Aawww…sigh of relief!

Hello! The races in West Yellowstone have concluded! To me, this is a sigh of relief…the first races are always nerve racking and it is nice to have them DONE!!!br /br /Since the qualifier on Wednesday, I competed in the 10k skate race on Friday and the 5k classic race on Saturday. The skate race went alright. I skied smooth and maintained a good pace the entire way, but I was lacking making that shift to the next level. Instead I felt like i was out for a cruise in second gear the entire way. I ended up 14th overall (11th American), a result I was not completely happy with.br /br /I woke up Saturday morning feeling tired and sore. I did not sleep well the night before, due to the infamous “skier cough” and my entire body felt sore from the skate race the day before. I did my best to loosen up my body with a light morning run and stretching. I went into the race relaxed and had little expectations for myself, other than going out and skiing as hard as i could. My goal was to ski relaxed and smooth and not to start to fast! After the first 2k, I received a split that I was in 5th, eight seconds out of 2nd. In a 5k race, every second counts…I kept reminding myself of this as I hammered up the last big hill and skied the final kilometer to the finish. I kept my 5th place position, but a few girls who started behind me, finished with a faster time, thus bumping my position back to 8th (4th American).br /br /Overall, I am happy with my results. There is some room for improvement, but I am confident it will come as the racing progresses! Our team is headed to Bozeman on Thursday for the next races of the season. Keep you posted!br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SxQDhDkeCvI/AAAAAAAAAgc/iYXZVKt8oh8/s1600/nic+west.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 223px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/SxQDhDkeCvI/AAAAAAAAAgc/iYXZVKt8oh8/s320/nic+west.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409952918807644914″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”A not-so-flattering picture of me racing/spanbr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5903545846797966075-6008673545210911489?l=in-the-arena-nicole.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div