USSA Distance Nationals - Skiathlon/Pursuit

Today's (Mar 27) race for the women was a 15km skiathlon/pursuit race. The women did 7.5km of classic and 7.5km of freestyle. Below begins the mass start, they had to double pole almost to the end of the entire stadium area. After 2 laps (7.5km) of classic they went through the stadium exchange area and switched to their skate skiis. From where I was positioned, it appeared Heather had no issues with her transitioning. Most of the women wearing red ski suits are from the US Ski Team (USST.) Kikkan Randall (USST and from ANC) is wearing Bib #2. Elizabeth Stephen (USST) is wearing Bib #1 and won the race. Becca Rorabaugh our local skier trying to qualify for the Olympics is wearing Bib #17. Heather is towards the back and can't be seen in this photo.


Heather on her first classic lap coming around a downhill corner. When asked why she was wearing a top and bottom from different suits, she replied, "I like my Team Alaska top better and Pete our FXC coach wants us to represent FXC." So there you have it.......

Some of you may be getting bored of skiing pictures but some of my followers (Jill, Kristin, Michael) might enjoy seeing pictures of the top skiers in the country. Here's Kikkan leading the lead pack towards the end of the 1st lap.

The 2nd pack of skiiers coming by.

and then Heather's pack.......

Heather flying around another corner.

Here's a string of photos of Heather coming up what is called fondly "The Wall" on the freestyle course. This is a massive hill -- world class hill that will either put you ahead of the others or will "eat you up" making you fall farther and farther behind. The women did this twice while the men had to do "The Wall" four times during their race! Heather looked so strong going up this world class competition hill on both laps.

Heather finishing her race.

Yeah it's over!

Heather had a great strong race and placed 24th overall. She also came in ahead of all of the J1 girls that were on Team Alaska in Truckee earlier this month. She was extremely happy with her race and has decided to sign with the University of Alaska Fairbanks ski team. Kikkan Randall came in 3rd and Becca Rorabaugh 8th.

For full results go to..

http://www.ussadistancenationals.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=38


After 15km of hard racing, here's what happens. "Yeah, I am done but oh my....

...back hurts so much, right here."

Heather caught talking with Becca about it.......

The men's race was 30km, 4 laps of classic and 4 laps of freestyle. Ivan Babikov (Bib #101) ended up coming in 1st with a significant lead but because he is from the Canadian National Ski Team, he can't medal as this is a USSA National Championship race. The USST team is in red. Leif Zimmerman (Bib #105) won the race and is now the 2009 National Pursuit Champion.

USSA National Freestyle Team Sprint - March 25

Below is the Women's Semi-Final 2nd heat mass start. Heather was the starter for her two person team. Each team member did 3 laps; Heather did Lap 1, 3 and 5 while Marissa did 2,4 and 6. Heather is in Bib #14. (One of the US Ski Team members is in the red suit.)

Here's the lead pack. Heather is the 7th person just really coming into view.

Heather flying down a hill on one of her laps.

Here's a photo from the Sr Women's Final. Kikkan Randall (from ANC and the only US skier to ever win a World Cup medal) is in the blue suit, Bib #4 just coming into view. She had quite the gap to close on each of her laps. The first two times she was able to catch the leaders but on her 3rd turn it was just too large of a gap, her team came in 4th.

Here's photo's from the Junior Finals. It was very interesting as both the male and female teams raced at the same time. Heather is leading the 2nd group of skiers up the stadium hill.

The US men's ski team was out cooling down after the Senior Mens Finals and stopped to watch the Junior race for a short while. I thought it would be so cool if I could catch Heather racing and have them in the background. Luckily she did come by and they were cheering her on. (I am so proud of this picture......too bad I didn't really have time to focus.)

Heather and Marissa ended up taking 1st in the Junior Female race! Heather really pulled away her last lap and then Marissa continued with pulling away as well.

The top 3 USA Female Teams.

Below the top 3 USA Male Teams.

Top 3 Junior Female teams....Heather & Marissa (guess who the short one is?!)

Heather's FXC Coach, Pete, with his girls and boys winning teams. By this time it was 9PM! We all had been outside watches races since 5PM.

For results please try this link........

http://www.ussadistancenationals.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=38

Fairbanks Hosts the 2009 USSA Distance National Championships

This week Fairbanks is hosting the U.S. Distance National Championships with skiers from the U.S. Ski Team, other top skiers in the nation as well as a few international skiers. The Distance races have also incorporated the classic interval start and freestyle team sprint events that were canceled due to the cold weather in Anchorage this past January.

It's not every race that you get to race with Olympians or with the top skiers in the country trying to make the Olympian team.

Yesterday was the 5k Classic Interval start race. Here's some pics of Heather during her race...

Heather had a great race. I've included the results of the Women's race below. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some photos and results of the team sprint relay that was held today (hint: Heather did great!)

Sex: F - 5 km

1 46 STRANDBERG, Kristina 33 SRF Saab Salomon / XC Oregon 1 16:00.8
2 44 SMYTH, Morgan 22 U23F USST / NMU 1 16:31.8
3 29 RORABAUGH, Becca 19 JRF APUNSC 1 16:37.0
4 21 ESPY, Adele 18 JRF SVSEF / Maine Coast Nordic
5 47 COMPTON, Caitlin 28 SRF CXC Elite 2 16:46.0

6 32 STEPHEN, Elizabeth 21 U23F USST / Burke Mt. Academy 2 16:49.8

7 36 MANNIX, Tazlina 22 U23F USST / APUNSC 3 16:51.8
8 42 BJORNSEN, Sadie 19 JRF UA Anchorage 3 16:53.0
9 43 ARRITOLA, Morgan 22 U23F USST / SVSEF 4 16:54.7
10 31 TRYGSTAD-SAARI, Kris 24 SRF Saab Salomon / BSF 3 16:55
11 28 DEYONG, Nicole 26 SRF Fischer/Craft / SVSEF 4 16:58.1
12 30 BRENNAN, Rosie 20 U23F USST / NSF 5 16:58.8
13 34 OWEN, Kristina 24 SRF CXC Elite 5 16:59.7
13 40 FITZGERALD, Kate 21 U23F APUNSC 6 16:59.7
15 37 KORTHAUER, Aurelia 22 U23F 7 17:14.6
16 41 STUBER, Maria 25 SRF CXC Elite 6 17:14.9
17 26 RONSSE, Katie 23 SRF APUNSC 7 17:15.2
18 33 DEHLIN, Lindsey 24 SRF USST / NMU 8 17:16.3
19 35 PEARSON ARDUSER, 29 SRF Rossignol / APUNSC 9 17:17.4
20 45 DONG, Evelyn 23 SRF Saab Salomon / XC Oregon 10 17:18.7
21 39 WINTERS, Johanna 24 SRF CXC Elite 11 17:19.5
22 38 BRONGA, Jaime 18 JRF NSAA 4 17:26.3
23 27 GLEN, Amy 17 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 5 17:26.4
24 9 PREVOT, Corinne 17 JRF Burke Mt. Academy 6 17:29.6
25 17 SCHNURR, Theresia 20 U23F UA Fairbanks 8 17:49.4
26 13 EDIC, Heather 17 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 7 17:49.9
27 14 RORABAUGH, Marisa 17 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 8 18:19.0
28 12 PACKER, Karina 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 9 18:33.0
29 24 OLSON, Ingrid 26 SRF NSC Fairbanks 12 18:38.2
30 16 KONIECZNY, Rebecca 18 JRF UA Fairbanks 10 18:39.4
31 20 RAMEY, Tristan 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 11 18:59.6
32 25 BACKSTRUM, Kate 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 12 19:02.7
33 23 ANDERSON, Greta 17 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 13 19:16.2
34 11 PRICE, Anna 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 14 19:17.3
35 8 ZIMMERMAN, Heather 23 SRF CXC Elite 13 19:19.3
36 18 BOYER, Hannah 15 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 15 19:21.0
37 10 RORABAUGH, Eliza 15 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 16 19:40.3
38 15 ROGERS, Emily 16 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 17 20:00.2
39 19 ROSS, Alison 15 JRF Alaska Winter Stars 18 20:20.1
40 6 BLAKE, Erica 19 JRF FXC / NSC Fairbanks 19 20:32.2
41 22 MAYO, Ema 16 JRF FAST 20 21:22.9
42 5 LENZE, Alicia 13 JRF FJC / Salcha SC 21 22:45.3

Last Day of JO's - Relays

It's March 14th, the last day of JO's 2009. Today was the relay events and Heather was on Alaska Team #2 for J1 girls. The relay races for the girls was a 3X5k. Here's Heather taking off after the tag..........

Heather coming in to tag the last person on her team.....

Another great picture of Heather and Robert.

Here's one of Heather and Megan. Dave happened to be walking by and snuck in the photo shoot........a very proud Dad!

and of course, a proud Mom with her girls. If one looks at the eyes and chins, Mom seems to be the shorter one and somehow Heather looks taller than us all. But really Heather is the shorter one of us all!

Megan's hat as well as some other great patterns can be found at www.SKIDAsport.com. The woman that makes these hats is from Vermont and sold out all of the hats she brought in about 2 hours!

Third Day of JO Races - Truckee

It's Friday, March 13th, the third and final individual race of JO's was about to start. It's a 5K classic interval start and as I was headed to the start area, I was able to sneak a picture of Heather before her start.


Waiting for the beep to start.......

and she is off..........

Here she is along the trail....... where Bert Boyer was once again taking some great photo's.

Heather coming in for her finish........

Heather looked very strong during this race and placed 39th out of 85 girls.

The weather was great; it was so bright and sunny but at times very windy. And yes Irene, sunscreen at this altitude was a must!! The snow was incredible when we first arrived. Driving through the subdivisions we felt like mice in a maze. Over the course of the week it was amazing how much had melted but yet there was still so much left! Here we Moms are enjoying lunch after the races on the deck of the house we rented.

Day 2 of Racing - Junior Olympics in Truckee

Heather's second race was a 10 k Freestyle mass start race of 80 to 85 girls. They are positioned at the start based on their USSA points for the year. Heather is wearing Bib #240 and is on the close side of the photo towards the middle.

The following pictures were taken of Heather along the trail by Bert Boyer. (Thanks much Bert!)

The next series of photos is Heather coming up a very steep hill.

Heather had a great race finishing 24th for J1 Girls in a time of 33:43.8. She was also the 4th Team Alaska girl out of nine in the J1 class.

Robert and Heather after the race.

Future Junior Olympians? Eliza, Megan, Makalya and Hannah.