Whelp, there you have it. 4 races in 2 weeks. So, without further adue we’ll dive into the recap.
The first weekend, we were in Lake Placid, NY and had a classic sprint and a classic 10km mass start. The second weekend was in Craftsbury, VT and we raced a skate sprint and a 27km skate mass start. I was excited to get the ball rolling again after feeling like things were starting to sharpen up after Nationals, and get down to sea level for some higher speed racing.
Classic Sprint: Lake Placid,
This course was a lot of fun for a classic sprint, with some good climbs that were really fun to just run up. My qualifier was decent, not bad but not ground breaking for me. The quarterfinal was a hectic one, as there is a hairpin corner that caused a good bit of chaos. I was able to make the most of the situation and ended 3rd in the heat, but was fast enough to go on as a “lucky looser (LL).” (In sprinting the top 30 from the qualifier move on to the quarterfinal which is 5 heats of 6. The top 2 of each heat automatically advance, then the next 2 fastest times also move on to make up the 12 in the semi final. Then again the top 2 from each semi move on and the next 2 fastest to make up the 6 in the final.) So I was on to the semis, and had another decent heat and ended up getting LL again to move onto the final. I felt good for about the first half, and then the day started to catch up with me and the wheels started to come off a bit up the final decisive climb. I ended up getting 6th overall on the day and 4th American. The final was pretty sweet because it included 2 Canadians, myself and 3 of my APU teammates which was just neat to share with them.
10km Classic Mass Start:
Coming into the weekend I had high hopes for this race as it was the last race of the qualification period for upcoming World Cups. Since I’d been sick I wasn’t in great standings so I had to do well in this race if I wanted to go, ie top 2. Which I thought, although it would undoubtedly be difficult, was doable if things lined up for me. Unfortunately, they did not. It was a solid race, but I felt a bit flat which I would say could’ve been from the long sprint day prior. I ended the day in 8th, less than 2 seconds behind 5th as it came down to a sprint within my chase group of 4 and needless to say I was not able to make any passes.
Skate sprint: Craftsbury,
This race actually went fairly & similarly to how the classic sprint went in Placid. I had a reasonable qualifier where I felt pretty good, but didnt feel like I had that extra gear. That said, I felt much better than I had in the last Skate sprint qualifier I raced, so I was happy about that. Luckily, things started to click in the quarters, and I felt like I found that extra gear. The turbo if you will! I had a great start in the 1/4 which I was pleasantly surprised with, but still ended up getting boxed out when it started to matter. I finished 3rd in the heat & ended up being LL again into the semis. I was super happy to have another chance to position myself better so that I wouldn’t get boxed in so much and see what I could do with this extra gear. I did a better job of positioning but there was still a good bit of push & shove going on. Better than the 1/4 and about as good as it gets in tight pack racing. I ended up getting 5th in the heat and didn't move onto the finals. I simply didn't have the legs to go with the front, but was satisfied with my attempt. I ended up 10th overall and 6th American which is my best Super Tour skate sprint finish ever, so that’s a positive.
27km skate mass start:
This race was pretty fun, I must say. This Super tour race was combined with a local marathon event that took us on a 2 lap course throughout the trails of Craftsbury Outdoor Center. I got a good start and raced toward the front for the entire race. The course was such that the majority of the field was able to stay together for quite some time. The main climb of the course was at the last 3km of each lap. It was here that I upped the pace a bit on the first lap to see what would happen. It provided a test before we came up it on the final lap and where I knew the fireworks would inevitably go off. My pace change proved to be ineffective at the time given that the field was still together, but it may have served to take some sting out of legs. Onto lap 2 we went, zig zagging around the citizen racers on course, and then as predicted, on the final climb, the fireworks went off. The pace was building and then the eventual race winner made a decisive move a couple kms out. I was the first to react, trying to close the gap, but did not. One of my teammates ended up coming around me to put me into 3rd and then I got outsprinted in the last 100m to finish .4 sec back in a semi content, bitter sweet 4th place overall and 3rd American. Our men’s APU team took 4 of the top 8 men! The biggest takeaway from the day however was that my body responded how I wanted it to and I had the best feeling’s I’d had in a distance race so far this year. Much gratitude to our amazing APU coaches who worked tirelessly at both these Eastern Super Tour weekends.
The plan now is to head back to CO for 1 last weekend of racing before heading back up to AK to start the spring semester of school and prep for the Birkie 50km in WI. 2/24.
Anyways, things are on the upswing. Better late than never!! ;)
Until next time,
Garrett
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