I believe I can fly

Sorry it has been kind of quiet on the blog front this camp. Its our last day in Lake Placid and we are leaving for the airport in an hour or so. I couldn’t blog earlier in the week as I was limiting the amount of time I spent watching screens (more on that later) but all is good now and an update is long overdue.

Mirror Lake

This was our first skeleton camp in America and we’d been looking forward to it for as long as we knew it was due to happen! It has not disappointed. Obviously it was also a new track to the group; another reason to be excited (and nervous)! After a few logistical issues to do with travel we were off and a seven-hour flight later we landed in Montreal (Lake Placid is two hours south of the border).

We arrived Sunday and had our first sliding session Tuesday, from curve four rather than the top. Our coach told us his grandma could get from this start without any issues so there was no need to over prepare or be nervous. And to be honest the nerves were a lot better than past camps. All was going well! Everyone took two slides from four and we were loving the track; so flowing. Very different from the European tracks we’d slid on the past year.

So, time to move up towards the top of the track where the skeleton start is. Curve two. Run three, day one. It all goes wrong. I skid on my sled from curve three to ten which results in me creating a rather unique line through curve ten; hitting the ceiling and then the inside wall and getting some air off the corner and coming down with a rather hard bump on my face… enter mild concussion, a lot of emotion and a long wait to be cleared to slide again.

Birthday meal for Marcus

The challenge of getting back on the sled after a crash is not new to me but this was my worst crash so far; I’d almost kicked our team manager in the head as he tried to film me out of the corner. But once my symptoms subsided I wanted to slide again and prioritised recovery (no screens, thus no blog). I was back on my sled the following Tuesday, missing three sessions. Fortunately, or unfortunately the weather was super warm which caused the track to melt on Monday so the session was cancelled; meaning I wasn’t even further behind when I got back to training. Once back on my sled, I was pleased with my training runs but I wanted to stay longer!

In the meantime, we were trying to soak up the Lake Placid lifestyle; aided by our coach who is a born and bred Lake Placidian (?) He is also sommelier and has converted me to red wine. Well, converted may be a little strong but I enjoyed the few I tasted! Caleb introduced us to some of his family and friends as well who were all so very welcoming; and we visited some lovely homes. There was also Christmas shopping to be done; we brought out a sweatshirt store which printed various designs whilst you waited! I think all of us five bought something from the shop; some of us two bits! Whilst I didn’t see Lake Placid (the actual lake) in the day light we did see Mirror Lake; and true to its name it reflected the scenery on its shores.

We travelled with two support staff; a nutritionist and our team manager. And on the last day (and one of my highlights) we loaned them two sleds and helmets, kitted them out with a onesie each and sent them off from curve 9! So a warning to any support staff reading this.. if you work with skeleton you may get to try the sport at some point during your career! They both did really well though, and Sam (team manager) managed to get through the chicane (a long straight bar a few kinks) without hitting once – something I did not manage to achieve once in all my runs! Typical!

Pre first slide Sam and Freddy

At the bottom!

Here are some of the teams stand out moments of the trip.

Sam – knee trembling at curve 9 prior to his first descent!

Brogan – Maddy’s food coma after a rather large feed on evening

Marcus – Tim only locking him out of his room once (this usually happens on several days but me and Maddy were actually the worst culprits for this – the reception staff knew our names and room number by the end of the trip)

Tim – popping spur and sitting on sled during one training session! The best spur pop any of us have ever seen!

The two weeks actually went by very quickly! And although I did lose some training because of my head I actually put together my best run of training this season so I was pretty happy. I think the general consensus was that if we weren’t missing people at home and looking forward to Christmas we’d have happily stayed out there a lot longer! We all liked the track, and learned a lot.

Falling with style

Next stop Konigssee for a three week long camp!

From the top!