Yesterday morning Brandon Ostroot and I competed in the Hoigaards/Breadsmith Relay at Hyland Ski area.  The race was a 4 by 3k relay with each of use skiing 2 legs.  Brandon went first and I was the anchor.  We won the race but not without our share of challenges.  During Brandon’s first leg he took a fall which put us in about 7/8th place.  We ended up catching up by the last leg.  About the time I was making my move into the lead I had a skier loose control from the other side of the race course and torpedo into on coming traffic.  I had about 1/2 sec to do something to avoid a head on collision because the guy had no control over where he was going.  We ended up hitting each other but he only got my leg and ski pole… it could have been a lot worse.  I picked my self up and began to chase the skiers that had gone by me while I was on the ground.  Somehow I managed to catch everyone again and crossed the line in first.  The first place prize was a tasty loaf of chocolate chip bread.

Check out http://www.skinnyski.com/racing/results/?season=2008 for results and race pictures… I am in photos #52,88, 98 and 110 in the first photo set.  Thanks to Bruce Adelsman for taking pictures so early in the morning!

Other important info:  Grant turned 9 months old yesterday and is starting to walk more and more!  My team is racing in Canada this weekend and is doing a sprint race and a distance race. Also, it snowed about two inches yesterday and we are expecting a few more inches today…looks like I will be on real snow soon.

Well, that is what I have been doing since getting back home to the Cities.  Work has been busy but I have been training hard as well.  Grant is starting to walk a few steps at a time… I fear the day when he learns to run.

This weekend I am doing a local ski race at Hyland Hills in Bloomington.  The race with be a 2 person relay… it should be a lot of fun!

Peter Hanson put some good pics of the ski trails up above the town of West Yellowstone; a few of my favorites are below.  The trails are normally snowmobile trails but work great to ski on… although it is no easy task skiing at 8000′.

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What a busy couple of days.  I raced Saturday morning for the first time this year.  My goal was to get a top 10 but I just missed with a 16th place.  I had not skied the entire course so I didn’t save enough in the tank for the last big uphill… I didn’t feel the altitude until I made it about 1/2 way up the last climb and then the wheels came off.  Going out too hard and dying is a very painful way to race but I was still happy with the effort.

I was going to race this Tuesday in Bozeman but the race isn’t happening because there is no snow.  My team is headed to Canada for racing and I will do a few races in the Midwest.

The day after the race Garrott Kuzzy and I biked into Yellowstone National Park.  It was a blast and I will post pics when I get a chance.

Here is the pic Grant sent me before I raced.