The first half of the season is finally finished! I was the only brakeman to do all 5 races of the half – 4 with Kaillie Humphries and 1 with Amanda Stepenko in Cesana. I am starting the holidays with 3 new push-start records, and a fourth one that we tied, a track record on Altenberg - one of the most challenging tracks, and both a bronze and a gold medal. Yes, it was a very good first half and I appreciate all of the messages of congratulations from home. But there’s still a lot of the season left to go! There are still three more races for the World Cup circuit, with the Olympic team not being announced until after two of those. So much can still happen between now and then, and that means that I can’t take anything for granted. I am extremely happy about how things have been going, and excited about ending the first half with a push record, a track record, and a gold medal, but…… I mustn’t get ahead of myself!
Enough about racing…. Those are all results that you can find on the internet! How about a little behind the scenes in the life of a bobsledder on tour! And, so you all know, this is being written from the Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt because, after driving 7 hours to Munich on Sunday to fly out on Monday morning, the flights were so delayed that a couple of us missed our connecting flight in Frankfurt back to Canada! I cannot wait to get home to be with my family for the holidays, but frustrations subsided when I saw the news talking about the volcano in the Philippines… I am safe and my family is safe! I will get home eventually!! So the good news is that I have time to update you on some of the off-ice adventures we’ve had over the past couple of weeks.
This sport is certainly not a glamorous one. On top of all of the sled-work we do – sanding/polishing all of the runners, and lifting/carrying/flipping the nearly 400 lbs sleds in/out of trucks, to the start line, in the garage to do work on it, etc., we also have to drive our sled trucks from town to town between races. On our 7 hour drive to Munich, our windshield wiper fluid wasn’t working – everything was frozen. When it got really bad in terms of visibility, while still driving on the autobahn, I leaned out the passenger window to throw water on the windshield, but it froze as soon as it hit the windshield! It only took a couple of stops along the highway before the misting turned into snow, at which point our windshield wasn’t the reason for no visibility anymore!!
The drives between races are usually long. From Cesana, Italy to Winterberg, Germany was about a 9 hour drive. From Winterberg, Germany to Altenberg, Germany it would have been a 5 hour drive if we hadn’t made a little stop on the side of the road! And by ‘little’, I mean almost 2 hours and not by choice! Until that day, I didn’t really understand how anyone could actually run out of gas while driving! I mean, who does that?! Apparently, we do! Alas…. It is possible! Although Kaillie was driving, she tried to blame me for making such a good mixed cd that we were too busy singing along to notice the light come on in the truck. Time was just flying by, and it didn’t seem like we’d been driving for that long. When she finally noticed the light, it still looked like we had enough so we just decided to stop at the next gas station along the autobahn. Well….. there weren’t any gas stations for awhile and we about 100 km away from Dresden when the truck came to a stop! We couldn’t believe it! Amanda tried to make us feel better by saying that it had happened to her before! For some reason that didn’t surprise me! LOL
Amanda and I jumped out of the truck and within 3 minutes she flagged down a car…. With a man who spoke zero English! And although I am learning a little bit of German, I quickly realized that besides ‘please’, ‘thank you’, and ‘what time is it’, nothing I had learned was really appropriate for that situation or to use with a stranger!
The man drove us about 5 km to the next gas station and waited for us. The lady behind the counter was not the least bit useful – half yelling at us in German like we understood what she was saying! We decided to get both gas and diesel because we didn’t know which the truck took. (I never drive the trucks over there because they’re standard and carrying about 100k worth of sleds and equipment!) But…. There was only one gas can left. So…. We decided to take the gas. WRONG! The man drove us all the way back (total round trip of about 20 minutes), and Kaillie sent us back because the truck took diesel! The man waved us back to his car and ended up taking us to his house (WAY out in the middle of nowhere), got his own gas can, drove us back to the gas station to get diesel, and then drove us back to our truck where he filled the truck for us so that we weren’t standing on the autobahn in the dark! Although we had already bought him a coffee (the first time ‘round), we gave him the gas we had originally bought, as well as a couple of photo cards we had in our bags. In the car I had been thinking how sketchy our situation could be, and wondered what my mother would think of this ordeal. But then I realized that sometimes one just has to have a bit of faith in mankind! Not all strangers are bad! Sometimes they’re just “friends you haven’t met yet”!
We got back in the truck to finish our drive and playing on the radio was “Angels Among Us” by Alabama! How appropriate!
Emotions that lie too deep for words… That’s what I’ve been feeling this week! An overwhelming sense of home, community, and support!
I am currently at home in Prince Edward Island. No, it’s not vacation! We were just sent home for a few days while our sleds are being shipped over to Europe for the next batch of races. The first two races were in North America, and I pushed Kaillie Humphries for both. In the first race in Park City, Utah we placed 6th (podium finish) but we shattered the start record with a push of 5.20 seconds. (The previous record being 5.25 seconds.) The second race was in Lake Placid, NY this past Saturday. Kaillie and I tied the start record and finished with a bronze medal! As soon as the medals were awarded and our sled was delivered safely to our garage, I rushed to strip out of my speedsuit and get my luggage to drive to Montreal with my parents to catch our flight to PEI. Why the big rush?
On Sunday (the day following our race), I felt honoured to carry the Olympic flame for a leg of the Torch Relay. It meant even more because I was chosen by my city to be the one to run onto the stage during the celebration and light the cauldron in front of my hometown. But I was not prepared for the crowd of people through which I had to run. I was not prepared for both the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the crowd, screaming and cheering for me and the flame as we passed by. I was not prepared for the overwhelming sense of pride for the province and city in which I grew my roots and my wings, just before lighting the cauldron on behalf of my people. I was not prepared for the lump in my throat that quickly formed when trying to answer the host’s question about how I was feeling at that moment!
Photo by: Journal Pioneer
But that’s not all! Financial assistance is often a primary challenge for Canadian amateur athletes. Last spring I decided I would throw a fundraiser dinner in PEI this fall to help raise a bit of money for living and training expenses. Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Bruce Rainnie – the anchor for CBC PEI – and asked if he would host the dinner for me. A few weeks later, he told me that because part of the proceeds were going to a charity/cause, CBC would take over the planning of the whole event!
Although I helped get items for the silent and live auctions, I really had no idea how amazing this event was becoming, until I was actually there on Tuesday! Bruce was a great host, keeping everything light and funny, while Boomer Gallant was a hilarious auctioneer. The brilliant CBC Olympic commentator, Scott Russell, flew in from Edinburgh to be the main speaker of the evening. His passion for the Olympic Games was inspiring, and his sense of community and the importance of family/home to success really resonated with me. His emotion brought me (and most of the room) to tears.
Photo by: Laura Yorke
Multiple ECMA award-winning singer/songwriter, Lennie Gallant, entertained everyone later in the evening. I had the pleasure and good fortune of meeting him a couple of summers ago at a charity golf tournament. He’s as amazing a person as he is talented, and I feel honoured that he rearranged his schedule to take part in this dinner for me.
So, I really want to thank a number of people for their heart-warming generosity. I would like to thank CBC, Holland College, McDonald’s and Delta Prince Edward for making this evening possibly. A special thanks to my family and to those people from APM who were able to attend. APM has come on board as my primary personal sponsor for this important World Cup season, and it was great to have some people from the company to represent! Their assistance is greatly appreciated!
But I really need to thank everyone who attended the dinner for making it the success that it was! It was a very emotional night for me, as I was overwhelmed by the turnout of people and the things that were said and done, specifically to help me on my Olympic journey! I have attended a number of fundraising events before, but the night before my dinner it suddenly occurred to me that everyone would be there for me! – to help me! And I was overcome with emotion before the day of the dinner even arrived! Throughout the dinner I almost cried about five times, and only really cried once! Had I tried to finish my sentence at the end of the evening about how I was feeling, that would have changed my crying tally to two!
There really are no words to describe the feeling of representing home! Especially in front of home! Hmmm… I guess that’s what the 2010 Olympics will be like! If I am awarded the honour of representing my country in front of my country, I expect that that, too, will be an emotional and indescribable event.
Photo by: Laura Yorke
But although emotions will be with me throughout this entire season and, hopefully, into the Games, it is the support behind the emotion, the passion and the focus – not the emotion itself – that will get me there and get me through it! So, I thank you for your support! From the bottom of my heart! Because this journey would not be the same without you!
What? The Olympic Games are only a hundred days away? Wow! That’s hard to believe! It may surprise many of you to know that the only reason I know this little fact is because I was asked how I felt about this a couple of days ago by a reporter. Why didn’t I know this? Because, truth be told, I have not been following the media hype about the Olympics. I have not been glued to my television screen watching the Torch Relay. And I have not been spending my spare moments looking at either the Olympic medals or the athlete clothing, waiting for the day. And how do I feel about this 100 day marker, you might ask? Well, it’s not an easy answer.
Am I excited about the Games? Yes and no. Let me explain… Yes, I am excited like every Canadian that the Olympics are going to be held on our Canadian soil, for all the world to see how wonderful our country is and how hospitable our Canadians. But... it’s hard to get excited about competing in the Games, when I won’t even know until the middle of January if I’ve made the Canadian Olympic team. And I know it’s cliché, but if I only focus on the destination and the goal, and not the steps along the way, then I will not be successful in even making it there For me (and many athletes), the Olympics are not 100 days away. They are a full World Cup Circuit away. They are 8 World Cup races away. They are 8 races in 5 different countries away. They are a LOT of training sessions, sore muscles, and phone calls to home away!
And yes, representing my country is always an honour, and the thought of competing on behalf of my fellow Canadians in front of friends and family – those who have helped make me the person and athlete I am today – is definitely exciting. I know what it’s like to compete for Canada on home soil! The last Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2006 was hosted in Edmonton. It was such a great feeling, but was also very difficult not wanting to let people down, especially with them there watching! Yes, these Games will be a much bigger deal in the media, with added scrutiny. But pressure is what you put on yourself.
The idea of walking out of the start house to the starting block, staring down the track while waiting for the green light to flash, with a sea of red lining the track with thunderous cheering only somewhat muffled by my helmet… that’s exhilarating! But, for me, this excitement is muted – contained and controlled because of not wanting to get ahead of myself! As I already mentioned, there’s a long season first. And there are no guarantees! And whether people are watching or not, whether media is there or not… I still have a job to do! And, if I am given the opportunity to push a Canadian sled in the 2010 Olympics, it will be amazing! But it will also be the same job that I have to do for this whole season, one race at a time!
