July 4th Week

First off I want to thank everybody who attended our wine soiree in support of the NNF. It was a succesful event thanks to you guys! So this was a busy week. The US Nordic Combined Team and many other Ski Jumpers and Nordic Combined skiers from all over the country traveled to Steamboat. We started off the week with another time trial up fish creek on roller skis. Although I raced with a far different pace, I only ended up one second slower than I was a few weeks ago. I was faster to the first checkpoint and slower to the second checkpoint but ended up finishing with a similar time. That means this time I went out faster but kind of blew up in the middle. I was satisfied with my time but still am a few minutes slower than the countries best Nordic Combined athletes. Next up was the Calcutta jumping event on Tuesday. People who attended the wine soirée placed money on specific athletes and if their athlete or athletes did well they can win a prize. Since I won last year many people bet on me so there was a little bit of pressure. Little Decker Dean ended up winning. He's a twelve year old Nordic Combined athlete who has a very bright future. I finished in second place not even close to Decker. He killed it! On Wednesday we had another competition. I had a solid trial jump of 70.5 meters and went into my first competition jump confident. Unfortunately what happened next seems to be a consistent theme, better trial jump than competition jump. I shanked my first competition jump. It was the result of just trying too hard. I went a dismal 65 meters. I turned it around for my next jump and did what I knew I could do. I set a new hill record on Steamboat's K68 with a jump of 76.5 meters. So although the first one was rough, it was a successful day. I ended up placing second place once again. Taylor Fletcher, a member of the US Nordic Combined Team won the event. On the 4th of July (Thursday) we had a roller ski race up Main Street then a long standing jump competition (furthest jump without crashing). The race was alright but I know I could have achieved a better result. I finished up 4th in the long standing which was a solid ending to a long week. All the athletes have gone home and now it's back to training for a few weeks before we leave for Park City then move on to Europe for a month. I'm getting excited for those trips and will update you on how they go. Thanks to everyone who makes what I do possible.