super cool. Everyone there is so into skiing for the actual SKIING aspect of it, and that is the most fun feeling to share. Just cool to feel the energy and excitement from people who have been around skiing for a long time.
The Birkie!!
The actual race was great. On a nearly no-snow winter in Wisconsin, the organizers made a 10k loop of pristine snow. It's scary seeing winters like this, but I'm so happy we can skill ski. There were a ton of great competitors there, like a bunch of my USA teammates, lots of other strong American skiers, and some French guys! Our US ski team techs were there doing some racing and skiing tons of laps testing stuff, and they made some fast skis. Coupled with fast snow on a relatively easy course, we were ripping around those laps. It was also windy, so leading and pushing the pace was super effective, as you'd just be breaking wind for the people behind you. Because of all that, the pack was slowly shrinking, but we came into the last lap with like 12-15 people, and scott started pushing at 47k. I was able to use those sprinting skills that have come back to me to get some space on the last hill, and win a Birkie! (In the midwest, that equals a world cup win) So that's really making me a legit skier! Super thankful to the people at the Birkie, organizers and racers, who make it such a cool event. It's so fun to see so many passionate skiers, and I'm so glad I stuck around to do some laps with them.
Thanks for reading, and lets work on another US World Cup!
