America's Cup Final (March 2-5)

February 28, I flew from training in Germany to my last competition of the season in Salt Lake City. Nancy Jr stayed in Germany while Nancy Sr and Brian were at World Cups in Heerenveen, Holland. Since training in Germany for 2 and 1/2 weeks went great, I was pretty confident going into this last competition even though I had high goals for how well I wanted to skate. In short, I wanted to set all of my personal best times (which I had been improving throughout this year) and finish ahead of other skaters who had beaten me during the year. I was going to be competing in 4 individual events (the 500 meters, 1000 meters, 1500 meters and 5,000 meters) and a "Mass Start" race.


How did it go? AWESOME! I broke all of my records, with only one exception. The exception was the 1500 meters, where I was on pace to beat my personal record by almost 2 seconds and then wiped out on the last turn (but I think I'll still consider that a personal record because I know about what time I was going to finish at anyways). 

Below are some photos from the "Mass Start" race which we compete in on the last day of competition after all other races are finished. The Mass Start is experimental, meaning it is being tested before it will be a part of selection processes for national teams and a part of the Olympics. For the guys, about 20-25 skaters race at one time for 20 laps and usually with prize money for the winner. I finished around 7th place?

I'm in the middle/left of the photo, wearing the same skinsuit as the photo
above but without my hood on