US Nationals Day 1

Top 10 at US Nationals has been a goal of mine since high school. I have had some really good races over the year, but I have never achieved this goal. I have raced at a level clearly within the top 10 in the nation, but for some reason things haven't come together for me at a National Championship race. Until now.

Qualifying Time Trial of the Freestyle Sprint Photo: Toko USA (Ian Harvey)

In a cross country skiing sprint competition, racers start the day with a time trial race against the clock. After a few hour break, the top 30 fastest skiers compete head to head in heats of 6, with the top two in each heat advancing to the next round. I qualified 8th on Saturday morning which is a strong qualifying position for me. Generally I ski well in the heats and can improve my finishing result.

If you aren't familiar with it, the whole thing can seem rather complicated. The important thing is that on a sprint day you can end up racing the 1.1 kilometer course for times. I really enjoy skiing head to head against other racers. There is a lot of strategy involved and it can be pretty intense.

I had an exciting quarterfinal with five skiers finishing within 2.2 seconds. I had to work pretty hard in the final 200 meters to advance to the next round. My semi-final heat was in 10 minutes so I didn't have much time to recover. I went out hard but was tired and found myself looking up the course to a pack of three other skiers. I found myself in a difficult decision. I could really hammer and try to catch the group or I could conserve some energy for the B final. This was a challenging decision to make and I had to do it in just a few seconds. I gave a few hard pushed and then decided to hold back a bit and save myself for the next round. I don't think it is ever good to give up, but sometimes you need to pick your battles.

Ten minutes later and feeling much more rested I went hard out of the gate of the B final (racing for 7th-12th place) . I skied relaxed in second position pretty much from start to finish. Peter Kling made a move to takie the lead with 500 meters to go which I was unable to match. Peter finished first in the B final and myself second.

Finishing second in the B final put me in 8th place for the day and a new personal best at US Nationals. My favorite event, the 15km skate is tomorrow and I am ready to go. My goal is now top 7.

Matt cooking up a mean meal of Chicken Curry and Tomato/Avocado Salad.

The sun doesn't get very high in the sky here in Alaska, but it does provide for some great sunrises and sunsets here at Kincaid Park.