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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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| The complete IMD team |
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| Team Utah taking Truckee (minus a few) |
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!
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| Leah and I racing Julia Kern in the quarter final |
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!
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| 5 U16 girls on the podium for the skate sprints at the midweek awards ceremony |
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| 3 U20 women on the podium at the midweek awards |
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| Leah and Riley representing IMD for the U18 girls at the midweek awards |
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| Me finishing the final hill in the 10k classic. Photo creds to Skyler Mullings |
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| Enjoying some beach time during our trip to Truckee |
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!
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| The starting leg of the relay. Thank you for the awesome photos Mark Nadell! |
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| Hanne skiing the second leg alongside Annika |
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| Monika finishing off the relay for us |
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| Hanne, me, and Monika after our relay |
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