I just spent the last few days in Lutsen, Minnosota racing some Mid-Am races. My goal out there was to score a GS result and make a few bucks. They pay their pace team which is a rarity these days, so I did walk away with a few dollars in my pocket, which are quickly started dwindling on the drive from Philly to Albany in a rental car after US Airways cancelled our flight and booked Chris Frank and me on a flight 24 hours later. Either way, without any other good race series going on we were able to rally the troops and get a few good skiers there so at least one of us would score a result so my goal was plausible. Before the race series I prepped all my skis in NH, waxed my race skis a week before the event and miraculously nailed the wax so I was ready (apparently skis run better the longer the wax sits in the base, to a certain extent so my skis were going to be fast). We showed up to the mountain and saw more of a hill. Lutsen is outrageously flat. Frankly, if any of you know a good flats skier it would be a killer place to pick up a result. I started 5 and after hiking up two flights of stairs to the start shack, they needed a little extra vertical to reach the FIS minimum for GS, I was ready to get after it. I pushed out the gate hammered to the first gate got into my tuck. I took an aggressive, straight line because the snow was pretty good and put together a great run. I got to the bottom and was psyched with the way I skied. I quickly skied over to the board to see where I stood. After first run, I was in a disappointing 10th place.

After a week of never breaking into the top 5, I left Lutsen with my head up. One of the most important things in ski racing is being able to have a short memory, keep things in perspective, and accept your performance whether good or bad. I know I’m skiing well. I just couldn’t get it going on the flats.
I’m back in NH right now and getting ready for some training at Sunday River, maybe a GS race at Sugarloaf, and more training at Whiteface before Nor-Am Finals.

Hope you’re doing better than the Dow, w