I was very lucky to arrive in st1:city st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Anchorage/st1:place/st1:city earlier this week without any flight cancellations or delays. The st1:city st=”on”Seattle/st1:city airport was complete mayhem as I frantically ran through it to catch my flight to st1:city st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Anchorage/st1:place/st1:city. I was greeted with a fresh dusting of snow and nice, cold st1:place st=”on”st1:state st=”on”Alaska/st1:state/st1:place temperatures.p class=”MsoNormal”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsi8X1VBI/AAAAAAAAANU/hClDTu2VSNw/s1600-h/IMG_0017%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsi8X1VBI/AAAAAAAAANU/hClDTu2VSNw/s400/IMG_0017%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284952772808365074″ border=”0″ //a /p p class=”MsoNormal”o:p /o:p/p p style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-style: italic;”Racers at Kincaid Park/spanbr //pp class=”MsoNormal”The next morning I was up bright and early, ready to go for a ski at 9am…except, it was still dark!span style=”” /spanI waited another hour and half for the sun to rise and finally strapped my skis on at 11am.span style=”” /spanI was off!span style=”” /spanI enjoyed a wonderful ski at st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Kincaid/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Park/st1:placetype/st1:place, the venue for the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Championships starting next week!span style=”” /spanDue to some trail maintenance and remodeling in the past year, I felt like I was in a new place and had never skied there before!span style=”” /spanWith the help of a map, I figured out the race course for the sprints and the distance races.span style=”” /spanWithin the first ten minutes of my ski, I ran into a moose chomping on a tree.span style=”” /spanThat was when I really knew I was skiing in st1:state st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Alaska/st1:place/st1:state!/p p class=”MsoNormal”o:p /o:p/p a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsGH37SGI/AAAAAAAAANE/V6ElqYopbK0/s1600-h/IMG_0012%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsGH37SGI/AAAAAAAAANE/V6ElqYopbK0/s400/IMG_0012%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284952277679556706″ border=”0″ //ap style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-style: italic;”One of many moose I’ve run into on the ski trails/spanbr //pp class=”MsoNormal”It snowed 8 inches on Christmas.span style=”” /spanThe ski trails are in pristine shape and st1:place st=”on”st1:placename st=”on”Kincaid/st1:placename st1:placetype st=”on”Park/st1:placetype/st1:place is bustling with people as they prepare to host U.S. Nationals next week.span style=”” /spanThe countdown is on…seven days till the first race!span style=”” /spanI will keep you posted on how things go.span style=”” /spanIn the meantime, I’ll be trying to keep warm with temperatures getting as cold as 10 below zero!/pp style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsO33K5RI/AAAAAAAAANM/Mb7vx5mTIwA/s1600-h/IMG_0018%5B1%5D”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SVfsO33K5RI/AAAAAAAAANM/Mb7vx5mTIwA/s400/IMG_0018%5B1%5D” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284952428000240914″ border=”0″ //a/pp style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”span style=”font-style: italic;”Check out www.anchoragenordicski.com for a link to U.S. National info and results/spanbr //pp style=”text-align: center;” class=”MsoNormal”br //pdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-3373553282017317431?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’//div
