ICC 2009-2010, Winterberg, Races

As you know, race 1 was canceled, and race 2 was split into two races, so that each run was a race. I hate one-run races since there's no chance to make up for a bad first run. Oh well, it could have been worse!

The weather was still gloomy, but was at least more stable. This meant that the ice stayed relatively consistent - it still gradually slowed through the race, but not enough to really justify another cancellation.

Due to my ranking last year, I started off 24th. (The top 10 are drawn randomly as the first seed, then everyone else is pretty much just in the order of their rank.)

My first run started off well, and I was only a few tenths off the leader for the first splits, then.....tossed it out the window with a huge mistake in curves 4 and 5. I came off 4 too early and tapped the left wall, which then threw me wrong into curve 5, oops. I was in 4th out of curve 3, and then 14th out of curve 5! Ugh, this track is so frustrating - the tiniest mistake and it's all over. 4th to 14th, then not enough speed to keep the 14th either, slowly dropping back to 19th due to lack of momentum. Ugh again.

19th that run. Which meant, 19th that race! At least I didn't have a WORSE finish than the day before, right? And was able to push fast.

Here I am in the start house between runs - I absolutely LOVE these purple snowpants, and wish the color showed up better. It's a terrible photo, but the flash is unforgiving, and I wanted the pants to have their fifteen minutes:

Second run, I fixed the 4-5 problem, and managed to hold on to a good position all the way to curve 9, whereby I did a similar thing and skidded / tapped, dropping from my top 10 spot down to 17th. Still though, 17th is my best ICC finish ever, I think, so I'm pretty happy.

Here's a shot of me pushing the second run:

And here is Keslie, waiting for her run, and, uh, something else?

And pushing:

Annie, getting ready:

She had to push two-handed due to her pulled hamstring (though she's so fast she was still able to push as fast as Keslie and I did during training, wow):

Stokes:

Caleb:

Matt getting ready:

Matt loading:

So the USA ICC team finished as follows:

Race 1:

- Matt 3rd

- Caleb 15th

- Stokes 24th

- Keslie 15th

- Kimber 19th

- Annie 22st

Matt on the podium for his 3rd place:

The flags:

Race 2:

- Matt 5th

- Caleb 8th

- Stokes 13th

- Keslie 16th

- Kimber 17th

- Annie 19th

Matt with the other podium-ers with his 5th: