JNQ in Cable Wisconsin

Last weekend I did my first JNQ races and man was it an experience!!

Friday after classes Tony, Cindy and I left for Wisconsin in the hopes of getting there early enough for a ski before it became too dark. Which didn't happen, because of a couple of wrong turns we wound getting there a bit after, and instead just settled into the cabin we had rented for the weekend. About two hours after we showed up Allen and Amy arrived and then we all went to bed early in anticipation of Saturday.

Cindy and Tony during one of our card games

So Saturday morning we arrive an hour-hour and a half before my race and this is what I learned:

1. The course
2. I would be racing college skiers

For my first 10km I don't think I did too bad, especially considering that was one of the hardest, of not the hardest, courses that I've skied. There was one section where it was over 1.5km of straight V1 up hill. The entire course was just two 5km loops of climbing. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that on the first loop I saw three girls who were on the sides puking and one girl who didn't even stop just puked as she skied. It was brutal, but I'm really proud of myself because I didn't stop and I didn't fall.

After the race, once I stopped coughing long enough to walk to the car and change, Tony and I headed to the store and bought ingredients for chili which we proceeded to make as everyone else was out skiing. Since it took awhile to finish I got everyone into a card game.

Oh man, that game was deadly. We continued it after dinner and played again the next night. It got so bad! I swear friendships were ruined and divorces put into effect. This is not a game for friends. This isn't even a game! Uno is the real deal.

On Sunday I did the 5km classic race which was oN THE SAME COURSE!!!! I just the officials didn't think skiing it was bad enough the first time!! Anyways....So Sunday was another first because I had never raced two days in a row. I have to say that it was rough, but once again I didn't stop and I didn't fall, and I wasn't last so that makes me pretty happy! Even if I couldn't left my arms! I wound up having a really bad asthmatic coughing attack after the race and had to sit inside this building for a good half hour before I could trust 1) my lungs and 2) my body. All that coughing left me really dizzy! It also scared some people...

Tony and I after Sunday's race

Afterwards we all went back to the house to rest, though Allen and I only stopped for a moment. The two of us had online homework and since the place we were staying at didn't have internet (neither did most of the town it seemed) we drove a half hour away to Ashland. We spent a good one-two hours at this really neat cafe called the Black Cat. I became instant best friends with the barista. Yeah, we bonded over whipped cream haha. He was a cool dude, and I like the bun that he had his hair up in.

My hot chocolate and what used to be Allen's hot something

For some reason I had trouble sleeping that night and wound up being up until 4am. I finished the book I had been reading around 1am and then just laid there in the dark trying to sleep. That morning (Monday) we did a long easy classic ski where the burkie is. It was a good ski, though I was really tired and sore. After we had finished skiing and stuff we headed home.

That's basically the whole weekend!!