Well I just got back from the first race of US Nationals. The first thing I can say about the race is OUCH! This race hurt! I am thankful though that they decided to make it a 10k skate instead of a 15k. The 15k course was super brutal and I may not have been able to finish it going off of how I performed today.
My race started off pretty well. I went out at a comfortable pace and felt really strong. That was sort lived. By the time I got to the top of the first big hill, I knew that this was going to hurt. I was maybe 2k into the race and the guy who had started 15 seconds behind me was already passing me. This was ok because he is someone who I should be able to ski with and was planning on just pacing off of him. This plan proved to be much harder than originally anticipated as I fell further and further behind.
I managed to survive the first lap and was hoping that I had saved some strength for the second. I started up the large climb around the 6km point and then out of no where, Joe was coming around me. My goal was to not let him catch me because he had started a minute behind me. That goal had officially been thrown out the window and now he was pulling away at a much faster pace than I could keep up with. My new goal was to finish.
It was all I could do to finish the race. I was cold, miserable, and feeling rather embarrassed due to my performance. I was slow today. I felt washed up and useless. Today I looked at the results and saw my name nowhere near the names of the people whom I used to ski with and have beaten in the past. Sadly, my name was minutes behind the times that I know I could’ve posted. Today was rough. Today was a real kick in the pants and ego. Today hurt.
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