So, after the stress of Kyle and a long season of racing I knew I had to really focus on effective rest and training during my 6 days at home before leaving for Lake Placid. I think I did a very good job of this and kept things simple and slow at home. I spent time with my kids, did a few small projects around the house, did a few key preparation work-outs, and slept a lot. I felt as good as possible going to Lake Placid so I was feeling as ready as I could be to compete well.
During the 6 training runs I knew it would be key for me to find the ‘simple way’ through some of the curves. Basically if I could find a smooth way through corners 1-3, 5-7, 10, and 12-14 I knew I would have a great chance. I think I did a great job and did find a consistent fast line through all of them. I was ready for race day and for the first time in a long time I had won a few training runs and on the others I had some of the best split times. Lake Placid is a track where the perfect line is not always the fastest line and I thought I had found a good balance in my race plan.
Then came the rains…..! Not just a light sprinkle, but a torrential downpour! In my 15 years of racing I had never been in a race with such horrible conditions. It often rains on us in Europe, but that is usually your gentle rain shower, this was a monsoon. Oh well, if I wanted consistent conditions I should have taken up curling….. So, I put on my jacket and out I went to warm up – it was about as fun as standing in a cold shower tearing up 100 dollar bills, but I do what I need to do to perform well, no exceptions.
Race run number one came and I pushed very well – a personal best for me in Lake Placid. The run went very well to corner 9 – too well in fact – I was perfect thru 7 into 8 and into 9, gaining a lot of speed, the perfect entry into 9 was not something I was prepared for and my exit ended up 3” too far to the left and I tapped the left wall into curve 10 – not good. This moved my line and high point in the corner to a point where I was not able to get far enough right at the exit and then the cascade effect took hold – late to 11, late to 12, too early to 13, tap right out of 14. 3” essentially cost me 0.4 seconds. Mistakes happen to be sure and I know that in a four run race everyone would make them – I just got mine out of the way early! And I guess if my mistake was being ‘too perfect’ then I would take it.
I was really ready for run 2 and I pushed well again. My top section was excellent and this time I was ready for curve 9 and the entry into 10 – perfect. Very nice 11-14, no hits in the lower straight and down through the finish with one of the best runs of my life. And then they cancelled the run. The track conditions were being affected by the rain and it was the jury’s decision that the conditions in the 2nd run had become unfair for the sliders in the top 10 vs. the sliders in the 10-20th position (in run 2 we go in reverse order from 20th fastest to fastest from run one – I was fifth after the first run and so I was 16th off the top on run 2). A very bad decision in my opinion as the difference between the fastest of the top 20 and the slowest of the top 20 was only 0.9 seconds and I was only 0.3s behind the fastest slider of the group who had gone off 4th and I had gone off 16th. There have been many races in Europe where this has been the case and they have proceeded as usual. Needless to say I was disappointed – I had moved myself up to within .08s of the lead and second place, and now after the run cancellation I remained in 5th, 0.4s back. I really took the wind out of my sails.
Day two at World Championships is always interesting as we have dealt with the fatigue of the day before and the emotions – good or bad – throughout the night. I knew I had my work cut out for me with only 2 runs to make up a large deficit. Thankfully there was no rain today and warm-up time was much more enjoyable! I knew I had to make up about half of my deficit in each run and that it was going to come down to a one run race at the end of the day. Run 3 for me began with literally a ‘bad bounce’. The ‘groove’ is what we place one of our sled runners in to guide us as we push and load onto our sleds. The end of the groove is typically 20m in front of the entry to corner one and how the sled exits the groove is vital to a successful corner one and the end run time. We always check to make sure the forerunners (the test sleds they run before each competition) exit the groove straight with no issues. I went to the line and my coach Willy said “no problems with the left groove – it runs straight ahead” – perfect, nothing to worry about and I put it out of my head. I pushed, loaded on my sled, and as I exited the groove I felt the ice break away on the right side of my left runner and I was immediately set to the right wall before curve 1 – not a good thing as the corner goes right and I need to be on the far left side of the track to do it properly. This small piece of ice had just cost me half a second. I enter every run with the ‘fight’ mentality and do not let things like that distract me from making sure the rest of the run is as good as possible. I knew I had to minimize the damage and try to at least hold my spot. The lower part of the track was amazing – I made up 0.5 seconds on the field from corner 10 to the finish (corner 19). My legitimate World Championship winning possibilities were over however, and now I had to mentally prepare for racing for 3rd at best. Not a task I enjoyed or did well for that matter.
Run 4 came and I was prepared for the end of the groove, my top section was good, 4-9 I was perfect, and then I encountered the same mistake as run one – left wall tap into curve 10. From this point down my run became very average and not what I expect of myself in this situation and nowhere close to my run 3 bottom section. My end result was 8th and the ‘coulda shoulda woulda’ opportunity after looking at the run 4 splits was actually second – if I could have repeated the bottom part of run 3. Of course 8th at World Championships is nothing to be ashamed of and I made a lot of very big steps back from my oblivion of last year to finish 4th in the over-all standings and I had a legitimate chance to win Worlds. Wait until next year…..! Here come the Pain Train.