January 24, 2008 (Canmore, Alta.) – Both this little mountain town we call Canmore and I are goal-driven. Some of our goals are even the same. As far as I can tell, this town aims to 1) Have a great time hosting the best world cup races on the circuit and 2) Look great on TV. Same thing for me. For Canmore, looking great consists of having gorgeous scenery and lots of snow sparkling under the sun and bright blue sky. Sometimes the mountains get in the way of the view… but in general this place is making a strong case for itself as a tourist destination for those millions of Europeans who watch the races live on TV.

For me, “looking good on TV” is defined as skiing as fast and technically well as I possibly can and crossing the finish line before my competitors. No sense over-complicating it. One of my major career goals is to become the best classical skier in the world. For me this goal represents the epitome of taking to heart Beckie Scott’s advice to me as a teenager which was: “Dream Big!” As I strive to make the technical, physical and mental gains my belief sometimes vacillates like a ping pong ball in my psychological game, but for the most part I serve up a positive outlook because it offers my best chance for success.
In my two world cup classic sprints this year I have presented both ends of this spectrum. In a World Cup in Finland two months ago I was 40th and discouraged. Yesterday here in Canmore I finished 12th and empowered.

One goal at a time – I got through the exciting day. I felt fortunate to have qualified in 25th (time 3:22), having been on the wrong side of the line that divides the top 30 from those whose race is done for the day, a few too many times last season. I vowed to maximize my quarterfinal opportunity and give my best effort to win it.

With two big cups of coffee in me and and full focus on the task at hand my heat went really well. It was awesome to be racing with sweet mama Sara Renner who unleashed fantastic speed in the qualifier to come 15th. I felt stronger than ever as I skied the first half as relaxed as I could while matching the stride of the racer in front of me. I doubled poled into the finish with a Finnish favorite Aino-Kaisa Saarinen as hard as I could and was relieved to have reached my goal of winning my quarterfinal. Instantly I re-focused on my semi-final just 35 minutes away. As soon as I was done cooling down it was time to warm up again.

In the semi-final I had the great pleasure of skiing behind eventual winner Petra Majdic of Slovenija. Tall, smooth and a very successful classic sprinter, Petra burned the legs right off me and although I managed to stay with her for 1.0 of the 1.4 km course, I was completely overcome by a flood of lactic acid and seemed to move backward as the rest of the heat passed me in the finishing stretch. The goal of looking good on TV was now as game-over as my pumped out muscles, but with a B-final race just 15 minutes away I opted to delay savage cursing directed skyward at the unforgiving gods of physiology until after the next race.

The most important goals at this stage were to stay positive and look the way I wanted to feel. So I skipped around keeping limbered up for the upcoming challenge and joked with my wax technicians about a fresh, peppy feeling that had just overcome me. I employed my best strut entering the start area, and blasted out into another heat. This time I was a contender in the race until a Russian and our old friend Aino-Kaisa put the boots to me on the last part of the climb. Bleary-eyed I battled the feeling of being a human cement mixer and crossed the line to the cheers of the incredible home crowd.

Nothing beats the feeling of racing here at home, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am to the organizers, sponsors and volunteers who work tirelessly to create what is now known as the Best World Cup on the circuit. With Canmore reaching it’s goal of being top dog, I can’t help but believe that this race will be a stepping stone on the way to my greatest classic sprint dreams.

Thanks to all who came out to cheer!

Chandra