Grande Prairie

So... Time for another update. This time about my ski races in Grande Prairie. We left on Friday the 8th, the same day as I turned 17! After a 7 hour drive, Ken, Bryn and I arrived to the hotel. It was getting time for dinner so soon all the guys from Foothills Nordic Ski Club was gathering in the lobby area where there were some tables. After dinner it was time for two birthday cakes. Both Kim and Stephanie from the ski club had made me cake so I was quite stuffed when it was time bed.

It was with a feeling of happiness and style that I the next morning took on my extremely sexy race suit. Chris, my coach, had supplied me with a black and white spandex suit that I could use for the races. A couple of hours later we were sitting in the lodge at the ski club in Grande Prairie. Before I knew of it I was standing ready on the start line. Ready, set, GO! And then I was off. It was the qualifier so I was running alone and after completing without a crash a had the 6th best time out of the 9 people in my category. After two more rounds on the 750 meters sprint course I was in the B-Finals. As the gun went off I sprinted off and soon I was number two out of the 5 of us. If I kept this place I would have a 5th place in my category of 9 people! I remember thinking "Wow... This is going pretty fast..." and then my left ski catched the deep snow and I was rolling around on the snow. Three people passed me before I got up again, and right when I had got the balance back I fell again! I took a relaxed ski to the finish line and damned my left leg. It was pretty unlucky to miss a 5th place out of nine skiers. And quite unlucky too to have two crashes in one lap!

Well what the hell... I ended up with a 7th place which means that I finally beat somebody in skiing! I was pretty tired when we returned to the hotel to get ready for the dinner for all the skiers at the races. Soon I was sitting with the ski team at the community centre eating. After some entertainment and talk we returned to the hotel and the rest of the evening went away with having fun at the rooms. Next morning I took on my extremely sexy spandex suit again and we drove towards the ski club just outside Grande Prairie. It was the day for long distances. In my case that meant 10 kilometers of skiing! I was already tired just thinking about on the start line but soon I was off and the race had begun. After about 52 minutes my pain stopped. I had reached the finish line and this time only 14 minutes behind the number one skier. Even though I couldn't feel my body I was satisfied with my result. I had survived!

Soon after we were leaving Grande Prairie to start the drive back to Bragg Creek. I slept most of the way back and after 7 hours of driving we were back in Bragg Creek.

It had been an awesome weekend with races and the fact that I actually beat somebody out there was great! I'm starting to like those races quite a bit...

If you want to watch a video with my races then follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4xXFwScRDQ
And thanks alot to Stan Prenioslo for filming my great skiing!