Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2012. I never would have guessed at the start of 2011 my life would be so adventurous, but I ended the year living life to the fullest. I'm excited for all that 2012 holds for me. Bobsledding has introduced me to so many new and interesting people and places, and I can't wait to see where it takes me next.
I also want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that has supported me in the last year, both financially and personally. I couldn't pursue my dreams without you all. Thank you for taking time to read about my life and follow my story.
Well, last post was quite awhile ago, and I left you all hanging about the big bobsled scrimmage. Katelyn and I faced off against Megan & Sineaid (USA) and Helen & Dianne (Canada). Apparantely just three women's sleds is not enough to be considered a race, so we were technically forerunners for the 2-man race. The drivers still got official race day credit, but we didn't have a medal ceremony at the end. It was all very confusing, and our coaches were even confused by the race committee. We treated it like an official race day, but Katelyn and I decided to call it a bobsled scrimmage.
Katelyn and I took third both days, which means we made it across the finish all 4 runs. Hallelujah! Helen Upperton is a World Cup Canadian driver, so she was a lock for gold. Megan drove really well and took silver. Katelyn & I had good push times, and we were happy with the results. Can't ever complain about bronze! The results were the same both Friday and Saturday for our scrimmages. As icing on the cake, I made the Wichita Eagle. (Check out the article by Bob Lutz. I posted the link a few weeks ago.)
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| Katelyn & I on race day. I'm the brakeman in the back. |
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| Saturday's race results: Push Times, Down Times, Total |
The guys came right after us. The 2-man competition was fierce between Cory Butner and Nick Cunningham as usual. Nick dominated the first race by 0.58 seconds, but he had to battle Cory for the
second win by only 0.10 seconds. Nick was pushing with fellow Soldier-Athlete Dallas Robinson. Dallas is ridiculously fast. He went to the 2008 Olympic trials for the 100 meters. That's how fast this guy is. He and Nick had the fastest pushes of the weekend. Codie Basque tied Lichtenstein for 3rd place to sweep the podium for USA the first day. It's still hard for me to believe that after two runs down a mile of track with two different sleds and two different sets of people, they could end up with the exact same total time. Crazy! Codie got 5th the second day, and Jay Noller finished 7th both days.
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| Day 2 Results for both men & women |
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| USA Sweeps the Podium |
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| Medal Ceremony |
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| Another great day at the office |
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| Sineaid & I entertaining the race day photographers |
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| 4-Man Mayhem! |
Sunday brought two 4-man races and all kinds of craziness. Megan, Sineaid & I headed out to watch our boys race back to back Sunday morning. We made it out to see everybody fly by and cheer loud at the finish line. Cory & company swept both races. Nick's crew took silver by 0.15 seconds the first race. The second race, Nick flipped out of Curve 18 on run 1. They still crossed the finish line with all four guys in the sled, so it counted as a finished run. Not that crashing is ever funny, but in this instance I did have to laugh. Kev was sitting three seat in that sled, and his whole family had come into town for the race. They were all standing in Curve 19 and saw the whole thing. As the guys were wriggling out of the sled, they looked up to see Kev's family looking both shocked and terrified. Great story, especially when Blanford recounts the episode. They got back to the top and found out Dallas had hurt his knee in the crash. They were desperate to find a replacement. Colin (2-man driver) had come to watch the races, and he happened to be up top. They grabbed him in his street clothes, put him in over-sized gear, and threw him in their sled. We were all thoroughly confused when Colin hopped out of the sled and took his helmet off! They ended up taking 6th place. Jay's crew took fourth both races. There's another crazy story.
Jay's crew got his sled up to the top and flipped it to put the runners on before the first race. Cory happened to walk by and notice the sled looked funny. He mentioned it to a coach, so they looked into it. They found out the frame was completely cracked at the welds in the front of the sled. The second all four guys would have jumped in the sled and they hit Curve 1, it would not have been good! Possibly even fatal. They had to quick pull the runners off, throw the sled on a truck, rush down the mountain to the garage, take their sled off the truck, borrow the replica of the Night Train (the sled that won 2010 Olympic Gold), rush it to the top, put the runners on and flip the sled all within the last 15 minutes of official sled work time. Crazy! They earned the nickname "The Amtrak" instead of "The Night Train". Good stuff!
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| Here is Jay's sled with the nose cone off. |
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| Not good! The entire front snapped off when the coaches pushed on it. |
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| Matt & Jeremy discussing their crazy sled swapping race day |
Overall, the 4-man races were a success. We had a great time cheering them on. Go USA! Cheering for our boys never gets old, and I don't think it ever will. I still can't believe I get to travel around and compete with this team. Such an amazing experience!
Monday proved to be another big day in my bobsledding life. We were at our nightly film session when I got peer pressured into driving school. Mr. Jeremy Ware & Mr. Dakarai Kongela had been planning all season to learn skeleton at the first opportunity. Mr. Adam Blanford & Mr. Nic Taylor had decided to throw in with them and learn how to drive bobsleds. Coach Dionne was asking for more volunteers so we could have a race at the end of the two weeks. Everyone kept looking at me, so I caved. I'd been heavily considering the driving school in March, and they all knew it. I couldn't believe I'd just been talked into it as I walked out of the meeting. I found this two page spread in a magazine that night. How fitting!
And on a side note, Mr. Matt Senske had not shaved or gotten a hair cut since picture day in October. He had moved way past the Brawny Man stage and gone full on mountain man. We'd all been giving him such a hard time about it, and we all really wanted him to shave some crazy design into his beard before it he got rid of it. Well, he showed up to our meeting looking like this. Ridiculous!
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| I just had to add this picture because it completely captures the craziness that is Nic Taylor (far left) and Matt Senske (far right) |
So, the next morning I woke up and went to practice like usual braking for Katelyn. We made it down all three runs and headed back to the OTC. Then I started getting nervous. D-Day had arrived. Time for driving school! We even had a entourage (Never mind that they were coming to laugh at our failures). Nick & Corey came to watch us just in case we crashed. Coach Dionne, Sineaid, Matt & Kev came to cheer us on. It was an epic night. We took our first runs in junior bobsleds. These are tiny sleds meant for little kids to learn.
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| Corey & Nic trying to fit in a junior bob |
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| They found this old sled in the garage. They want to convince Tony to let them take it out on the track. You better believe I'd be there with a camera ready to capture their epic fail! |
It was craziness in the Start 4 house! Nick & Corey were not allowing a single serious moment. No focus time. Just hilarious comments one after another. Jeremy was first of us off from Start 4. (From there we head into Curve 9) He had on a skeleton helmet with a visor taped on it with hot pink duct tape. Definitely safe and so attractive. Here's a shot of Nick pushing him off. Nick pushed him straight into the wall on his second run. He ping ponged back and forth before reaching the first curve. As Nick pointed out upon discussion, it was all Jeremy's fault. He obviously steered into those walls. It had absolutely nothing to do with Nick's push.
Dak was next. Nick was definitely letting him focus before his first skeleton run. He got the best pushes night though. Seriously. While poor Jeremy was getting smashed into wall (and being blamed for the bad pushes), Dak was getting great starts.
Adam was the first off with Nick (his driver) braking for him. Craziness! Nick was yelling the whole ride and in the Chicanes, he threw his hands up in the air and covered Adam's eyes. You can't really see it very well in this picture, but Nick's hands are up in the air. The track workers even got on the coaches radio channel telling Coach Dionne to control his athletes and make sure their hands stay in the sled at all times. Good stuff.
I was up next. Caitlin Carter, one of the trainers from Zoom where I train in Dallas, is here for skeleton school. She offered to brake for me. I told her it was my first ever run, and she still volunteered. That's trust. We pushed off and away we went. Everyone was standing in the Chicanes and cheered for us as we flew past. We hit a few walls, but it was a decent trip overall for the first run.
Last off was Nic Taylor. Nick & Corey were giving him a really hard time about beating me. He couldn't get beat by a girl! You can see them simulating a real push to amp Nick up (despite Corey not having a drivers bar to hit). Brian Berghorn works at the track and drives hundreds (literally) of passenger rides a year. He had come by to laugh at us well, and he offered to hop in the back of Nic's sled. His run was by far the craziest. Brian said he'd never seen anyone get that much height in Curve 12 from Start 4. When they smashed out, Nic let go of the D-rings. (These are the metal rings tied to ropes that attach to our runners. It's what we steer with.) When he grabbed them again, they were switched. He had the opposite D-rings in each hand. So when he tried to steer down out of the curve, his runners were actually pointing back up into the curve. He tried to steer the rest of the track pulling with the opposite hand. I don't know how they made it to the bottom. Berghorn was scared in Curve 18. He was positive they were going over. We're told no one's ever flipped a junior bob, but it almost happened. Don Hauss, the man in charge of driving school, was even concerned. That was Nic's one and only day of driving a bobsled.
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| Matt came to cheer with day 2 of his ridiculous facial hair. So glad he shaved it off the next day! |
Driving school and practice continued to be crazy for the rest my time in Lake Placid. Crash 5 & 6 came the next week. Katelyn and I went over in Curve 12. My first crash in Lake Placid, and let me assure you it's a very long ride to Curve 19. I went down with Megan one day, and I must say I felt completely safe. Megan had only gone over one other time in her whole career driving. We went over in Curve 5, flipped back up in Curve 7 and went over again in Curve 8. It was another very long ride to the bottom of the track. Then and there I made the decision to kick out in Lake Placid if I ever go over again above the Chicanes.
Things got crazy with the gentlemen the week after competing. With nothing to train for before Christmas break, they were ready to have a good time. Cory had a GoPro camera in the nose of his sled to film his D-rings. The Australians were still here training, and Cory decided to take their mascot, Jamooli, down the track. This little, ceramic lizard goes everywhere with their team, but he'd never been down in a bobsled. Cory couldn't run with the lizard taped to his leg, so he obviously had to sit in. Heath, the Australian driver, hit the drivers bar with Matt Senske at breaks. It was highly entertaining! They even made a little KBC helmet for Jamooli.
Driving school was still funny every day. Start 4 is a great time. No pressure. Dak, Jeremy, Adam & I continued to have a blast. Adam pushed Jeremy straight into walls and sang to me through the Chicanes. Adam & I have been braking for each other most days. Sineaid & Kev broke for us one day so we could take all 4 runs. We got to the bottom and Sineaid picked me up in a bear hug and just couldn't believe I drove us across the finish line. Here are a few shots of me driving on Day 2 with Adam braking and Nick pushing us off. I'm so glad the guys peer pressured me into driving school!
The weekend brought on biodome fever. The internet went out here in the OTC, and we just needed to get out! Friday night was free ice skating at Olympic Skating Center (not sure if that's the right name, but it's where the Miracle on Ice was played in 1980). Adam & I decided to go, and we talked Sineaid and Dak into joining us. Sineaid is the only one that can skate, so it was entertaining. Dak also decided to impersonate every picture we came across as we were leaving. Adam even came through with an assist on the aerials picture.
On Saturday, we slept in and decided to hit up Starbucks downtown. It was nice to get out of the OTC again, and I needed to use the internet. (The internet went out of the OTC for a few weeks. Painful.) Dak is from Seattle, and he has a never ending Starbucks gift card from his family. I love going to Starbucks with Dak! I don't even like coffee, so I have to rely on my friends expertise every time we go. I very much enjoyed the Chai Latte the group ordered for me. We enjoyed the outside world for the day. Hung out in Starbucks for a few hours and grabbed a burger and fries at a local restaurant looking out over the lake. Great day!
The last week we were here before the break, Adam and I got to move up to Start 3, which is into Curve 4. Crazy! That's a whole nother quarter of the track! I was glad it was snowy and very frosty because Katelyn has taught me that slow is safe. It was an epic night! We had to be legit drivers, so Adam borrowed my extra sliding suit. Here's a picture of me and my bobsled buddy before our first runs from Start 3.
Adam made it down the first run, then it was my turn. Everything was coming at me so much faster, and I crashed out of Curve 10. Adam kicked out, and I flipped back up in Curve 14. I drove it the rest of the way to the finish line. I was pretty proud of myself for that. Crash 6 (First time I've crashed myself) Adam was alright, so we headed back up so he could take another run. The whole time I was thinking, "Adam will never let me live this down." And I found out later that Adam was thinking, "That will never happen to me." Then we flipped in the exact same spot. Crash 7. We had come into Shady completely different ways, but our lines at the exit (way too early) were within an inch of each other. That's when Don pulled the plug on us. We've been demoted back to Start 4 when we start driving again. Luckily, Adam and I are able to laugh at this and still enjoy ourselves despite the crashes. Coach Dionne was laughing the whole time too. It's great to know you have a coach on your side, despite your failures.
Since it was so frosty, we were able to walk back up the track and see exactly where things went out of control. We could see all the lines people take cut in the frost. Adam & I must have both seen daylight at the exit of Shady and decided to steer out at the same time. We learned you're not supposed to steer out of Shady at all, but let the sled exit naturally with the curve. Good to know!
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| Posing with the gouge we put in the wall between 10 & 11 |
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| Here's where we drove up onto the wall and flipped. You can see the slashes our runners put in the wall. Not good! |
And other than intense games of Blockus, those are the highlights from my first half of bobsledding. It's been a crazy adventure everyday. I am continually learning something new, and I have to say, I'm enjoying every minute of it! Can't wait for all that second half holds. Check back soon to read all about the Lake Placid happenings before I head off to Canada again.
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| Blockus can be crazy intense with so many competitive people! |
PS. If you made it this far, I award you a gold star. If you've read this blog in the past, you know I tend to get long winded after weeks of not posting. I've been writing for hours now, and my fingers are tired. I would have written about Christmas break and coming back to Placid this post, but I'm just simply to weary to continue. It also works in your favor because you'll have a few days to recover before reading another post. I'm highly impressed you persevered through to the end. Way to go champ!
It was craziness in the Start 4 house! Nick & Corey were not allowing a single serious moment. No focus time. Just hilarious comments one after another. Jeremy was first of us off from Start 4. (From there we head into Curve 9) He had on a skeleton helmet with a visor taped on it with hot pink duct tape. Definitely safe and so attractive. Here's a shot of Nick pushing him off. Nick pushed him straight into the wall on his second run. He ping ponged back and forth before reaching the first curve. As Nick pointed out upon discussion, it was all Jeremy's fault. He obviously steered into those walls. It had absolutely nothing to do with Nick's push.
Last off was Nic Taylor. Nick & Corey were giving him a really hard time about beating me. He couldn't get beat by a girl! You can see them simulating a real push to amp Nick up (despite Corey not having a drivers bar to hit). Brian Berghorn works at the track and drives hundreds (literally) of passenger rides a year. He had come by to laugh at us well, and he offered to hop in the back of Nic's sled. His run was by far the craziest. Brian said he'd never seen anyone get that much height in Curve 12 from Start 4. When they smashed out, Nic let go of the D-rings. (These are the metal rings tied to ropes that attach to our runners. It's what we steer with.) When he grabbed them again, they were switched. He had the opposite D-rings in each hand. So when he tried to steer down out of the curve, his runners were actually pointing back up into the curve. He tried to steer the rest of the track pulling with the opposite hand. I don't know how they made it to the bottom. Berghorn was scared in Curve 18. He was positive they were going over. We're told no one's ever flipped a junior bob, but it almost happened. Don Hauss, the man in charge of driving school, was even concerned. That was Nic's one and only day of driving a bobsled.
Things got crazy with the gentlemen the week after competing. With nothing to train for before Christmas break, they were ready to have a good time. Cory had a GoPro camera in the nose of his sled to film his D-rings. The Australians were still here training, and Cory decided to take their mascot, Jamooli, down the track. This little, ceramic lizard goes everywhere with their team, but he'd never been down in a bobsled. Cory couldn't run with the lizard taped to his leg, so he obviously had to sit in. Heath, the Australian driver, hit the drivers bar with Matt Senske at breaks. It was highly entertaining! They even made a little KBC helmet for Jamooli.
The last week we were here before the break, Adam and I got to move up to Start 3, which is into Curve 4. Crazy! That's a whole nother quarter of the track! I was glad it was snowy and very frosty because Katelyn has taught me that slow is safe. It was an epic night! We had to be legit drivers, so Adam borrowed my extra sliding suit. Here's a picture of me and my bobsled buddy before our first runs from Start 3.
