Skeleton, First race

Last Saturday was our first skeleton race. It was a club / Utah Winter Games race, starting at 10:00am and consisting of two runs.

Brad did quite well, setting two new Personal Records for himself: times of 53.8 and 53.24. He came in second in the open division, beating a guy he didn't even think he could beat (granted, that fellow was having a rough day to start with, he's usually REALLY fast, and has been doing skeleton for longer). He smashed his fingers pretty badly coming out of turn 6 a week or so beforehand, so during his race runs, he was just concentrating on relaxing and not hitting his injured hand. I guess that was the trick! I'm so proud of him. And last night (I didn't slide, I had to work) he broke those records with a 53.05. Awesome!!!

As for me, I didn't do so hot. I was already suffering from a burned lip -the tuesday before, wore a helmet with a thin gap between the face shield and the chin guard like many athletes wear, and in turn 11 my lip was sucked out the gap and slid along the ice at 65+ mph. Yummy, skin missing on the INSIDE of my lip, ouch. It's getting better now, but has been probably the most painful injury I've ever had, including broken ribs, skinned shoulders, sprained ankles, etc. Lips are so sensitive!

Anyway, I went down my first run, and it was beautiful. By the book - perfect entries and exits from the upper turns, I didn't even hit coming out of turn 6 like I normally do. It was my fasted speed yet, 76.4 mph, so smooth. But, that good run turned out to be not so good - I was smooth through 9, 10, straightaway to 11, but when I hit turn 12, I was going much faster than I was used to, and steered WAY too hard since I'm used to a slower less-responsive sled in there. As soon as I steered, I knew it was bad. I oscillated too high at the end of the turn, and when I came down, slammed into the wall so hard I came off my sled. Most frightening moment, I thought I was doomed. Flying through the air into the wall at high speed (65mph ish), landed partially back on my sled, strained my elbow trying to pull the sled back underneath me, skidding into turn 13 only half on my sled, bruising both my shoulders badly as I repeatedly hit the wall. Made it back onto my sled and finished the run at junior dock (not enough speed, or strength, to make it to the actual finish dock, in tears at a. how scared I was and b. how hurt I was.

Then, I knew I'd be freaked out about it if I didn't take my second race run, better to get over the fear right away rather than be scared all week waiting for my next "safe" run, so I went down my second run. I was so scared it would happen again, I was weak and lightheaded as I got ready to go down, and shook for 5 minutes after a safe finish. Fortunately, it wasn't a smooth run so I was slower going into the hard turns - funny that I'm glad it wasn't smooth, no? Hit EVERYwhere - brushed the wall 4 to 5, banged pretty hard coming out of 6 (that hurt since I hit my bruised shoulders), hit in 10 abd 14, but 12 was fine. Much slower speeds, but crazy thing is that my second run was actually almost a second faster! That's how much the crash slowed me down, funny. Oh, and there were only three girls in novice class, so I still took third! Yay for me! :) Grin.

Anyway, even with all the bruises and strained elbow, my lip still hurts the worst. Ironic. And I'm sliding tonight. Wish me luck.

Oh, next race is the end of the month, see you then!