Super Tour Finals/ Season Recap

Man, just like that, the 24/25 race season is all done. Writing this, it’s quite surreal really. I’ll run through a quick race recap and wrap up with some general end of season thoughts.

10k skate individual: I ended up 7th overall and 4th American. It was a decent race overall. I definitely felt that it was my first race in a while in the sense that I wasn’t super sharp. That said, the body was ready and willing to work, which was good. It's just that last percent I was looking for. 

Skate sprint: A strange day indeed. The qualifier wasn’t until 2 pm, meaning we had all day to wait for the race, and after under 3 minutes of racing, I was all done. In the end, I qualified in 33rd, so I just missed the top 30 cut to move on to heats. I was certainly disappointed with that, but when looking at who was there and where I was compared to the rest of the season, it was not far off where I have been. Again, small margins. I think I could’ve had a bit better warm up but given the warm up track and terrain that was offered, it was hard to get the engine going as much as I needed. It was also my first sprint race in 11 weeks, so not too bad.

40k classic mass start: Well, not gonna lie, I was thinking this race was going to be something really special, and end the year on a substantial high note. Many days before we knew it would be an interesting day simply by looking at the forecast, which said it would be 30-40 degrees and raining. Not exactly ideal. Fortunately, it didn’t rain on us too much during the race, it did mean, however that the extra base layer I wore to stay warm in case it was raining made for a toasty race. The race was broken up into 8 laps, and to be honest, it’s all a blur. I was a bit disappointed to come away with 10th place overall, and 7th American, but I will say I did enjoy the race, and I learned some valuable lessons on how to ski this course tactically as well.  I think I made some tactical mistakes, which led to missing chase packs and being left to try to close gaps by myself, and ending up mostly in no man's land. In the end, it was seemingly on par with the rest of the results this season, which I would say was just on the slow side of fast.

That brings us to the main season recap. When I look at the race season as a whole, I can look at it from 2 sides. On one hand, when I compare the goals I had directly following last season, I certainly fell short. I wanted to be consistently in the top 3 for distance races on the Super Tour, hopefully winning a couple, race my first World Cup, and put my name in the hat for World Champs. In reality, I ended up with a lot of 5-10th place finishes, many of which were super close to the podium, which also meant that in certain races I was mere seconds away from my first World Cup start. I was quite happy with the overall consistency, which led to finishing 4th American in the overall Super Tour Series ranking. On the other hand, however, it was an incredible success, and nothing short of a miracle that I was able to do as well as I did considering my state of being over the summer. During that time I wasn’t even thinking about results, racing, or much of anything ski related. I had covid, was sick 2 other times, ultimately missed about a month's worth of training, and was a very fine line away from pulling the plug on life. Then along came Jesus Christ, and quite literally by His grace and mercy, pulled me up out of the pit I was in and started to work in my life in ways I’d ever experienced before. In the end, in a strange way, I’m incredibly grateful for that pit because without it, I wouldn't have come to know my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ like I do now. As for the future? Well, I believe that this season will serve as a catalyst for big things to come. For now, I’ll be heading to Texas for a bit of R&R, reflecting, recovering, and preparing. Then I’ll be back in AK for about 3 weeks before I graduate from Alaska Pacific University after 6 years with a degree in both Sports Science and Behavioral Science. After that, there are a lot of relative unknowns; however, one constant remains, and that is Christ. Therefore, I’m not worried. I know that He has a plan and a good one at that, so I’m very keen to see what this “next chapter” holds. As far as skiing is concerned, I’ll put my best foot forward, and God willing, that’ll put me on the fast side of fast. ;)

Major thanks to my team, family, friends, and all of my sponsors for standing by me. We’ve got some exciting things to come, and some big goals to accomplish. After all, 2026 is an Olympic year… 

I’ll conclude with this. If you haven’t already, I just want to encourage you to do your own digging. Look into one of life's biggest questions: creation. Look into Jesus Christ. Look into His words, His life, and find out for yourself if the evidence suggests that He is reliable enough to put your trust and faith in. To put your life in His hands. Speaking for myself, He changed and saved my life. The least I can do now is live for Him.

Until next time,

God bless,

Garrett