ICC 2009-2010, Königssee RACE!

12th!!!

I'm pretty excited. Yes, I know, it's not a podium, and it's not a top-10, but it's:

1. My best ICC finish ever
2. A PR* push time (5.22 both runs)
3. Two PR down times, by 42 hundredths of a second! (50.57 and 50.81).

We got to the track, and it was MUCH better than yesterday (yesterday = snow, today = no snow).

At first it was clear.

Then it got foggy.

But it didn't matter what the weather was, since the ice was mach schnell (fast).

We warmed up, and at one point the railing looked like a ballet studio instead of a skeleton warmup area.

While we warmed up, the track crew spritzed the track. Mmm, a hot spritz...

After a brutal week of training, getting dumped off my sled no less than twice - but managing to hold on and eventually remount - I finally had a good day of training yesterday and managed to calm my fears of the infamous Königssee Kreisel.

I went off 17th, and walking to the line for my first run, felt pretty relaxed and comfortable. Gave my sled a solid push - 5.22, which was one of the fastest pushes (the other fastest were a 5.03 and a 5.18). Got on the sled, and somehow managed to put together a nearly perfect run, for me at least. My previous PR was a 50.98 (yesterday), which was obliterated by 42 hundredths! I was sitting, barely, in 9th place.

"Thank you ma'am, may I have another!" I said at the finish line, whooping.

Second run wasn't so hot - the groove pulled left pretty hard, and I didn't correct enough, smacking into the wall before Curve 1 and breaking into a skid. Sigh. Also had troubles in Bendaway, a long straight with a kink in the middle, but otherwise recovered enough for another sub-51: 50.81. It wasn't enough to keep me in 9th, but after such a disastrous run I was only happy not to drop farther than 12th!

Stokes let us entertain him while he got ready for his race.

Team USA, with McDonald's balloons, yes.

Then we hung out with the other nations and cheered for the mens race.

USA and Great Britain.

USA, Great Britain, and Canada.

Caleb pushing for his run two.

Matt pushing for his run two.

"Ich liebe es."

Unsure who this is - I think it's Stokes? Keslie had my camera. :)

Men's podium.

Women's podium.

Huge awards!

Random Stokes after-picture.

After the awards ceremony, I walked down the road and grabbed one of the posters for the race - they'd already covered it up with a Luge World Cup poster, so were done with it. These posters were EVERYwhere in town, on every corner and in every market. Why doesn't the US do this for events? No idea - instead, we are basically a non-entity, and I still have to explain to people what Skeleton is, sigh. Oh well, a good souvenir at least!

Tonight, we're going out to celebrate and face the Krampus. (If you don't know what Krampus are, google it, and I'll also have a blog post about it after we get to Italy in a couple days.)

*PR = personal record