Warm weather + ice = ....THIS

Another delay! The race has been pushed from Wednesday (the 27th, tomorrow) to Thursday (the 28th).

Monday's sliding session was a test for the track and track crew. Warm overnight temps plus warmer morning temperatures resulted in FROSTY and SOFT ice.

Before sliding, I took a trackwalk. Brad dropped me off at the finish so I could walk bottom to top (my preferred method).

In the first (last/bottom) curve, I could see it.....and for those that haven't met a frosty track yet, this is what it looks like.


In temperatures like this you can almost see it grow. Here we are up close and personal.


And too personal with this guy, happily hanging out on the ice. I hope I ran him over with my sled (yes, I have a wee phobia....and sorry for offending any spider lovers out there).


The warmth can also mean uneven freezing. Here's a patch of smooth ice surrounded by frost. Depending on how much of this there is, there could be a stop-and-go effect on your runners.


Frost = slow, so I was happy to come across the first group of track crew. These guys are using a roller brush to sweep the frost down.


Doesn't this look better?


I came across another group of track crew - they were shoveling the swept snow out of the track. And this guy is Tony, the track manager. He's out there scraping the ice too!


I stopped to pay homage to chicane - this crooked straightaway likes to bite me.


It still doesn't look promising - here's some weeping ice.


Even with all their work, however, the times were dismally slow. My first run was a 65.54 second run, and that's with another PR push (a 5.55)!!! If you haven't paid attention to numbers yet, usual times for the ladies are 56-58 seconds, so that was over 8 seconds slow.

8 seconds may not sound like much, but it's actually a LOT, and let me tell you that it felt like I was sliding in slow motion!

After even the men weren't getting times any better than 62 second runs (typical runs for them are 54-56 seconds), Tony decided to take more action.

Loudspeaker: "Attention athletes. There will be a 20 minute delay." For what? To spritz the track (spray it down with fresh water to freeze into a smooth surface). Hurrah!

Since the 20 minute delay turned into 25, then 30, there was a lot of sitting around.


Some people napped on the floor.


Others hung out and visited.


Some just watched the scene.


The bobsledders came and got lined up, only to find that everything was delayed.


(Speaking of bobsledders - haha, see what my iPhone spellchecked it to in this email to a friend:)


Finally, they announced the 10 minute warning, then the 5 minute warning. Here's Brad warming up - women slid first today so the boys warmed up while we got started again.


I love the little kid in camo pants, running and doing "As and Bs" with the athletes.


The spritz was awesome - what did I say my first run was? 65.54 seconds? Well....the second run was just a BIT better....at 58.24 seconds. That's an improvement of 7.30 seconds, an eon in the skeleton world.

The best part is that...wait, there are two best parts, no, I mean three:

• I pushed two PRs of 5.55 and 5.53 since it was my fast training day.
• Finally got my runners figured out and took one run on each set today, both of them performing fabuously.
• I was 2nd on both runs, and closer to the girl in first than previously.

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Here's a piece of the timesheet - have fun looking it over and comparing everyone's first run to their second. There's a lot of info on there, so the important times are in the "1" (start) and "finish" columns.