It was cold.

Jogging it out the night before the start of the season. Zanden.

The classic sprint went alright for me. Nothing crazy bad or good. Would’ve liked to be faster obviously but the good news is I have some rocket teammates that I can learn from for the future. When those boys’ names (Luke, Ben , JC) were showing up in the results at the finish, I was hyped! Especially hyped to watch them in the heats, because I knew they could really mix it up. JC went through and almost made the finals, and Ben and Luke were really close. Only gonna be a matter of time before they’re looking at podiums.

The next day (15km classic) was more my speed, and I was a lot more nervous for it for that reason. I was still able to chill out and remember it’s the first distance World Cup of the season, and was able to still start chill. I stayed up on the fast corner on the south part of the course (couple people around me didn’t), and was able to finish hard, so I was happy with it. And I was happy with staying strong and relaxed technically, and not being too far out of the front of the race was good for the Sunday pursuit.

Taking a little break after my finish, watching the race

Venue in the background by the jumps. We stay in the apartments on the right side of the picture

Sprint boys doing some apartment strength

I felt even more ready for racing on Sunday, as I usually do in the early season, but it was super cold, and the race directors kind of tempered expectations on whether the race would happen or not. The women ended up being delayed by 40 minutes, and then again by a few hours, so they warmed up 3 times. Rough! We got to go at our race time, but didn’t know for sure until 30 minutes before the start. Some drama at the actual start with Norway and a couple other big names not starting. Apparently the timing crew didn’t know about this until they didn’t show up, so they had to delay and restart the clocks a couple minutes later. Good going with the flow practice.

This race last year was so much fun for me, because they use the 2.5km course that has good rest and hard work, and the 6-lap 15km just flew by. This year was the same. I started right with the British guys, and Andrew Musgrave was having a good one, and pushed the pace the whole time, which helped pull me and others around me through the field. Got a little rest over the top of the course on the last lap, and blasted it in to 11th! Pretty stoked with that result (5th fastest of the day too!) but the best thing was just enjoying the tactics and fun of pack racing.

Ready for more of that this season!

Lil late on this post, so Lillehammer is already tomorrow! Starts with a skate sprint, then 15km Saturday, relay Sunday. They’re using the biathlon courses because there’s not enough snow for the regular courses. Kind of a bummer to not ski the iconic courses here, but the backup courses are really fun! Time to go again!