NSCF-FXC Racing

Day 5: Race Day! April 1, 2012

Hello everyone! Greetings from Yllas, Finland. We have just settled in after a long, productive, fun day of travelling and racing. This morning, we left Gallivare this morning a bit before seven, with overloaded cars and athletes packed into the back seats. We drove to Kalix, Sweden (about 2.5 hours) and arrived in a small town where cars were literally parked on an ice rink outside the ski stadium.

We were warmly welcomed by the skiers of Kalix to their tiny town race, and jumped on our klistered skis to warm up. The 1K sprint course rocked and we all had a really great time skiing against some tough Swedish competition. The first round in the day was an interval start qualifying round. Even after the first three minute race, we were aware of some incredible athletes Sweden has the ability to produce. The races were very small. The girls J1 race had 7 girls in it, including our three. Claire placed 5^th, Mikayla 6^th, and Ema 3^rd!! The OJ girls had three competitors including myself and I am pleased to inform everyone that I got a solid third! In Neill’s bracket there were two OJ boys, and Neill placed second with a beautiful sprint and photo finish!! Linky won her single senior bracket! Yay!

We have heard many stories of the fun, eccentric Swedish town races, and were pleased with our experience. The people were friendly and were very happy to have us there. Neill’s buddy, Mattias (whom Neill outsprinted in the finish) came up and chatted to us after the race. He was very curious as to why we chose Kalix to visit and told us: “why would you come here, this is the most boring place on Earth.” We had to disagree. The trails were nice, and the sun was shining. Coming from Fairbanks, we really couldn’t complain.

We were all very impressed with their awards ceremony (hint hint NSCF…) as they had an entire table full of prizes (water belts, thermoses, backpacks, bags, and even axes!) which were given to all the racers. Nick has told us stories of people winning goats at these races, so we weren’t surprised to see multiple axes up for grabs. Although the axes probably wouldn’t make it through security… so we got plenty of thermoses to go around!

After the race, we loaded up the cars (and were joined by the lovely Eliza and Sue!) and headed towards Finland. We are now staying near Yllas, and are excited to get out and explore the 330K of trails outside our front door.

Sorry for the delay, we have had trouble accessing internet at the new accommodations. Anyways, off to a Sauna and bed!

-Kira