20k

Today was a frustratingly good day. The good part is my legs felt great, the bad was I couldn't catch a break. I started in the second row and a minute before we started the guy in front tells me that this is the first time he has double poled hard since his shoulder surgery... great. So needless to say I didn't come off the line towards the front. Still I had a relatively easy time working my way up to the top 5 after the first lap. Sovereign Lake is a tricky place to do a skate mass start because the trail is always bending a little bit making getting around anyone pretty tough. Today that was made trickier since the outside of the course was rock hard in places and bottomless in others so you never quite knew what you were going to get when you tried to go by.

So one lap into the 20k going thru the stadium I am where I want to be in 5th place. I wasn't very comfortable behind the guy in fourth so I just stepped out to create my own lane and cruise. Next thing I knew I was on the ground. Someone skied over the tip of my ski and I got up in about 20th. #$%#. Time to work my way back up thru the field. I managed to get to around 6th-ish by the top of the course and managed to stay from 3rd -8th until the big climb with about 4k to go where I tried to move up and see if I could break away with a small group to the end. Alex Harvey had the same idea and I got cut off and lost my momentum and by the time I got it back he was off the front. I managed to close down part of the gap and get a break on the others but they closed up to me in the stadium and I was pretty well shot. I gave it another try on the climb before the finish but it was super soft once you got away from the middle of the track so that didn't work and I came in 7th. The way the race shaped up was a little frustrating but the legs were there and now I am looking forward to Saturday nights 15k classic under the lights.

Until then.