woa.
Life has been moving fast the last couple of days. Fast and then standstill & then fast again. On our way to practice Thursday afternoon, Tiny (the van) broke down (again...it's been having a few problems). So we went to ski and Fish fixed the van. It still wasn't fixed by the time we were done at 6pm so the boys went to help and Compton and I went to Strozzi's and ordered the pizza. Finally we got everything taken care of and left for Bozeman. Then our headlights started getting dimmer and dimmer. Then the van stopped shifting. And it was dark and if you know the road between Bozeman and West Yellowstone, you know that you do NOT want to drive it in a big van with a trailer in the snow in the dark with no lights on. S.K.E.T.C.H.Y. We made it to Big Sky and decided to stop before we got funneled into the Gallatin Valley of death. Kuzzy called an friend with a condo in Big Sky & got us somewhere to stay. So Tiny limped 3 more miles up the road to the condo, Caitlin held a flashlight out the window so oncoming cars would know there was something on the road. So Thursday night we ended up stranded in Big Sky.
Friday, life came to a standstill. Fish had the van towed into Bozeman and the athletes went for a ski and lounged around Big Sky, playing scrabble and scheming about how we were going to get into Bozeman. We almost got the Salomon guys in Bozeman to drive up and get us. We had a shuttle figured out using the bus system. Compton called every car rental place in the area. We were being resourceful. Then Fish called and said that Tiny was fixed! And we all looked at each other and said, oh, we didn't even consider that as an option. So Fish drove back up to Big Sky and picked us up. Then we walked the race course, had a sweet dinner with Kuzzy's cousin, Eva, waxed our skis and didn't get to bed after all this until way after 11pm.
Compton and I went for a pretty sweet ski in Big Sky Friday morning. Nothing was groomed so we skied on a golf course. Afterwards an aerial photo of the golf course would have looked like one of those Family Circus cartoons with the dotted lines. We skied in circles, zig-zags, up the hills, down the hills, around trees, through sandpits, stopped to make snow angels & stomp out "CXC" in the snow, and generally followed no reasonable path. It was fun and un-intense.
Then Saturday morning we got back into racing. This weekend we had downtown sprints at Lindley Park in Bozeman. There is 1.2 and ONLY 1.2km groomed. Which meant that between the qualifiers and heats, we couldn't ski anywhere. That is why it is good to keep up the running over the winter so you can warmup running when you need to. It was a small field today so the quarterfinals were a breeze. All four of us racing today made it (Kuzzy, Gregg, Compton, Valaas). Gregg and Kuzzy were in the same semifinal and took 3rd & 4th in a photo finish, the officials had to delay the race because they couldn't figure out who was 2/3. They went on to take 1st and 2nd in the men's B final to get 5th (Kuzzy) and 6th (Gregg) overall.
Compton and I also raced the same semifinal along with Kate Pearson (Rossignol) and Melanie Park (Bridger Ski Foundation). Compton and I both advanced to the A final along with Karin Camenisch and Taz Mannix. And then, I won. Crazy, I don't really understand it, I mean I keep waiting for someone to pass me, but they don't. So I guess I'm okay with it. Camenisch was second and Compton in third. And tomorrow we get to do classic team sprints!
Another exciting news tidbit is that the US Ski Team decided to come home from Europe... which means that Kikkan Randal will be racing us in Sun Valley!
Friday, life came to a standstill. Fish had the van towed into Bozeman and the athletes went for a ski and lounged around Big Sky, playing scrabble and scheming about how we were going to get into Bozeman. We almost got the Salomon guys in Bozeman to drive up and get us. We had a shuttle figured out using the bus system. Compton called every car rental place in the area. We were being resourceful. Then Fish called and said that Tiny was fixed! And we all looked at each other and said, oh, we didn't even consider that as an option. So Fish drove back up to Big Sky and picked us up. Then we walked the race course, had a sweet dinner with Kuzzy's cousin, Eva, waxed our skis and didn't get to bed after all this until way after 11pm.
Compton and I went for a pretty sweet ski in Big Sky Friday morning. Nothing was groomed so we skied on a golf course. Afterwards an aerial photo of the golf course would have looked like one of those Family Circus cartoons with the dotted lines. We skied in circles, zig-zags, up the hills, down the hills, around trees, through sandpits, stopped to make snow angels & stomp out "CXC" in the snow, and generally followed no reasonable path. It was fun and un-intense.
Then Saturday morning we got back into racing. This weekend we had downtown sprints at Lindley Park in Bozeman. There is 1.2 and ONLY 1.2km groomed. Which meant that between the qualifiers and heats, we couldn't ski anywhere. That is why it is good to keep up the running over the winter so you can warmup running when you need to. It was a small field today so the quarterfinals were a breeze. All four of us racing today made it (Kuzzy, Gregg, Compton, Valaas). Gregg and Kuzzy were in the same semifinal and took 3rd & 4th in a photo finish, the officials had to delay the race because they couldn't figure out who was 2/3. They went on to take 1st and 2nd in the men's B final to get 5th (Kuzzy) and 6th (Gregg) overall.
Compton and I also raced the same semifinal along with Kate Pearson (Rossignol) and Melanie Park (Bridger Ski Foundation). Compton and I both advanced to the A final along with Karin Camenisch and Taz Mannix. And then, I won. Crazy, I don't really understand it, I mean I keep waiting for someone to pass me, but they don't. So I guess I'm okay with it. Camenisch was second and Compton in third. And tomorrow we get to do classic team sprints!
Another exciting news tidbit is that the US Ski Team decided to come home from Europe... which means that Kikkan Randal will be racing us in Sun Valley!
posted by LAV at 14:36
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