This past weekend I discovered what it felt like to do three jobs as one person! I was my own coach, my own wax tech, and a racer. I’m glad it’s not that way very often because let me tell you, it is stressful! Whoa!br /br /I went to the Methow Valley where I raced a sprint race on Saturday and a 10k on Sunday. The weather was not the most cooperative as it was warm, rainy, and slushy. The volunteers did a great jog of shoveling snow onto the sprint course, trying to preserve the snow. We lucked out with a surprisingly sunny day on Saturday, making the sprint course icy in the morning and softening up in the afternoon.br /br /Sunday however, was not so sunny. The race was moved to a venue 2000 feet higher, where the snow was more abundant. When I arrived at the venue, it was misting rain. My first reaction was “oh no, this is going to be really tricky waxing!” After talking to some people about waxes, I decided to race on my zeros. Zeros are skis that do not require wax, instead the kick zone is roughed up with sand paper to create kick and suction when the conditions are wet and warm. Surprisingly enough, they worked decently. There were a few slips here and there, but I did not want to risk going on skis with wax that could ice up or not kick. So off I went, on my zeros! I skied knowing that it was a tough day for everyone and the people who were going to ski well were going to be the ones who did not let negative thoughts get to their head. So that is the path I decided to take. I was happy to end up 3rd, especially with the tough conditions. In the Arena alumni athletes Caitlin Compton and Laura Valaas stood on the podium as well. On the men’s side, In the Arena athlete’s Torin Koos and Brian Gregg took 1st and 2nd. A good day for ITA athletes!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S1ZsCq6fAsI/AAAAAAAAAis/eE0cvrxlVB4/s1600-h/winter+09.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S1ZsCq6fAsI/AAAAAAAAAis/eE0cvrxlVB4/s320/winter+09.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428645193976840898″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”ITA athlete’s Laura Valaas, Caitlin Compton, amp; Nicole De Yong dominate the podiumbr //span/divbr /I am currently back in Kethcum, where I am laying low as I am trying to get rid of a cold I acquired along the way. Once I am feeling better, I will put in some good training before I head to Canmore for the World Cups the beginning of February.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-3019788093466780926?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
