Winter Start

The winter has officially begun! Last weekend was the annual Winter Start competition in Steamboat. On saturday my nerves were very high. I was excited to see how much I had improved since last winter. The nerves got to me and my first competition jump was not what I was going for. The distance was a solid 92 meters starting me second in the race, but I know I can do better than that. We took a second competition jump to use for the race on sunday because the weather supposed to be bad. This jump was much better and I went 100.5 meters. Anyone who went past 100 meters won a free Big Agnes Puffy Coat so I was excited about that! I have always been very confident in my jumping. I usually start towards the front of the race but have a hard time hanging with the faster skiers. Since the end of last winter I have been working so hard to improve my skiing and it has really payed off. I kind of surprised myself on saturday and skied one of my better races ever. This was huge for my confidence and cemented the fact that my hard work is paying off. I got out sprinted into the finish and came in 5th place. I was satisfied with this result but looking to improve on it. The following day was nasty. On sunday it was cold, snowy, and windy. Instead of jumping we used our second jump from the day before and raced off of that. Once again I started the race in second place and I felt great. I actually had an even better race than the day before. I was halfway through the last lap sitting comfortably in 4th place. This is where things went bad. I took a wrong turn and skied an extra loop accidentally. Instead of finishing 4th, I finished in 7th. I definitely learned my lesson to know the course very well because in an international competition I would have been disqualified. On the bright side my cross country skiing is improving and I'm going into next weeks Continental Cups in Park City with a lot of confidence. I'll write an update after the COC's. Thanks to everyone for all the support!- Ben Berend