Hello Family and Friends,

Casey has been in Europe for a little over a week now. He flew into Munich, Germany on Sunday and met the US team. They drove 5 hours south to a little village in Italy named Collabo where they stayed in a bed and breakfast. Casey said it's just gorgeous with the snow covered mountains. He's had a very difficult time adjusting this time to the eight hour time change. He hasn't slept a good night all week. On top of that over the weekend, he's picked up a nasty head cold. Oh well, nothing like a few obstacles to get over on a race weekend.

Alright, racing. that's what your reading this email for....results. 

Saturday, they raced a 500m and 1000m. The rink in Collabo is outdoors surrounded by mountains. Today was sunny and calm.  I guess the sights are unbelievable. Casey said he felf good in his warm up and was excited to race. He felt the ice was fast.  In Casey's 500m race he was paired with Kobayashi from Japan. Casey opens in a 9.8.  Coming around the last turn, he is behind Kobayashi.  He skates across the line with a time of 35.62. He wasn't too happy with his result. This put him in 12th place for the race.

In his next race, the 1000m. Casey wanted to go out strong and finish strong. He finishes in a time of 1:11.03 which puts him in 13th place.

When I talked with Casey after his races, he was pretty disappointed with his results. I gave him a bit of a pepp talk and reminded him he has almost a month before the championships in Korea and these are outdoor races, results are almost always going to be screwy. He said the next few weekends should get better. He's trying to peak mid-March for Korea's World Single Distance Championships. 

On Sunday, they raced a 500m and a 100m race.  That's right a one hundred meter race.  No thousand meter race on this day. 

Casey was paired with Kobayashi again today. The U.S. men had two top-10 finishes in the 500-meters, with Casey placing 7th in 35.60 seconds and Kip Carpenter finishing 10th in 35.82.  As the day wore on the wind down the track straight-aways became a factor. Casey was happier with this result.  He was one of only a few that went faster today then Saturday.  Now on to the 100m races.  Three skaters start each heat.  And each heat's winner moves on to the second round.  Continuing with semi- finals and finals.  Casey comes across the line in 9.9 seconds, winning his heat. He moves onto the second round finishing 10.06.  He won't go any further than this. His result overall is 12th place.  He is pretty pumped with his placing. He knows in a few weeks he will be peaking and his performance should only get better.

Monday morning the US team hopped on a bus and drove four hours through the Alps to Inzell, Germany. The next outdoor World Cup coming up this weekend. He said Monday night, that Inzell is another small skiing village whose population doubles when the speedskating world cup is in town. Let's pray for great weather this week and better health for Casey and all the athletes.

Until next week, take care,

Jenn Fitz