11th and 12th in Calgary ICC Races

For the first time having a race in Calgary the weather was beautiful. It was about 40 degrees and sunny everyday. We were all just about shocked, as windy as ever though. Except for the first race it was just about the best racing weather we could have had!

I was training better than I have been all season and I was pretty happy with my runs except for one mistake that I kept making in an important spot. I didn’t quite get it for the first race either and ended up finishing 12th.  I was really hoping for some better results, maybe next time.

I fixed corner 8 (my major problem) for run 1 of race 2 and ended up in 12th place. I had a horrible second run from the start. I almost stepped in the groove and got a little off-balance which isn’t like me, but as soon as I got on my sled I said ok now just be perfect. It was the furthest thing from perfect let me tell you. I made every mistake you don’t want to make.

Onto the next and last ICC race of the season though. We were all headed back down to Park City, Utah. And guess what yet again we were driving. I was in the car with John and Keslie driving our teammate Eric’s F150 which I fell in love with on the drive.

It was actually one of the best car rides ever. John got a phone call from our coaches and he found out he was going to the Olympics. The three of us started screaming and didn’t stop for a while. It was awesome to see how happy and excited John was and still is. I think being there with him when he got that phone call, made my season.

3rd and 5th in Lake Placid

Two team trials races down, two to go. Wednesday was the first race here in Lake Placid, it went pretty well, I got 3rd. I didn’t have the best runs that I had wanted but I kept it together and took 3rd. The second race was on Thursday and well it didn’t go as well. I was in 4th after the first run and had a horrible looking second run, so I moved back a spot to 5th. I was pretty disappointed with that but I am doing better now.

I wanted to go to Park City knowing that I was in a good place to make the world cup team, but instead I will just have to come from behind and slide the best I ever have in Park City.

My mom, dad, sister, aunt, and uncle came to the races here. It was great having them. I always love having family come and watch. It keeps everything a little more relaxed because I can spend my time with them not just sitting in my room.

I got my brand new sled though and it has been amazing to slide on. It is completely sized for me so I think this entire season will be great.

Well I have packed as much as possible, hopefully my suitcase isn’t too heavy since I know my sled and runners are wayy too heavy. My flight is at 11, so I have a shuttle leaving the training center at 7am. So much better than the 2am shuttles that I normally have because of the 6am flight.

I have a few more things to finish cleaning. I’ll write some more after I do my homework tomorrow once I get to Park City.

Up All Night

Well right now it is about 2:30 in the morning and I am just sitting in the lobby of the training center eating a tuna fish sandwich drinking some water and having a banana. I am not crazy i am only doing this because I have a shuttle to Albany in about a half an hour.

I am flying to Colorado Springs with the other bobsled and skeleton athletes that are here for the annual team camp. All the athletes, coaches and staff get together and have board meetings, an annual gala, workouts, and media training and other things like that. It is a lot of fun. I enjoy getting together with everyone and working out. I haven’t seem half of the team since February, which don’t get me wrong is a good thing I am just excited to see everyone.

I decided to stay up and wait for the shuttle because I didn’t get off of work until about 12;00, and I had a little bit of packing left to do and shower. I a exhausted right now,  I am just hoping that I can fall asleep on the 2 hr shuttle ride then sleep the entire way on the plane.

This post is probably a little confusing, I apologize for that I just realized I am not making much sense. I’m going to finish up my snacks then see if I sleep. Although this shuttle ride is going to be interesting I am overhearing that the bus doesn’t have enough gas, and no place is open since its 2 in the morning. I think they want to squeeze 12 large athletes in a van. This is not going to work so its going to be funny.

I will let you know the outcome when I get to Colorado. I plan on laying outside by the pool tomorrow until we have our welcome dinner.

Picture Post, Second Half.. finally right

Amazing mountains driving up towards Igls Nest

After spending Christmas and New Years at home, I packed what I would call a months worth of clothes and my equipment and headed to Europe. I say what I would call a month of clothes because with all of the tools and extra bags and snow gear that I travel with I most definitely don’t bring enough shirts or jeans! That’s when you wash your clothes in the bathtub, its quite fun actually.

First stop in Europe was Konigssee, Germany for World Junior

Morning of the race World Junior Championships

Championships. I finished 8th in this race, not exactly what I was hoping for but I was having a hard time with Kreisel (a 360 degree corner with very high pressures and oscillations). Don’t get me wrong 8th was much better than the world cup race the year before with my amazing crash out of Kreisel. It was a crazy looking crash. Only fun to laugh at now because I didn’t get hurt from it! The best part about Konigssee is the Hofbrauhaus. They have the most amazing beer in such an awesome atmosphere! Great prices too, you can get a beer and a pretzel for about $4.

The drive from Konigssee to Munich to pick up a teammate, Kimber was

Stopped traffic on the autobahn

next.  It’s only about a 2hr drive normally. Caleb and myself drove up the mountain that Hitler’s Igls Nest is on. Since it was winter we couldn’t drive all the way to the top, but the picture at the top of the post is from a stop we made. It was beautiful! After that we headed to the Autobahn to continue the drive. We were on the autobahn and the over signs were lit up but I just thought it meant slow traffic ahead. Made sense from the picture of cars and the word Stau. Well come to find out Stau meant stopped traffic. We came to a full on stop with nothing in sight. When stopped in traffic in Europe everyone turns off their engines and gets out of the car and just walks around. We were stopped for about 3hrs, all of which I had to use the bathroom. It was horrible, I was the happiest camper when we started moving again.

Caleb me and Kimber top of Cortina

Once we picked up Kimber we headed to Cortina, Italy for not even a 24hr stop. There is a bobsled track in Cortina but skeleton does not use it. This was supposed to be the first year we could compete on it but due to financial problems they did not open the track. We wanted to see the town since we were probably never going to go there otherwise. The drive in was the most amazing, it looked as if we would just fall off the edge. The town itself was very cute, and small. We had the best dinner at the hotel. I love Italy they feed you so much it is incredible! The next day we went searching for the bobsled track, it was covered with snow and took us a long time to find. The corners are very tall and tight, it would be a very difficult and painful track for skeleton.

We were on our way to Cesana, Italy but decided to take about 2 hours and stop in Venice. Unfortunately it was a rainy, muggy day but it was still

The canals of Venice

amazing to see Venice. We had the best pasta for lunch and the waiter had told us that just three weeks before all the streets had flooded about a foot and a half. I was surprised at how much graffiti was on the very old buildings. The whole time I was wishing that someone or the entire family could have been there also. I really think that every place I am, I am so lucky I get to travel to all these beautiful places but I wish everyone could come as well. I did a little shopping for Murano Glass necklaces, they are the most beautiful things I had seen in a long time. Shortly after the weather was getting worse and we needed to head to Cesana. I want to go back to Venice soon though!

Climbed to the top of the snow pile

We had two races in Cesana this year, just like last season world cup. I will admit I was not looking forward to them. There was so much snow in Cesana a record I think for the town. We stay up about 2000more ft up the mountain in Sestriere. It is beautiful there and there was about 7ft of snow. The first night we got there till the morning they got about another 2ft. I have never

Start Cesana, Italy

seen that much snow in my life it was amazing! Training was going alright I was doing better than I was the year before but still not catching on as much as I would have liked. Race day #1 did not go so well for me I finished 12th. Race day #2 I had the best first run of the week, but my second run was so bad that I ended in 7th place just outside the medals. It was ok I learned a lot a was still pretty happy.

The three of us headed on a little detour because we had about 3 days off

Trying to climb the castle

without sliding. We went to wine country in Italy. We met with 2 winemakers and they sat and opened many bottles of wine for us. It was all wonderful, they were very generous and kind. The towns were so cute, we got there on a Sunday so nothing was going on, but the weather was gorgeous so we enjoyed ourselves. We found an amazing pizza place for dinner that night and just relaxed.

The next stop was Igls, Austria, one of my favorite

First cup medal!

places mainly for the start. Its long and flat perfect for me to push fast, but hard to find speed. We stay and slide in Igls but Innsbruck is just down the mountain and it is a beautiful town, very old

6th place Igls, Austria

but there is a lot to do. The race went really well I finished in 6th place, behind some veterans who have been sliding for years. I always want to do better but I realized a little bit about getting speed out of this track.

The last stop of the European Tour was also the first, back to Konigssee,

Loading the sled

Germany for a final race. I had different problems this time. But again a second time for more learning is always good. I enjoy this track even though I have had so much trouble on it. I finished in 9th place, which was not what I had planned. I had a great first run and just a few mistakes the second, but it cost me a few places and I fell back. By the end of the trip nothing too exciting was happening, it was just time to head back to the states. A month in Europe changing locations every week is taxing. But I love it still and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sorry this took so long to finish. I loose track of days I guess even my month. Everything gets so scrambled. I won’t let it happen again this summer!

Picture Post

Lake Placid in October, on a foggy day

I am sitting in front of my computer completely bored just listening to music, Staind to be exact. But I thought this would be the best time to take a picture or two from every stop I had this season and just give a little explanation of each place. I need to upload all of my pictures from this year to my picasa account which I will do next time I am too bored!

Ice Burn, the healing process

First things first, this is what I did to my shoulder the week before team trials in Lake Placid. I hit coming out of corner 14, smashed the wall, flipped over and my shoulderwas the first thing to hit the wall. I advise you to skip this picture if you aren’t into gross things. This is it after healing for about a week and a half .

I didn’t take any pictures during team trials in Park City. I was having a hard time with sliding and my shoulder still hurting. I wasn’t in the best mood during those 2 weeks. One week of team trials and the second race were the first America’s Cup races. They didn’t go over very well for me. I still wasn’t completely on my sliding game.

Calgary for the America’s Cup races #3 and #4. These were much better I got

3rd place Calgary America's Cup races

third both days. I drove up with three of my other girl teammates. It was a fun but long drive. If you want to hear a great story about using Craigs list to find housing, just ask me I’ll write another post that will probably make you fall off of your chair you will be laughing so hard. Really the whole trip was hilarious with not having our sleds, then when we did the track being about 8 seconds slow! Ohhh the memories!

2nd Place Lake Placid America's Cup races 5 and 6

It was then back to Lake Placid for America’s up races #5 and #6. I had so many races by this point and it was only November. I was just looking for consistency with runs and learning more about myself during races. These races were definitely my season confidence boosters, I had personal record down times both races and my runs were with a few hundredths of each other!

Back to Calgary for the start of the Intercontinental Cup Circuit. I decided to

The majority of the drive up I-15. So straight and flat.

fly into Park City because it was a lot cheaper. I rented a car and took the drive to Calgary for the second time in one month but by myself this time. I

Hello Montana! Getting closer to Canada

couldn’t convince anyone to drive with me. But I had the most amazing drive. It took me about 14hrs and I didn’t really get tired. The weather

Team Picture

wad perfect and I loved seeing the country by myself. I took a bunch of pictures but I’ll only post a few. I finished 4th in the Intercontinental Cup race that week.  Now my drive back to Park City was not at all as wonderful on the way up. I left after the race about 4pm, and took a teammates GPS. Along with everyone’s sled for a little gas money, because flying out of Calgary they don’t like to let your sled on the plane.  Worst idea ever to follow the GPS. Again another amazingly funny story this one might make you pee your pants! Lets just say I got lost (the way I wasn’t familiar with) went through Glacier National Park late at night with frozen roads, gusting snow covered roads. It was a horrible trip. I’ll go into more detail if anyone wants to laugh themselves silly! I wish one of my sisters or my parents were with me to share the craziness with. It might not have happened if they were, but I would love to be able to travel with one of them someday. Maybe…

Park City Intercontinental Cup Races didn’t go over too well. Put it this way I didn’t race that well in Park City this year at all. I had huge plans to do so great and get a lot of points. Instead I finished the races (of course we had two how lucky) 11th and 12th. Not surprising but I don’t have any pictures whatsoever from these races either. Nothing special I guess that’s why. I was really hoping to have pictures from everywhere, but man I really did have fun in Park City. Better luck next year I guess!!

Back to Lake Placid for one more race before Christmas. I must have been in a

Training day in Lake Placid at the start

rut by this point because for Lake Placid being my home track I didn’t do so well. I finished 7th, and no you guessed it I don’t have any pictures. I have no clue what happened during this race, I think I expected to do better which is the reason why I didn’t. I wasn’t working hard enough or learning how what I should have been from my mistakes in training. I found a picture I couldn’t end this post without one!

I am going to get ready for bed because it is getting late, and this post if quite long so come back tomorrow night for the picture update on the second half of the season in Europe!!