2007 Team Trials - Park City, Part 2

Race #4

Sleds in the parc ferme:


Phew, glad the racing is over!

I had another solid day today, and was pretty consistent between the two runs instead of tanking in the second one.

First run, felt totally comfortable on my sled, relaxed, aware, etc. Pushed a decent time, still hit out of turns 11 and 14, but didn't lose too much time there. In fact, shockingly, I had a mid-52 and was tied for 5th after the first run!

Getting ready (appearing to look since my visor is taped to keep my eyes where they need to be, and I can only see out of a couple spots):


My first push:


Finish time, first run:


The scene between runs:


Second run, still felt great. Wee bit slower on the push but still relaxed. Had a crazy 14 - since I hit the right wall on the first run, I "safety-steered" the exit (meaning I held an upsteer to keep me on the wall longer) SO LONG that I actually hit LEFT! Crazy - it's a rare event to enjoy.

I came across the finish line convinced I hadn't held my place, due to the skidding out of 14, but there it was, flashing on the screen, 1st place! (Brad tried to find the camera for the finish time, but I'd put it in a pocket of his bag without telling him....oops.)

Sweet - I knew the 5 experienced and super sliders that still had to take their runs would pass me, but I couldn't finish any lower than 6th. Hurray!

I was stoked. Still am...a great day and I finally started feeling comfortable again.

Overall Rank
After one race was dropped (obviously the DNF in Placid), I had two 9th place finishes, and one 6th, which put me in a 3-way tie in points for 7th place overall. Nice!

To break the tie, they use speed points, comparing your max speed to the speed of the person in first place. Alas, I lost out on speed points from my Lake Placid race, since I just couldn't find the speed in turn 10, but that's ok.

So, I'm currently ranked 9th...not a bad place to be!


Brad
Brad had better runs today as well, more consistent too. He says he also started feeling more comfortable.


Overall, he finished 11th, 12th, and 13th in the three races. Due to the way the points work though, he ended up ranked 14th overall, frustratingly. He's still got a great season ahead of him though - there may be some America's Cup race spots unfilled, and he also plans to go to a couple open national championship races in Austria and Switzerland, since they have spaces for foreign athletes.

2007-2008 Season

In an hour, we go back to the track, and we'll all pick our races for the season. The higher ranked people pick first, and they have the option of picking lower races like America's Cup and Europa Cup, but hopefully there will be some AC races open for Brad, and hopefully the 3 races I want will be open:

1. December 10-15 - Cesana, Italy, Europa Cup (the site of the 2006 Olympics) though that track is supposedly pretty rough and scary...
2. January 7-14 ish - Park City, UT, America's Cup
3. Januray 14 - 19th ish - Calgary, Canada, America's Cup
   

There is an other America's Cup in Lake Placid in April, but:

• lacking vacation time
  
• needed school time then
• the fact that Placid in April will possibly be like it was this October (unsteady and likely to melt), and
  
• the higher ranked women will have been done for a month and will likely want that race,
  

I don't think I'll try for it. Shrug, I don't mind.

PS:
Perfect race food (thank C's mom for making pumpkin-chocolate-chip cookies):


This is what, after 2 weeks of consistently hitting on the exit, turn 11 does to left hips (it should be about actual size on your screen, if it comes up about 6 inches wide):