PR Day

Tuesday last week was amazing! Since I was going to otherwise go over my allowed hours at work, I took a 3 hour lunch and went sliding in the afternoon skele session (noon-2pm). I was testing runners, since I love my usual set but need a set that will be better for colder and harder ice. I had the cold set of runners on, even though it was a pretty warm day, just to see how they felt.

Remember my Personal Record from Team Trials? The 51.74? I've come close in the last couple weeks (a 51.91, 51.86) but thought that breaking that PR was going to be a pipe dream, at least until the World Cup and the amazing ice that get's made for it come in February.

I get ready for on my first run, just relaxed and enjoying the beautiful sunny day. They clear the track, and off I go! The run feels super slow, but my sled is responsive and the runners have a lot of control, so I come up over the finish thinking "well, the runners have a lot of control but I must have over-driven myself into a slow run."

I come over the crest, and look up at the clock, and there in glowing numbers it reads:

51.42

No way! I'm stunned and excited and crazily start jumping up and down and screaming....

Second run, I have a few bobbles and slide to a 51.86 (I think). I shrug, enjoying the warmth of the previous run's PR and thinking "well, that'll stand for a while!"

In between the second and third runs, I swap runners for my favorite standbys, the warm ones, and then off I go for my 3rd run, expecting that the track will have slowed down in the sunny weather.

And look up at the clock , and there are the glowing numbers again:

51.38

I'm stunned, and can hardly react, and ride up to the top in the truck in silence, just floored.

Then I'm off on run number 4. And have to call the tower when I get down to make them SWEAR they aren't playing a joke on me:

51.29

I was in second, only to Brad, on a couple of those runs! After all that, I just HAVE to take a 5th run. Which turns out to not be the best idea and I should have quit while I was head - looking at the splits, I was on track for an almost identical run, until I got distracted in the lower loop and , well, hit the wall so hard and so many times I lost 6 tenths of a second, oops, sliding to a 52.02! But, what can I say, I just had to slide again after such an amazing day!

Anyway, 51.29, unbelievable, now THAT is a PR that will stand for a long time, eh? The best part is that I was pushing in the low 30s and high 20s, not getting those times from pushes in the teens. Good stuff!

Oh, quick side note, my pushes were pretty funny:

5.32, 5.31, 5.30, 5.29, 5.28