US Distance Nationals

Even though it is almost April, it's not common to see wax testers skiing around in T-shirts in Fairbanks Alaska.  The daily highs have been almost 30 degrees, although the snow is still squeaky cold enough that we are still racing on the coldest waxes we can find.  The 5/10k Classic race a few days ago was Sam and Corinne's first race effort since leaving altitude at JOs and it was definitely a good warm up race for the week which keeps getting more intense from here on out.  Sam actually skied really well in the 10k, beating many elite team members and other good skiers his age, while Corinne skied well but a little conservatively for a 5k back at sea level.  It can be really easy for skiers to come down from altitude thinking they can hammer the whole race, only to blow up before the end, so I was happy that she played it a little safe- especially considering the long team sprint a day later, the 15k pursuit today, and the 30k classic on Sunday!  The team sprint on Wednesday was a super twisty 1.5k loop that the racers did 3 times.  Corinne and her partner, APU's Kate Fitsgerald, made it into the top 5 of their semi-final and advanced to the final where they got to ski with the big shots like Kikkan Randall, Morgan Smyth, Liz Stephen, and Morgan Arritola.  They ended up 9th overall, which was a great result for such a young team.  Corinne was definitely feeling the burn after around 10ks of sprinting, so we will see how she fares today in the 15k!  This will be the longest race Corinne and Sam have ever competed in, so it will definitely be a learning experience, but I'm also confident that they are both in prime condition for this level of race right now.  I'm headed up to the venue to test skis with Sun Valley SEF's Travis Jones, who we have been teamed up with for wax all week, and it is snowing outside this morning, so I'll upload some pictures from the team sprint and fill you in on todays race soon!

Thanks to John Estel and the entire Fairbanks volunteer crew for putting on such high quality and well organized races this week!!