Sliding day!

Today was an eventful day to say the least!  We started out at 9am going to the sheds where the sleds are kept.  Before going down the track we have to check the sleds and make sure their blades (runners)  are one properly and mechanics are working perfectly!  After the sleds were ready to go we went up to the start house where we unloaded the sleds and hung out to get ready for sliding (going down the track).  While we waited for our turn to go down we worked on getting all our gear on.

Gear typically includes:  a cotton tshirt (because cotton wont burn your skin if you tip over), spandex leggings, a burn vest, another shirt on top of that, a onesy (sp) which is basically a jumpsuit that covers your arms and legs and zips up in the front,  a helmet, mouthgaurd, bobsled spikes, gloves.  LOTS of gear. but the good thing about all the gear is it keeps you warm in the cold!

While we wait we also help get the sleds into position to get ready to go down... who ever knew there was a technique to doing it.  you have to be very careful because those puppies are expensive and one little scratch can make all the difference.  All of us rookies were pretty excited to go down.. probably a little too excited with all the adrenaline running through us.  I am sure some of the veterans were thinking we were crazy.. haha..

Once it was my turn to go down, my driver and I, Jasmine, got our sled into position on the ice.  For the first day we would have the driver sitting in the sled and the brakeman (me)  would just push it to get it going then hop in real fast.  It wasnt too difficult getting into the sled, which I was kind of worried about.  Next came the actual trip down the ice!  If you ever have seen bobsledding on tv it is basically what it looks like... fast and being bounced around like a pinball.  Whenever you go into a turn your head might slame into the side and bounce off the wall and you definately feel the g-forces pressing you into the sled.  (that's definately a feeling you dont get on a daily basis and I dont think I've ever felt that before)

When you get to the end of the track, for today we just hopped out of the sled and had to push it up the hill to the finish platform.  This is where I felt really useless today.  After such a crazy ride I always needed a second to get my bearings back... so i wasn't too good at getn the sled up the hill... To make it worse it was like a blizzard outside and snow had piled up on the track at the finish... this made it really hard because you would keep slipping.  After our run we had to load up the sleds on the truck which then took the sleds back up the start house...

and then we did it all over again.  haha..

but it was a great first day and i hope you enjoyed learning what all went on!

til next time...