Warning this post is quite long so if you’re
planning on reading the entire thing please make yourself comfortable.
Last week was a week of record breaking heat
for most of eastern Canada. Within days winter was turned into summer with
spring being decidedly skipped over. This was also the week when nationals were
held in Quebec. This made for an interesting set of races.
On March
15th we traveled from Canmore to my home province Quebec for the
2012 National Ski Championships. This came with the realization that I have now
been skiing long enough to be revisiting locations for Nationals. Since this was
my second time going to Quebec City for Nationals having been there five years
ago as a juvenile.
The week started off with a team sprint. I
teamed up with fellow Nakkertok skier and longtime friend Steffan Lloyd. The
team sprint as it turns out would be a great day but it wasn’t without its
mishaps. The plains or Abraham in downtown Quebec were in a state of meltdown.
With temperatures reaching 15 degrees they had trucked in snow (some of which
appeared to have come from a snow bank behind a Tim Hortons) to make a course.
In the semifinal I felt flat on the first leg (having not warmed up very well
due to the lack of a warm up course) on top of that my skis were running rather
slow. Once I had finished my first leg I handed my skis to the coach’s to see if
they could do something to make them faster. It didn’t take much, as it turns
out a piece of chewing gum had gotten stuck in my grip zone causing the ski to
drag. Gum removed the rest of the semifinal round went much better. Steffan was
skiing really well and I was feeling better on each leg. Things were looking
good, however when I was leading going down the last hill into the finish
strait, I lost my balance on a slower section of snow and went down. I got up
as quickly as I could and realized that although two teams had passed me I was
well clear of the fourth guaranteeing our team a spot in the final. Needless to
say it had been an eventful semifinal.
In the final thanks to a fast pace being put
down by the Whitehorse team the race was soon strung out with three teams (Foothills,
Whitehorse and us) making the front of the race. Steffan was skiing great and I
was feeling awesome however my bad luck was about to continue. On the second
leg my basket came off my pole and in the soft slushy conditions I was quickly
distanced from the front two. From then on, there was no way back to the
front. With the relentless pace being
set by the front two all we could do was try to hold on to third, which we did.
I was pretty cool to stand on the podium at nationals in a year were I definitely
wasn’t expecting to, yet at the same time is was extremely frustrating to lose
the front of the race on bad luck*.
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| Steffan (bib 534)skiing with the leaders early on in the relay. Photo Credit: Charles Brassard |
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| Me navigating a downhill just before the basket indecent. Photo Credit: Charles Brassard |
Two days later it was time for the 10km
classic. This was a race I was really looking forward to. Things didn't totally
work out however. Somehow I felt flat and skied to a disappointing 33rd
place.
The next day was the 15km skate. Having had a
disappointing race the day before and with the field getting stronger with the
addition of skiers having come back from competing on the world cup I wasn’t
sure what to expect in the 15km skate (usually not my best race). With the
temperature on the course surpassing 20 degrees it was looking like a slushy
nightmare out there. Overall however things went rather well. I tried ski
smooth and efficiently (soft slushy snow can be a bit like quick sand the
harder you try the slower you go). Over all it was quite a decent race. I
crossed the line in 32nd place in a tough field.
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| Twenty plus degrees for the 15km skate required some rather drastic wardrobe options. Photo Credit: Bernard Pigeon |
Next was the sprint day. I don’t have much to
say about the sprint day. My body felt terrible and I made a bad choice of skis
resulting in possibly my worst sprint day ever. I don’t know what place I came
in but needless to say I was a long way from qualifying.
Next Up was the last and longest race of the
season, my first 50km. With the crazy warm temperatures finally subsiding the
course (which had been changed from a 10 to a 5km loop due to flooding) was for
once fast and icy. I had a good start and early on found myself in a good group
of skiers. As the laps went by I went through many high and low points. A 50k
is such a long race that you have time to go through all sorts of different
mindsets and feelings. You can go from feeling good and skiing comfortably on
one lap to feeling like all the energy is taken out of you on the next. This is
something I experienced in the last 10km of the race. At 8km to go I felt good
and thought I could respond to any sort of acceleration, yet at 6km to go all
of a sudden I felt like all the energy had been drained from me. Needless to
say when the pace quickened with 5k to go I was unable to follow and faced a
long (ok not that long) last lap of racing. In the end I crossed the line 21st
having lost over a minute to 15th place (the best finisher of those
in my group) in the last 5k. All in all it was a good race and a good learning experience.
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| Early on in the 50k Photo credit: Bernard Pigeon |
Now, just like that, the season is done. When I
got back home (Chelsea home) from nationals there was no snow to speak of.
Spring (and a bit of summer) had definitely arrived. Now I am kicking myself
for not having sent my road bike home before nationals since watching the Tour
of Flanders has put me in the mood to ride my bike (it won’t get better when Paris
Roubaix is on next weekend). Looks like I’ll have to wait until I’m back in Canmore
for that. Speaking of which I will be
back there next year, training with the Alberta World Cup Academy for my second
year and continuing to chase some crazy dream.
Thanks very much to my sponsors Classic Wood
Mouldings, Dr Beverley Mckeown Dentistry and Salomon for your support. Honestly
(and I mean this) it would not be possible without you. Thanks also to V2,
Gatineau Nordic Sport, Fresh Air Experience, the Nationals Winter sports Association, Ski
de Fond Quebec, Nakkertok Ski Club and of course the Alberta World Cup Academy.
Having such an incredible group of supporters is what makes everything possible.
It’s been quite a season full of ups and downs with hopefully many more to
come. I know I’ll be back next year.
Thanks for
reading, that’s all for now.
Patrick
* I know that referencing bad luck is not generally a good idea since pretty much everything is in your control. However my basket falling off was not the result of it having been poorly glued on but rather a broken piece that holds the basket on. This in my opinion does fall into the category of s*** happens.
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