Soverign Lake Nordic Center:  the sprints today were great for APU.  In the A finals, 4 of the 6 women were APU and if I had gotten my butt in gear for the final sprint we would have been 2,3,4,5.  But oh well.  We ended up 2,3,4,6, and were 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th American’s for the day.  Canadian Dasha Gaiazova won the race and was dominant all day, and Rebecca Dussault was just in front of me in 5th by a photo finish.  I tangled with Compton and fell on the uphill in the semi final, and had to catch back up in order to make the A final.  I may have burned up a bunch of extra juice doing that.  But I was extremely proud of being able to catch back up and pass the two girls I needed to in the final stretch.  The final started off poorly because of a bad lane assignment which I did not handle well, and I didn’t have the extra burst necessary to correct my initial tactical errors.  It was a good learning experience though, and I might become quite the tactician after gaining experience from races like that.  

 

Congrats to my teammates Katie Ronsse, Holly Brooks, and Kassandra Rice as well as Dasha and CXC’s Rebecca Dussault who were in front of me.  We still are not totally sure if Katie or Holly won their photo finish for 2nd, but it’s still a really good place either way.  Also, it was Kassandra’s first day back in true form after a serious health problem last year.  It seems like she is handling being on the road extremely well, and is obviously racing fast, so kudos to her.