What could have been...

Today is one of those days that you just have to stick away in your back pocket and let stew.  As far as skiing is concerned it was a great day!  I made a silly mistake in the first run in a delay.  My goggles were fogged up so I was not looking where I needed to be looking, a mistake that I should not have made, with or without the foggy goggles, but they certainly did not help me any.  So I slid on my butt for a little ways but I pulled it out and still managed a pretty fast time considering.  The second run was really good for me. I skied mostly clean, aside from jumping about three feet early on the jump.  I got a little lost before the jump, too many turns just before the jump.  I was really fast off the jump and I got really late, fast but late, after the jump but I again held it together just long enough to  crash through the last gate, penalty free, I cleared the telemark line :) and slide through the finish line on my belly.  So I have earned a bit of a reputation for dramatic finishes, but hey I finish!  So raw time, I would have been fourth, but I got nailed with 18 penalties, 6 on the jump for not making the line and 12 in the gates.  So I ended up in 19th place.  My stance is of "questionable bootspace"  So any of the close ones I got hit with a penalty for.  I was not the only one though, a few other guys also got nailed. Sooo goal for tomorrow is to ski clean and fast!  After these races I will spend some time training working on making my stance a little bit wider so that I do not have so many close calls.  Hopefully I can ski well tomorrow, in my crash I incurred a nasty bit of skiers thumb, so I am super sore tonight though, I can barely move my thumb!  ICE ICE ICE!!  I am bib 22 tomorrow, hopefully I a ready to go!!