...and one of my last races. I'm about ready to be home again and done with the ski racing scene for awhile.

Today was a 7.5km classic and 7.5km skate. I don't know whether to give the race an overall thumbs up or thumbs down. Some things went really well and then some things went really poorly. I finished in 8th and I never expected to finish that high up in a 15km at U.S. Nationals. True, the field wasn't very big, but it was all solid skiers. I had a good classic leg, staying 4th or 5th the entire way and coming in with the leaders but I had a bad skate leg. My shin muscles totally gave out on me and I had a hard time even staying on my feet. I'm not sure how I made it to the end of the season and am having this kind of supporter muscle problems. Definitely something to work on for next year. That was frustrating because the rest of me wasn't tired for the skate leg and I wasn't breathing hard.

And then my most embarrassing ski moment occurred during the race today. Compton and I were number 2 and 4 so our exchange areas were right next to each other and I thought real hard about which box to go into when I came into the exchange and decided to go into the wrong one. Then I had my skis and poles off before I figured it out so I grabbed my skis, forgot my poles, and hopped over into my area. Then I got my skate skis and poles on okay. Unfortunately, when I grabbed my classic skis to take them out of Compton's exchange area I took one of her skate skis by mistake. So I basically screwed up Compton's exchange completely. (Sorry about that, Caitlin.) Definitely NOT a moment I'm proud of.

Dasha Gaiazova and I... one of my new friends this year! Dasha's website is DashaGaiazova.com, her season concluded today with a stellar third place in the pursuit!