Random thoughts and Men's 15km Classic XC

I was so tired last night when I had to rewrite the post that I missed a couple things. So I'm going to start with random thoughts and stories. Then go into today's events.

At the reception last night Ambassador White said a few things and then invited Kikkan Randall to come up and talk. He made a joke about hearing that she had trouble with a Norwegian snake in her sprint race, but that in this country it was more likely a troll. Her comeback was that the snake was trying to trip up the Swedish athlete but missed and got Kikkan. It is nice to see that she can joke about it.

I really, really hope that this link works for everyone. It took a moment for it to load the page when I tried it. Move the video ahead to the 2:38 mark and watch from there until 6:05. If it doesn't work someone let me know so we can keep looking for a link. http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/253019/ This is the official dance of World Championships. They have everyone do it during stops in competition and at the medal ceremony each night. I knew that I knew the song, but it was three days before someone helped me come up with the fact that it was Everybody Dance Now. Since they put it into Norwegian it threw me but I'd had C&C Music Factory in mind.

Last year the team suits were red. Since everyone is red they opted to switch to black. It appears that everyone who used to be red decided to do that except Norway. So I have to thank Sprint and Nature Valley for their sponsor patches that stand out enough to pick the USA black suits out of the crowd. I always know when it is one of our athletes thanks to those yellow patches. Today I was wasting time before the event started. I realized that besides what I was wearing (courtesy of Farra) I was also a walking sponsor ad. So I put it all together for the picture below. Do I know how to support the cause or what? And you have to love that Snowboarding's logo ended up at Nordic Worlds. I'm guessing Ski team did not end up at Snowboarding Worlds.

High Sierra bag (ignore the SB logo), Sprint on the lanyard, Visa on the credential holder, Dermatone chapstick on the bag, Delta blanket.

I think for today a lot of people played hooky from work. It seemed a lot more crowded at the train station compared to yesterday. But not horrible. I headed up early on the off chance I would get to see Liz or the other girls while the course was open. I was glad when I saw the crowds to get a head start, but it turns out I didn't need it. Since I was making good time I decided to stop in the merchandise tent to see if there were any last minute things I needed to pick up. I have to admit, I really wanted the mascots, but they only come in one size and I was having trouble figuring out how I would pack them. So I picked up something smaller with the mascots on it instead. Then I headed up the hill to the W section and the spot I had found the previous day. Sadie had assured me last night that not only were the guys going past that spot for their course, but would actually go by twice when they added a 5km loop since they were doing 15km instead of 10km. I had barely gotten to my spot when I saw someone in a USA suit go by. Since I didn't have my glasses on yet I just yelled, "Go USA!". The person stopped and turned around so I waved. Turns out it was Billy Demong. He said he wondered when he would see me. Guess the other days were too foggy for him to tell. We chatted for a couple of minutes and I congratulated him on the new addition to his family before he skied off. I never did see any of the girls, but Noah, Simi, Lars and Kris all skied by with some of the coaches at different times. They all smiled or waved when I yelled good luck. Noah laughed and said thanks. I told his family I would fill in being loud and cheering for him today. They went skiing in Lillehammer.

Simi Hamilton

Noah Hoffman



Lars Flora


Kris Freeman

Since I had plenty of time I enjoyed some people watching and got to know the Swedish couple next to me. I had just cheered on one of our guys in the warm up saying good luck when the man said they would need it. Fortunately, he was teasing me. It turns out they had flown over the night before and were just here for today's event. They are big fans of the Swedish athletes. We agreed that we would cheer for each other's countries and also the Australians. We also helped each other out by taking each other's picture or watching our stuff so we could go to the bathroom or to get food. It is nice to make friends when traveling alone so I don't have to carry everything with me once I've found a spot. They were quite popular since they had printed a start list, which of course everyone wanted to see. I had written down the start #'s for our guys, so I only needed to check their list once. Eventually the race started and the cheering began. It was great having them go by us twice. More opportunities to take pictures and cheer them on. Toward the end of the race I was waiting for Kris to make his second pass by us when Paul that I met yesterday, walked up to the couple next to me and asked to see the start list they had. I told him a reporter should have his own. So he came over and stood with me for the last few athletes. We were both laughing that it is easy to pick out Kris even if you haven't met him because his sponsor is Eli Lilly and no one else has that one. As soon as the last guy went by I headed out. I was pretty sure that none of our guys were on the podium. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that Kris was 24th, Noah 30th!!! Lars was 39th and Simi finished 51st. I am so happy for Noah.

Me with the Normal Hill Jump behind

The walk down the hill went quickly, but the train platform was a bit crowded. This was actually a good day though.

Train station crowd

I was home by 4pm though so that is a good day. Now I'm trying to get organized with packing since tomorrow is going to be a long day of Nordic Combined and Cross Country Relays. Hanne and I are going to go shopping for Trinity this evening too. And after yesterday I'm thinking an early night to bed is sounding really good. For the relays, the women are team #12 with Kikkan Randall and Sadie Bjornsen. On the men's side we are team #17 with Torin Koos and Andy Newell. If I am reading the FIS list correctly it looks like for Nordic Combined we will have Nick Hendrickson competing instead of Bryan Fletcher. And then of course there is Billy Demong, Johnny Spillane, Todd Lodwick and Taylor Fletcher. GO USA!