This weekend marks the last OPA cup races of the season (OPA cup races are the European version of the local racing circuit). Upon our arrival here, we were “invited” by 40-50 mph winds, zero visibility and a huge dump of snow. Since then, each days has gotten a little bit nicer…and today, we actually saw the sun! Rogla is a popular ski resort that draws families, recreational skiers, and racers all alike. It is about 20k from any other town and is at the top of a mountain at 1517m (about 5000 ft).br /br /Today kicked off the first of three races. It was an event that I have never done before…a 2.5k classic prologue. It is a tough race because its at sprint pace, yet it is long enough that if you go out too fast and hard you can loose time in the end. I tried to ski fast yet smooth. When I finished, my lungs were definitely burning…I felt like I put in a hard effort. I ended up in 19th place, 22 seconds out of the lead. Nothing too impressive. I am hoping that today’s hard effort will get me warmed up and ready for tomorrows 5k classic mass-start race. It should be fun!br /I will keep you posted!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5o45y_6XgI/AAAAAAAAAl0/6yKR1NQf3mI/s1600-h/Europe+2010+082.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5o45y_6XgI/AAAAAAAAAl0/6yKR1NQf3mI/s320/Europe+2010+082.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447729264851574274″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”The clearest day yet! Those are the bungalows we are staying in.br //span/divbr /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5o4m0mjZQI/AAAAAAAAAls/jTnxtXFdonA/s1600-h/Europe+2010+080.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5o4m0mjZQI/AAAAAAAAAls/jTnxtXFdonA/s320/Europe+2010+080.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447728938864567554″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Sylvan, me and Mikey. Congrats to Mikey with a 6th place finish!br //span/divbr /oh, by the way… Petra Majdic is standing right next too me:) For those of you who don’t know who she is, she’s an awesome Slovenian World Cup skier. She won bronze in the classic sprint at the Olymipcs, even with broken ribs and a punctured lung! Talk about TOUGH!!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-5886279801969614002?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div
