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College Sunday

Today was so amazing! Yesterday and today there was college racing going on at Mt. Itasca, and my coach wanted me to go. I also wanted me to go. I couldn't go on Saturday because of Upward Bound, so I missed the classic race, but I went today and saw the skate races and wow. The first race was the girls and man were they fast. They skied 15k with the first place person finishing at 0:48:19.7 and the last place finisher coming in at 1:07:46.3. That's a 5k time between 16.06667-22.48667 minutes! To be able to keep that up for three laps!That was no easy course either, Tony and I skied a couple laps and that course is full of tough hills, a couple nasty turns that were washed out by the end, and yet despite all that it's a fun course. During the girls race I stood next to this guy whose girlfriend was racing. He's not that into skiing himself, he wrestles   instead. Side note: It turns out that he's heard of my coach Tony who used to wrestle. He was actually really good, and was invited to go to the Olympic trails, but he turned it down because he new he wouldn't make it and figured he'd try the next time. There was no next time. We boycotted the Olympics. After that I was freezing and went inside where I met some girls from the St Olaf's  ski team. We hung out during the guys 20k race. That's right, 20k. A whole extra lap of terribleness. The first guy came in at 0:55:25.1 and the last place guy came in 1:11:44.0. That's a 13.8125-17.86 minute 5k!! That's faster than my normal 5k race! I definitely need to increase my speed, and work on distance. The St. Olaf girls taught me things about college level skiing, and balancing it with school work. I have to say though, the most interesting thing I learned is that they do this thing called feeds. A feed is where as the skier goes by you hand them a drink (apple juice  Gatorade,  ect.) to replenish lost calories and give you energy for the rest of the race. Then after you drink it you just throw the bottle. The bottles are never filled completely unless it's a water bottle that doesn't spill when thrown, that way you don't waste. There's still some waste though, and the trail looks like a color run happened there. While scared for the speed and the distance, I'm excited for college skiing. It'll be hard, but I think that it'll be very rewarding in the end. After the races Tony and I skied the course twice, then did a cool down lap. All in all it was wonderful day. It might not sound like it was.

The results:
http://www.skinnyski.com/racing/college/2013/feb17mtitasca.pdf

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