What a busy weekend.  Even and I drove up to Mora on Saturday morning to race the new Vasaloppet sprints at 2:30.  Brandon Ostroot came up with us and gave us ridiculously fast skis for the finals and my teammate Andre Watt took 1st with me a very close second.  That evening all the guys crashed in a hotel room in Hinckley while Marybeth and Angie (Evan’s wife) stayed in another room with the kids.  The idea was that the guys would sleep better without the kids waking us up in the middle of the night… but as it turned out the teenage kids getting smashed in the room next to us was more of an issue than our own kids getting up for bottle feedings.

The morning of the big race I woke up feeling less than good but I was not very worried because my best races this year have happened when I’ve felt less than ideal in the morning.  All the prerace activities went well and I got to the start line with plenty of time.  Once the cannon sent us on our way Andre and I went to the front right away and pulled for the first k or two but it was so fast we still had a group of 30+ skiers.  We moved aside and let others do work for the next 30min but after this our group was still huge so Andre and I took turns breaking off the front of the pack and making other skiers chase.  A little bit of team tactics but nothing unfair.

This is where it gets fuzzy but I let Andre get away with 40k to go and he really got away.  The group I was with could not see him and I was sitting comfortable in the group wondering what I should do next.  With 37k? to go I broke away from the chase group and bridged to Andre after 5 min of very hard skiing.  I caught him and we skied together for another 5 mins.  I was very worried the group behind us was going to reel us in so I pulled very hard.  With 30ish K to go I turned around and no one was behind me so I had a decision to make… do I go now and try to hold the lead for 30+ K into the wind or do I wait for the group and try to go later in the race.  I decided to go for it and it ended up working although I don’t think it was the easiest option.  At one point the chase group was close enough to see but thankfully a twisty wooded section ensued and it was out of sight out of mind.  I was never sure how much of a lead I had so I pushed hard to the end and found out I had a 5 min gap at the finish line.  It was a weird feeling being chased for that long but it was a very fun race and I am feeling good today.  I am so happy I finally won the Vasaloppet after being close the last 2 years.