April 4, 2010

Race season is over... Fast and Female season is rocking!

Following the Olympics I headed to The Yukon for my first ever visit to the city of Whitehorse and the final races of my season:the Canadian Championships. I have never had anything but a good time at Nationals in my entire ski career and really enjoy meeting up with so many of the awesome people that make up the ski community and keep me going in this sport.

A major highlight of my trip to Whitehorse was the 6th Annual Fast and Female Ski Festival. An action packed day of skiing, healthy lunch, inspirational talks from racers, yoga, dancing and sweet swag. Fast and Female Director Marie Helene Thibeault was onhand and, along with the fantastic volunteers who put so much into making this big event happen in the middle of a major championships, it was a tremendous success. For me it was a real thrill getting to hang with cool skiers from all over Canada all together. The inspirational talks from Heidi Widmer, Sarah Daitch, Madeleine Williams, and hometown hero Emily Nishikawa showed our 9 to 19 year old participants the whole journey from World Juniors to World Championships and Olympics and tied together the equally awesome and inseparable Journey and Dream that make it all worthwhile. We also had the best ever turnout with 50 women for the Amazing Tips seminar for parents and coaches.

On the racing side I flew to Whitehorse with the goals of doing all five races at Nationals, doing my best at all times and winning the skate sprint. I managed to be on the podium in all five, starting with a silver medal with my 18 year old friend Annika Hicks from Canmore in the sprint relay, concluding with a bronze in the 30km classic and with gold in the skate sprint and 5km classic I was able to take home the aggregate award in the Open Women category. The ski club there organized what has got to go down as the best nationals ever, and us racers really appreciated the way things were run on time, on great courses, with great food and the Nash Bash instead of a banquet with long speeches was great. Thank you to everyone in Whitehorse who made it happen.

It has been a wild ride the past couple years with everything in my life focused on getting through the injuries and getting to the 2010 Olympics in the best shape possible. I now have a lot of different things on my plate and it feels great. Fast and Female is absolutely going off. By the end of April we will have had events in Canmore (AB), Hardwood Hills (ON), Whitehorse (YK), Yellowknife (NWT), Burns Lake (BC), Ottawa (ON), Quebec (QC) as well as two events in the USA with Kikkan in Alaska and Maine. Four months, NINE EVENTS!

This is possible through all the hard work of Marie Helene, super sponsor support, and the AMAZING Fast and Female ambassadors who have been hosting events. Kikkan Randall, Amanda Holdsworth, Alana Thomas, Sarah Daitch, Rosanna Crawford and Perianne Jones will all have travelled and taken lead roles in organizing, fundraising for and running events accross North America. Talk about Spread The Love, these women are so stupendously inspiring that I am beyond thrilled for the girls who get to hang with them. My next event will be in Quebec April 25th. Je suis tres excite!

Please join the Fast and Female group on Facebook where participants will be posting photos.

Below are some photos from Nationals taken by Justin Kennedy of JTK Photography. Check him out...
www.jtkphotography.ca

Thanks for stopping by!

Chandra