(Race pictures taken by Ian Harvey of Toko)
First race of the season….check.
Racing with toe warmers in my boots…check.
Coaches working hard to give CXC amazing skis…check.
Tons of awesome people out cheering on the course…check!
Notice the beautiful ladies from Stillwater in the background – it was so cool to see them out there!
I’m so, so happy to have gotten the first races of the season over with, so now I know how to better control my nervous pre-race jitters. And it wasn’t even as bad as I thought it was going to be! Besides the struggle to stay warm in between, everything went smoothly.
The sprint course was the longest and hardest I’ve ever seen – 1.6 km with lots of hills and finishing at the top of a steep climb. We did the classic qualifier first, then got exactly one hour to cool down, change boots, warm up and race the sprint qualifier. There were no heats (thank goodness! we would have been out there all day).
This picture is from the West Yellowstone Ski Festival expo at the Holiday Inn. Super busy and exciting! Tonight’s the last night so get on over there if you haven’t already!
