Sophie Caldwell: Heading East!

Monday, December 3, 2012

Heading East!

We just wrapped up the early season super tours and have one more relaxing day in Montana before we're all heading back East. In the last 4 days we had three races so I'm looking forward to a couple of easy days before racing again next weekend. Thursday was a skate sprint, Saturday we had a classic sprint, and then we finished the weekend with a classic mass start 10k on Sunday. As a team I think we had a great weekend and everyone came out with some very good results as well as some things we still have to work on. I felt great for the skate sprint on Thursday and had my first Supertour win! Saturday was solid for me but I still need to work on building strength so I can become as strong as those APU girls! Sunday was a really fun race and I think it was probably one of the better distance races I've ever had. It was encouraging to be able to ski with Sadie, Rosie, and Cheslea for the first two laps and then hang onto 4th place on the last lap. Results and summaries from the three days can be found here:

Classic 10k
Classic Sprint
Skate Sprint

Skate Sprint

Team meeting with Coach Gus

Post Sprint Sophie, Parker, and Annie

Classic sprint start (Erika, Annie, and I were all in the same heat)

First Supertour Win! Sodie (Sadie and Sophie)

The boys - Go Packer!

SMS people - Sophie, Cambria, Erika, Parker

Tomorrow we are flying into Quebec City where I'll be competing in my first World Cup EVER! Skyler and I both qualified for the World Cups where we'll be joining our teammates, Jessie and Andy, and the rest of the US team. I'm very excited and I'm sure that excitement will turn into nerves in the next couple of days but it will be an awesome experience. The sprints are taking place in the streets of Quebec City and we have a lot of family and friends who are coming up to watch! The SMS team will be there to cheer us on and have a camp of their own (do a little snow dance!). According to the SMS Blog and updates from Liz, they seem like they've been having a BLAST in Craftsbury and kicking butt in the time trials. They even made us a video! The week after Quebec we are heading to Canmore, Aberta where there is a sprint and two distance World Cups. It will be be a busy two weeks and I can't wait to see my friends and race against some of the fastest people in the world! Here are a few more photos from the past week and I'll be sure to write an update from Canada!