Westerns

I know it's a bit late, but better late than never! The Western Canadian Championships a couple weeks ago had its ups and downs. The races were in a "mini-tour" style formate, three races in three days. A skate sprint, a individual 15km classic, and a pursuit start 30km skate. The races were held in Grande Prairie, AB, which is not a common stop on the NorAm racing circuit. The club did a good job holding the races and it was fun racing somewhere new for a change. It seems like we are always racing in the race places over and over every year, so it was nice to mix things up. The skate sprint went well, I made it to the A Final for the first time this season. Unfortunately I snapped my pole right off the start in the final so I didn't have a chance to fight for a medal, but 6th was still a good result for me so I was happy enough. I really wanted to be on the podium in the 15km classic race. 15km classics are my best event and there hasn't been many of them this season so I was looking forward to it. I had a decent race and finished 4th, not quite was I was hoping for but still a decent race none the less. The 30km skate didn't go very well. I haven't had good luck in 30kms so far this year, my legs felt tired and I just ran out of energy with about 5km to go. I ended up 6th overall, which is not bad, but you always want a bit more..Now we have a pretty significant break in the racing schedule. Our next, and last, races of the season are Nationals, which start on March 23 in Whistler. Whistler is a pretty fun place to race, racing the same trails used for the 2010 Olympics. In the past I've had good luck at Nationals and racing in Whistler so I'm hoping that trend will continue! I couldn't find any pictures from Westerns so here are a couple I found of myself from out east earlier in the season.

David

Coming into the stadium for another lap at Easterns.

Shortly after the start of a 30km pursuit at Easterns.