Many people have been asking me why I didn’t go out to Wisconsin with the rest of the team. The answer is pretty simple: doing the Birkie just didn’t interest me that much. As a competitive skier in the United States that statement sounds like heresy but it’s just how I felt. I’ll do it some day and I’m sure I’ll have a great time, but this year it didn’t make sense for me. Instead I’m holding down the fort here at home. This past weekend we went to New Hampshire for the Eastern Cup finals and this coming weekend we’re taking our BKL crew to Maine for the BKL festival.
Hanover doesn’t have much in the way of snow, so the Silver Fox Trot was moved to Gunstock where they put in a ton of work and ended up with a great course. The sun was out and temperatures were up, so it was straight klister. I had a lot of fun in the race and Pepa even said I looked good striding the uphills. That might be a first! It was nice to feel strong with my classic skiing. After the race most of the Craftsbury clan descended on Gina Campolli’s sister’s house for the night. The house was absolutely beautiful and it was really fun to all be together for a big relaxing dinner.
Sunday’s race was a 4.5 km skate race at Holderness, which managed to pull off the event despite having very little snow. It was a crazy course, with one GIANT climb at the beginning followed by lots of flats and quick transitions. Apparently I did well on the climb and then lost lots of time in the transitions, highlighting what I already knew to be my biggest weakness. I was still happy with the race and then had fun watching the guys suffer on the slushy big hill during their race. We stayed for the New England JO team naming ceremony in which Craftsbury was very well represented: Kaitlyn, Hannah, Lia, Tara, Alex, and Jake all made the team. Congratulations!
Now I have a few weeks to get in some good training before our end-of-season races. Good luck to my teammates at the Birkie this weekend. And congrats to Ida for killing it on the Carnival circuit!
