2007 Skeleton Team Trials - Lake Placid

This is going to be a long post, but there will be lots of great pictures to help you along!

Team Trials. Set up in a different format than previous years, there was a "B" trials for those ranked 10 and lower, then an "A" trials for the top 9 to determine the World Cup, Intercontinental Cup, Europa Cup, and America's Cup teams. The top 3 finishers from B would also get to race in A (due to retirements and injuries, the number from B that would qualify ended up being increased from 3).

B TRIALS
(I don't have pictures of B since our camera was out of commission - my fault. A story for another day.)

B, of course, was held first. Brad and I arrived in Lake Placid at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) on September 30 for a theoretical 4 days of training followed by 2 days of racing. I say theoretical since we all had a doomed feeling that it wasn't going to happen. Before I left, people would ask if I was excited to go to Placid and I would hemm and haw...we knew a heat wave was bringing temperatures of 75-80 degrees through New York, which, along with the rain and wind, spelled doom for the ice and I was nervous we would waste a trip. Shrug.

Our first day of training, the ice soft due to the warm temperatures, was 4-5 seconds slow. That may not sound like much, but over 1400 meters, it's a decently large lag. The second day, we arrived at the track to see the in-run melting. Determined to get all the training we could before the ice melted, we took our run.....

.....and the track was so slow didn't even make it to the finish line! It was actually hilarious - we exited the track at the end of curve 19 and cheered each other as we leaped OFF our sleds and PUSHED them up the end of the curve, sprinting past the finish eye. Instead of the typical sub-60 second finish times, all of the girls finished in over 1:20 - 1:35! It was a blast though, going so slow it felt like I could see everything. We all giggled.

That was the end of the fun, however. That night, with the wind blowing warm air into the track, they lost a couple curves and sliding was canceled. The B race itself was also entirely canceled and instead of just 3-5, everyone was moved up into A. We spent the next 5 days working out, hanging out in the OTC, and thinking of the wasted vacation time and missed classes. Silver lining: the Sports Med office where I went for excellent shoulder therapy every day. :)

I flew home Sunday the 7th, and spent 2 weeks catching up (and trying to get ahead) at school and work, getting ready to return to Placid for the first A races. Brad stayed in Placid to get more time on the ice.

A TRIALS
I returned to Placid last Saturday, October 20th. Again, due to warm weather, the Saturday sliding session was canceled so the track crew could save the ice.

Sunday, my first day back on the ice, yielded surprisingly good times! I was unused to the speed and was tense that day as the track threw me around.

Monday we also got to slide, though with the fluctuating temperatures we didn't had consistent ice. It was a great day, though ironic. We milled about in our shorts and tank tops, played games to warm up, and wished we had a barbecue.

Thermometer reading 60+, and our sleds:


K. checking out the in-run:


Warming up with hacky sack (spelling anyone?):


Brad and I at the track overlook:


Our coach lost hacky sack, being pelted:


K. brought out her beachwear for the occasion:


Brad pushing and loading on the in-run:


Someone didn't get the message that it isn't winter quite yet:


Tuesday, we arrived at the track for a completely different scene: downpouring rain. Before our eyes, the in-run melted and as the track crew started to cut the start groove, they hit concrete, meaning not enough ice for a groove. Turned out that turns 2 and 4 were also bare in spots, and none of us wanted to sacrifice our expensive runners just for a slow run. The session was canceled.

The track overlook, a bit less pleasant:


Wednesday was our last day of training, and luckily the crew had saved the track. Colder weather had moved in, and the ice was the fastest it had been all season. Fast ice is obviously great, but some of us had never seen fast Placid ice (rookies!) and I, at least, was, nervous.

My runs were decent, though with the fast ice and not relaxing, I skidded through the top of the track, and finished tenth overall for that day. I got airborne out of 12 but landed on my runners (yay!) and took a pretty good hit out of turn 19 that cleaned my clock, bruising my left shoulder and calf. Shrug, that's the name of the game.

Race 1, Thursday
My runs were super skiddy, I had a hard time relaxing; took some good hits but overall was satisfied. 10th. There was some carnage though: C.B. came out of turn 12, got airborne and rode the straightaway on his shoulder, getting some good burns, and L.T. bashed his elbow so badly he wasn't allowed to continue sliding.

Temps for the race:


Isn't this beautiful?


My start:


Brad's start:


Race 2, Friday
First run, decent. Relaxed, made a few mistakes but had a pretty sweet run, sitting solidly in 10th. Second run: for some reason I wasn't nervous, felt completely relaxed, and the run was magical! Finally got through 1,2,3,4 without skidding, got the proper transition 4 to 5, 5 - 6, 7-8-9 were smooth and flowy. The speed was almost overwhelming (based on split times, probably 107-108 kilometers an hour)...

OOPS!
As a result, I went into 10, the biggest and baddest turn of the track, with more speed than I had ever had, and shot shot higher than I'd ever been in the turn. When I heard (and felt) my shoulder and sled slam into the roof (the wood that keeps us from flying out of the track splintering) late in the turn, I knew I was in trouble. I tried to bring it down, but it was too late, and I flew out of the corner still vertical on the wall.

Suddenly, I was on my back, my sled on my chest. Um, something about this just isn't right, eh? Tried to flip back over onto my sled; instead the sled went skittering down the track without me.

I've been through this before, so I was surprisingly calm. My back burning, I flipped over so I was feet first just in time to watch my sled go through turn 11 without me, upside down! "My poor sled...it'll hate me" I thought. Realized my, um, buttocks were on fire, so I started twisting to spread the burning around and lessen the damage. Forgot to protect my hands and burned the tips of my fingers trying to stop, oops! I was moving so fast that I made it through the straightaway from 10 to 11, as well as turns 11 and 12, before I came to a stop. (Really, crashing isn't that painful, it just feels like teeny cat scratches all over you.)

When I stopped my first thought was: this track has no cameras! They need to know I'm not on my sled! They can't send C. down next if my sled is in the track! I jumped up and started shouting "Athlete off the sled! Athlete off the sled! Sled in the track!" Blur of a 2 minute hold on the track, me walking over to the finish dock, getting checked by the EMTs and cleared, the track finding my poor sled (the saddle was stripped to the metal, poor baby), being driven to the top, 2 minor burns treated, blah blah blah.

The silver lining...
Initially I was so disappointed! But, looking at the splits later, I saw that I was doing great and gaining heaps of time. So much so that my sled went through TWO turns UPSIDE down without me and still had enough speed at the exit of 12 that my 12 split time was the same as the girl who is ranked above me (and pretty much always beats my by 0.5 - 1 second). Awesome! (Sorry to be so stoked about catching you C....but you know you would have caught me by the finish anyway!) I also had a PR push time that run, so overall I'm stoked. Before the crash, I caught a glimpse of what really driving that track feels like - it was beautiful.

The cold tub after the race - over the week we practically lived in it, icing our sore muscles and bruises:


Results
Over the 2 Placid races, Brad finished 14th among the men, missing 13th by only a few hundredths of a second. I don't have any crazy crash stories for him, thankfully. He did get some solid bruises (turns 19 and 17) but that's about it. He's sliding well, and I can't wait to see what he'll do in Park City.

Due to my DNF, I finished 11th overall for the first 2 races. Luckily, in the end rank will be determined from the best 3 of 4, so I can drop my DNF race.

We fly home today, and start training for races 3 and 4, to be held in Park City in 2 weeks. Wish us luck!

PS - the afterparty...
L.T. doing the hippie dance and drinking away his sadness at not being allowed to race (elbow):


Everyone dancing the night away:




The wonders of 3:00 AM pizza: