Falmouth senior Gabrielle Farrell was 3rd in the Class A Classical race but cruised to the top of the podium and won the Class A Freestyle at Titcomb Mtn by 24 seconds. We
caught up with Gabrielle and asked her about her thoughts during the freestyle race and her training.
1. What were your preparations leading up to the state meet? Well this is going to sound very corny, but I prepared by just trying to remind myself to have fun and enjoy the race. I tried not to put too much pressure on myself, and relax. I also took a nap on the bus ride up that morning to get a little rest, which I never do, so that was definitely a change from my usual routine. I am usually 100% against taking naps on buses before any kind of race but I just couldn't help myself that morning, I was exhausted.
2. How did you deal with the pressure and emotions that come along with competing in a state meet? Again, I have really just tried to look at nordic skiing from a different perspective this season. I think a lot of times its easy to start to hate racing and dread big meets like the state meet and going into a race with that mindset is in no way a recipe for success. The morning of the state meet I looked forward to getting out there on the course and was truly excited to be racing.
3. What is your favorite thing about ski racing? My favorite thing about ski racing is definitely the community. The friendships I have formed over the past 3 years of high school skiing are the reason I come back every year. Many of the people I consider to be some of the best teammates I've ever had aren't on my immediate team, which I think says a lot about the ski community and how everyone supports one another.
4.Coming into the season, what were your goals and did you achieve them? Coming into this season...I had a lot of goals and a lot of them didn't come true but many of them did. One thing I have always dreamed of was winning a state championship title, so winning the state title in freestyle was a very special moment for me. For personal reasons I had to miss the first half of the season, and for a long time I considered taking the entire season off, but I decided to come back with a new goal, to enjoy nordic skiing and to remind myself why I've loved it all these years. I definitely achieved that goal, and I think that goal is what I am most proud of this year.
5.
What was going through your mind during the freestyle race? To be honest, I don't remember much about the skate race. I don't remember anything specifically motivating or inspiration going through my head, mostly just things like "Wow, I'm really tired" and "Oh wow, thats a big hill". One thing I did focus on
during my freestyle race was to try and V2 most of the hills and also to keep my tempo high. I've always remembered my freshman year reading Sarah Wade's (2014 Class A Freestyle State Champion) interview in the paper and how she mentioned V2ing every single hill on the course and I was so impressed. I don't remember V2ing a single hill that year. Every since then I have looked up to that and challenged myself to V2 on steeper and steeper hills during races.
6.What are your plans for next year? Next year, I hope to ski for the Falmouth ski team again, as well as Maine Winter Sports Center. I had to miss nearly every Eastern Cup race this year, so I hope to ski in all of them next year. I will most likely continue nordic training throughout the summer with a big group of southern maine skiers, many of which are very good friends of mine, so it should be a fun summer working towards next winter. I'm looking forward to a great year with some great people!
