Being an elite athlete striving for success isn’t as simple as training hard and reaping the rewards. For many people, and I belong to this group, it can be a struggle to get to a place in time where you can actually train and push your body the way you want to. Being an athlete, in my experience, is about navigating every obstacle you come to - and they don’t always come one at a time and at equal intervals.

        Too often, injuries and illnesses can pile up and eventually become the reason an athlete leaves competitive sport. Trust me, this happens far more often than those heroic comeback stories we all love to read about. Finding the balance between training hard enough to be competitive and avoiding the training that can worsen an injury can be incredibly frustrating. The trade-offs are undesirable - Stop training completely, hope your injury heals and sacrifice a year of decent racing, or, try to continue training to maintain some level of fitness, but risk dragging on your injury indefinitely. We are happiest when we can simply train our butts off with nothing holding us back.

​      I am definitely not the first, nor am I alone in having to deal with lousy injuries. There is no shortage of stories about athletes overcoming adversity that I can draw hope from. I guess I want to write about this to give some insight on what can unfortunately be a big part of an athlete’s career. Injury can have a significant effect on results, and there is so much more to an athlete than what you can gather from a results sheet.
     
        I’m getting better, with the help of my coaches, at finding ways to train as effectively as possible while nursing injuries or dealing with colds. While I’ll always strive for perfect health, living in this balancing act has become the norm for me. After falling short of my training and fitness goals this past summer, I accordingly reassessed my goals for the winter and shifted my focus entirely on the Ski Tour Canada. I accepted that the start to my season might be slower than usual and I made sure to keep my expectations realistic so that I could remain positive and motivated throughout the winter. Identifying the Ski Tour as my goal was instrumental to my motivation, happiness and mental game. It kept me focused and helped me look past the lows.
When I started writing this post, I was feeling rather pessimistic about the state of my injuries. Now, I’ve just come back from my second osteopath appointment, and I’m finding ways to tap back into that optimism I thrive on. Although I’m still in the thick of dealing with a stress fracture, I’ll try to offer some advice to my fellow athletes dealing with injury or illness.  

1. Seek treatment! It’s frustrating when it feels like the medical system is failing you. If it feels like no one is really invested in trying to get you better, keep searching for the right physician until you find one who cares. Not only is treatment what you need, but it’s so good for your psyche. It has made me feel proactive, and during every treatment I always feel more optimistic about overcoming my injury.
2. Come up with some appealing back-up plans! Although I’m nowhere near ready to consider leaving cross-country skiing, I’ve been entertaining the idea of going into new sports. Again, this just helps when I start feeling pessimistic about ever classic skiing again without pain. Right now, although this isn’t the most creative alternative (and would still require my foot to recover somewhat), I’ve been thinking about how I wouldn’t be at all upset if I abandoned being a cross-country ski racer to be a biathlete! (I know it’s still cross-country skiing…let me dream!)
3. Always be grateful for what you have! That is a given, but it’s good to remind ourselves of how lucky we truly are.

         This post is my tribute to everyone who has ever had to leave behind their sporting dreams due to illness or injury – I feel you, I’m sorry, and I want you to know that you are no less of a remarkable athlete because of it.
 
Without further ado, here is a recap of my races up until the end of February this year!

Kia ora!

Visit New Zealand. I PROMISE you won't be disappointed!

Having a training camp in New Zealand was the best idea ever. The skiing at the Snow Farm was sweet as. We had heaps of dry-land training opportunities in Wanaka - where we were staying. Kiwis are some of the nicest, most laid back people you'll ever meet. There are no predators in New Zealand, so you don't even have to worry about bears, cougars, or rutting elk! There are friendly sheep roaming freely everywhere. Everywhere! Who doesn't love sheep!? Speaking of beautiful things, the landscape is also magnificent.

What made the trip truly amazing was the hospitality of our team mate Tristan's family and their friends. They totally enhanced our NZ experience and we are super grateful for their generosity!

You'd think I was lying, but this is pretty much what our average training day looked like. We had so many amazing days. It went kind of like this: "Yesterday was the best day ever, but today is officially the new best day ever!"

I know we have to count ourselves fortunate, apparently the weather was especially good this year compared to previous years.

Although I'd like to make this trip seem like it was the best trip ever (it was), I have to confess, I caught a cold, as did half our team and half of Wanaka it seems. Just like on the flight over, you couldn't make a trip to the grocery store without hearing that awful chest cough everyone seemed to have. It got the best of us and sidelined us for about a week. 

In the final days of our trip we had the opportunity to compete in the New Zealand Winter Games. We were graced with the presence of a couple Olympians, but for the most part these were small races. I had some ups and some downs, but all in all, it was sweet to compete in some FIS races in August!

This video was a long time in the making, but in my opinion, totally worth it! Check out what a week up at the Haig Glacier looks like with the Rocky Mountain Racers!

Team Bouffy hit a huge milestone this Spring - we were named to the Canadian Senior National Team! When I say "Team Bouffy", I'm talking about myself and any person who has ever supported me, sponsored me, given me a high five, coached me, encouraged me, given birth to me, fathered me, given me waxing advice, fed me, billeted me and really anyone who has given me a little push along this wonderful journey. The fact that cross country skiing is an individual sport is misleading. There is so much that has happened behind the scenes of my ski career, especially in the last 5 years , that has contributed to this nomination onto the National Team. 

It has been amazing to have people believe in me and in my goals. My supporters' generosity is sometimes overwhelming and definitely humbling. It's hard for me to express exactly how much the support means to me. It serves as a big dose of motivation and I never feel like I'm climbing this mountain alone!

I still get excited each time I remind myself I'm part of the team. This is a goal I've had for a loooong time, and now it's proof that I've been moving in the right direction. I'm really looking forward to what we can accomplish as a nation this coming year and I will do my absolute best to do the maple leaf proud!

Thanks again to everyone who made this possible! Cheers to this milestone! 

Oh ya! Now I recognize you! I've been dreaming of you my whole life!

When I left for Kazakhstan, racing at the Senior World Championships in Falun was not a prospect I had even considered.

When World U23s had wrapped up and I was finally leaving Kazakhstan, Falun was my destination and racing at World Champs was a reality I could not stop thinking about!

My 12th place finish in the Skiathlon at World U23s was enough to earn me a spot on the Senior World Champs team. Since nothing is confirmed until CCC's High Performance Director says so, I stayed awake after my last race in KAZ until I received that fateful email from him. At this point I really didn't know if I would be selected or not. Everyone had long since gone to bed and I was sitting in the hallway, tired and anxious, repeatedly refreshing my inbox until the message came in. Ping! I had to re-read the email several times before I could relax and know for sure that I WAS in fact going to World Champs! It was foolish of me to think that I could finally get some shut-eye that night because there was nothing I could do to stop my heart from racing or to get my brain to shut up. Needless to say it was a sleepless night (the best kind of sleepless night)!

Although my showing at the World Champs wasn't the performance I had dreamed of (cut short due to illness, and no amazing results to speak of), I want profess that it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. World Champs are the pinnacle of cross-country ski racing (along with the Olympics), and competing there was a dream come true and a massive honour.  

To top it all off, there are few better places to host the biggest event in cross-country skiing than Falun, Sweden.  World Champs to Swedes is like the Super Bowl to Americans. There were just under 300,000 spectators, most waving their national flags and all making a deafening amount of noise. That was unforgettable. My favourite moment might have been when I was skiing up Mördarbacken (the “killer hill”) warming up before my race and there was a stretch of fence occupied by some Swedish kids, all holding their hands out for a high five. I looked around, and none of the other athletes were paying any attention to the spectators; too professional or too focused to notice. I couldn’t resist those high-fives, so I skied over and high-fived every one of those kids. As I skied away, I heard them shouting “You are the best woman!” in their broken English. It was awesome!

Above all, I'm thankful to have had this opportunity. What makes it special is being able to share it with the people who made it possible. I wish I could've taken every one of my supporters, my sponsors and my parents to Falun with me, because it was as much their success as it was mine! La Cordée, Buff, Madshus, Shades on Caribou - thanks for having my back and supporting me all the way to Sweden! A very special thanks to Neil and Alison, Dawson and Pat, Malcolm and Sandra, and Frank and Cathy! You have all been a huge part in helping me realize a dream!

My second and last time at World U23 Championships, in Almaty Kazakhstan, one of the last two host cities bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Kazakhstan wasn't a place I'd ever expected to find myself in, I didn't realize exactly how far east it was - bordering China! I'm slowly discovering the world through ski trips!

Despite the smog and the rocky trails, Kazakhstan was an amazing experience for me, an experience I won't soon forget. I had some of the best races of my life and I accomplished some major goals during the Championships. I was just riding this wave of stoke. I still can't believe I had such good races, and what those results meant for the rest of my season.

After spending our arrival day in Kazakhstan recovering and learning some key Russian phrases, we skied at the original venue which was outside of the city (and the smog) and right in the mountains. I had one of the best ski days of the year there! The venue is comparable to any of the nicest places I've skied, including Canmore! It was a mild, blue bird and sunny day, and we were skiing on perfectly groomed, fresh snow. Couldn't ask for more! The rest of the week we would be skiing on the competition trails at a man made site right in the city. Unfortunately the conditions at our race venue were a far cry from the pristine mountain trails.

The days leading up to the first race of the Championships - the classic sprint - were kind of an organizational mess. Originally, the Junior sprint was to be held on Monday, and the U23 sprint to be held on Tuesday. Then we heard they would hold both events on Monday. Then we heard we would be racing on an 800m course (girls 1 lap, guys 2). THEN, finally, both sprint were moved to Tuesday, and the men and woman ended up doing the same course, which was a shortened version of the original men's course. This was a great example of why it's so important to be relaxed and flexible. My Nicaragua mottos came in handy for me here - be flexy flexy, and go with the flow. 

As much as I try to have a positive mind-set going into a race, I'm typically pretty anxious. That's why one the best aspects of the Championships was how good my attitude was on race day. I didn't feel like I'd consciously changed my thinking. When I got to the start line for that very first race, the sprint qualifier, I just felt this genuine happiness inside me and an excitement to race. I was smiling on the start line, it was a great feeling. I was so happy to be there, and so excited to race in this field. I felt thankful for the opportunity, and I wanted to make the most of it. 

I had a terrific qualifier, posting the 12th fastest time! Wooo!

I had the same fired up feeling before my quarter final, but, unfortunately, my quarter final was not an example of my best racing and I failed to move onto the semis. Despite being angry and wanting more immediately after crossing the line, I left the race site with a lot of positives. In my mind, the day was still a success.

After having such a great feeling that first day, I was hoping that the attitude I'd had pre-race would carry on through the Championships, and luckily, it did. When I'm happy, I race fast, and when I'm having fun and racing fast, I'm happy!  

On Thursday we raced the 10km skate interval start. Because of my poor FIS points, I was an early starter. I hoped I would be able to ski my second lap with some of the fast later starters, who would be starting as I lapped through the stadium. This race was unlike any race I'd done this year. I have a habit of starting fast and fading and losing time in the later stages of the race. This day in Kazakhstan, however, was different. I started out with a controlled pace, telling myself to be light and relaxed up the steep pitches so that I could catch a ride with someone as I lapped through. After 5km, as I headed out of the stadium for the second lap of my race, I was pumped when I realized my legs felt great and I was ready for a hard second lap. I started pushing the pace and my body was keeping up, feeling awesome. I was passed by a Norwegian whose pace was too much for me, but when a Slovenian caught me with about 2.5km to go, I worked my butt off to stick with her. From that point on I pushed as hard as I could until the finish line and made up a lot of time. 

 I didn't really have any expectations going into this Championship. Besides "giving my all and having the best races possible", I don't really set goals for myself. I prefer to go into races imagining I'm the underdog, because I race better when I have no perceived pressure. 
When I realized I'd finished 17th I was ecstatic! It was my best result by a long shot, I was sooo happy. I had a fall near the end of the race on the last downhill and lost some precious seconds. When my coach told me I would have been top 15 had I not fallen, I couldn't really bring myself to care. All I could say was "I know I should probably be way more disappointed by that, but I don't even care! I just came seventeenth!" Seriously, how could you not be pleased with that?!

The last race was the 15km skiathlon mass start. In this race you ski 7.5km classic, Yet again, due to my crappy FIS points, I was a back of the pack starter - last row. This offered up a fun challenge though. I couldn't let myself think too far ahead into the race, I had to ski in the moment, and stay really focused and calm to avoid crashes. The key was not to panic or make poor tactical decisions even though I was in last. Having that mind frame really helped. I was comfortable being at the back, and I just hung out there until a lane opened up and I could start moving my way up through the field. I focused on skiing my own race in the classic portion, not getting carried away trying to hang on to people I felt were going too fast for me. I had a smooth and fast exchange, and skated hard out of the exchange box into the first downhill before putting my poles on. This allowed me to pass at least three girls who weren't as aggressive leaving the exchange zone. I found myself in a pack of five, and the race was on! The five of us skied together for one lap and a half. Halfway through the second lap, we came up over a rise and I noticed we were gaining on a group of girls. Aaaaawwesommmme! I'd never been part of a chase pack before, and when I realized we were skiing a good pace and catching these girls I was so pumped! It's cheesy, but I felt like I was skiing the type of race I'd only ever seen on tv! When we came up behind these girls, I moved to the front of my pack and decided from this point on I was going to hammer and I wasn't going to look back. I wanted to pass as many girls as possible and I didn't want any of them to latch on. I think I pulled a few girls with me, and with maybe 400 metres to go, a couple girls passed me who I just couldn't hold on to, but I managed to cross the line in 12th! Race of my life! Again with the smile I couldn't wipe off my face! Is this real life?

12th place at U23s is quite a meaningful and elusive result for Canadians. It is written in our National team selection criteria that a 12th place earns you a spot on the senior National Team. 12th  is this big number we all strive for, but I didn't know how realistic the result was for me. I can honestly tell you I didn't think I was capable of it. Of course, nothing is confirmed until the spring, so I will post an update when the news comes!
Racing aside, we had an amazing team in Kazakhstan. We were a very cohesive group. Everyone wanted the best for each other, everyone celebrated each other's victories or empathized with each other's defeats. We were proud to be representing Canada, as well one another. We worked together to develop the best race strategies, and we had some amazingly motivating team mates (if anyone needs a pep talk, pay a visit to Julian Smith - wise beyond his years.) It was also really cool to have a certain kinship with the Americans, I think that seeing ourselves as "team North America" and wanting success for each other was a great attitude to have.

The next time I would hop on a plane, it would be taking me to SWEDEN!!

Until I left for Kazakhstan at the end of January I was racing the Domestic NorAm circuit.

I'll recap the first half of my season with the following photos:

Going back a little bit to tell you about fall training - After our last training camp in Park City, Utah, for a month I struggled with fatigue and sluggish feelings in training that I just couldn't seem to bounce back from. Every year Canmore hosts the Frozen Thunder Classic, a couple of races held on the ribbon of artificial snow that has been saved over the summer to give us some of the earliest on-snow skiing in North America. These races were held in late October, and I still hadn't made it out of that rut. I opted to only do the sprint, and I struggled through that race. The good news is that I overcame the spell of fatigue just in time for the first real races. Getting healthy, I felt  like Indiana Jones sprinting to escape a corridor closing in on itself, and making it out just in the nick of time! I'm grateful for the watchfulness and ongoing training assessments of my coach during this time! 

The very first races of the season meant to be held in Canmore were cancelled due to really cold temps. We got a lovely dump of snow that weekend, and since we couldn't do any intensity training as to not harm our lungs, we took advantage of the weekend off and went on some extremely fun hors-piste adventure skis through Canmore! Not that I needed it, but this totally reinvigorated my love for skiing! Adventure skiing is my favourite kind of skiing - it brought me back to my roots and my Viking Ski Club days!

My top pick of our annual team photo shoot! We had a great team this year once again, I love the RMR energy, attitude and companionship! AND we are really enthusiastic crouchers!

Silver Star Classic Sprint - my first Senior NorAm victory! Everything clicked that day and I just felt great. Every heat I learned a little bit from my competitors. Before the finals I realized that on such a windy course with little opportunity for drafting, possibly the best strategy was to go out hard and lead because it would be hard to make passes. When the gun went off, I had only one goal, and that was to go as hard as I could from start to finish. To my surprise, I found myself skiing off the front with a gap on the field after the first climb! I just kept hammering all the way to the line, knowing that there were strong girls behind me, girls whom I was expecting would catch me at any second. I was able to hold on to my lead and I earned my first NorAm win! Woo!

4 Buff ambassadors in the top 5!

The first ski of 2015! The best (and only?) way to kick of the new year! Beauty ski at Pocaterra in Kananaskis.

Finally! The most important races of my season thus far happened at World U23 trials in Duntroon. It was a really solid and consistent weekend of racing for me, with a 4th place in the skiathlon, 6th in the sprint, and another 4th in the 10km skate. These results earned me a ticket to Kazakhstan for the World U23 Championships!

For the most part, I was really satisfied with these races. I was happy with my efforts in the distance races, and as always I learned some valuable lessons - like that no matter how hard it is to keep food down between my qualifier and my heats on sprint day, it's imperative that I eat! I found myself short of energy and unable to have any good heats on sprint day - so I made a note to not repeat that mistake again.

Western Canadian Champs held in Canmore.

Another NorAm podium in the skate sprint! I love sharing the podium with team mates! I earned a 2nd place the following day in the 15km skate mass start - it was a good weekend!

A good start to the season. I had a bit of time to prep and train in Canmore before taking off for... THE ORIENT! (Kazakhstan)

World U23 Championships or The Most Motivating Event of my Life to Date.

    Wow. Where to begin. My first international race experience in one of the more famous cross-country ski venues in the world - a Tour de Ski venue as well as the host location of the 2013 Cross Country World Championships: Val di Fiemme, Italy. It was extremely exciting just to get to the stadium and ski the trails for the first time. After my first lap of warmup, I gathered my skis and picked a spot in the stadium to line them up and begin testing wax. Already in awe of all the extremely fast-looking athletes skiing around, I notice a girl station herself next to me whom I could very possibly be racing against in the upcoming days. She starts stretching just a couple metres away from me. As if it was her purpose to intimidate me, as if she knew one of my biggest weaknesses, right there in the snow, she lowers into A FULL SPLIT. My jaw literally falls open. Being the inexplicably tight and inflexible person I am, this thoroughly impressed me and made me think "So this is Worlds; where my competitors warmup by doing the splits in the middle of the ski stadium. This is going to be a good time."
   
    The first two races, a skate sprint and classic 10k, rated mediocre on the performance scale for me. It's hard to say if I was still dealing with remnants of being sick after the trials races in Canmore, but I wasn't feeling like myself, and I missed qualifying for the heats in the sprint race by less than a second. Lesson number 1 - every tenth of a second counts! Don't hold anything back.
    I was really looking forward to the 10km classic race as I'd consider it one of my specialties, but was disappointed. I finished the day in 35th again knowing that I was capable of racing faster. I was not feeling like my fastest self in these races. That being said, I had one of the best learning experiences out on the course that day. Because I was an early starter in this individual start race, I was heading out for my second lap when the fastest girls were starting their first lap. As one Norwegian caught me right before a downhill, I decided I would use the situation to my advantage and hop in behind her for the downhill, then just try to stick with her for as long as I could on the uphill. Everything went according to plan until we reached the uphill. She basically sprinted up this hill at a pace I've never seen before in a distance race. Her tempo was unbelievable and she left me in her dust! This was a massive reality check for me. Lesson number 2 - this is how the fastest girls in the world race; they hammer all out, all the time, with wicked tempo. You're not in Canada anymore Olivia! This is the reality of international racing. These girls are seriously fast!

    The last race - the 15km skiathlon - was my favourite race. It was the most fun I had racing all Championship. This was a mass start race in which the first half of the race is classic, followed by a quick equipment change and the rest of the race is skate. I absolutely love mass starts because it gives me the opportunity to ski in the pack, and try to position myself where I would like to eventually be as I improve - as close to the front of the pack as possible. I started hard and skied as far up in the field as I could and held on for as long as I could. This was so thrilling, and the first couple of laps were amazing, I was skiing really well and was in a pretty good position. I was genuinely having fun and thoughts kept running through my head about how much I loved racing. Unfortunately the pace I set for myself was more than I could maintain, so as the race progressed I started fading and got passed by a lot of people. That being said though, I don't regret anything. I think I learned so much from skiing in the pack. It lit a fire in my belly and showed me exactly where I want to be in years to come. 

    Through this collection of races, watching my team mates have terrific races of their own, and completely soaking in what international racing is all about, I'm more fired up than ever to train my butt off so that I can be fast and ready to give everything I have when the next opportunity to race internationally arises.

    Thanks to everyone who helped me get to Italy! I'm so thankful for the support team I have and recognize that there are key people and sponsors who make these things possible! La Cordee for supplying me with all my waxing equipment that I used to wax up the 12+ pairs of skis I had with me in Europe! The little things make the biggest differences! Madshus for all the fast boards and boots and poles, I was really proud to be fully representing Madshus at Worlds. Buff, because I wear one every single day. Thanks so much to everyone else who has contributed to this journey!

skate sprint
http://storage.fiemme2013.com/x00001/public/72DF9D84F4194F3CBB4993433B7A3E40/WebElements/A5D19AD4217D4603907BE519FDA5DC2D.pdf

10k classic
http://storage.fiemme2013.com/x00001/public/72DF9D84F4194F3CBB4993433B7A3E40/WebElements/26BF5CF934DD4C509C158598E821D1B3.pdf

15k skiathlon
http://storage.fiemme2013.com/x00001/public/72DF9D84F4194F3CBB4993433B7A3E40/WebElements/0422C9BB99B443D2AAB3EFB6491FD3A2.pdf

Wearing the maple leaf and the word Canada across my back has always represented one of my dreams, because it would mean racing for Canada on the world stage. Receiving all my National Ski Team gear after qualifying for World U23s at trials in Canmore was in itself a really exciting moment for me. Unfolding that big blinding yellow parka and seeing the red lettering across the back meant one of my dreams realized, and here it was, in my hands, in all it's neon glory. 

I donned the coat proudly, and somehow made it through the airport without getting told to go back to work on the tarmac to direct aircraft traffic, and boarded my flight to Munich where the exciting journey of World U23 Championships would begin.

The weather was pretty gloomy landing in Munich, but I was already riding the euro high and loving every bit of Europe as it came. I peered eagerly out the window of the van until we arrived in Seefeld Austria, the first stop of our pre-championship training camp.

The Seefeld portion of the trip was mostly adjusting to the time change, and getting in the early days of training while managing the jet lag. Upon arrival in Seefeld, Heidi and I went for a quick little jog and then the whole team headed to old Innsbruck for some sightseeing. 
The training was pretty good, even with the lack of snow. It was always super cloudy so unfortunately I never really got to appreciate what were probably really beautiful mountains all around us! 

From Seefeld we drove to Toblach/ Dobiacco Italy (German and Italian name for the same place) for part two of our training camp. This is a World Cup venue, as well as one of the sites for the Tour de Ski! I was very excited to be here. Toblach had an abundance of snow, and super fun trails. The training was fantastic here, and we even did a full sprint simulation on the World Cup sprint course! Sweet! 
The trails were right smack in the middle of the valley between Toblach and Cortina, it kind of reminded me of Canmore in the way that these huge mountain ranges were all around you. The Dolomites are totally cool too. I love them equally as much as the Rockies. I just really love mountains. But the Dolomites are totally unique and totally different than the Rockies, and they too have that effect on me that makes me want to stare at them all day and just smile. I already knew I wanted to come back to the Dolomites before I even left!
We got to do some pretty neat things in Tobalch, like explore this beautiful church, and ski the tunnels between Cortina and Toblach!

            After not starting Sundays race in Silverstar, I decided to go back to Canmore instead of going straight to Rossland to try to recover from my cold. I traveled to Rossland on Thursday and skied the new distance course Thursday evening. This course is way hillier than the previous course, and has two wicked downhill’s. The first is like a rollercoaster, you feel weightless for a moment and then your stomach drops, that’s how steep it is. The second is just incredibly fun. It’s this really curvy long downhill, your skis are never running straight, you are constantly stepping and changing directions.

            Saturday’s race was a 1.4km skate sprint. The course went kind of like this: looong uncomfortable uphill (do I one-skate or offset?), left turn, down, short steep uphill, down down, HANGALEFT,NOWHARDRIGHT, small hill, swooping left downhill turn, 100m to finish. It was pretty warm in Rossland, and the snow got really soft and deep on the uphills, especially the first one. In my qualifier, I opted to one-skate that uphill, even though it felt like I was fighting just to keep my skis gliding and my body kept trying to slow down when my focus would waver for one second. It didn’t feel like a powerful peppy one-skate I’m used to in sprint races. The rest of the course felt fairly good, but I couldn’t get over how tough that first hill felt! As I’m walking back to the start to get my jacket and pants, Buff boss Peter walks towards me and goes “Well, that was feckin’ shite!” (Mrs. Brown’s Boys reference, a crazy Irish comedy that I introduced him to that was introduced to me by my Irish room mate!). At hearing this, my heart kind of sinks and I think yep, I guess it was a crappy qualifier. And then Peter proceeds to say “You won the qualifier!” And I go “No way. No way. I don’t believe you.” I’m honestly in disbelief, so I check the live results streaming in on the tv set up in the start area and sure enough my name is right at the top. I’m still thinking ‘these are unofficial results, I wonder if this is right’. Sure enough, my name stayed in the #1 spot, and I had the fastest qualifying time! Woohoo! I credit it to one-skating the first hill where most of the other girls offset. One skating allowed me to have a narrower “V” and kept my skis moving more directly down the trail instead of all the side-to-side that happens in offset.

            I was in a great mood heading into the heats that afternoon, I was getting loads of support and encouragement from all my friends back home via facebook and twitter (thanks everyone!), and I was ready to go all the way. I led my quarter final from start to finish, and was reminded how exhausting that first hill really is, so I made the decision to not lead up that hill in the next heats. In my semi final I tucked in behind Amanda on the hill who did all the grunt work, and then finished that heat in second behind Caitlin Gregg. Top 2 automatically advance to the A-final. Woohoo! I think this was my first ever Senior Women A-final! I’m already so happy to have made to the A-final, this was the last race of the day, and I know it’s going to be fun. I was in fairly good position going up the 2nd hill but was stuck behind another skier. After the S turn I was carrying a lot more speed than the person ahead of me but had Emily and Heidi coming up on my right so I had no choice but try to squeeze by on the left; unfortunately there wasn't much room and I lost some time on the first girls there. I pushed really hard around the last corner and I don't know if it was adrenaline or momentum but I started gaining on the girls ahead of me and made it to the line for a photo finish with 2nd! Who knows what could have happened if there were a couple more metres before the line! That's sprinting though, and both 1st and 2nd were well deserved! Emily led from start to finish! If I could go back and race the final again, I think I'd pick a different line on the second to last uphill and make my move a little earlier to put me in a better position for the finish!

            After crossing the finish line there is always that part of you that wants more, but I was pretty pumped about my race and getting to take a step up onto the senior women podium for the first time!
            Sunday was a classic 10k and the waxing was tricky. I picked my softest pair of skis for this race because I wanted to have really easy kick for all those big steep uphills. It was around zero degrees and we were struggling to nail the kick. I kept asking for more grip in warmup because again, I wanted to have perfect grip for this race. My skis ended up icing up pretty badly and I could never kick the ice completely away, so I was lurching forward when trying to glide. Of course I think amost everyone’s skis were icing up to a certain degree, and I think I also could have pushed harder around the course. Not a stellar race, but I finished 13th overall and 2nd U23. Shout out to the Ninjas for some speedy racing! Ninja-Marr and Ninja-Zo killed it!

    Thanks Madshus, LaCordée, Buff, and everyone else who has helped me along the way! I'm going into World U23 trials races in January with good chances of qualifying and I can't say enough about the support I'm feeling as a I prepare for these races! Getting pumped!

Skate Sprint qualifier results
http://zone4.ca/results.asp?ID=6153&cat=263
Skate sprint heats results
http://new.zone4.ca/l/race/6155/bracket
Classic 10km results
http://zone4.ca/results.asp?ID=6163&cat=127