Hi!
Here’s a recap of the last 2 weeks and my race.
Muonio
The U.S team had a little training camp in northern Finland before the races. Arriving in Europe early was nice, both because there was an 11-hour time zone difference to adjust to and because it allowed for some quality time with teammates and staff before the races. For some odd reason I adjusted to the time zone really easily and slept 9+ hours/night. I don’t know how I got so lucky but I’m not questioning it!
Muonio was remarkably dark. I thought I might be used to the darkness coming from Anchorage, but it was a different game up there. We didn’t see a ray of direct sunlight in the whole 2 weeks we were in Finland. But it was clear some days, which made for some nice faint sunset skies. Luckily, both of my roomates (Jessie and Rosie) brought HappyLights that were surprisingly helpful. They are World Cup veterans and know all the little things that make living on the road more pleasant. I had a lot of fun living with them and learning from them.
Selfie in front of sunny the HappyLight
Travel
We took a 6hr bus ride to Ruka. I played chess and cards with my APU teammates almost the entire way, which passed the time quite nicely. We had a pit stop at a tourist attraction resembling Santa’s village/the North Pole. It was kind of cool, but mostly very overstimulating and a place I was ready to leave after 20min. That’s a little too much commercial Christmas for me. And I hate to say it but I’m not sold that the guy we saw in the “meet Santa” building was actually Santa Claus.
Michael Gus and Zanden
Johnny Erin Haley and Ben at the standing on the Arctic Circle line like a bunch of tourists
Ruka
I’ve been anticipating this sprint since the summer, and knew there was potential for me to get very nervous for this one - I came a long way for a short sprint, and it’s the only classic sprint in Period 1, which is my biggest strength. Luckily I feel like I managed to convince myself that it’s just another ski race, and I felt composed and generally just excited to ski it.
I actually had fun skiing my race, and felt like I was flying around the course. I knew I was happy with it before I saw any results which was a good feeling. There are a lot of factors that go into a result - ski choice, kick wax, glide wax, body, and mind, and the U.S team as a whole didn’t place as well as usual. Something might have been a little off, so there’s hope that on a better day we all could all be higher in the results.
Closing words
Coming all this way was worth it. I am living my dream right now and I am so thankful to everyone by my side and everyone supporting me from afar. I’m headed to Lillehammer, Norway now for another sprint!
Thanks for reading.
-Renae
Alayna Renae and Erin
Attempting cabin core
Erin and Alayna listening to Rosie say something entertaining
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