Wrapping Up First Half

After Calgary I returned to Park City, Utah for several weeks of sliding.  Of course getting to Park City was an adventure in itself.. I drove back with a couple of my teammates, but because we left a day later then what we should have left we ran into what was supposedly "the worst snow storm" in a long time.. something like that.. We stopped for dinner in Helena, Montana at Buffalo Wild Wings but heard the weather was supposed to be pretty bad south of where we were so we decided to stay in Helena for the night.  We got hooked up with a suite at a Marriott so it wasn't so bad!  The second we got to the hotel I hit up the hot tub because it was huge! Definitely a relaxing way to unwind after a long car ride from Calgary. The next day we were planning on heading out, but got word that the roads in Idaho were closed, so we made the best of it and found a gym down the street to work out at.  At least we were able to be productive!  The best part of having to stay another day was the hotel had taco night! This meant free dinner AND we got free beer.  Man Marriott knows how to treat their guests right! haha.. The next day we were able to make a run for it and finally made it to Park City.

The next day was Thanksgiving.  This was the first Thanksgiving I had spent away from home and the family. Fortunately there were about 9 of us on the team in Park City so we decorated and made a lot of yummy food for Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty darn good too! Bobsledders love food so when we dont have to worry about making weight on race day its feast time. lol.

The next week I slid with Jazmine and we took about 4 runs a day so we got a good amount of sliding in thats for sure! This past week the World Cup teams came to Park City to train before the World Cup races this past weekend.  I had the chance to forerun at some of the practices and at the 4man race.  A forerunner is a sled that goes down before/in between heats/after the race to make sure timing eyes are working correctly and the track is ready to go.  It was a really great experience to be around all the World Cup teams and see what athletes who have been in this sport for several years look like, how they train, and how they compete.

My favorite day was yesterday at the 4man race...  I had the opportunity to forerun with Jamie.  There were a lot of people that had come out to watch the race so people were lined up along both sides of the starting stretch of the track.  When they see a US sled get ready to go everyone gets fired up and the little kids chant "U.S.A., U.S.A"  and people ring the cow bells.  I couldn't imagine what it would be like at the Olympics!  All the support definitely fuels adrenaline throughout your body.  Our runs were pretty good.. Especially the first one where Jamie did a personal best time for getting down the track and our start time was the fastest I had pushed on that track.  Overall a great experience that will stick me over the next few weeks of training hard to get ready for the second half of season.