Thunder Bay

The NorAm races in Thunder Bay were pretty mediocre. They weren’t bad, but I know I’m capable of more. My goal was to podium in the distance races, but I ended up placing 8th in both the 30km skiathlon and the 15km individual skate. The skiathlon started out good, the classic leg was the really easy and there was still a huge lead group coming into the exchange. I came out of the exchange in about 15th place, and right away the pace picked up. I could see the leaders breaking away but the trails in Thunder Bay are quite narrow and it took me a while to get around some skiers ahead of me. Once I got around them I pushed hard to bridge the gap back up to the leaders. Shortly after I caught back up the pace surged again over a hill and I got dropped by a mere couple of meters. I wasn’t quite able to bridge the gap again and ended up skiing just behind the leaders for the next couple laps. It’s very frustrating to see the leaders just ahead of you but you just can’t quite catch them. With about 5km to go I started fading and ended up finishing 8th. The 15km skate race had similar feelings for me, I started out at a strong pace, but couldn’t quite hold it and faded a little in the last 2km. I’m not sure why this is, maybe I’m just not quite in peak race shape because usually I’m the opposite, I start out slower and pick the pace up as the race goes on and finish strong. 

The day after the last race in Thunder Bay me and YES members John and Knute rented a car and drove down to Duluth, MN. We’re here for a week or so to train and get ready for our next races which are the 19-21 of January in St Paul, MN. I would like to say a huge thank you to the Lund family for their hospitality in kindly taking us in during our stay here in Duluth!

Me the skate portion of the 30km skiathlon. © Martin Kaiser.

Another shot me me by © Martin Kaiser.