It was 10 o’ clock when we arrived to Whitehorse Yukon on the 12th of March. This was the place where the Canadian cross country ski nationals was to be held. It had been an early morning getting to the airport at 4 am but I felt surprisingly fresh when we arrived to the tiny airport in Whitehorse. There was spray painted “EXIT” and an arrow on the wall and all in all it was quite an experience. Soon after we arrived at the hotel which was located just beside to bars. Even though it was only about 11 am there was people drinking outside the entrance to “98 Hotel” which was the name of the bar/hotel beside our hotel. We got to our rooms and started unpacking and soon we headed out to find some lunch. Vince, my roommate Tyson and I found a Subway after cruising through the little downtown of Whitehorse. When we came back to the hotel it was time to get ready for some skiing. After a little drive we arrived at the wax hut that Chris had gotten us into. We got our ski boots on and headed out for a workout. After a couple of hours we returned to the hotel and got a shower before heading out for some dinner. We were all quite tired when we went to bed that night…
Next morning we all left the hotel at 9.30 after eating breakfast at the hotel. It was time to go and ski the course for the following Sundays sprint relay. The course was 800 meters and Vince, who was my relay partner, and I would each ski the course three times. I would do a lap, and then tag Vince who would do a lap and then tag me etc. The time it would take us to complete the six laps would be our final time. We skied the course and the returned to the wax hut before we drove back to the hotel. It was not a lot of skiing that day but there was no need to waste energy.
I woke up Sunday morning feeling fit for fight. We drove to our wax room wearing our extremely sexy spandex race suits. We then skied the 7 minute ski to the stadium that was all ready for the races. Our race skis were already waxed thanks to our excellent wax techs so soon Vince and I wished each other good luck and I went to the start line. Bang and then we were started! I went off like a pro and tried to stick to the guys in front of me. Soon I had done my first lap and before I knew of it I was in the tag zone and tagged Vince who had already started accelerating. Vince went off like a champ and I made myself ready to get tagged when he returned and tried to catch my breath. After six laps of fighting Vince passed the finish line and secured us a 22nd place out of 29 teams. With a time of 13 minutes and 43.1 seconds and 1 minute and 45 seconds off the first place we were quite happy about our result. After getting some lunch at the athletes tent we skied back to the wax room and drove to the hotel. That day we ate dinner at a community center that we had rented and soon we were back at the hotel preparing for bedtime. First day of races was over…
To be continued in PART 2!
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