Park City World Cup - HOME ICE!

Finally, after 2.5 weeks that felt like much longer, we were back in Park City where I had the amazing luxury of staying at home while on tour! Though it felt weird not being able to unpack my bags...

Since I was home, not a lot of things seemed remarkable and you've all seen pictures of the PC track. But luckily, the press was around, and Brad kept emailing me these great photos he kept finding as they cropped up.

(Thank you and credit to the Associated Press, the Park Record, the Salt Lake Tribune, Reuters, and anyone I missed.)

From a training day during the week leading up to the race:


On a training run.


Due to live broadcasting in Europe, the race was scheduled for an inopportune time for locals to come watch, 1pm on a Thursday. Hello work and school! Still, a group of great friends were able to come up and watch, and they were the best cheer section ever! Awesome. (This is a photo of a photo since I don't have the digital original, oops.)


I thought I would be more nervous at the start, but suddenly felt totally relaxed, and the cameras and cheering and noise and thoughts of people watching faded away into the background.


I heard them cheer super loud as I started, which made me push faster. (Well, my first run had a funky bobble at the start but was still close to my personal best, and then my second push was even faster.)


On the "inrun" after the start. Those grooves are about to end before the first curve.


My teammate Annie on her run. I was ahead of her the first run down, then she passed me back on the second after I made a big mistake in Curve 11 and into 12.


After my second run, Annie was in the "leaderbox" (where they keep each current leader for TV purposes) but stepped out for a second to shout "Kimber, you pushed a 5.09!"

That was my first time in the 5.0-ANYthing, and didn't realize someone caught a photo of my reaction until it showed up in the Salt lake Tribune the next day!


I had just dropped a spot, to 14th, but couldn't have been happier at that moment! And no, my teeth aren't black, I just hadn't had time to take my mouthguard out yet, haha!

There was a bit of press, both national and local since the AP and Salt Lake Tribune were there.

The SL Trib story was great (thanks Mr. Lewis) and I'm pasting screenshots of it here too. (A friend also bought hard copies for me since I was out of town in Placid by the time it hit the stands. Thanks Griff!)
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Anyway, I had hoped for a top 10 finish, but didn't quite make it, finishing in 14th. But, I pushed a 5.09, and with my 51.10 finish time also broke my PB by over half a second (huge HUGE HUGE HUGE in the sliding world) so couldn't be too upset. I'm learning a lot this year and will just keep improving. Thanks for all the support!
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The AP also wrote a story, which was picked up in a lot of places, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin Texas, Brad's hometown of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN (well, he's actually from Hastings, just south), and of course Universal Sports, the official station of skeleton and bobsled.
Here's the article (so I can look back at it and show our kids in 20 years when it's all archived!):