A few hours ago I finished my first World Cup of the season up here North of the Arctic Circle in Gallivare, Sweden. It was good to be back up here - as I miss the sun disappearing into the horizon at 2pm... Haha, seriously though it is ridiculously dark and at 8pm Stef and I are just bagged and it takes all the willpower we have to stay up until a reasonable hour - it's messed.

These last two weeks have been bigger volume weeks so coming into this race today I didn't know what to expect. My legs had been feeling pretty heavy earlier in the week, but I was pleasantly surprised today during my warm up to find my legs responding well throughout the course and that gave me a good feeling as I prepared to battle through the 15km skate.

I love the course in Gallivare for skating. There's 3 decent climbs on the course, but none are leg-destroyingly steep. The course favors gliders and people who can "ski big," and that kind of skate skiing is my strength. The one down side is that it was cold. The artificial snow + the cold(ish) conditions make for not much glide. That coupled with mother nature's little treat of 5cm of snow last night and this morning didn't do anything to help speed things up and made the course not only slow but semi-soft.

Sadly it was a classic Kershaw race: go out hard and fade in the end. Some definite positives were that I was skiing well technically, and I stayed positive out there. The Italian Checci (World Cup winner in Canmore's 15km skate last year) was a lap behind and I got a ride off him for about 3km - which ended up being a big mistake today. He was bombing, and when I finally realized that, it was getting a little late to do much. I dropped him coming into my last 5km lap and all was good until the 1.5kms when I tightened up ever so slightly. Not a good thing on the World Cup. Every little mistake is magnified in the "white circus" and that little bit cost me too much time and places, as I finished a very average 28th.

I'm glad to be in the points in the first competition of the season of course, but I was hoping to "ski differently" than my normal way (as in going out slower and coming back stronger), but it didn't workout that way. That said, it's been 3 decent efforts so far this year and that's what matters in November. Be "in it," now and be closer to the top as the season progresses.

BIg ups to Hellner today, whoa! He's from Gallivare and put on quite the show for the home crowd winning his first ever WC. It kind of bums me out that I was 13sec behind him last weekend, and 57sec behind him this weekend in the 15km skate, Arghh... Haha. As well as Hellner's unreal performance, big ups to Killer Piller too (1.4sec off 1st) and the Swiss Team: 7th, 14th, 21st, 31st... Wowzers!

So am I happy? No. Am I upset? No. Just an average race where I made a little too many small mistakes and those seconds I lost (as in every World Cup) cost you big-time.

Next up some classic action in Kuusamo. I'm obviously looking forward to that, but again I'm cautiously optimistic. It's still November and the season is long. I'm looking to improve on a few things and will keep a chill attitude as those races progress: Good pacing, staying relaxed, skiing with a positive attitude and with good technique. Patience is everything on the World Cup, so we'll see how it goes.

Peace,

D.

More from Kershaw's Korner

	Argh. I finished the Tour, but not how I wanted...  (Jan 5th, 2009) Ok, so in order to keep my focus on the task at hand (mainly, waking up every morning, smiling and throwing the bib on for another fun filled day of putting myself into severe oxygen debt), I had been outwardly modest with my expectations for this year's Tour De Ski. In reality, after 5 races, sitting in 7th overall, even after some sprinting woes, and only a 20km classic mass start and 11km uphill skate stage remaining, my eyes and heart was focused on much loftier aspirations...   read more
	Race day #4: A new record!   (Dec 31st, 2008) Today's 15km individual start classic race start was uncharted waters for me in this Tour-De-Ski competition. The previous two seasons I seemed to always hit the wall on the rest day - getting sick and having to abandon the whole deal. It's not so this year baby! The biggest plus of today's race was that I actually was able to start the competition and finish the race!!   read more
	From Rest Day number 1 of this 2008 Tour  (Dec 30th, 2008) It's been a busy last couple days here at the Tour-De-Ski. Some real highlights coupled with some - well, not so much.    read more
	Tour De Ski - Day 1: 3.75km Prologue  (Dec 27th, 2008) It's officially game on, and today's 3.75km Prologue marked the first of 7 tough races in the span of nine days here at the third annual Tour-De-Ski.   read more
	Merry Christmas!  (Dec 24th, 2008) Merry Christmas from the good ol' Kulm Hotel here in Davos! It's Christmas Eve and what am I doing? Check the pic of the duffel bag below - I am packing. Not the Christmas present I was hoping for. No cozy fires, no caroling, no fam-time, no mom gingerbread men, or Christmas cookies, and no girlfriend around either. But you know what? I'm cool with it. It's Tour time baby, and in two short days my third crack at it is about to begin in Oberhof, Germany.    read more
	ABSOLUTELY AWFUL - a garbage day here in Davos.  (Dec 14th, 2008) It was a horrendous race today in the distance race, oops I mean sprint here in Davos. It seemed that the epically long feeling 1.7km sprint qualifier was just BAD NEWS.   read more
	KA-THE F-BOOM - Davos 15km Classic  (Dec 13th, 2008) Today was the 15km classic here in Davos, Switzerland and wow did I ever come unglued in the last 5km of that race.    read more
	15km Classic: 5th. YOU.KNOW.IT.  (Nov 30th, 2008) That's more like it... Actually, I would have never guessed that I would have been racing at this kind of level today. I was so upset and bummed after yesterday when I knew that the body was there - but couldn't use it after getting DQ'ed after my quarter. Racing is funny, and just knowing that I had a good body yesterday made me curious to see if I could be solid back-to-back.   read more
	DQ: And there weren't any blizzards being served...  (Nov 29th, 2008) Just a quick update here: Today was... interesting.    read more
	Bruks' day two: 15km Skate  (Nov 16th, 2008) Day two here in Bruksvallarna was a 15km skate race. It was on the same 3km loop and again there were roughly 200 Men in the field, so much the same as yesterday.   read more