Thank you, El Niño!

I know I know, I've been terrible about updating my blog this season. Soooooo much has happened since the last time I wrote a post, I don't even know where to begin. 

The boys (and Sarah) of WNSA

Some sunny February skiing at SoHo

First, Team Wasatch and I have officially made it through all of the Junior National qualifiers and with our results, 5 out of the 8 skiers on my team will be representing IMD at nationals in Cable, Wisconsin. 

Next, I think it's pretty fair to say that this season has been one of the best one's that Utah has ever seen. We have had snow all winter long and it only keeps getting better. Right now, the crust skiing is absolutely amazing. My team and I have been driving over to Soldier Hollow for the past few days to enjoy the endless amounts of trails that it provides, and aside from that, it has the best crust skiing. 

So proud of my U16 teammates

February 24, 2016

The final Wasatch Citizen Series race of the season

Now for some race updates. Our first qualifier was in Boise, Idaho where we raced in two distance races. The trails were amazing and they actually had a surprisingly large amount of snow. Lina made us all proud with a 2nd place in the skate 5k on the second day and everyone else finished top 10. After that we had two weeks off before the Soldier Hollow Super Qualifier but in between those two races, some of my teammates skied in the Wasatch Citizen Series race. 

Soldier Hollow brought many surprises. On the first day of racing, which was a classic sprint, every girl on the team qualified for the heats. This was one of my best days ever. I qualified 2nd, finished 1st in my quarter, 2nd in my semi, and placed 3rd overall in the A final. It was the first time that I had ever gotten to stand on the podium and I couldn't have been happier to stand up there with Leah Lange and Hannah Halvorsen (two incredibly speedy girls). Anyways, the next day I think the snow Gods wanted to test us with a little bit of hell because once my race started it was a full on blizzard. It was too snowy to race without glasses because the instant you did, snow would pelt your eyes and blind you. Racing with glasses was also impossible because the snow stuck, so with each moving minute the trail became harder and harder to see...Overall though, Soldier Hollow presented Team Wasatch with some stellar racing.

The last of the IMD qualifiers was in Bozeman, Montana. The conditions were quite different from SoHo due to the lack of snow in Bozeman. We traveled up early because the drive took 7.5 hours and we wanted to get some prime thrift shopping in before the weekend of racing took off. We have our priorities in order, I know. But back to the races. The crew in Bozeman actually did an AMAZING job of keeping the race course in prime condition for the JNQ. They worked hard to make sure that we had a 5k course and a sprint course to race on. The first day of racing was skate sprints (my favorite). The day started off sunny with some clouds in the sky but by the time the qualifiers rolled around it was a flurry of sideways blowing snow. Another SoHo situation, the snow clung on to your glasses...But we persevered! THIS WAS OUR BEST SPRINT QUALIFIER EVER. Everyone that was representing WNSA qualified for the heats. Lina, Sarah, Jenae, Savanna, Logan, Aidan, and me. Everyone! The finals turned up some fantastic results for us as well. Savanna podiumed with a 3rd place and so did I! After a celebratory afternoon in Bozeman, we rested up and prepared for the classic distance races the next morning. I am typically not the best distance skier and classic is even harder for me, so I was a little worried about how the next day was going to play out. They also didn't  have enough snow to fully warmup on so I had to do a bit of running. But it was alright! Bill insists that we run no matter the season and in that moment I understood why. 

Savanna racing her way to the finish in the classic 5k

Alright, so the race was kicking off and I was standing in the chevron waiting just like all of the other U18/U20 girls. My heart was pounding out of my chest and then before I knew it, we were off. Right from the start I got a very good placement. I lined myself up behind Leah and followed behind her for the first lap. Coming into the second lap, Leah dropped me but I just kept on skiing. I couldn't really feel my limbs at that point, probably because they were in so much pain, but I do remember thinking, "holy sh!t, you're doin' this! You're racing a 10k and you're doin' it!" I had all of the support in the world alongside that course, my teammates, my family, but most of all, my amazing coach. Whenever possible, Bill was there, cheering me up the hills and giving me coach-like advice. My lungs were burning but he kept reminding me why I was out there, killing my body on that race course. 

(Before I finish this I want to give a HUGE thanks to Bill. He is the most wonderful coach in the whole entire world. His passion for the sport is what inspires me everyday and is what encourages me to ski my absolute best. If anyone is out there on the course working harder than the racers, it's Bill. I don't think that there has ever been a moment where I didn't see a huge smile on his face. He is always proud of our accomplishments, no matter how big or how small they are. He loves the sport more than anyone I've ever met and I am so thankful that he gets to share that with my team and me.)

No picture could capture the moment better. Thank you for the photo, Ari!

Aaannnndddd before I knew it, I was up the last herringbone hill and I was into the finish, in 2nd! I had finally proven to myself that I can be a distance skier. It was the best weekend of my life. 

To wrap it up, they named the IMD Junior National team and let me tell you, there was a whole lot of WNSA red standing up there. 

The U18/U20 IMD girls team lookin' better than ever

The whole Utah crew

Wish my team and me luck in WI! Oh, and enjoy all of the snow. Thanks for reading :)

Hello!

Oh my gosh...the beginning of this 2015/16 ski season has flown by. So far, my team and I have already been to Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and I have gone to Michigan. I actually just finished cheering my team on in the Ute Invitational at Soldier Hollow where they all kicked some serious college butt! In a field of all collegiate skiers my teammates, Jenae, Lina, and Sarah all U16, ranked 22nd, 23rd, and 32nd (out of 35 racers). So proud!

Anyways, I won't go all the way back to the very beginning of the season because that was already a month and a half ago...but here is what I have been up to for the past few weeks:

Most recently, I just returned from Houghton, Michigan where I participated in the 2016 US Cross Country Championships. As many of you heard last year, it was pretty darn chilly. This year, however, it was sunny and 25 degrees nearly everyday. The week started off with a classic distance race, the women's was a 10k. Personally, it was awesome! The very next day we all turned around and figured out how to get our fast twitch, sprinting muscles to work around Michigan Tech's 1.5k course. This race was overall my favorite. I started 33rd and qualified 38th, just barely missing the senior heats. I was still able to qualify 3rd U18 overall and 5th junior starter (U18 and U20) in the Junior heats. After the prelims, the junior heats went pretty well. I missed the semi finals by 2/10ths of a second but I had the race of my life :)

Skate sprint prelim. Thank you Skinnyski for the picture!

Junior heat number three. Thank you Skinnyski!

Classic 10k finish

My biggest fan.

A rare sighting...the sun in the UP!

The absolute coolest part about racing at Senior Nationals this year was watching all of our US women over in Europe kicking butt. Jessie Diggins and Sophie Caldwell made history and they gave me (and I'm sure everyone else) so much motivation and hope. It is possible for us to beat the Norwegians! Their victories allowed me to recognize that anything is possible as long as you work as hard as you possibly can to achieve it.

Congratulations, Jessie!

And congratulations, Sophie!

In the weeks prior to Senior Nationals, Christmas happened, obviously...but we were also able to train on a TON of famous Utah snow. Just a week before Christmas the Snow Gods decided that Utah had suffered for long enough and they finally allowed the snow to fall. All of our license plates that say, "Greatest Snow on Earth," weren't lying this year. It's nice to be able to walk right out my back door and ski everyday.

Finally introduced to the Temple Lights

Selfie ft. the rest of my family

Just have to show off the beautiful Park City and all of its snowwwwww

More blog posts to come because this weekend we are headed to Boise, Idaho for our first Junior National Qualifier.

Bye bye for now...time for me to go and enjoy the snow!

End of the season "hurrah"!

Oh, hello there! 

I am sad to say that our 2014/15 season of skiing is officially over. My team and I just returned from Sun Valley where we competed in the SuperTour Finals alongside many of the top senior skiers in the country. Yes, the US Ski Team was there too! It was interesting heading right from Junior Nationals to Sun Valley because that meant one week of intense racing to the next. Surprisingly though, I wasn't all that burnt out after Truckee. It was also fun to go to Sun Valley because up at Galena they had a ton of snow! 

Sarah's idea of "enjoying the snow"

WNSA drove up on Thursday and spent that night in town seeing all the sights before we had to get serious again. Our favorite place to visit in town is definitely the Goldmine thrift store. While we were there this time around, two older US Ski Team coats were found as well as a pair of Norwegian race tights and a pair of Swedish race tights. I would say that we cleaned up pretty well! After that we had to head to the coffee shop to refill Bill of his caffeine. It's a daily ritual if you as me. Coffee is one of Bill's main food groups. Anyways, once we got back to the house that we were staying in for the week we decided to go hunting for golf balls because we were living right on the golf course. Once rounded up, the team and I enjoyed an evening of "trying" to play golf.

The next morning we all loaded up the cars and drove to Galena Lodge where we previewed the course for the following race day. We were classic skiing and the klister that we had put on our skis was REALLY sticky…right off the bat I caught my skis on the grainy snow and fell face first. When I sat up I had one full pole and two halves of the other. My second broken pole of the season and neither had been during a race. I guess you could say I'm just too strong :)

Given the elevation gain, Galena was actually a bit colder then Sun Valley. When we got up there to race we were able to wear our full race suits! I guess Mother Nature decided to give us winter for a few more days. It was a classic 10k which I was a little nervous about because I hadn't had a successful classic 10k this season. But when I got into the starting pen I knew that I felt good and ready to race well. That's what happened too! I felt great and had the best classic race of the season! 

The day right after the classic races we went right into skate sprints! Those were definitely my specialty. It was a very good day for Wasatch too! After the preliminary round, Karsten and Olivia had both moved on to the Senior heats and Henry and I were both moving on to the Junior heats. Aside from us, all three of the youth racers placed 2nd in their 5k races. 

Henry's semi final start

Sarah coming in to the finish after her 5k

Instead of having the junior heat racers race in a possibility of 3 more races, they had the 12 junior skiers race in two semi finals and from those they sent 6 onto the A final. I was the 2nd qualified junior right behind Katharine Ogden. My heat was the fastest out of the two and because of that, four racers  from our heat were sent into the A final. The 3rd and 4th place finishers had both made the lucky loser positions. Then about five minutes later we were already lining up to race in our final race of the day. It started off fast and stayed that way throughout the whole 3 minute race. When the gun went off I was pushed back into 5th out of 6 girls racing. Then, around the last corner of the race, which was the iciest one by far, the girl who was leading the pack, crashed. From there I had taken the corner pretty tight so I was right behind 1st and 2nd. All that I had left was the longest straightaway of my life, and I'm sure that everyone who's raced at Galena would agree with me. 

The closer we got the the finish the further it seemed we had, until I crossed the line and it felt like no time had gone by at all. The final results were in: Taeler McCrerey 1st, Katharine Ogden 2nd, and ME in 3rd. It was quite the successful day and I left with a HUGE smile on my face.

See!

"Don't smile! Don't smile! Okay…smile...whatever" -Sierra taking some quality "model" pictures

The coaches conversing

Sierra was unprepared for this picture

Olivia and the Seniors

Sleep and golf took up most of our time on our first rest day of the week. We were all preparing for the relay race the next day which meant we had to save as much energy as possible! The relay was definitely the most important race of the week without a doubt. In preparation for that race, we were told that the weather could be warm and sunny or cold and snowy…two totally different days. So the night before I had basically packed every bit of clothing that I owned. From a tank top to my puffy coat, I was set for anything. I don't know if we were being punished for something or what, but when we got up there to race that day it was the blizzard of the year. You couldn't see five feet in front of you and you couldn't feel your fingers or toes. Everyone was thrown off because of the warm spell that had been put over the western states. That was definitely one of the tougher races that I had ever been a part of. 

To finish up the week, I got sick and had a terrible cough. It was a bummer because I really wanted to be a part of the marathons taking place the next day. Because I couldn't race them, I decided to be the feeder. I headed up with Karsten and Henry earlier and got ready to stay out there for the rest of the day. Henry was skiing a 50k and Karsten skied 25. It was essential that they both got a good amount of sugar and electrolytes during their races so that their bodies could keep up with their long races. So I was there! Ready with water, gatorade, and flat coke. It was pretty intense actually, there was yelling and gatorade flying everywhere. The best part about it all though, was that I got to wear the coaches bib…

"My name is Maddie but you can call me Coach"

Even though I wasn't able to race the last race of the season, the sun was out and everyone was having a good time. It was by far one of the best trips that I had been on this season. It was so cool interacting with the US Ski Team and saying "hi" to my idols. It's like for those of you who meet actors or singers at Sundance, these guys are my celebrities. It's pretty crazy when you see them on TV racing all winter and then there in Sun Valley you're sitting next to them having a casual conversation. 

Yes, Jessie did take a picture with us

I want to finish this post off by saying THANK YOU! Thank you to every single person who made this season unforgettable. First and foremost to my amazing parents who understand what it's like to be passionate about something and who work harder than anyone to assure that I get to ski and compete, which is my passion. Next, without the dedication of my coach, Bill Hokanson, there would be no team on which I ski. I wouldn't have had the best season of my life without Bill coaching me every step of the way. His love of the sport is inspiring to me. To the people who drive me everyday to be the best that I can be, thank you! My teammates make training, racing, and skiing in general just that much more enjoyable. Being around people who love to ski just as much as I do is one of the sole reasons that I, in fact, love to ski! All of those early morning distance skis or stair runs would be possible, but not as enjoyable without them by my side. So again, thank you volunteers, parents, cheerers, photographers, coaches, and athletes for such an incredible season!

Wasatch Nordic Ski Academy
To those of you heading off to college (Lindsay, Olivia, Henry, and Karsten), I will miss you tremendously!
Thank you for the memories :)

Aaannnddddd that's a wrap! 

Junior Nationals in Truckee, CA

As our 2015 ski season comes to an end, all I can think about was the incredible week that I just spent in Truckee, California alongside the best skiers in the country. I still can't believe that it all happened because it was over so quickly. But I can definitely say that it was one of the best weeks of my life spent with great people. To top it all off, we were skiing in 60 degree weather for the better part of the week and knowing that we still had snow to ski on was amazing. The Auburn Ski Club really did everything in their power (except for actually making it snow) to assure that those trails were covered with snow 100% of the time.

The complete IMD team

Junior Nationals started off with a long drive through Nevada. And let me tell you, Nevada is definitely NOT known for their scenic drives…But we were driving to Junior Nationals! So we didn't really mind too much. My teammates from Wasatch rode to California with the two skiers and two coaches from Team Soldier Hollow in their sprinter van. We were definitely spoiled to have done that! After the fun 8ish hour journey to Truckee, we made it to the condos at NorthStar, our living quarters for the next week.

Team Utah taking Truckee (minus a few)

The next day everyone headed up to the race venue to check out the ski trails. Once we got there almost everyone put t-shirts on. It was a balmy 63 degrees out… The trails were awesome! There was quite a bit of up and down. It was probably the hardest 2.5k course that I had ever skied.

After another day of training we got together for the first event of the week, Opening Ceremonies! All of the teams were sent down the main street of Truckee to walk through hundreds of people. Once everyone had finished their walk and had gathered, a past olympian took the microphone and congratulated us on our accomplishments and gave up a few of his own World Junior memories. It was already off to a great start!

The first race of the week was pretty fun and exciting. It was a skate sprint, my specialty. The start lists were in order of USSA points, meaning that I was the 13th fastest skate sprint in the country! Anyways, because of the lack of snow everyone had to run for most of their warmup. It wasn't too bad though because before I knew it I was on snow racing! The course was fast and quick, it took almost all of the girls 3+ minutes. My time was 3 minutes and 4 seconds which put me in 5th place. I had qualified for the heats!

Leah and I racing Julia Kern in the quarter final

After a very good quarter final there were three U18 IMD girls moving onto the semi finals. Aside from just the U18 girls, there were four U20 girls, five U16 girls, two U20 men,  two U18 men, and two U16 boys in the final sprint heats! It was quite the day for IMD. We were leading the charge for the most points at the end of the day. Woop woop!

The next few days were filled with even more training and a whole lot more racing! We had a skate 5k two days after the sprints. For most of the week the weather had been in the 60 degree range but for the skate 5k it was cold, rainy/snowy, and cloudy.

Before we knew it we were already watching the midweek awards and looking forward to the next races. Compared to last years midweek awards in Stowe, I would say that Truckee pretty much nailed it. After watching the videos made by athletes everyone was given s'mores. mmmm!

5 U16 girls on the podium for the skate sprints at the midweek awards ceremony

3 U20 women on the podium at the midweek awards

Leah and Riley representing IMD for the U18 girls at the midweek awards

The third race of the week was a classic 10k. It was extremely hard but now that it's over I can say that it was actually pretty fun! Because there was a very small amount of snow in Truckee as a whole and even less at the venue, for the 10k we had to ski the 2.5k race course four times to complete our race. All I can really remember from that race is the crazy mass start and how right off the bat a huge mass of girls went down all across the course. Fortunately I was able to avoid the crash which was quite an accomplishment for me because over the course of this season I'm pretty sure I'd been taken out in about 50% of my races that I'd been in.

Me finishing the final hill in the 10k classic. Photo creds to Skyler Mullings

Enjoying some beach time during our trip to Truckee

After a week filled with trips to the lake, grocery store, and lots of rounds around the 2.5k course at the Auburn Ski Club we only had one more race. It was by far the most exciting and energy-filled race of the week. Everyone was ready to ski fast and kick some butt!

 The relays teams were made up of three people each skiing one lap of the course. I was skiing the first leg, the leg that they usually call the "scramblers". I started near the back of the mass start but when I came into the tag zone I had our team in 8th place! That was a very good way to wrap up the week of racing in Truckee at the 2015 Junior Nationals!

The starting leg of the relay. Thank you for the awesome photos Mark Nadell!

Hanne skiing the second leg alongside Annika

Monika finishing off the relay for us

Hanne, me, and Monika after our relay

Before I finish this blog I really just want to thank everyone for the hard work during the course of the Junior Nationals week. It couldn't have been possible without the PistenBully and the man in charge of moving all of the snow onto the course. And to all of the incredible race volunteers, thank you for all of your hard work! Next, the IMD team would not have been possible this year without our team leader, Gordon Lange and of course Rick Kapala. To all of the wax techs in charge of making sure that our skis were always fast and race ready, thank you for the speedy skis! But finally, I want to thank my two age group coaches, Tanner Weigand and Dragan Danevski for all of their motivation, patience, and support! Tanner's pump up music really made the trip.

Until next year ~ Nice racing by all!