Living the Dream
So, I feel I must apologize to anyone who checked back yesterday for part 2 of the driving school/competition week saga and did not see anything. I was too exhausted to blog yesterday. After a second day of competition, team meetings, packing up sleds, and going back to the track to cheer on the skeleton athletes, I was pooped. But I am back today, and I'm ready to inform you of my life.
I took some pictures last night of the crane at the Junior Start that I was trying to describe last post. Here's where the truck with our sleds on in backs up to. We push the sleds off the truck and onto the dock.
Thursday: Day 4 of driving school was much like Day 3 without the winch. Katelyn and I sat in the sled and a coach walked us down to the grooves a little ways. By the second run, Katelyn was ready for me to walk us down to the crest and hop in. She improved each run and is getting used to the speed from the top. I really padded up the hip region of my sled, and I even stuck some extra padding in my tights. Not taking any chances! We didn't smash into Curve 8, but I was wincing every run. I found myself encouraging/negotiating with Katelyn as we went down the track. "Come on Katelyn. You can do it. Nice job through 8. We're almost to 11. Just get through 12 without hitting. Don't tap out of 14. Dang it. Okay, just get to 15." It was ongoing, but I do that every trip now that I know the track. It was another successful day at driving school. I did get more bruises on top of bruises, but I guess that's what you get when you volunteer to be a crash test dummy for a new driver.
Thursday night, Sineaid and I decided that we needed to get out of the hotel, so we headed to Starbucks and the track to watch the international training that takes place in the evenings. All the sleds not attending driving school or any other international team can slide here in the evenings. We got there a little early, so we watched skeleton practice. After watching a few sleds pass us, talking to the Canadians we met in driving school and chatting with our skeleton friend Greg, we were ready for the bobsled training to start. Apparently the track workers were having some issues with the timing eyes, so everything was running late. Our patience was rewarded though. There we were standing in Curve 12 watching as a skeleton sled passed us in Curve 12 without an athlete. That can't be good! However, the sled crossed the finish line in record time. The poor girl fell off her sled in labyrinth and apparently smashed into the wall pretty hard. She had a bad bloody nose, but she was alright. Going head first has to be terrifying!
After skeleton ended, bobsled started. It was great to watch all our guys zip past us. It has amazed me how fast I've bonded with these people. I've talked about it with Sineaid several times, but it still gets me when I think about it. This is a very special environment that I've been blessed to join. We are all serious athletes, we all have the same goals and aspirations, and we have all dreamed of competing for Team USA our whole lives in some way or another. It's so different from any other sports team I've been a part of. Everyone left "real" life to be here. Everyone really wants to be here and succeed. We don't have any sour apples in this America's Cup group, so we tend to have a good time whenever we're together.
Friday: Last day of driving school! Katelyn and I pushed from the top. We were finally ready to both start outside of the sled and jump in. We didn't push hard, but it made me feel much better to know we could both make it in. We hadn't practiced loading on ice at all yet, and the first competition was in a few days. Scary! We had two decent runs to end our week of driving school. The weather was perfect all week, and I love it here in PC! Here's a few shots of the girls and their sleds in the truck on our way to the garage.
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| Megan Hill & Katelyn Kelly |
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| Megan on Blue Baller |
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| This is my favorite shot of the day. |
Saturday: We got Saturday off. I woke up Saturday morning to snow falling and a freezing cold room. Once I pried myself out from under the covers, I threw my coat and slippers on and sat in my pajamas watching the snow fall.
Katelyn and I
packed up and headed to the sled shed. When we got there, Megan needed
to go to Walmart and Home Depot. We dropped Katelyn off and chauffeured Megan to her
destinations. As we were checking out at Walmart, the male contingent of our team rolled in looking really rough. They apparently needed to all come to Walmart to buy hotdogs. That was their hangover cure of choice. What a mess.On our way back, I see a Twitter message from Katelyn. She found a dead mouse in our sled. A DEAD MOUSE WAS IN OUR SLED!!!! Ewwww! So gross. Luckily it was way up in the nose of the sled, but still. That's just wrong! Katelyn and I have decided that we will have the greatest stories when this is all over. Who else can say they have found a dead mouse in their bobsled? She ended up extracting the little fellow with a pair of pliers. And thus our sled was christened Mr. Jingles.
We spent a couple hours working on the sled. So much for a day off. We took off Katelyn's practice runners and put on the race runners. This is a picture of Katelyn next to our sled with the jig on it. That's used to check the alignment of our runners to make sure they're in the shoes straight. Waitress Katelyn was taking Subway orders on a paper plate for our lunch run. We were all famished, and food was a necessity.The rest of the day was spent relaxing. Our hot tub was definitely put to use, and Sineaid and I hit up the Tanger Outlet malls. We didn't buy much, but we really wanted to.
And Val Smith, my OTC roomie from Push Champs, flew in and made it to PC. I was so excited to see Val again! Big bear hug!
Sunday: We were back on the track. I slid with Katelyn from the top. We got another two runs under our belt. We didn't spend forever in the garage, so it was a good day.
Monday: Val took runs with Katelyn today, so I was on the film crew today. Each day, Coach Dion films two curves so the drivers can see the lines that their taking. We also film the push everyday too. Each evening, we watch the video to pick out things we can work on. I was standing in Curve 6 filming all the US sleds going by. The US was the first nation in the lineup, and Korea was the last. As the first Korean sled flew by, I saw sparks fly and smelled burning metal. All the sleds take the same lines through Curve 6, and it was warm out. Each sled had worn the ice down and the Korean sled broke through to concrete. NOT GOOD! The section of concrete was a couple of inches long. The rookie track worker tried to patch it before the next sled. Korean sled #2 comes flying past and more sparks and burning smell. NOT GOOD! I'd hate to be sanding those race runners with humongous gouges from going over that concrete. It makes me want to cry for them just thinking about it.
Coach Dion decided to stop all US sleds from continuing until it was securely patched. The head of the track came down the track carrying a fire extinguisher looking contraption and sprayed the the track down to try and freeze the ice faster. They ended up closing the track for a hour to let the patch harden. The girls ended up calling it a day, but all the men had to come back in the afternoon. You have to complete two runs down the track in both 4 and 2 man during the international training run times to be eligible to compete. They had to get their runs in to be eligible, so it made for a very long day for them.Tuesday: What a day of firsts! 1st ghost sled experience, 1st walk of shame with my driver, buying my 1st energy drink & sanding my 1st race runners. Katelyn and I have decided that people with crazy stories are the best. Who wants to hear about someone who tried something and was automatically great at it? Where's the drama and intrigue? People want to pull for the underdog. We're like the Rudy of bobsled. Who else can say they found a dead mouse in their sled and then both the driver and brakeman didn't get in the sled? You want someone like that to succeed. Well, we're those people.
Our first run on Tuesday was... I'm not even sure how to describe it. Katelyn and I had a decent push off the line and then things went crazy. She slipped about three steps into her run and was being dragged along beside the sled. I just kept running in case she got into the sled. She was trying valiantly to get back into the sled, but it just didn't happen. I just kept thinking, "I have to be in the sled if she gets in there. I have to be there to pull the brakes." As she was being dragged along and I was still jogging and we were almost to Curve 1, she yelled at me to let go. I was part of the way into the sled and had to bail. We proceeded to slide on our butts through Curve1 as our ghost sled took off down the course. The Canadian coach was kind enough to help me out of the track and check on us. The paramedics had to talk to us, then we got ready for the second run. It wasn't our best push ever, but we both made it into the sled. I'd call it a success!
After we finished the second run, we headed to the garage to sand our race runners. I have permanent black stains on my hands from sanding now. Getting to that last grit of sandpaper and seeing that gleaming runner is a very satisfying feeling. I better get used to it, because I'll be doing it every race from here on out. Here's a shot of all our sleds in the garage.
That's all and I can recount today. We fly off to Canada tomorrow, so I'll try to post while we're hanging out in the airport. Competing for Team USA was one of the BEST DAYS EVER! I'm sad to be leaving Newpark in Park City, but I'm excited for Calgary. It's cowboy central for Canada, so it'll be like I'm going back to Texas. And this is the track from the movie Cool Runnings, so you know I'll be excited.