Dear, "Famous" Person

For this week's English assignment, we had to write a blog post directed at our "ideal reader".  This person should be famous and an expert in their field. Honestly, my ideal reader is my friends and my English teacher. If I had to choose someone "famous" to write to, it would be Jessie Diggins. Jessie Diggins competed in the 2014 Sochi Olympics for cross-country skiing.

Dear, Jessie Diggins

I doubt you know this, but we have actually met a few times. Before you begin to think I am some creepy stalker, I actually met you at fast and female (fast and female is an event that girls ages 6-18 can go to and meet/talk to famous female winter olympians) last year and the year before that.

I always knew that you were a great skier, but I didn't truly understand why until I met you. You were so good because you were willing to work hard to accomplish your goal. You knew what you wanted and what you had to do in order to get there. You are an amazing skier and it is so inspirational to see you skiing so well.

It isn't just your ability that I find inspiring, but also your bond with your team. The U.S. women's cross-country ski team has done so well in the past few years. Not only has your team placed well, but you also have a strong friendship with all of your teammates. The videos that your team has made inspires (mostly entertains) everyone I know who skis (so basically just my ski team). My ski team will always talk about the videos your team makes and how inspiring it is to see how close everyone on your team is.

I also admire how excited you are every time you win. I know many people who will win races and not even blink an eye because that's what they always assume is going to happen. I will see pictures of you on the podium and you always look so happy to be doing what you are doing (and doing well too).

See what I mean... (photo courtesy of her blog)

You are also very thankful of the people who helped you get to where you are today. When I was reading your blog post about your win at the world cup, you were sure to thank the people who waxed your skis and coach.

I am aware there is probably only a .000001%  you'll ever read this, but if you ever did I would just like to say how inspiring you are to aspiring cross-country skiers.  If you ever happened to stubble upon my blog, I would hope that it would remind you of what it was like to be a young cross country skier again.


- Claire

Ski, Sleep, Race, Repeat

The other weekend when my cross-country ski team went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a ski race. Once, we arrived we unloaded all of our gear from the van and got our room assignments from our coach. We were staying at the antler inn, a small motel 30 minutes away from the race course. I was staying with Victoria and Sydney (another girl on my team). We went to look at the race course 30ish minutes later. There was only one problem we looked at the wrong course.

We got back and unpacked all our stuff. Again, we faced another problem, we had two beds and three girls. In the end we decided to push the beds together, so that each person would have more room. Then came the problem of decided who had to sleep in the middle. We decided to handle it like we handle all other problems, rock, paper, scissors. Victoria ended up losing, so she got the middle that night and I took it the next.

Later that night, after we had all waxed our skis, we went out to dinner at a pizza place. However, Mila (another girl on my team) and I were still waxing our skis when they left for dinner. A few of the older kids on the team knew how to get there, so they waited for us and then we walked over. We got there and had to sit at a table by ourselves because the rest of the team didn't save us a table (thanks guys). Anyway, we ate pizza and went back to our hotel rooms.

The next day was race day. The first race was an individual start (meaning that everyone starts 15 - 30 seconds apart) and it was classic (the one that looks like walking). I remember thinking that the race was really difficult and I believe that I ended up getting 15th (maybe 16th).

After the race, our coach drove us out of town to go goat ( possibly sheep) watching. We spent almost an hour looking at the goats (possibly sheep) and they came up to the side of our van, which was cool. Our one problem was that Kate, Mila and I wanted to go see the new Star Wars movie at 4:00 and it was 3:30. We ended up making it back just in time to go see the movie with some of the other kids on our team.

The goats or sheep (no one really knows) Photo Courtesy of me 

The girls who saw the movie liked, but the guys hated it and thought it was too predictable. Anyway, we went straight from the movie to a Thai food place (Thai Me Up). It seemed inevitable that we would go to a Thai place at least once on this trip because of the abundance of Thai restaurants in Jackson. I'm not joking there were probably six Thai places in this tiny little town. I am not particularly fond of Thai food, so I was not stoked to say the least. Kate and I happened to order really spicy food (mostly Kate) and could hardly finish the meal.

Kate, Mila and I had not waxed our skis yet, so we tried to leave early to get a head start on waxing, but none of the older kids would let us leave (they waxed their skis when we saw the movie). They told us it was team bonding or something like that, so we wasted five minutes of precious waxing time arguing with them. We ran back to the hotel to go wax our skis only to find our that they put away everything we needed to wax with. We ran up to our coaches' room to ask him what wax to use and ended up ranting about the whole thing to one of our coaches for about ten minutes (thanks for putting up with our rants).

Anyway the next day was a skate mass start race (mass start is when everyone starts at once). Kate and I were neck and neck the entire race, which was good because I think it pushed both of us to go harder. I ended up getting 13th in that race, which I was really happy about. However, some of my teammates ended up getting hurt. One girls dislocated her shoulder and another kid sprained his lcl (which apparently is in your knee). Both of them are doing much better now. On the other hand, many of my teammates got on the podium and had awesome races (shoutout to Julia, Sydney, Leah, Skylar, Mila and whoever else I missed). Everyone else did really good as well!

A picture of my ski team after our last race. Photo Courtesy of my mom

All in all it was a good trip and I can't wait for our next race in Boise.

How Nordic Skiers Waste Time... (Nordic Conversations #2)

My cross-country ski team had a race a few weeks ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We left at 8:00 am on Thursday and raced Friday and Saturday. The trip was interesting to say the least, especially the five hour bus ride.

Early Thursday morning my entire ski team loaded our stuff in a van and chose our seats for the next five hours. Three of my friends and I wanted to sit together on the bus and there was only one row with four seats, so we decided to claim that row for ourselves. That was a terrible mistake. Everyone loaded all of their cross-country skis into the van and little did we know that they all hung over the tops of our seats. I spent the first two hours of the drive sitting in a very uncomfortable position trying not to get hit in the head with ski bags. Once we were out of cell range (yes, I am aware how bad that sounds and no we are not entirely phone dependent people) my friend Victoria and I decided that we should look through our camera rolls on our phones to kill time. Her camera roll was full of cool, artsy pictures and mine was just screenshots of things I sent my friends (yes, I am THAT person).

The picture we stopped to take... Photo courtesy of moi. 

When we stopped to take pictures, I decided that I was going to move up a row, so I wasn't getting hit in the head with the very annoying ski bags. There was only one person in the row in front of me, so I decided to sit there. That was interesting because we didn't really talk...  I was just awkwardly sitting there on my phone, but I didn't have service so I just stared at my lock screen for almost an hour. Eventually, a group of kids on my team decided to play cards and the only card game all of us know how to play is BS. So, that was what we played. I was a little skeptical of playing BS because the last time I played with the team, I lost and ended up losing a bet (that I did not know about) too. Anyway, we played BS for an hour or so and then went back to doing our own thing. Oh and I won one round by the way, so you know that was fun...

30 or so minutes later one of the girls starts telling us a hypothetical scenario. She is setting the stage for us and begins her story. She said "Ok, so imagine you are biking to college..." She was immediately cut off by almost everyone listening because why would you be biking to college? Anyway she continues her story, "So, you are actually on a tandem bike with a murder". Again her logic was flawed and everyone made sure she knew that (why would you ever be on a tandem bike with a murderer?) She continued on again "You arrive at a gas station (we all asked why you would be at a gas station if you were on a bike, so she changed it to a gun show), ok fine you arrive a gun show" Very questioningly we said "Ok..." and she continued on "What do you do?". So, to summarize you somehow end up at a gun show with a murder who is trying to kill you. What do you do? Most of the kids on our team said that they would run and take a gun for possible protection.

Before you begin questioning our mental health (more specifically my friend's), I would just like to say that... Actually I have no real explanation for my friend's hypothetical scenario. Anyway, that was the story of our five hour bus ride to Jackson Hole. Check back for another post about the rest of the trip soon!