Oh, Ca-na-da
I made it across the border. Welcome to Calgary!
Prepare yourself for lots of Cool Runnings references, since this is the home track of the movie. Sineaid, Megan, Katelyn and I headed to Canada on Saturday afternoon. But first things first. The 4-man races were held on Friday and Saturday. Sineaid and I were at the finish dock for both races. It was super intense, and this is just America's Cup. I can't imagine being at the finish line at the World Championships or the Olympics. Crazy! All you can do is listen to announcers and watch the clock tick by. We were excited to hold up number 1 for the American sleds as they went by. They come to a stop all cheering and thumping the sides of the sled. Then they all unfold themselves out sled like clowns in a mini car. They're all bleeding from spiking each other. It's just insanity!
On Friday, USA 3 (Butner, Nix, Clark and Berkeley) ended up in first place over USA 4 (Cunningham, Blandford, Ives and Ware) by 0.14. That's less than two tenths of a second over 2 runs. Such a small margin! USA 5 (Noller, Miller, Senske and Harris) took 5th. Jimmy Shea's sled took last, with an 11th place finish. They are a rather rag tag group, so this was not surprising. It was a great race, and it was good to see the USA sleds finish so high in the rankings. We are trying to accrue as many points as possible to earn back the right to take 3 sleds to World Championships this year. Only the top 3 countries in the points rankings are allowed to have 3 sleds on the World Cup circuit. The USA 3 driver last year quite before the end of the season, so we lost that third position. If our drivers continue to place well and earn enough points, we'll earn that spot back by February.
On Saturday, things got crazy! A snowstorm rolled in that morning, so the track was unpredictable. Snow on the track slows the sleds down with all that extra resistance. Each sled that went down the track was getting faster and faster due to all that snow being melted off by each sled. There was more than a second differential between the first and last sled. That is huge in the world of bobsledding, so the officials decided to scratch the first run and only count the second. This is not an ideal situation. It's always nice to have two runs in case you don't have the best load or run. There's definitely more pressure knowing that only one run counts. It has to be perfect to pull out the victory. The Canadians ended up sneaking into first place. USA 4 took the silver for the second day by 0.02 seconds, and USA 3 took the bronze by 0.06 seconds. It was a crazy day, to say the least.
As soon as the race was over, we picked Katelyn up and headed to Salt Lake City. We spent some time in the airport and then sat in the plane on the tarmac for an hour. Apparently we got too much fuel, so the pilot had to fill out extra paperwork. By then, we had to get the wings of the plane de-iced. It was long flight. This put us into Las Vegas late, so we had to rush to the international terminal. We made it on the plane and across the border.
It was not this cold when we walked out of the airport, but it is
definitely colder than Park City.
We got in late Saturday night, and Sunday was spent exploring. We found a Curling Club, where we bought some bootie covers for our spikes. Sarah, Katy and I are huge curling fans, so this was a fun part of the trip for me. Made me want to yell, "Haaarrrrddddd!" The manager was really pushing for us to try it out for the day, but the girls respectfully declined. If it had been my choice, we'd have bee all over that! They had 8 curling lanes, and a few club teams were practicing. I was impressed. I snapped this last picture for Sarah on my way out the door. They have a Broom Wash closet. A necessity in this sport. Hope you appreciate this as much as I did Sarah. If Pete Fenson had been here, I would have gotten his autograph.
After our trip to the Calgary Curling Club, we drove by downtown. It is very beautiful, with a river running right by it. I think it would be a fun place for a rowing head race, in the summer of course. It reminded me a lot of a similar course in Iowa we used to row on every year. I kind of missed rowing for a second there. Weird. Then we found a grocery store. Everything is more expensive in Canada. They don't even believe in $5 footlongs at Subway. What is our world coming to? So, after buying expensive groceries we came back to the hotel. Did I mention that our hotel is right across the street from the bobsled track, and we have a water slide? Well, we do, and it's awesome!
All of our boys drove up to Calgary, so we were the only US contingent present Sunday night. We found out the Panamanian team is right down the hall from us. You may be thinking, "Panama? Bobsled? That doesn't make sense." Well, you'd be right. They are a lot like the Jamaican bobsled team from Cool Runnings. No one in Panama knows about bobsledding, and these two sleds are the first to ever compete for their country. Pretty cool cats if you ask me. They have two of the best track athletes in Panama pushing them. There was a nationwide casting call, and two of the guys here won that competition. This video is documents their story. Some of it is in Spanish, but you still get the point. Check out their website: http://www.spiritofpanama.org/
They happened to be in the pool, so we joined them for a fun evening. These 5 guys speak pretty good English, and our Spanish is not so good. They were trying to teach us how to correctly pronounce phrases. Not pretty. We met them in driving school and at the races last week in Park City. One of them was even a rower at Santa Clara. I now know all about Panama, which beaches to visit, what time of year to visit and the life story of a few of them. I really love that this sport allows me to meet so many new people from all over the world. It will be fun to have internationals come in when we head back to Lake Placid.
The brakeman were trying all sorts of crazy stunts on the water slide. Sineaid and I decided that we needed to enter this competition. We were getting smoked until we decided to pull out all the stops. Doubles Luge. Enough said. I'm not sure if they knew there was competition, but we definitely won it with that move. It was a really fun evening, and we have made some fast friends from Panama!
All the guys made it in late Sunday night, and Monday was go time. We were all ready to slide on this new track. Since it was from the movie Cool Runnings, I was especially excited. I even tweeted about it.
We warmed up, headed to the start line, both of us got into the sled, and things were peachy. We made it through the Omega and the Kreisel. And then we got to Curve 12. And then we flipped. Just like the movie.
My first official crash was not too bad. At least it's out of the way now. I don't have to wonder what it's like anymore. We had too low of a line coming out of Curve 12. The pressure just pulled the runners out from under us. I'm a little sore this morning, but not burned or severely bruised. My head and shoulders were dragging along for a turn or two before I pulled myself back up into the sled cannonball style. My head ended up near Katelyn's and my back was to the ice. We crossed the finish line and ended up with our heads smashed up against the wall.
We didn't have to wait long for a track worker and two of our guys to come pull the sled away from the wall so we could get out. Jeremy and Matt helped us up, gave us each a hug and made sure we were okay. We didn't have to carry our sled off like Cool Runnings. I also want to dispel any ideas that you would EVER try to pick up your sled and walk it in the track, at any time, let alone after a crash. Our guys were nice enough to push our sled the rest of the way up the ramp for us. It was more scary than anything.
Once we got to the finish dock, I had some time to think it over. Time really did slow down. I remember smashing hard on our left side, then realizing my head was dragging on the ice. That's when I realized we'd crashed. My shoulder pads and helmet kept me from getting hurt. I remember looking up into the sled for something to grab onto to myself in and thinking, "What can I grab onto because I am NOT kicking out of this sled!" I'm not really sure what I grabbed, but I pulled myself up into the sled and rode out the last few turns. All the guys were recounting what they saw. Apparently Jeremy took off down the outrun for us with the track worker. Matt was right behind him and one of the other track workers called him back. He didn't listen and just kept running. And boy did we appreciate it! Pushing the sled up the outrun is never fun, especially after a crash. I was glad both of them were there to do all the work!
Everyone kept coming up to ask us if we were okay, brushing us off and repeatedly asking if we were really okay. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Honestly, my rides in Lake Placid left me feeling worse. Katelyn was pretty shook up. I'm not sure if it was the crash itself or the fact that we crashed. Since it was her first trip down on this track, every pilot we knew was asking her how it went. She had to keep telling everyone we crashed. The Panamanian guys were there to console us and offer support, along with the Australians. It's nice to see that everyone, at least on America's Cup, is so supportive of all the other nations. Katelyn took the second run of the night with Jackie Higgins, who just joined us for the this week. She made it down on all four runners, so things are looking up.
That's all the excitement from Canada thus far. I have the night off from sliding. I'll let you know if anything crazy happens in the next few days.
Prepare yourself for lots of Cool Runnings references, since this is the home track of the movie. Sineaid, Megan, Katelyn and I headed to Canada on Saturday afternoon. But first things first. The 4-man races were held on Friday and Saturday. Sineaid and I were at the finish dock for both races. It was super intense, and this is just America's Cup. I can't imagine being at the finish line at the World Championships or the Olympics. Crazy! All you can do is listen to announcers and watch the clock tick by. We were excited to hold up number 1 for the American sleds as they went by. They come to a stop all cheering and thumping the sides of the sled. Then they all unfold themselves out sled like clowns in a mini car. They're all bleeding from spiking each other. It's just insanity!
 |
| USA 3 on their way to a gold medal finish |
On Saturday, things got crazy! A snowstorm rolled in that morning, so the track was unpredictable. Snow on the track slows the sleds down with all that extra resistance. Each sled that went down the track was getting faster and faster due to all that snow being melted off by each sled. There was more than a second differential between the first and last sled. That is huge in the world of bobsledding, so the officials decided to scratch the first run and only count the second. This is not an ideal situation. It's always nice to have two runs in case you don't have the best load or run. There's definitely more pressure knowing that only one run counts. It has to be perfect to pull out the victory. The Canadians ended up sneaking into first place. USA 4 took the silver for the second day by 0.02 seconds, and USA 3 took the bronze by 0.06 seconds. It was a crazy day, to say the least.
As soon as the race was over, we picked Katelyn up and headed to Salt Lake City. We spent some time in the airport and then sat in the plane on the tarmac for an hour. Apparently we got too much fuel, so the pilot had to fill out extra paperwork. By then, we had to get the wings of the plane de-iced. It was long flight. This put us into Las Vegas late, so we had to rush to the international terminal. We made it on the plane and across the border.
It was not this cold when we walked out of the airport, but it is
definitely colder than Park City.
We got in late Saturday night, and Sunday was spent exploring. We found a Curling Club, where we bought some bootie covers for our spikes. Sarah, Katy and I are huge curling fans, so this was a fun part of the trip for me. Made me want to yell, "Haaarrrrddddd!" The manager was really pushing for us to try it out for the day, but the girls respectfully declined. If it had been my choice, we'd have bee all over that! They had 8 curling lanes, and a few club teams were practicing. I was impressed. I snapped this last picture for Sarah on my way out the door. They have a Broom Wash closet. A necessity in this sport. Hope you appreciate this as much as I did Sarah. If Pete Fenson had been here, I would have gotten his autograph.
All of our boys drove up to Calgary, so we were the only US contingent present Sunday night. We found out the Panamanian team is right down the hall from us. You may be thinking, "Panama? Bobsled? That doesn't make sense." Well, you'd be right. They are a lot like the Jamaican bobsled team from Cool Runnings. No one in Panama knows about bobsledding, and these two sleds are the first to ever compete for their country. Pretty cool cats if you ask me. They have two of the best track athletes in Panama pushing them. There was a nationwide casting call, and two of the guys here won that competition. This video is documents their story. Some of it is in Spanish, but you still get the point. Check out their website: http://www.spiritofpanama.org/
They happened to be in the pool, so we joined them for a fun evening. These 5 guys speak pretty good English, and our Spanish is not so good. They were trying to teach us how to correctly pronounce phrases. Not pretty. We met them in driving school and at the races last week in Park City. One of them was even a rower at Santa Clara. I now know all about Panama, which beaches to visit, what time of year to visit and the life story of a few of them. I really love that this sport allows me to meet so many new people from all over the world. It will be fun to have internationals come in when we head back to Lake Placid.
The brakeman were trying all sorts of crazy stunts on the water slide. Sineaid and I decided that we needed to enter this competition. We were getting smoked until we decided to pull out all the stops. Doubles Luge. Enough said. I'm not sure if they knew there was competition, but we definitely won it with that move. It was a really fun evening, and we have made some fast friends from Panama!
All the guys made it in late Sunday night, and Monday was go time. We were all ready to slide on this new track. Since it was from the movie Cool Runnings, I was especially excited. I even tweeted about it.
Getting ready to slide for the first time in Calgary. Let's rock and roll @Katelyn__Kelly! "Eh, Jamaica. Vatch out for numba 12 turn. Scary"Note to self: Never, ever again tweet bobsledding quotes before sliding. Ever.
We warmed up, headed to the start line, both of us got into the sled, and things were peachy. We made it through the Omega and the Kreisel. And then we got to Curve 12. And then we flipped. Just like the movie.
My first official crash was not too bad. At least it's out of the way now. I don't have to wonder what it's like anymore. We had too low of a line coming out of Curve 12. The pressure just pulled the runners out from under us. I'm a little sore this morning, but not burned or severely bruised. My head and shoulders were dragging along for a turn or two before I pulled myself back up into the sled cannonball style. My head ended up near Katelyn's and my back was to the ice. We crossed the finish line and ended up with our heads smashed up against the wall.
We didn't have to wait long for a track worker and two of our guys to come pull the sled away from the wall so we could get out. Jeremy and Matt helped us up, gave us each a hug and made sure we were okay. We didn't have to carry our sled off like Cool Runnings. I also want to dispel any ideas that you would EVER try to pick up your sled and walk it in the track, at any time, let alone after a crash. Our guys were nice enough to push our sled the rest of the way up the ramp for us. It was more scary than anything.
Once we got to the finish dock, I had some time to think it over. Time really did slow down. I remember smashing hard on our left side, then realizing my head was dragging on the ice. That's when I realized we'd crashed. My shoulder pads and helmet kept me from getting hurt. I remember looking up into the sled for something to grab onto to myself in and thinking, "What can I grab onto because I am NOT kicking out of this sled!" I'm not really sure what I grabbed, but I pulled myself up into the sled and rode out the last few turns. All the guys were recounting what they saw. Apparently Jeremy took off down the outrun for us with the track worker. Matt was right behind him and one of the other track workers called him back. He didn't listen and just kept running. And boy did we appreciate it! Pushing the sled up the outrun is never fun, especially after a crash. I was glad both of them were there to do all the work!Everyone kept coming up to ask us if we were okay, brushing us off and repeatedly asking if we were really okay. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Honestly, my rides in Lake Placid left me feeling worse. Katelyn was pretty shook up. I'm not sure if it was the crash itself or the fact that we crashed. Since it was her first trip down on this track, every pilot we knew was asking her how it went. She had to keep telling everyone we crashed. The Panamanian guys were there to console us and offer support, along with the Australians. It's nice to see that everyone, at least on America's Cup, is so supportive of all the other nations. Katelyn took the second run of the night with Jackie Higgins, who just joined us for the this week. She made it down on all four runners, so things are looking up.
That's all the excitement from Canada thus far. I have the night off from sliding. I'll let you know if anything crazy happens in the next few days.