Bring It Back to America!

I'm back in America! Canada was fun, but I'm glad to be back in the good, old U-S-of-A. If you haven't kept up with my Twitter or Facebook updates, this will be quite the read for you. Break out the coffee now, cause this is long one. If you need a nap half way through, I'll completely understand. I was busy in Calgary, to say the least.

I forgot to mention last post the sled debacle at the Canadian/US border. The 2 & 4-man sleds for USA 3 & 4 were shipped on an FIBT (The Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing) truck along with sleds from Lichtenstein and Korea. All the shipped sleds on tour are trucked together to each location. Each sled is packed in a crate (aka a big, heavy wooden box) and must have a carne (Yes, it is pronounced like carne asada steak). A carne is essentially a passport for everything in the crate to make it across international borders. The cost to ship a sled on America's Cup tour is approximately $900. Since America's Cup is not funded, this cost is all on the driver. The guys have it rough with two sleds.

Well, apparently some people, who will not be mentioned but are possibly from a country in Europe, didn't sign all the paperwork, so the sleds were being held at the border. Our guys had to drive back to the border from Calgary and sign the paperwork for everyone. When they found out the it didn't matter who signed it, and that the truck driver could have signed it, they were not happy. Their sleds didn't make it to the track for Monday night training runs, so they got extra runs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

You may be wondering why it's such a big deal for guys to get this extra day of sliding. Well, allow me to enlighten you. Obviously it's important for the driver to learn the track and all its idiosyncrasies. Secondly, men and women have to qualify for each race during the week of official training held before the race. Each sled has to complete 2 runs during the week. For the women, this is not as difficult a task. We typically have 6 practice runs and only have to complete 2. Men have to qualify for both 2 and 4 man. They typically have 8 practice runs and need to complete 2 runs in each category. So, everyone that was delayed and didn't get to slide on Monday got extra runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. Our men don't have trouble qualifying, but it's nice to get as many practice runs in as possible. They have to drive differently for 2-man than 4-man because of the sled size and weight. They are impressive to be able to handle both!

So, if you'll remember back to the last post, I had my first crash on Monday. We tipped in Curve 12 and slid on our side/heads all the way through Curve 14 to the finish line. Well, Tuesday turned out to be a crazy day too. Since Jackie Higgins flew up to Calgary for the week, I was supposed to have the night off. I was chillaxing in the start house and having some fun with the other brakeman. We get to the track with our sleds 2 to 3 hours before sliding everyday. While the drivers go off on their track walks, we have a good time.

I was trying to capture Matt's awesome socks with his sliding suit, but this turned out so much better.

The Incredible Hulks! Sineaid had on shoulder pads under her coat, but those shoulder's are all Adam's.

I was filming all the USA crew on their first runs of the night. There were some interesting stories there. My friend Dakarai pulled his quad in Park City, so he has yet to compete this year. He sat in the sled while his driver pushed him down the track and hopped in. Funny to watch. It was like a chariot ride at an amusement park. Then there was Jimmy Shea's 4-man. He only had two of his brakeman present, so they recruited our friend Ben from Australia's team to sit in their 3 seat. Jimmy was telling 2 seat to sit back more and the brakeman was telling Ben to sit forward more. It was a circus and highly entertaining to watch two people hit a heavy 4-man sled with two full grown men sitting in it. Good times.

Then things got crazy. Megan, Katelyn & Collin all crashed in Curve 8. Not good. They are all first year drivers, and it was their first week on this track. Curve 8 seems so harmless, but it'll get ya if you try to steer too much. You have to let the curve do the work, or so I'm told. Sineaid was braking for Megan, and she hit her head really hard on their decent to the bottom. She was seeing stars, and it's never a good plan to keep sliding when you are concussed. Here are a few pictures of Sineaid post crash. No burns, just bruises. She had a huge knot on her tricep. Jackie was braking for Katelyn, and although bruised and battered, she was alright for the second run. Brent (aka Captain Jack Sparrow) was braking for Collin. He kicked out in the kreisel and got ice burn on his butt. I wish I could have seen him doing 360 degree spins while sliding in a giant circle. I hope someone has that on film. It was quite an evening. I ended up volunteering to brake for Megan so she could get a second run in. She really needed to jump right back in the sled to get her confidence back. It was a bumpy ride, but we made it to the bottom on all 4 runners. Success! I headed back to the hotel and soaked in the hot tub for a few minutes and hit the sack.

Sineaid's huge tricep knot

Wednesday was fairly uneventful. We had video review in the mornings on this trip since we were sliding at night. In Park City, we had to split video review into 2 sessions because we wouldn't all fit in one room. This time we were all stuffed into Mike Dionne's room, and it made for some very entertaining and informational mornings. Of course, everyone rolls in looking pretty rough. And imagine about 10 grown men and 5 women stuffed in a hotel room trying to see a TV screen. Bobsledders everywhere! Then all the guys were making great comments. Entertaining. As for sliding, Katelyn and I made it down both runs. You'd have thought we won a race the way we cheered and high-fived after we came to a stop. They weren't always smooth, but we made it.

Thursday was not so good. We had a decent first run, but Katelyn crashed in Curve 8 again. We went through kreisel on our heads and smashed into the wall out of kreisel. It was very painful, and I don't really have anything else to say about that. My head and shoulders were out of the sled, so as soon as I felt us move away from the wall, I got the heck out of Dodge. I ended up kicking out around Curve 12. That was a first. Quite a wild ride sliding on my butt down the track.

I laid in the track for a second to gather my wits, climbed out and started walking towards the finish line. Katelyn came running back looking for me. Apparently the paramedics were trying to talk to her, but she brushed them aside to come look for me. A very sweet gesture for someone who just crashed me. The paramedics asked us a few questions and let us go. I was alright aside from some pain when I turned my neck to the right and few bruises. As soon as the sleds were unloaded, I got some ice for my neck and headed to Denny's to demolish a Grand Slam. Two pumpkin pancakes with butter and syrup, two scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, and two strips of bacon later, I was feeling human again. I ate every scrap of it! Jay Noller and Matt Senske were laughing at me eating my feelings away, but that was one of the best meals I've eaten in awhile. And again, the hot tub and I had a get together. Our coaches are now best buds, and they were hilarious trying to sneak into the pool with beer and not get caught. It was like watching a couple teenage boys getting caught red handed. Funny!

Friday was our first race. Jackie was supposed to race with Katelyn, but do to a paperwork issue with the FIBT, she was not eligible to slide. So a half hour before we left for the track, I found out I was racing. It was disgustingly cold out, and we raced at 6:30 at night. It was -2 degrees Fahrenheit with a -23 degree windchill. Sick and wrong! Here's what I wore to "warm up": 2 pairs of socks, my sneakers, fleece tights, cold weather mock, my one piece sliding suit, a hoodie, snow pants, my winter coat, a stocking cap, heavy duty winter gloves, and a scarf wrapped around my face. Only my eyes were showing. I was like a bobsled ninja. I know this is disgusting, but it was so cold my snot was freezing in my nose. Even my eyelashes were freezing. COLD! Stripping down to my speed suit at the line was chilly, but the adrenaline was pumping so you don't really notice.

We had pretty decent start times, and we made it down on all 4 both runs. Again with the cheering and hi-fiving at the finish. We ended up in 4th place out of 5 sleds. I now have another medal to add to my collection. I have to give a huge shout out to all the men on our team, both coaches and athletes. Coaches Mike Dionne and Craig Bascue were troopers at the start line. They had our sleds moved and in the track so we could stay in the warmth as long as possible. Craig's mustache was frozen by the end of the night. And another huge shout out to Jimmy Shea's crew at the finish dock. Jimmy and Doc ran up the outrun, grabbed our sled, gave us their coats and took care of everything. They got our sled onto the scale, into the truck and let us stand in front of the heater. Such gentlemen!

I wish I could have seen the highlight of the day though. We were already back at the garage, so I missed it. Codie Bascue and Jake Peterson are both still in high school and are competing for a place at the first ever Youth Olympic Games held in Austria this December. Codie was driving, and Jake was braking for him. They hit the sled, and Jake fell down on his first step. He held onto the sled and repeatedly tried to pull himself back up into a running position. It took Codie a few steps to realize he was pushing Jake and the sled. We were told Jake looked like a fish on land, flopping all over the place. He was not giving up! Right before Curve 1, he hauled himself into the sled, they made it to the bottom and won the gold. What a story!

This was the one night I did not hit up the hot tub. It was pretty late, and we had to sand our runners for the race the next day. Here's a shot of our "garage" at the hotel. This is most of the 2 man sleds in the hotel conference room turned garage. We pretty much destroyed this room. And getting all the sleds in and out of that 3' door was fun all week. I will no longer even think of complaining about loading sleds at the garage. And Friday night it was a sauna in there. Someone had cranked the heat way up, and I was stripped down to my spandex shorts, t-shirt and winter boots sanding runners. It was like a bad rap music video. I'm very glad the guys were still racing and not back to the hotel yet because otherwise I would have been sweating to death with all those winter clothes on. And it was so cold outside, that as soon as we brought the sled into the garage, all the metal frosted over. All the tool and runners were covered in frost, so we had to wait for them to thaw before we could do anything. What a night!

Frosty runners = A dinner break before sanding

Katelyn, Jackie and I ended up sanding our runners on the sled because we didn't have any sanding stands. Once we finished sanding, put the runners in a case, put the transports on the sleds and flipped it down. The transports are long metal pieces that run from the front to the back of the sled and fit in the shoe where the runners normally sit. Imagine something like the long poles used in a litter to carry people. It's the same concept. The race runners don't go back on the sled until right before we race. 45 minutes before each race all sledwork must be complete. We typically put the race runners on about an hour or so before each race.

Once we finished up, I headed up to the room. Megan and Sineaid didn't have any sanding stands either. They used our armoire as a make-shift stand. Ingenious! They got done in record time, and we all promptly fell asleep from exhaustion.

Saturday morning we were at it again. We raced at 10:00 am, so we were up and loading sleds on the truck at 8:00. I was again the bobsled ninja all wrapped up and trying to stay warm. We got all warmed up and ready to race. Collin was a forerunner again this week, and I was never more thankful. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but a few sleds are sent down before every race to make sure the track is alright. Well, right next to the bobsled track is the ski jumping and ski slope training facility. They have snow makers running 24/7 all winter long, and the wind was blowing all of that snowy/hazy mixture right over the track. Collin said he couldn't see anything from Curve 4 to Curve 6. Yikes! So the officials delayed our race until noon. Ugh! We grabbed some food and warmed up again in the freezing cold.

This time they let us go, and Katelyn and I were ready to race. The ice was at -18 degrees, and even though our sled had been sitting out in the cold for hours, the runners were very sticky at the start line. I was having trouble moving the sled back and forth in the grooves. We hit the sled, and my foot slipped on the first step. Luckily I didn't fall down like Jake, and we kept going. It was the best load I've ever had, but I wasn't happy with the whole start. It ended up being the fastest start time of the day. What a deal!

Katelyn was piecing together a great run when we flipped in Curve 8. I knew where we were on the track, and I was not about to get hammered out of the kreisel again. And plus this time I was just in a burn vest and speed suit. No elbow, knee and shoulder pads this time. I couldn't get myself back up in the sled, so I kicked out again. Luckily I had carefully inspected my burn vest earlier in the week to see exactly where all the protective parts were located. The sled moved out from under me, and I stuck my spiked feet and backs of my shoulders on the ice to slow me down. I definitely hopped up a lot sooner than last time because that ice was really cold with so many less layers on. Once I caught my breath, I climbed out of the track and into an officials truck while we waited for the paramedics. I got to take my first ride in an ambulance. They determined that I was fine on our way to the finish dock, and our day was over.

I was a little shook up, but since I was alright, it didn't seem like that big of a deal. I made sure Katelyn was alright, reassured her that I still believed in her as a driver, and rode with Jimmy up to the top to grab our stuff. It was pretty cool to have any Olympic gold medalist tell me I said and did all the right things to my driver after a crash. I'm an encourager, what can I say. It doesn't make sense to hold it against her. Crashing is part of the sport, and I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for this.

Everyone was getting ready for the men's race at this point, so no one really noticed me walk back into the start house to grab our stuff. Everyone except Coach Dionne. I was shoving our stuff into bags when he came up to ask how I was. He started rubbing my back while I was talking, and I almost lost it. You can't be so nice to a person on edge! I'm emotionally unstable! Then I walked out the door, and Jay was there asking me if I was alright. I about cried again when he gave me a hug. I made it to the car without incident, we grabbed Katelyn and headed to the hotel for little bit.

After checking to make sure I wasn't burned, I put on lots of warm clothes and headed back to watch our men race. The second I walked in the door everyone was there to check on me, give me a hug and make sure I was alright. Such great teammates! I can't say it enough! I love being a part of a team again. I didn't realize quite how much I'd missed that. Then came the highlight of my day. I was unanimously voted the recipient of the United States Championship belt! I am the first (and most likely only) female recipient, so this is a great honor.

The guys have this belt, and it is awarded based on a variety of circumstances. If they all slide 2-man or 4-man on the same night, it goes to the fastest push. Occasionally a driver is announced the recipient upon winning a race or having a string of great practice runs. Matt held it for a few days for being the ringleader of his crew. Team Senske! It can also be awarded for valor. Dakarai was awarded the belt in Park City for a few days. He pulled his quad and couldn't compete, but the men needed one more sled in the 4-man category to receive full points. Somehow, Canada got talked into fielding another sled and needed bodies for qualifying runs. Dak was volunteered, and they crashed. Then he was really beat up, so he won the belt. And then I was awarded the belt because they all felt bad for me. 3 crashes in 6 days. Not the best odds. They were all impressed I just kept jumping back in the sled. I didn't see that there was any other option, so I just kept coming back for more. Corey and his crew came to my door and presented me with the belt for a whole week! There was even a slow clap involved. I am now a legitimate bobsledder. I feel I've been accepted into the clan.

It was fun watching the boys compete, and they all did very well again this week. After their race, we headed to the medal ceremony, which they were kind enough to hold indoors. We got to see the inside of the ice house. This is an indoor version of our push track. It didn't currently have any ice on it, but it was really cool to see since I've heard so much about it. I collected my 4th place medal and watched our team earn medals in every category. Very impressive! Check out the press release: U.S. claims 8 medals in Calgary America’s Cup

On our last night in Calgary, I was back in the hot tub. I just had to say goodbye and try to recover from all these sore muscles. The coaches were back as well, and Mike asked me about kicking out.

"Since I couldn't get my shoulders in the sled and we were only half way down the track, I though the best plan of action was to kick out."

"I never could make myself do it, always clawing and scratching to stay in."

"I wouldn't have thought I could do it either, but this week broke me in."

He got a kick out of that. Then Craig got to talking about milkshakes, and we had to got to McDonald's because it sounded so good. We ran up to the room, put on dry clothes, I donned the belt over my coat, and we walked over to McDonald's. I got a Rolo McFlurry and french fries. So good! And we got giant chocolate milkshakes for the coaches. It was the least we could do after all their hard work. The cashier asked me what I was the champion of. "Weeeelllll, you see I crashed a lot this week in a bobsled, so I am the United States Champion." She liked that explanation, and so did the fry cook. Later I was talking to Adam Blanford in the hallway at the hotel, still wearing the belt. The entire Korean bobsled team got off the elevator and walked past us. They had been enjoying the jacuzzi as well. One of them saw the belt. He pointed at me and said in very broken English, "Cham-pion? Champion?" I nodded my head yes and all five guys came back out of their room to give me a hi-five. It was AWESOME! Wish I had it on tape!

After packing and hitting the sack, we were ready to come back to America. I packed the luggage in the Jeep, and I have to say my dad would again be proud of this packing job. Jackie and I squeezed in the back and we headed to the airport.

 

We said so long to Calgary and headed east to Montreal. We are now big fans of WestJet Airlines. They let Megan's overweight bag through at no extra cost and served us free drinks and snacks multiple times during the flight. Matt Bailey was nice enough to drive up from the OTC and pick us up. We loaded up our bags and headed back to America! Here's a shot of me waiting for our bags in Montreal. Bringing the belt back to America!

We drove across the border, yet another new experience on this trip. The border patrol asked us a bunch of questions and started joking with us. Shocker! I thought those guys were all like the castle guard in England. No smiling. EVER! Well, this guy didn't get the memo I guess.

Border Patrol: "Where you coming from?"
Matt Bailey: "I just picked these girls up from Montreal. They are coming back from competing. We're all affiliated with US Bobsled."
Border Patrol: "(At Matt) You've got a rough job. (At Megan) How'd you do?"
Megan: "We won gold and silver."
Border Patrol: "Very nice. You bringing anything back across the border?"
Megan: "Just all this hardware."
Border Patrol: "Good deal. Welcome back and congrats."

All my hardware thus far

Too funny! Megan shocked herself with that response. It just popped out. We stopped at Panera Bread in Plattsburgh and enjoyed our first meal back in America. My mom called me, and I could answer because I was back in America. So many great things just because we have come back to our homeland!

Me & the belt crossing the border

So, I am now back at the OTC. I am enjoying a small break from sliding and free food and boarding. We compete again next weekend here in Lake Placid. Should be another fun week of racing. This marathon of a post just wouldn't be complete without some pictures of my bruises. They're looking pretty nasty.

The back of my left arm. My first ever blue bruise.

I have a huge knot under that bruise, and this part of my leg will be well padded when I slide again.

This was the position my leg was in when we crashed. You can see the line across my calf and quad where I landed on the roll bar. Painful.

Lovely! Battle wounds that I will proudly display as badges of honor this week. Time for some recovery! And if you haven't had enough of my bobsledding adventure for one day, check out my video from Park City. I just finished it today. I took some great footage in Calgary, and I'm excited work on that one next. I probably won't post for a few days unless something excited and unexpected happens. The boys are all getting back tomorrow evening, so you never know. Spending Thanksgiving in a dorm for big kids with a bunch of friends has some potential for a good story. I'll keep everyone posted. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!