10k Classic - US Nats, take two

I woke up this morning at 8am with over 6 hours until my start time. It is fairly unusual to eat two meals before a race, at least for me, but today it was done. At US National Championships, the competition day consists not only of the able-body men and women’s races, but the disabled as well. I am embarrassed to point out that I neglected to post the disabled results from Tuesday (especially since a Sun Valley dude is throwing it down and doin’ it well) but they are in this post! With so many racers the day seems really long. The first start went off at 9am and the last was after 3:30pm with just under 500 athletes competing at thirty-second intervals.

After breakfast this morning, I drove some of the men to the venue before returning to my hotel room for the remaining hours to sit and wait…and wait…and wait. I peeled myself away from the America’s Next Top Model marathon at one point during my morning to go to the fitness center (2 floors down) to jog on the treadmill for 25 minutes (thankfully there was a television available so that I could continue my program, heaven forbid).

After so may minutes of anticipation I could not sit idle any longer; I started skiing as soon as I arrived at the venue (1:30 before my start). This is atypical but hey – I ate two meals, I had fuel to burn right…or maybe just nerves to work through. Regardless, I skied the course SUPER easy, which is also very unusual for me. I often have trouble keeping the lid on before a race since I get so excited but today I was in a particularly melancholy mood. Maybe it was the extended anticipation. Regardless, the hour and a half went buy quickly – I skied on my race skis, asked for a bit more kick, asked for more again, got to the start pin with ample time, went through ski marking and received my ankle chip, blah, blah, blah and that is just how I felt. I needed someone to slap me - I was in a daze.

A minute to go and I finally came back to the present. I am not sure where I was, but it certainly was not Houghton, Michigan at US National Championships. Quickly, I thought of how Tuesday had gone and how I had skied tight and heavy - today I would race relaxed and light.

Thirty-one minutes, fifty-eight and nine tenths of a second later I was across the finish line in 11th place, four tenths of a second out of the top ten. I am headed in the right direction, which is a relief. It is not going to get me to the World Cup this year, but there are plenty of races to be had still. Stay tuned, the individual freestyle sprint is on Saturday.

Women – 10k
1. Kikkan Randall
2. Kristina Strandberg
3. Morgan Arritola, Sun Valley
4. Kate Arduser
5. Caitlin Compton
6. Karin Camenisch
7. Lindsey Dehlin
8. Liz Stephen
9. Sadie Bjornsen
10. Laura Valaas, ITA
11. Kate Whitcomb, ITA, Fischer-craft/Sun Valley

Men – 15k
1. Ivan Babikov
2. Lars Flora
3. Andrey Golovko
4. Kris Freeman
5. Chris Cook
6. Marius Korthauer
7. Garrott Kuzzy
8. Leif Zimmerman
9. Mikey Sinnott, Sun Valley
10. Ben True, Sun Valley
11. Matt Gelso
12. Reid Pletcher, Sun Valley

Disabled Women - 6k
1. Monica Bascio

Disabled Men – 9k
1. Andy Soule, Sun Valley
2. Greg Mallory
3. Sean Halsted
4. Bob Balk

Full results can be found at iTiming
The picture above has nothing to do with this post (obvi.) but if anyone is interested in buying a golden puppy, let me know - a friend's woofer littered 7, oh man!