The races began on Friday with a skate interval start race. The course was a grueling one spanning 5km, with the women doing 2 laps while the men had to complete 3. Being a Forerunner for the event, I, along with about 8 other people, had to ski one lap of the race course right before the start of the women's and the men's races to insure that it was ready to go and that all of the cameramen were ready for the race to start. After my forerunning duties were done, I was able to go watch the race. With the big names like Axel Teichmann (German), Dario Cologna (Swiss), Giorgio Di Centa and Pietro Piller Cottrer (both Italian) racing, I was very excited to see who would come out on top. It ended up being Di Centa taking the gold, with Piller Cottrer and Cologna finishing 2nd and 3rd. The most exciting part of the race however, in my opinion anyway, was Teichmann, who in the last 5km moved from outside the top 20 into 5th place! I was very impressed by that.
The next day was classic sprints, which was I was most excited to see, as my Swedish sprinting hero, Emil Joensson was racing. I had no doubt in my mind that he would take the gold, but I did not quite expect him to do it so convincingly. He won the qualifier, to no one's surprise, and then went on to win his next 3 heats by a minimum of about 50m. I also saw another Swede with a very interesting and effective starting technique that I have never seen before, so that was really cool to watch too. And on a happy Canadian note, our own Sara Renner managed to move up from her 15th qualifying position and make her way into the final and take the bronze medal! This was the biggest excitement of the day, as it gives the Canadian skiers who are on their way to the Olympics a bit if extra hope and momentum as their big races draw nearer.
While these were the only two races that took place for this world cup, there was also a lot of excitement going on all weekend in town. From Thursday - Sunday night, the main street in Canmore was turned into a ski trail, as the town trucked in loads of snow in order to hold fun little events all weekend on the main street. I competed in a relay on Friday night with two of my teammates, Lucas and Bob, as well as Beau Thompson, who is a biathlete living in Canmore. It was a very interesting relay, as it wasn't quite just sprinting up and down the road 4 times. This relay involved each member of the team having to complete a certain task during their turn to ski. These tasks included carrying an egg on a spoon, throwing bean bags, hoola hooping, and my task, saying "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" 3 times after I skied, with 3 crackers in my mouth. Just so we all know, it's a lot harder than it sounds :).
My last bit of excitement for the weekend came on Sunday night, when a group of us skiers got together and played hockey on one of the outdoor rinks in town. Having only played, or even skated for that matter, once in the last 7 or 8 years, I was curious to see if I could still stand on skates and hold a hockey stick. But to my surprise, I wasn't as bad as I thought I would be, and it was a lot of fun. And what made it even better was that I was able to ski (on rock skis) from my house to the rink, so that made the experience just that much better.
So that was my exciting Canmore World Cup weekend, I had tons of fun and it was great to see Angela and Joey again. Life here has settled down again, but just a little bit. I am anxiously awaiting the start of the Olympics, as it will be the first time I have ever watched someone that I personally know compete in the great event. So, on that note, GOOD LUCK GORD AND MADELEINE!!! :)
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