Keys to the Castle

 This past weekend I travelled to our lovely neighbours in the south, the US of A for a weekend of rollerski racing in Lake Placid, NY! Something never seen on Canadian lands, but I digress. The weekend consisted of a sprint in a Kings Court style format on the Saturday and a deadly climb up Whiteface Mountain early Sunday morning.

My dad and I drove down on Friday for some pre-race course inspection and to make sure that I could do my proper race prep on the course the day before (get used to being speedy where speed is necessary, yk how it goes). I'm familiar with the courses in Lake Placid, both in the summer and winter seasons so I'm well acquainted with the profile of the sprint course and it can be pretty fun if traversed correctly. I wasn't feeling so hot on Friday, dealing with some minor leg soreness and general fatigue from the drive down, but I did my regular pre-race warm-up and tried to get myself in racing shape for Saturday. The course is pretty hilly, but to make it extra challenging (and extra fun) they added some ramps at the start to throw everyone off their game. I was kind of concerned because my rollerskis were hitting the tops of the bumps, but when I used the rollerskis I was supposed to race on it was ok, which calmed me down a bit (only a little).

Saturday morning start was at 10 so the morning was pretty calm, we got there, got bibs, chips, and meal tickets (legit the most important part) and I went to warm up. We started off with the qualifier and I felt pretty confident coming 3 overall in the open women's category (only 14 seconds off Julia Kern!). The heats were interesting because it was co-ed, so the men and women raced together. For the quarter-finals I was in a heat with two men and the second-place girl, fatigue hit me pretty hard and I faded on the last hill so I ended up coming last in my heat and dropping down a bracket. In Semis I was in an all girls heat and I knew that if I wanted a chance at podium I would have to win and move back up, so that's exactly what I did. For finals, I found myself in almost the exact same heat as quarters, but this time I was more successful, I managed to fend off the girl on the last hill and even managed to pass the first guy on the way down, finishing with a fight for first (in the heat). I ended up actually coming 2nd in the open women's category and got the chance to stand on a podium beside Julia Kern (opportunity of a lifetime am I right?).

Sunday I would say was far more mentally challenging, I already knew that I would be facing an 8km long uphill climb, but it was still hard to push myself all the way up (the fact that I had to wake up and do stuff at 5:30 am is a separate issue). I'd like to say that I started out strong, but I think I started out not that strong(?) and kind of got dropped by the main group of women. Thankfully the men started out not too far ahead of us so I had a good target for the majority of the way up. There were some physical issues with the last 4.5k to the finish, but I convinced myself to fight through them and live to the first switchback turn because then I'd basically be done (it was still almost 2k left but whatever). Thankfully I made it to the end some minor triceps cramps and not so minor stomach cramps later. I ended up finishing 6th overall in Open Women, but second in Juniors (U20) so I got more cheese (and 35$ USD)!!

I was happy to be done, but it was overall a super fun weekend and I really enjoyed it. The racing atmosphere in the States is very different than in Canada, I feel like people there are more open and relaxed, it's quite competitive, but they can be chill and friendly at the right moments. I'd like to say I made some friends (and maybe 1 enemy). Overall a good experience even with the hardships of the hill!

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