Championship Weekend I

Start house of a ski race

The weekend has finally come, the weekend that I have been working my butt off the entire season for. It is Championship weekend and I was confidently stoked because of how good the ski season had been going in the technical area (GS and Slalom).  It was about five thirty in the morning when I woke up to hop in the van and take a ten hour long road trip to Bachelor ski area in Bend, Oregon where the race was being held.  It was a long haul but the drive didn’t seem any worse than all of my other ski trips which were only about five or six hour road trips.  It did help that I slept half the way and that it was Championships!  This Championship was different than all of my other ones that I have attended in earlier years.  Instead of just my region  at the race the entire west coast was there including Alaska.  This meant more competition and also with more competition comes more stress, and pressure.

The team was staying at a hotel in Bend called “The Red Lion”.  It was a semi nice hotel with a terrible location and no where to eat but the restaurant that was smack dab in the middle of the parking lot.  In other words we ate at the same restaurant every single night we were there.  It was two to a room and I was so lucky to room with my close friend Shane that I have been skiing with my entire life basically and also our other ski friends two doors down.  Once we got there we took a dip in the pool and went straight to dinner.  It was a pretty mellow night, after our meeting we just went straight to bed to get prepared for the next day.

Next Day…

It was around six fifteen when I got up and threw on my long johns, sweats, and sweatshirt so I could load the van with my ski equipment and head over the the breakfast place.  I left the room a couple minutes later and Shane also did a couple minutes after me.  I sat eating breakfast and talking to new faces for about a half an hour until we had to jump in the vans and head off to the first day of racing.  The first event we were skiing in is a Super-G which is the fastest of all the events and in my mind one of the hardest due to the mental aspect you have to also bring to the table.  The drive was half an hour and I was asleep the majority of that half an hour with my headphones in my head on full blast.  I’m not really sure how I do it but I some how can fall asleep with rock blasting in my ears.

To Be Continued…