Nationals 50k

full results
The start of the race was a total disaster. As the field left the starting grid, I was in the middle and didn't have much room to skate. All of a sudden, the red suit in front of me goes down and I crash into him. I realized my ski came off but it turned out the NIS binding had ripped off. Once the stampede ended I could undo the binding from my boot and slide it back on the ski in the most forward position.
After 2 laps I moved the binding back to the middle of the ski and they worked much better after that.
I ended up 27th overall, 22nd Canadian and 12:51 back of the winner, Gord Jewett. Noah Hoffman, the guy who caused my mishap ended up 3rd.

Nationals Classic Sprint Day

final results
We decided to use kickwax. My qualifier went ok, but was off balance on the herring bone pitch heading into the finish and I didn't feel totally gassed at the end.
I was 22nd in qualifying among seniors.
My quarterfinal had Crooks, Lenes, Stephen, Sandau, Pletcher and me. I was a bit behind after the start, but ahead of Sandau. I fought really hard in the downhill and flats to get back on. The far left on the last uphill turned out to be a good choice and I passed Stephen and held onto 4th in the heat. This was good enough for 19th overall and 14th Canadian. I wasn't far back at the end, but I can't say I was close to qualifying either. From my heat, Crooks and Lenes made the final, finishing 1st and 6th, and Pletcher was a lucky loser and grabbed 2nd in the B final.
Overall a decent sprinting result for me at Nationals.

Nationals 15km classic

results
My skis weren't fast enough. I just didn't get the right thickness and length of klister. It's tough to get it exactly right. You needed the grip to climb the hills but with too much drag you lost a ton of time on the gliding sections. I was well back but actually had less guys ahead of me than I thought I would.

Nationals 10km Skate race

results
I tried to start out at a good pace but not too fast. I caught my 15 sec. man Greer and he followed me until we were caught by Brian. We lapped through the stadium together but then Brian's pace was too tough to follow up the steep climb. Eventually Greer and I caught Gord, and I tried to keep the pace high heading to the finish. A fall on the last tough corner cost me a top 10. I ended up 14th.

Nationals Relay 2009

final results semi final results
I was once again paired with Luke and the technique was skate.
In the semi we battled with an all brother team from Nakkertok. I was able to go by Aidan Lennie going in to the finish, but it turned out we both had lucky loser times. The Lennies' time was fractions of a second faster than a Foothills team that didn't make it from the other semi.
In the final we ended up last. Good enough for 11th place overall and 10th Canadian team.

Duntroon 30km

Results

It was a tough race today. I chose my skis based on the forecast that it would snow and I had good skis for the first lap of the race. On the first lap of 7.5k, I was losing a bit over the top of each hill, but I was able to get back on the train each time. It stopped snowing and as the course got skied over, we were skiing on colder, drier snow. My skis were not liking this, and they felt especially slow on the uphills. At about 11km I was dropped by the lead pack. I was on my own to push against the wind. I kept a decent pace, but on the 3rd lap my muscles were too tired to ski well and I started to lose a lot of time. Ellis passed me and I could not match his pace. In the last 4k, I got a bit more energy knowing I was almost done.

With the right skis, I would have had a much better race, but I'm not sure if it would have been enough for a great result. I didn't seem to have the legs to climb the steep hills, which you needed on that course. Thanks again to the Skielite waxers and David Z. for helping with feeds.

Noram skate sprints Duntroon

Results

After a clear night, the snow was very cold, and the air temperature was about -20 when we arrived. I though my qualifier went ok, but I ended up 16th, and 16 seconds back. It was not the deepest field, as I was 5 seconds out of 15th. In my heat I had #5(Ellis), #6(Touchette), #15(Luke V.) and two others. I had a decent start but wasn't aggressive enough to get a good position and left the stadium in 4th place. I tried to move up several times on the uphill to the top of the course, but Luke kept closing the door by moving over to block me. I tried again just before the big downhill, but the snow was too slow on the outside. On the bottom corner I managed to move up into 3rd, but that was short lived. Once we hit the hill going into the finish, the other guys accelerated away from and I finished 4th. That was enough to retain my ranking of 16th on the final results.

I was expecting a little better, since I had good energy, but I didn't really have the snappiness you need to sprint fast. It sounds a bit strange, but Duntroon is fairly low in terms of elevation and you actually have to ski faster than at altitude. I did gain some confidence for the next time I make the heats. At the very least I got in a good, hard workout the day before the 30k.

Big thanks to Luc and Jonathan of Skielite for helping us with the waxing!