My First World Cup

Short Press- Today was a classic sprint at Callaghan Valley, next years Olympic Race site and course.

Waking up this morning I wasn’t at all nervous. Today’s race was basicaly just prep for tomorrow. The lack of nerves allowed me to have a good time. One hour before the start I was standing in the wax room making esspresso’s and enjoying coffee with my teammates. The fun all ended when I cut my entry to the stadium a little too short. With only 7 minutes till my start I was still on the warm up track, taking my skiis off and sprinting to the transponder station. I completely forgot about the need for transponders as we don’t use them in NORAMs. Sometimes there’s a big line up for them. I was lucky… it was empty. For sure it was because I was the only woman not in the stadium yet. Oh well. I still got there with plenty of time, but my hands were shaking like the diddy!

The race itself was awesome yet horrible at the same time. The legs felt good. I had a great start and was apparently in qualifying position at the top of the course (but you really never know cause it’s so close). After this was a hairy left hand corner. I’d practiced it several times prior to racing and thought I had it down. I was wrong. I took a good bail and that put me in third last.

I’m not going to lie, I was livid. In fact I don’t think I’ve been so angry with myself after a race. The fact is that I think I could have stoppped myself from falling, but I had a mental block and for some reason knew I would go down. AS I went into the corner it felt like I just let myself go. I didn’t look through it. I looked exactly where I knew I couldn’t go and landed there. I felt myself keel over and I didn’t even try to stop myself.

Now that I’ve vented things don’t seem so bad. The good thing is I feel like I’m in good shape. I just have to make sure I take those corners with confidence tomorrow. If I can stay on my feet, I know the pursuit will go well.