Another US National Championship has come and gone! It was actually quite an exciting week having home nationals with so much local support coming out it was pretty cool. Just like in period 1, we saw the whole range of weather, from super cold over the first couple of days, to spring-like conditions in the 40’s on the last day. Before we dive into story time and the play-by-play I want to give a massive shoutout to all the APU staff, the race volunteers, and all the folks taking pictures! Our staff is undoubtedly the best in the biz, working tirelessly to help us reach our goals, and the mass of volunteers out there was the best, most dialed, organized and I thought best looking crew (with the new red, white, and blue volunteer jackets) I’ve seen at an event.
Now onto the races…
10km skate individual start.
Today was pretty chilly. If you’ve never experienced it, 5 degrees out at Kincaid feels like -25 in CO. Not too much to say from this race honestly. I went out at a pace I thought I’d need for the win, thought I skied things pretty well but interestingly felt a bit flat on the day, and the result showed. I ended up 14th overall, 12th American. Ultimately pretty disappointing for more reasons than simply that I thought I would’ve done better. I did of course think I’d do better, but It was the first race at a nationals in a few years where I came in healthy, ready to go, had good skis, and didn’t have the result I expected. Likewise, after returning to AK I had some good training which led me to think, “Ah ya, I’m firing. Things are sharp, this should be good.” So I was left scratching my head a bit as to why I didn’t have those same feelings 2 days later. Of course, I imagine it was a variety of factors which I have some ideas on, but we won’t dive into those here. Overall, not too bad, but when margins are tight, that 1% makes a difference.
Classic sprint.
I had a decent qualifier today, nothing special, but some obvious places where I probably lost a couple of seconds which would’ve been 10 spots today as it was tight. 30 guys in a 10 second spread. Of course, that was a little frustrating, but I was onto the heats which is what mattered. The quarter-final was again pretty frustrating. Getting poles stepped on, getting tripped up, and having to come to a stop in the middle of the hill was annoying. I ended up 4th in the heat but luckily it was fast, so I made it through to the semis as a lucky loser. My semi was absolutely stacked, it might as well have been the final. I got to choose my starting lane last which put me at a bit of a disadvantage out of the start but I figured I’d just use it to sit in and slingshot my way toward the front on the first downhill. Unfortunately, I was a bit too nonchalant about it, a gap opened immediately, and I couldn't close it. I came in 5th for the heat and the top 4 moved on to the final and ended up 1,2,3,5 so like I said, I was in good company in that semi. Overall, a solid day despite the frustrations and errors that come with racing. I ended the day in 9th overall and 6th American.
20km classic mass start.
Of all the races this week, this was probably the one I was most looking forward to. We did 4 laps on a 5km course. Given the terrain, the front group stayed together pretty well for the first 2 laps. On the 3rd lap, I was at the front going into one of the main climbs, I somewhat pulled away, and noticed nobody coming directly with me, so I kept the pace high to string it out and take as few guys to the finish as possible. I kept the pace for the next couple km’s and then the eventual winner, Andreas, took over the pace and put it into another gear. I was able to stay with the front group of 5 for a while but got distanced on the same climb I surged on the lap before. I’d like to say I’d have been able to stay closer if I had a bit more kick but I’m not sure if that's entirely true. After that, I was in no man's land between the front group and the chasers trying desperately to hang onto my 5th place overall and 3rd American spot. Alas, I was unable to as I was passed on one of the last downhills and was not able to reclaim my spot. Overall, a good race where I was happy to be fighting at the front and animating the race. I ended the day in 7th overall, 5th American. And the cherry on top was having all my teammates at the front with a mega-strong showing for APU with 5 guys in the top 9.
Skate sprint.
Where to start with this one. January 7th, the last day of racing. My first objective was to make it through the day of racing in one piece. The next objective was to qualify for the heats which I have never done in a skate sprint at US Nationals, then I wanted to end the day top 20 overall. The qualifier went reasonably and I qualified 27th. My quarter was fun, and I had good finishing speed and got second in my heat to move onto the semi which I was quite pleased with. In the semi, I did not have the same closing speed and finished sixth in the heat. So, I ended the day in 12th overall, 9th American. So, I suppose you could say I pretty well hit all my goals on the day. A hard but very blessed day to end the week.
Overall it was a solid week of racing. Very grateful for it all. My parents got to come up and watch, which was fun to get to show them around Anchorage as they had not been up there since I’ve been at APU. The local support was fantastic, and getting to sleep in my own bed was really nice. Now, I’m heading back to CO to get back to altitude to prep for the next races. I’ll be headed to Utah to race on the 18th-19th and then up to Bozeman, Montana for Period 3 Super Tour racing.
Should be good. :) Now, time for a bit of R&R.
God bless,
Garrett
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