The last few days have been a whirlwind of racing. We started Monday with a skate 10km individual start race up at Birch Hill. The trails were hard and fast, and the men's fields were deep. I came out of the start feeling pretty flat, and I never really felt like I accelerated into the race. I finished 39th in the OJ age category just behind my highschool friend and teammate Luke Costley who had a similiar off day. I guess some things never change. Many of the other guys from the New England team put up solid times, and future Williams skiers Eli Hoenig (3rd) and Jordan Fields (10th) put up strong finishes in the men's OJ race.
The 3.3km relay on Tuesday ramped up the excitement with a chaotic mass start. I led off for my team with the scramble leg. I had a strong beginning out of the after starting more or less in last place. I tangled with another skier near the end of my leg and hit the ground, but was happy with my recovery tagging off to my teammates Rion O'grady and Tyler Deangelis right around the other New England teams.
We had a recovery day yesterday and did some course preview for today's sprint in the morning. In the evening, my fellow Williams teammate Vanya invited me and the other current and future Williams skiers to his house for a dinner away from the event.
Today continues our races with a sprint qualifier at 1 o'clock and heats under the late afternoon Alaskan sun at 6 o'clock local time. New England is currently trailing Alaska in the overall point standings, so the pressure is on to perform this afternoon. I'm excited for this sprint, the course looks hard and fast like all of the Birch Hill race loops. I'll let you all know how it goes.
Race results for Monday's skate race are available here and relay results are available here.
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