Nove Mesto

I flew to Nove Mesto on Thursday after taking a mini break from skiing for a few days in Venice. I had never been to Venice before and it was beautiful, relaxing, and extra special because I got to see Dan! I was feeling very rested and excited to start racing again when I started my travel day to Nove Mesto, but it ended up being a disaster of a day. It turns out that getting from Venice to Nove Mesto is not easy to begin with, but booking a plane ticket for March 28th instead of February 28th makes matters much worse. I took a train from Venice to Milan (I know, wrong direction) and then was planning on flying from there to Prague and taking another train from Prague to Brno, where Gus was picking me up. I cut it close getting to the airport in Milan because it's an hour away from the train station and then when I arrived in Milan, I wasn't able to check in because I had made the stupid mistake of booking my ticket for the wrong month. I had a minor breakdown in the airport (sorry for waking you up in the middle of the night, Dad!) but eventually figured everything out and was on my way again. I was so happy to see Gus when I finally got to Brno that I almost started crying. Luckily, Erik Bjornsen's friend let me give him my ski bag in Val di Fiemme because he was driving to Nove Mesto, so I didn't have to worry about dragging that around all day. I got to Nove Mesto pretty late Thursday night but just in time to say goodnight to my roomies, Erika and Rosie! I hadn't seen either of them since Nationals and they're two of my best friends who were also my teammates at Dartmouth, so I was really excited to spend the weekend with them.

Venice

Venice

Dan

Erika, Rosie, and me as teammates at Dartmouth

Nove Mesto didn't have a ton of snow but the 4k loop they did have was great. The stands from Biathlon World Champs were still set up so it was exciting to be in that stadium even though they were empty for our race. Our first race of the weekend was a 3.3k skate prologue on Saturday. It went well and I ended up 3rd, only .6 seconds behind Fitz and another girl who tied for first! Paddy also had a great day, finishing 4th overall and 1st junior! The prizes they were giving out were skis and snow blades so our team collected some goodies over the course of the weekend.

shared podium!

Paddy

Erika

Sunday was a pursuit start classic 10k. Rosie, Fitz, and I skied most of the race together but Rosie took a little crash the last lap and Fitz and I had a lunge for the line. It was pretty close but Fitz got it! It was a fun day of racing. I've lost quite a few lunges in the past 12 months so I think I'll be working on my splits this summer.

The Lunge

Solid US representation on the podium!

The cat that lived on the stairs in Nove Mesto. See you soon Dudley Rose and Red!

the girls (Sophie, ERika, Rosie, Becca, Fitz)

Gus testing out my snow blades

Rosie and I flew from Prague to Helsinki yesterday. We met up with Dakota and the rest of the US team will join us tomorrow. This weekend I will be racing the skate sprint on Saturday and there is also a classic 10k on Sunday that I will be watching. We will fly to Oslo on Monday and I will do the classic sprint on Wednesday in Drammen before flying home on Thursday. The next week of racing should be fun and I'm also very excited to head home soon because I haven't been back since Christmas!