A Bobsled Blackout

As Jeremy mentioned, I had my first experience bobsledding this week – what a rush! At it all began on the drive up to the Olympic Park…

I met up with Jeremy at his office in SLC with a massive grin, impossible to hide. We jumped in his truck, bobsled in back, and made our way to Park City. The ride up, I kept asking questions and Jeremy provided the advice. The night was a little cold, but I was just excited to be on my way.

After getting changed into something a little less wind resistant – spandex – it was time to get ready for the ride of my life. (I'll be honest, spandex is a little uncomfortable to be wearing in public. Good thing everyone else at the track was wearing something similar. "When in Rome…")

After getting some quick last minute pointers and watching some of the "skely's" (skeleton riders) race down the track, it was my turn. The adrenalin was already kicking in, and I was having a difficult time maintaining composure – totally excited.

I started the count off… "Back set!"

"Front set!" Jeremy responded in cadence. "Ready, GO!!!"

I began pushing that sled as hard as I could, and just started running. About five seconds down the track, I jumped in, ducked under and held on… for what was going to be an unforgettable, yet unrememberable, ride of my life.

As the bobsled started to gain speed, I could feel my body being pushed into the back of my seat. With every turn, the pressure seemed to increase. The intensity of the speed and the sharpness of each turn jarred me back and forth in the sled. Two thirds of the way down there is a minor drop in the track that causes momentary weightlessness.

Then, black out.

The next thing I remembered, Jeremy was frantically hitting me to wake me up. I had to pull the brakes. Coming to, I was disoriented and had no idea what was going on. We had passed the point where I'm supposed to brake, and we were quickly nearing the end of the track where a snow bank awaited to stop runaway sleds.

Subconsciously, I grabbed the brakes and pulled as hard as I could. At the same time, Jeremy steered the sled into the wall so as to help slow us down. We stopped just as we entered the snow bank.

Within seconds, Jeremy jumped out of the bobsled and began asking me questions and telling me to get out. I don't recall much, because I was still trying to acclimatize myself to my surroundings. (You can ask Jeremy more about the specifics, because I know I was not being very responsive.)

From there, we got the sled out of the track and I finally regained my composure.

In short, aside from having an absurd rush of adrenalin, pulling a couple G's, blacking out and nearly wrecking Jeremy's bobsled; I had a blast!!

I just hope Jeremy will trust me again sometime to do it again!

"Tighten the nuts and don't black out"

It was an interesting night of training last night to say the least. Don't worry, we all had a blast, but it was definitely a session to remember! Matt was back up there to brake for me and Don experienced his first bobsled run last night! He's going to be posting his own comments about it soon, so be sure to check back!

So, the track was a little frosty so we expected that our times would be a bit slower. Well, Matt and I got the sled up to the starting line and gave it a pretty good shove off the top. As soon as we jumped in I started to notice a faint rattling sound as we went through the first few turns. I immediately had two thoughts: 1. "Oh crap!" and 2. "What the heck is that?!" As we continued on our way I noticed that the sled wasn't reacting the same, but I was too focused to put two and two together.

Let's just say it wasn't a pretty run. I was trying to let the sled get a bit higher in the turns to decrease our time and increase our speed, but once we got into Turn 6 and I noticed that the sled wasn't tracking like it should, I knew we were in trouble. It was a bit of a rough ride down the track and as soon as we came out of Turn 12 and headed into Turn 13 where the majority of the crashes occur on our track, well, I thought our number was up. I haven't crashed to date (knock on wood) but I thought to myself at 80 MPH "This is it!"

You know what the crazy thing is? We flopped down out of 13 and roared through 14 and 15 and then across the finish line and I almost started laughing. Of all the crazy things that could happen in bobsledding, we'd just survived one of the worst! As soon as we got to the finish dock I crawled up in the nose of the sled and immediately found the problem. The master nut and bolt for the center pivot point for the axle was loose. So although I was steering, the control arm was just slidding around that pivot point instead of moving the axle.

Here's the key to remember ladies and gentlemen: when bobsledding, always remember to tighten the nuts.

Thankfully my next two runs weren't as bad, but I definitely need to do some work on the steering system! As for the 'Don't blackout' portion of this entry, well, I'll let Don tell you all about that one!!!

First Runs of the Season

After some prodding from a friend I realized that we haven't updated our blog in about a month! That's kind of sad!

I guess the biggest update would have to be that this past Friday (the 14th) was our first day of training this season! I know, it was a bit delayed but there was good reasoning behind it.

Friday turned out a little crazy since I had to work all day and then as I was driving up to the track I realized that I had forgotten the sled's scabbards in my garage! And then, on top of that, they moved the session from 7:30 to 6:30! Man, I had to hurry. I guess its a good thing I'm used to driving fast....on the ice I mean, Officer!

As soon as I got to Bobstart is was GO GO GO! We got the sled out, put the runners on, got it on the ice, got our gear on, and were off for the first run all in about twenty minutes! It was crazy! The good thing was that I didn't even have time to be nervous. And Matt, the athlete who was pushing for me on Friday, was awesome. The guy is a great pusher, a great teammate, and an all around good guy. Although, I'm still not sure about his helmet stickers!

Despite the rush, it was a good night. The air was crisp and clear and we had a blast. We want to work on our pushes and get our timing down, but we did ok for it being our first time pushing together. Our downtimes, however, were actually not too bad. Our fastest of the night was 51.82 seconds. Olympic Times is about 49 seconds or so, but in reality I'm really happy with our times. And its only going to get faster!

It really was a good experience for me, almost therapeutic after the crazy summer I've had! Again, Matt was so pumped and very positive about the whole thing. He's the kind of athlete that I like to be around. Serious when he needs to be, but still positive and outgoing.

On a side note, this little experience also allowed me to try out my new bobsled shoes ($500, ugh)! I can't say that I noticed a HUGE difference in the push, but they sure do feel great on the feet so I'm definitely glad I got them. However, I have realized that I can never give a girl a hard time for buying expensive shoes again since mine were so up there! I'll try to get a picture of them up.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and we'll see you on the other side of the holiday break! Slide fast!