Here we are in the awesome state of Alaska, throwing down for the Junior National championships. This is Lauren's first trip to event, and my first since going as an athlete ten years ago in McCall Idaho. The trip has certainly been up and down for me; I'm currently laid up in the hotel with a nasty flu while everyone else is out at Kincaid park racing the 15k classic. But its been a great time and this is an awesome bunch of kids. For Lauren, the news is all positive, to put it mildly. He threw down big in the sprint, racing to a mean 26th place, just 2 spots out of the heats. Even that didn't prepare me for his unbelievable skate race on wednesday. With his 15th qualifying position, he was seeded pretty close to last on the start list, so we stood there in the stadium watching pretty much the whole race before he was sent out on course. I timed his race on my watch to compare to the live-scoring being put up on the giant scoreboard, and the splits were strong the entire race. Each time he came through the stadium he was tight on the leaders, and he never flagged or lost his rhythm. When he finished, I literally grabbed him out of the corral and pointed him at the scoreboard, saying "watch". When the scores flashed up, I compared his time to the leaderboard, and informed him that he had just skied himself in twelfth place. Twelfth! He got his warm-ups on and came back, and sure enough, within five minutes he was on the board in twelfth, where he stayed for the final results. Only one JI from New England got in front of him, Sam Tarling from Burke Mt. Academy. Did I mention it was a good day?
Today he's going into the 15k classic mass start, while I am stuck in my hotel room trying to keep the fever down enough to tolerate life at the moment. A major bummer for me, but Lauren is skiing like mad and I couldn't be happier. Here are some pics from the event, I'll post again after the relay tomorrow, which I'll be present for if I need a stretcher to take me out there.
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