Also not fantastic
The second part of yesterday that wasn't fantastic was leaving doping control and having to pee during the drive home and then going to the grocery store and having to pee and basically having to pee for the rest of the evening to adjust for the intake of two bottles of gatorade and 5 bottles of water during my visit to doping control. Next time I will maybe be more patient and not drink ridiculous amounts of fluids in a futile attempt to make myself pee sooner. Not worth it.
So equally on the un-fantastic side of things was today's race. Classic team sprint. Sprinting. Classic skiing. Teammates. All my favorite things rolled into one event. I had high hopes for today. And they were dashed, as you say when you're talking about hopes.
Our Semi was fine, fairly chill pace (in the world of sprinting), no tangles, felt good, skis good. I had a nice break between races and was ready to rumble in our 15-team final. I started and Kikkan was finishing for us. First lap I wanted to try and put a gap on the field (hubris again) and couldn't. Hmm, okay, no sweat. Kikkan came in with a tiny gap for me to start my second lap but Karin & Dehlin caught back up right away and passed me on the long downhill. No sweat, I passed them back on the way up the hill and tagged off to Kikkan again in first. Then Kikkan brought it in right behind the rossi team (Camenisch & Stursova) with a gap on the Linds(a/e)y team. For the third and last lap I caught Karin by the first left hand corner and then Dehlin came by me real fast on the downhill and Karin pulled away. I still hoped to be able to catch them on the up back into the stadium. Then the up came and I couldn't gain on them and I said to myself "this is where I lose the race for us." Don't get me wrong, I didn't slow down and I didn't give up I just realized that it had become nearly impossible for Kikkan to close the gap. Then I tagged off to Kikkan well behind Karin & Dehlin and wanted to curl into a ball and bury my face in the snow because I'd left Kik with such an awful last lap. Playing ostrich generally not being a very successful strategy I instead went to see Kikkan after she finished and shared a hug and then we went to cheer for the men's race.
Sometimes racing is like that.
So equally on the un-fantastic side of things was today's race. Classic team sprint. Sprinting. Classic skiing. Teammates. All my favorite things rolled into one event. I had high hopes for today. And they were dashed, as you say when you're talking about hopes.
Our Semi was fine, fairly chill pace (in the world of sprinting), no tangles, felt good, skis good. I had a nice break between races and was ready to rumble in our 15-team final. I started and Kikkan was finishing for us. First lap I wanted to try and put a gap on the field (hubris again) and couldn't. Hmm, okay, no sweat. Kikkan came in with a tiny gap for me to start my second lap but Karin & Dehlin caught back up right away and passed me on the long downhill. No sweat, I passed them back on the way up the hill and tagged off to Kikkan again in first. Then Kikkan brought it in right behind the rossi team (Camenisch & Stursova) with a gap on the Linds(a/e)y team. For the third and last lap I caught Karin by the first left hand corner and then Dehlin came by me real fast on the downhill and Karin pulled away. I still hoped to be able to catch them on the up back into the stadium. Then the up came and I couldn't gain on them and I said to myself "this is where I lose the race for us." Don't get me wrong, I didn't slow down and I didn't give up I just realized that it had become nearly impossible for Kikkan to close the gap. Then I tagged off to Kikkan well behind Karin & Dehlin and wanted to curl into a ball and bury my face in the snow because I'd left Kik with such an awful last lap. Playing ostrich generally not being a very successful strategy I instead went to see Kikkan after she finished and shared a hug and then we went to cheer for the men's race.
Sometimes racing is like that.
posted by LAV at 16:48
7 Comments:
"this is where I loose the race for us."
--Maybe your mind was telling you to "let loose" the race, rather than "lose" it.
Sorry to nitpick but that spelling mistake is one of my pet peeves in life. (I have a simple life.)
Sorry about your tough race. Next time...next time....
lav, because you're too classy to say it to the first poster, I will:
bite on it, anonymous.
YEAH, BITE ON IT ANONYMOUS!
Huzzah Mathlete.
Lav, I awoke to find my house completely empty (save the wafting aromas of freshly baked cinnamon rolls). My housemates all went up the mountain before I came downstairs, and played in the 8 inches of fresh snow up there. I, on the other hand, cursed the skies and contacted me lawyer (as you read...). I was able to crank out some pretty good numbers anyway (just picture me, pedaling a bike as HARD as I can in my living room, wearing only spandex shorts, sweating profusely, drowning out the TV with the noise of the rollers while my friends half-heartedly cheer me on [barely masking their annoyance at not being able to hear the football commentators], while the smells of burning cardboard filled the air (the rollers touched the cardboard a little bit)). It was funny.
P.S. good job this week.
I'm sorry to hear that the Copper Country snow wasn't as conducive to winning as it might have been. But congratulations on the bronze - and the silver from the individual! Hell of a good job!
Can you give the blog a rundown of your positioning for the world cup now, including the Canmore races?
anon- you'd really cringe if you knew how many words I have to look up when I'm typing.
and lose/loose along with led/lead are pretty common errors for me. don't worry though, my fam. usually makes fun of me for it.
This is Granny but I can't find the thing to click that lets me write, so I am going under Anonymous (not your first Anon who wrote). Anyway.....please let it be known that it was not I who gently mentioned loose/lose (this time). Because I was so delighted with your great skiing at Sr. Nationals, I would never have castigated you on your spelling. That was some performance. Hope your training at Silver Star goes well.
Granny, you make me miss my granny.
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