My final two trips as a forerunner for the World Cup were great! Lots of commotion, yelling, cow bells, and competitive spirit.
Corinne, Morgan, Tyler, Greg, and myself as World Cup forerunners
I've mentioned before that my job as a forerunner was not to "Mess Up." I took that job very seriously (mostly cuz I got yelled at on wednesday for not being 'ready'), and made sure to be on-the-job and ready-to-go at a moments notice. If there were any issues with the track, within 30 seconds we had to be ready to run off the top... yes, sorta-guinea pigs...
Supposedly at 9:00am on Friday, four of my friends were to take the very first runs off the top, and I was to wait about 45 minutes to start off the following heat of athletes. Yet, at 9:00, I was told I would be going off the top with the other 4 sliders. YIKEs! I luckily was fully dressed, though only about 80% warmed up. When I got to the line, the 5th forerunning sled, there were track workers dotting the starting area ice. It was announced over loudspeaker that the 'final forerunner' was up... I popped my helmet on my head, and began to lay my sled onto the ice, still aware of the workers on the ice in front of me...
"SLED IN TRACK!" "SLED IN TRACK!" the announcer yelled over the speakers... which was not true...and I became a little confused, as I was still at the start line. Here, I'm not supposed to mess up, and now I'm unsure if i'm just to jump on my sled and hope that I don't bowl down the track workers, or miss my 30 second window to begin my start.
The Great Britain coach assured me that I was to go ahead and mount my sled. As I got into my starting position, the workers scattered.
I'd never been part of a real large skeleton competition, so as I began my sprint, I heard people yelling... forgetting that it was a yell in "hip hooray go go go!" not a "Ahhhhhh why are you on the ice now stop stop stop!"
Needless to say, my start was quite slow, as I stutter-stepped the first 10m due to my lackadaisical confusion. But, no worries, my second forerunning start about 2 hours later felt great, and though it wasn't my fastest time, I've been working on a different starting technique, and I think it's beginning to pay off.
So ya, World Cup. CRAZY!
I got to meet several Olympians, including USA skeleton Olympians John Daly, Katie Uhlaender, and Eric Bernotas. As well as USA bobsled olympians Nick Cunningham, Mike Kohn, John Napier, Bree Schaaf and Bronze medalist Elana Myers and Gold Medalist Steve Holcomb. Also, I met many other Olympians from other countries, including Olympic Gold Medalist in skeleton, Jon Montgomery.
Jon Montgomery, 2010 Olympic Skeleton Gold Medalist
Sweet, huh? I was really pumped
I talk skeleton, skeleton, skeleton these days... and have neglected to talk too much about bobsled. But, there really has not been many bobsledders practicing at Lake Placid lately - until this week.
And guess who was here? Yes, lots of Olympians, but also (future Olympian) Jazmine Fenlator! The girl who is responsible for my being a bobsled/skeleton athlete at all... well, I have her and our friend Katie Doster to thank...but that's a whole 'nother story... but anyways, Jaz was competing at the World Cup level this year!!! I was her brakeman last year while she was learning to drive during the America's Cup races in Park City and Lake Placid. I went and watched her second run on Friday - it was awesome watching her, and seeing her improvements, and being able to take myself back memory lane to 1 year ago... sitting in the back of a bobsled. It's really been quite a journey over these past 12 months!
I left Lake Placid early Saturday morning, and won't be returning again until January 17th. My sled stayed in LP so Coach Don could make some revisions to it over the break. I'll be training at R.A.W. over the break, as well as using my own regimen here at home. Today I did sprints up our driveway, trying to avoid the ice patches to the best of my ability. Gotta get fast!
So, now I'm home, after spending time with my family celebrating my sister's birthday and decorating the Christmas tree. We're just laying around, listening to Christmas carols, as I'm writing this blog. It's so nice to be home <3
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