World Cup Weekend
Wow! I can't believe it's 2011. Who would've thought? The year went by so fast, although it didn't always feel like it at the time. I made it through my last semester of school and rowing, graduated, moved to Texas, started my job, tried out for the US Bobsled team, made lots of new friends, and found an awesome new church. Big year of changes! I'm really looking forward to all 2011 will bring.
As promised, this is the account of my first World Cup experience of any kind. Dad and I were lucky enough to attend the US Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup event in Park City, Utah. It was awesome! We got there late on Thursday, December 9, and headed straight to a friend's house in Salt Lake City. They were gracious enough to feed us and let us stay with them for the entirety of our trip.
Friday morning we slept in and headed out to Park City in our tiny little car. Here's a picture of Dad standing beside our Nissan Versa. Look how close the windshield wipers are together. I definitely wouldn't drive this car if I had to climb the mountains from Salt Lake up to Park City on a regular basis. I thought I was going to have to Fred Flinstone to get us up there.
The women's event started at 4, so we went through the Alf Lundgren Ski Museum and hung out inside for awhile. Duffy was volunteering, so I got to see her for a second before she headed off to her post. We headed up the mountain in a shuttle that took us all the way up to the start line. The vertical drop along the 4380 ft long track is 402 ft. I'm glad we didn't have to walk all the way up there. Since we went up about 30 minutes before the first sled took off, we had some time to explore. It was pretty cold and snowing pretty hard. We got to be up close and personal the whole weekend, and this was definitely no exception. We got to walk right up to the athletes and the sleds, even go inside the start house. We also met two girls who were in town on business and heard about the event. Jasmine was from Germany, and Susan was from Holland. We rode up the mountain together and watched the few women's sleds that got to run.
We got to see one US women's sled before the race got canceled. They normally don't cancel an event because of snow, but as you can see, it was snowing pretty hard. It was interfering with the lasers, so they couldn't get times on the sleds. They had to reschedule the women to run twice in Lake Placid. We decided to stick around to see the men's event that evening. We weren't sure if they'd get to run either, but we weren't about to miss it since we'd come so far to see some bobsledding.
As we were headed back down the mountain on the shuttle, a big bunch of folks wearing Nebraska Cornhusker gear got on with us. They were all good friends of Curt Tomasevicz, the brakeman of the Night Train. He's my favorite, as I grew up a Cornhusker fan (My Mom is from Nebraska). Since Dad and I were wearing our K-State stocking caps, we struck up a conversation and made some new friends. After warming up with some hot chocolate, we headed back into the cold and down the mountain for some dinner.
The storm had passed, and it made for a beautiful night for the 2-man competition. Dad and I had purchased two cowbells and were making some noise at the start line for the Americans. John Napier was back for his first competition since returning from serving as an engineer in the Army. He did a pretty good job piloting USA 2 for taking so much time off. Nice work John! (That's him on the right in the brownish colored socks. They weren't really brown, but I don't know how else to describe that color.) I found out today that he bought those hideous colored socks in Afghanistan. He used to wear American flag socks every race, but since these are more comfortable, he's changing up his tradition. He ended up getting 6th, so I guess the change worked for him.
Being up at the start gate was AMAZING! Here was my perspective. It doesn't matter what country your from or what language you speak, the start line is the same for everyone. Adrenaline pumping, putting the sled on the tracks, getting ready, knocking the ice off your spikes, and then everyone starts yelling. I couldn't tell you exactly what all of them were yelling, but it doesn't really matter. It was just such a fun atmosphere to be in. With rowing, you never really got to see or hear the crowd because they were so far away. In bobsledding, everyone is right there five feet away. It was so great. I can't stop smiling right now.
Saturday morning was the start of the Nordic Combined Continental Cup. We got up early and headed back up to the Olympic Park to see the ski jumping portion of the competition. I know I haven't had a nordic combined post yet, so let me enlighten you. The first part of the competition is ski jumping. You get points based on the length of the jump and style. The second half of the competition is cross-country skiing. Each person is delayed a certain number of seconds based on how many points they finished behind the leader in the ski jumping. We didn't see the cross-country skiing portion, but the jumping is just crazy.
As promised, this is the account of my first World Cup experience of any kind. Dad and I were lucky enough to attend the US Bobsled and Skeleton World Cup event in Park City, Utah. It was awesome! We got there late on Thursday, December 9, and headed straight to a friend's house in Salt Lake City. They were gracious enough to feed us and let us stay with them for the entirety of our trip.
Friday morning we slept in and headed out to Park City in our tiny little car. Here's a picture of Dad standing beside our Nissan Versa. Look how close the windshield wipers are together. I definitely wouldn't drive this car if I had to climb the mountains from Salt Lake up to Park City on a regular basis. I thought I was going to have to Fred Flinstone to get us up there.
The women's event started at 4, so we went through the Alf Lundgren Ski Museum and hung out inside for awhile. Duffy was volunteering, so I got to see her for a second before she headed off to her post. We headed up the mountain in a shuttle that took us all the way up to the start line. The vertical drop along the 4380 ft long track is 402 ft. I'm glad we didn't have to walk all the way up there. Since we went up about 30 minutes before the first sled took off, we had some time to explore. It was pretty cold and snowing pretty hard. We got to be up close and personal the whole weekend, and this was definitely no exception. We got to walk right up to the athletes and the sleds, even go inside the start house. We also met two girls who were in town on business and heard about the event. Jasmine was from Germany, and Susan was from Holland. We rode up the mountain together and watched the few women's sleds that got to run.
We got to see one US women's sled before the race got canceled. They normally don't cancel an event because of snow, but as you can see, it was snowing pretty hard. It was interfering with the lasers, so they couldn't get times on the sleds. They had to reschedule the women to run twice in Lake Placid. We decided to stick around to see the men's event that evening. We weren't sure if they'd get to run either, but we weren't about to miss it since we'd come so far to see some bobsledding.
As we were headed back down the mountain on the shuttle, a big bunch of folks wearing Nebraska Cornhusker gear got on with us. They were all good friends of Curt Tomasevicz, the brakeman of the Night Train. He's my favorite, as I grew up a Cornhusker fan (My Mom is from Nebraska). Since Dad and I were wearing our K-State stocking caps, we struck up a conversation and made some new friends. After warming up with some hot chocolate, we headed back into the cold and down the mountain for some dinner.
Being up at the start gate was AMAZING! Here was my perspective. It doesn't matter what country your from or what language you speak, the start line is the same for everyone. Adrenaline pumping, putting the sled on the tracks, getting ready, knocking the ice off your spikes, and then everyone starts yelling. I couldn't tell you exactly what all of them were yelling, but it doesn't really matter. It was just such a fun atmosphere to be in. With rowing, you never really got to see or hear the crowd because they were so far away. In bobsledding, everyone is right there five feet away. It was so great. I can't stop smiling right now.
Saturday morning was the start of the Nordic Combined Continental Cup. We got up early and headed back up to the Olympic Park to see the ski jumping portion of the competition. I know I haven't had a nordic combined post yet, so let me enlighten you. The first part of the competition is ski jumping. You get points based on the length of the jump and style. The second half of the competition is cross-country skiing. Each person is delayed a certain number of seconds based on how many points they finished behind the leader in the ski jumping. We didn't see the cross-country skiing portion, but the jumping is just crazy.
We grabbed some lunch, took and tour of Park City, and came back for Aerials practice. I'd seen the practice jumps into the pool when I was there over the summer, but this isn't the same thing. Now, they actually had to land the trick. On skis. And snow. Crazy! Here's my description: Aerials is like shooting a gymnast in the air with a slingshot and expecting them to land on a slippery, sloped, white surface without hurting themselves. It just doesn't seem like a good plan. Kids, definitely don't try this at home. We got to watch for a few hours, then headed back up the hill for the 4-man bobsled event.
The 4-man is la piece de resistance of bobsledding. It was just so much fun to be up on the hill with some of the best teams in the entire world. We walked down to Curve 6 during the second half of racing. It was amazing how fast those sleds get moving. The other amazing thing was that I got to stand a few feet from the Night Train team that won the gold medal in Vancouver. SO COOL! They ended up getting 6th overall (all the way on the right in the picture). We even got to see the awards ceremony for the top 6 finishers. The speaker system fizzled out part of the way through the Russian national anthem. It was kind of funny, but one of those situations when you really shouldn't laugh. Duffy was glad to see a familiar face, even though we've only met one other time. We're all very excited to got back out and ride in a sled this week. Can't wait!
Sunday was the second day of the Nordic Combined Continental Cup. We got up early to see all the jumping and headed out to Soldier's Hollow to watch the cross-country skiing. This is yet another Olympic venue I can now add to my list. We stopped on the way to see Duffy. She works at this great little coffee shop where we had breakfast. Dad got his belt loop stuck on his chair twice, and after I stopped laughing, I had to free him from his throne. It was a very warm day, and I was wearing way too much clothing. It was really fun though. Christa Bowman, one of my rowing friends, is from Minnesota, and her family competes in cross-country skiing competitions all the time. I'll be proud to tell her I've now attended a race. One of the competitors came out of nowhere to get 3rd. It was by far the best finish of his career, and his mother almost fainted beside us. His family was in shock. There was lots of cheering and lots of athletes collapsing across the finish line. It was just like all those shots they show at the finish line of the Olympics. This is the rookie circuit used to launch athletes onto the World Cup circuit. With enough good finishes, you're allowed to move up.
Monday was a great day for me. I learned how to snowboard. Dad and I drove up to Park City Mountain Resort, and I did a lot of falling. It was a blast! I'm completely hooked. My instructor's name was Wiki Jones, and she was AWESOME! She had a sweet accent since she was from New Zealand. She was also a ridiculously good snowboarder. I wish I was as good as her, but I'll take being able to make it down the hill without falling by the end of my lesson. The chairlift is still my nemesis, but I'll conquer it someday. I'm just going to say that getting down a slope with one foot strapped to a board is not easy, especially with other newbies on the lift with you. I stayed upright on my fourth try, and I'll take the victory, no matter how small.
Monday evening Dad and I went to a Utah Jazz game. It was my Christmas present to him this year. The Jazz beat the Golden State Warriors, and a good time was had by all. It was only my second NBA game, and it was a fun experience with Dad to cap off our big adventure. We had a great time and flew home on Tuesday. It was kind of hard to come back to real life after that, but I survived. (Mags, I hope you notice that I'm wearing my Vancouver Olympic mittens!!!! Thanks for sending them to me. You're the best!)
Now, I'm back at work after a week of Christmas vacation, and reality has set in, at least for the three days I'm here this week. Christmas and New Years were great times spent with friends and family. I really enjoyed being home. I hadn't been back since the 4th of July, and six months can be a long time. I will also state that I live in a huge country. Katy and I determined we could have almost driven from London to Paris in the time it took us to get back down here to Texas. Luckily we didn't have to cross any huge bodies of water, just a small part of Lake Dallas. As we were trying to find the positives, at least we didn't have to drive to California. That wraps it up for me.
I'm back. I'm getting ready to leave again. And I can't stop smiling every time I get to tell someone I'm actually going to ride in a bobsled this weekend!
Now, I'm back at work after a week of Christmas vacation, and reality has set in, at least for the three days I'm here this week. Christmas and New Years were great times spent with friends and family. I really enjoyed being home. I hadn't been back since the 4th of July, and six months can be a long time. I will also state that I live in a huge country. Katy and I determined we could have almost driven from London to Paris in the time it took us to get back down here to Texas. Luckily we didn't have to cross any huge bodies of water, just a small part of Lake Dallas. As we were trying to find the positives, at least we didn't have to drive to California. That wraps it up for me.
I'm back. I'm getting ready to leave again. And I can't stop smiling every time I get to tell someone I'm actually going to ride in a bobsled this weekend!