Being a Tourist!

The Last Few Days

Since the races were all finished by Friday afternoon we took Saturday to explore Brasov - the nearest bigger city (approx. 217 000) and Sunday to explore Bucarest before flying out early Monday morning.

Here are some pictures!

We woke up to winter Saturday morning - where did that come from!

The Palace in Bucharest, the second largest admin building in the world!

Cool little alley in Brasov!

Exploring Brasov with the team!

All in all, it was a successful trip to Junior/U23 World Championships! It would have been nice to have been feeling better for racing, but you have to work with what is given to you at the time! Thank you all for reading about our adventures, and a huge thanks to everyone who has helped us get here!  Coaches, parents, family, friends, and sponsors - we could not do it without you! THANK YOU!

Junior Relays

Day 15

Today was the last day of world champs and to finish it off were team relays! Unfortunately there are only junior relays (4x2.5km for girls and 4x5km for guys), not U23 relays so Kendra didn't race. Her and the other teammates that didn't race rocked the cheering though! We didn't actually have a complete junior girls relay team because two of the girls weren't feeling well but luckily the other girl and I were still given the chance to race our part of the relay. Even though it wasn't ideal not to have anybody to pass off to when I was finishing, I'm glad I didn't pass up the opportunity to race in the event! I will never forget what an inspiring and amazing feeling it is to represent Canada :) 

Natalie ready to race!

The exchange!

Finished!

Cheering on the guys!

In the evening, the Canadian team along with all the teams, attended the final banquet/athlete party. First we had a taste of fresh beef cut off from the huge rotisserie at the entrance, followed by a traditional Romanian dinner and finally a dance!

Overall, a super fun night with the team! 

Biiiig Rotisserie - pretty sure it was beef?

Banquet table!

Skate Races

Day 14

Well it's finally semi-winter in Romania :) For the first time in a while, it was actually below zero and there was a thin dusting of natural snow covering the ground! Kendra and I were so happy that we could ski in temperatures we were more used to and on nice firm snow....maybe a little too close to ice but definitely better than slush! Today the starts were switched up so the juniors were in the morning followed by U-23 in the afternoon. I was glad to race in the morning since later on it got quite a bit foggier. Both Kendra and I weren't feeling 100% leading up to the race today but were happiest with this race of the 3 we've done so far. Kendra's body was feeling better however she found it hard to push her limits. This being the first time I have done 4 laps for a 10km, I wasn't sure how to pace myself and finished feeling like I had a bit more to give but overall was happy with how I skied! Even if we may not have always been super pumped with our results, Kenny and I are really enjoyed racing and learning from the experience. The truth is, as long as we're smiling there's nothing to worry about :)
Today's race was Kendra's last for the trip but she is looking forward to cheering for the junior relays tomorrow!!

Nat over the top of the hill

Kendra climbing the hill

Natalie's free skate

Kendra finishing it off

Rest Day

Day 13

Today was a super relaxing day. We decided not to train today to try to get back to feeling good! We had to fill the hours with something though, so we headed down to Dracula’s castle in Bran a 1/2hr away with a bunch of other teams. The castle was cool, but the highlight was scoping out the Romanian pastries that we will sample this weekend when we head down with the Canadian team. The evening was filled by playing a game of charades with the team, which was actually quite hilarious!

Dracula's Castle!

Cool stone bridgey thing!

Checking out the market in front of the castle

Classic Day

Day 12

Both Natalie and I were pretty excited for this day as generally 5km and 10km classic races are our thing! Unfortunately, it was less than ideal conditions out there and both our bodies were not feeling 100%. The racecourse at 8:30am when the U23 girls started already had puddles in it – so by the time Natalie raced around 1pm the size of the puddles had only increased! This made for a super mentally tough day as we were fighting the conditions as well as our bodies to try to go as hard as possible. Natalie especially had a hard time because with her late starting position she had no one to ski with on her second lap whereas on the 2.5km lap everyone else had someone to ski with! The little bit I skied with the other girls was super fun and interesting to learn how the other girls ski the course. On the bright side though, it was a fantastic day for cheering with blue skies and temperatures between 15-20 degrees! The afternoon was spent cheering on the rest of the team! This race took quite a lot of energy though, so we are happy that it is a rest day tomorrow!

Nat finishing the 5km

Afternoon cheering!

First Race Day

Day 11

Sprint day!! The U23s raced the 1.3km sprints in the morning, followed by the juniors in the afternoon. The setup worked pretty well, as all the juniors could watch the U23s and the U23s could watch all the juniors, which made for a super fun day! It was a beautiful day - but rather hot for racing! The sun came out making for some pretty slushy conditions. The wax techs did a fantastic job on the skis making our first race very enjoyable! Despite the fact that skate sprints are generally not our forte - both Natalie and I felt like our qualifiers were solid preparation for tomorrows race. Also,  due to the crazy forecasted weather (heat and rain!) both the U23 races and the junior races are tomorrow! The organizers are hoping that all the races can be fit in before the snow is gone! (We will know more about the organizers plans in the next few days). Regardless of the weather though, we are ready and excited for the classic races tomorrow!

Stadium setup from above

Some of our awesome wax techs

It was a gorgeous day! Look at those mountains!

The uphill (right) and the downhill (left) on the course

Watching the Heats!

Hannah and Natalie after their race!

Bye Bye Wheels!

Day 9

Today will be (hopefully!!) our last day on rollerskis before the championships start! For training today, we split into 4 groups that each went down to the bottom of the mountain separately to do our race prep, two days out of the first races. For Natalie and I, that meant an easy 1-1:15min rollerski. Although the rollerskiing was still rollerskiing (so not fantastic by definition!) it gave us a chance to get a feel of the surrounding towns. Unfortunately, the road was quite a bit busier than the day before as it seems that the area is quite the tourist destination for Romanians on a Saturday! It wasn't only the tourists that made the road busy, however, as traffic was also slowed by a shepherd herding his sheep and multiple itty bitty lambs down the road. (Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but take my word for it - these were adorable little lambs!!). Also of interest were the locals dragging huge carts up the mountain side filled with dirt (as far as we could tell). No doubt about it, there are some hard working people around here!

The afternoon consisted of walking around where the trucks were laying down snow, to get a feel for the course. It is definitely coming along - although there is definitely some work to be done!

The piles of snow waiting to be flattened

 It was enough to get us pretty excited for the next day, where we will actually get to ski!!!



Day 10

Today's big excitement was getting being back on snow! Man made snow,...but still snow:) As seen in our earlier blogs, training in Romania so far has consisted of running and rollerskiing, so getting back on real skis today was great! In order to preserve what snow we do have now, there was only an hour allotted to all the girls and an hour for the guys.

The madness when everyone was allowed on course

Since the U-23s race tomorrow and again the next day, Kendra had a lot to do in a pretty short time slot considering she had to test classic and Skate skis as well as do her race prep for the sprint. I will have the opportunity to test classic on Tuesday so this meant I could be a little more relaxed today. Despite the fact that we were pretty busy while we were on skis, I couldn't help noticing how cool it was being on the course with so many other athletes! We were constantly weaving in and out of people just to keep moving! The slightly hectic hour, however, was very exciting and got both of us pretty pumped to race this week!! This being my first time racing internationally (not counting Alaska) I am a little nervous for sure but at the same time am really looking forward to this new experience! Even though the atmosphere and location are much different than what were used to, Kendra and I are excited to get out on the trails and race :)

Apres ski excitement!