So I haven’t written since my last race as I have been frustrated with the politics that goes along with any sport and I didn’t want to vent so I avoided writing.

We haven’t had a race in a month so I decided to fly to France for a couple of race for a warm up for the North American finals. My travel went fairly smooth and I even got my bags which was crucial because I flew in just one day before the race. Delta had been notoriously consistent on losing my bags so I was a bit nervous. The drive to the ski area was beautiful. I haven’t been to Europe in a couple of years so I was pretty excited. The weather was perfect. I tried to get a good night sleep as to avoid any jet lag.

The morning of the race was just as nice as the day that I arrived. The perfect spring day.

We didn’t have really any place to take any warm up runs but sometimes that happens. The qualifying went well as I was third. The course was a bit steep from what I have been able to train on and my form wasn’t great but it worked for the qualifiers. Te problem is it got worse. When a course gets rutted I have a tendency not to follow the rut line which is never good. Basically when you take too much of a direct line through a course that is rutted, it feels like it would if you were to slide you car sideways into a speed bump. As the course got worse, my riding didn’t get any better. I was making too many mistakes. So I ended up in the race for 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2.

The first run in this round started off to be my best round. I was pretty excited until I ended up on my face. Not really sure what happened. I had a lot of time to make up. The final run was by far the best of the day. But I was able to only make up 1.4 of the 1.5 seconds I was behind on the first run. If  I could only stay on my feet….

I ended up 4^th but I was content with that. I do better when I go from race to race to race but this seasons schedule has been limited.

I again tried to get a good night sleep but the people in the room next to us seem to be loud for quite awhile limiting my sleep. I felt pretty tired the next day. I woke up to see that the weather changed drastically. It went from the perfect spring weather to a total blizzard. Normally I wouldn’t mind but where the race was located, made it difficult to run inside and warm up or to get more tea. The visibility was bad, so was my qualifying. I was tenth after my first run. The second run wasn’t as bad, not great but not bad. I moved up to sixth. By now the weather was getting worse. The wind had kicked up quite a bit. The officials said they were going to just keep the race going without the usual break we get between qualifying and finals. Sure they were. Instead we just stood outside trying to stay warm as they got organized.

Normally in a PGS (parallel giant slalom) you take 1 run on each course before you move on to the next round or eliminated. The weather was so bad that they decided to make it a single run elimination until we got to the final. Now in a perfect world this system might work but the hill has to be perfect in order to make it fair. This was not the case in this race as the blue course had leftover ruts from the day before. Plus we probably received 6inches of snow throughout the course of the day. In this new format the person who had the faster run in the qualifying got to choose what course they wanted to race on. In this case the red course was less tattered making it essentially faster of the two.

Fortunately for me in my first round I had the choice. I moved onto the next round.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have the choice the second round as I was racing the girl who qualified 3^rd.  The blue course was even worse than I possibly could imagine. I was all over the place and had to fight to finish. My competitor started to pass me but I was doing all I could. As she passed me I could see out of the corner of my eye I saw her fall. I made my way through the finish and again moved on to the next round.

But again I didn’t have the choice of courses as now I was racing the person who qualified 2^nd. At this point I was the only one who raced through to the finals the day before. I was starting to feel my legs a bit. And the weather was only getting worse.

But I jumped into the blue course, and things were going much better than I could possibly expect. I was ahead as I rolled on to the pitch. I found the line that I wanted to take when out of nowhere I hit a snowdrift in the middle of the course that stopped me dead and I flipped over the front of my board.

So this puts me in the small final which constitutes racing for the 3^rd and fourth. I again had to start on the blue course. It was probably my best run of the day. I was ahead.

Now I had to race the red course. At this point I was exhausted from racing to the finals the day before and the rodeo of today. I wanted to just be as relaxed for this last run and not going too crazy. Again I was happy that way that things started. And before I knew it I was flat on my face. I got up and had snow much show on my goggles I couldn’t see the next 2 gates. I did all I could to catch up but missed getting 3^rd but a couple hundredths..

So 2 fourth places for the last minute travel to France and it is good warm up for Montréal this week.

So travel back to the states seem to go flawlessly or so I thought. I get off the plane in JFK, go through customs, drop my bag on the belt to go to Montreal only to find my flight to montreal had been cancelled. Due to weather 6 hours before it was supposed to take off. Really? How do you cancel a flight that early? Anyway, I was told I was rebooked for the following day that they wouldn’t put me up in a hotel since it was due to weather. I wasn’t about to find out how much a hotel in NY would cost so I asked them to try to reroute me. After trying different options, they decided the best was to reroute me through Detroit. Seemed a bit strange to me but they rerouted three of us and I was upgrade to first class to Dertoit. Small consellation for the headache I had by this point.

Well the plane to Detroit was delay because there was no plane. Once we got on the plane we proceeded to sit on the runway for almost 2 hours. So much for getting to Montreal tonight. Instead of New York I was getting stuck in Detroit.

I got off the plane and noticed that the flight to montreal was delayed, so I sprinted (not really I walked) in hopes of making the plane. But no chance, even if I would have run. Of course there is never an agent when you need one. SO I spoke with one who was working another flight. He told me to wait a bit which turned out to be an hour… then promptly gave me my boarding pass for the next day, a hotel, dinner and breakfast voucher.

I at least got a good night sleep.