Beitostolen to Finland

We all survived our first weekend of racing! Everyone had some good results and there were a handful of awesome results highlighted by Sadie's 5th in the 10k classic, Liz's 6th in the 10k skate, Kikkan's 1st in the skate sprint, Andy's 6th in the skate sprint, and Noah's 7th in the 15k skate. I was happy with how my races went and I'm excited for the first World Cup weekend here in Finland!

Sadie's secret to success

Ski races are always shown on TV over here, even if it's not a World Cup! Those of us who weren't racing were able to watch the races from the comfort of our appts. Here's Liz flying around the skate course.

We had a frantic afternoon of packing everything up after the race on Sunday before driving to Oslo and catching our flight to Finland the following morning. We saw very little sunlight on Monday because by the time we landed in Finland, the sun was setting. I checked my phone this morning and it says sunrise is around 9:30 and sunset is at 2. Besides the lack of sun, Ruka is a pretty cool little resort town. It's very touristy, but it feels like a winter wonderland right now. It's very cold, but it's not unbearable...yet. The races this weekend are in the format of a mini tour. We have a classic sprint on Friday, a 5k classic on Saturday, and a 10k skate that is a pursuit start on Sunday. This means that your start handicap is determined by how you placed in the first two days and then the first person to cross the line wins the overall tour. Here are a few photos from our last week.

Sadie doesn't go anywhere without her spikes

Liz and Sadie catching the sunrise in Beito

BROWN CHEESE! We bought a block of just about every type of brown cheese we could get our hands on. We all have different favorites, but we also decided any kind of brown cheese is a good kind of brown cheese. The best. 

Noah took this picture of my sprint heat (I'm in 4th in the black suit). 

Make sure your club team submits a poster for our poster contest this year. Ours will be unveiled with the others around the New Year.

Our boys are growing mustaches for Novemeber and Simi's hair is also becoming a little mullet-ish, so we decided it deserved an adorable little braid. 

2pm sunset drive to Ruka

Winter wonderland in Finland

The Ruka ski resort

Our nickname for Erika is Ruka, so I was pretty excited when I discovered the name of the town we're staying in! 

Speaking of Erika....HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL!