World Cup 3 - Igls 2008/2009
The journey to Igls was about 7 hours and we couldn’t believe how many” just in case” pee stops Kat could have in one day. We thought that you either needed to pee or you didn’t but Kat seems to have proved us wrong. We’re still not sure what the difference is between a real pee and a just incase one!
We stayed in the Astoria hotel in Igls and were rather impressed by both the food and accommodation, We were looked after so well that we have already reserved rooms for next year!. It was good to have some other teams around to socialise with, the Dutch and Monaco teams were with us and the Americans were in hotel next door.
Training for the race was on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week with early morning starts every day. The team are fast becoming morning people and it’s a good job! Being first sled down the hill on Tuesday morning meant ordering an early breakfast for 6.45am. There are some plus points to training early, the main one being we have the rest of the day to fit in physical training, bob work and to relax.
Kat kept everyone laughing, not always on purpose, her crowning moment being searching desperately for the camera bag for 20 minutes, getting in a real panic, before shouting down the track to Jo that she couldn’t find it. Jo had no trouble finding the bag as soon as Kat turned round - it had been on her back the whole time!
The team was a bit worse for wear this week as Gomer, Gill and Jo were all feeling unwell the first few days and then, two days before the race, Gill hurt her foot when she got jammed between two bobs. Luckily it was not serious and Kat did a great job of making sure Gill was fit to race. Jackie was put on standby just incase.
The last training day before the race Nic drove very well and got some very good speeds. This was a great indicator for the race and we were all confident that this would be our best race to date. We were very organised with our race preparations. With the race being on Friday instead of Saturday, we were not going to have our usual day off before the race, so had to make the most of the time. We had decided it was best to polish two of our sets of runners for the race; one set for if the temperature stayed similar to what it had been during training and another set for if it was very cold or snowing heavily. We could then make a decision early in the morning.
We had yet another great race draw which saw us off second behind Germany 3. It is always an advantage to get the fresh ice. In the first run Nic and Gill posted a start time of 5.65, equal 4th fastest time, and Nic drove them into 5th place, tied with Germany 2. There were only 22 hundredths between 1st and 6th place meaning it was very close and very exciting. The girls improved the start to a 5.64 in the second run and the drive was better than the first. It was unfortunate that it wasn’t quite enough to hold onto 5th place and they lost out by only 4 hundredths to the Germans. Despite the narrow margin to 5th place the team were very happy with 6th and it was a step forward in the right direction. Our goal is to achieve as many top six positions as possible.
We had an extra treat this week when our chairman, Martin Allinson, and the team psychologist, Scott White, came out to watch the race. We had a session with Scott after the race to talk about our individual and collective team strengths which proved a very valuable exercise and sent everyone away feeling very positive about the contributions they give to make the team a success. We will now go from strength to strength and can’t wait to report on our next top six result!!!!
We stayed in the Astoria hotel in Igls and were rather impressed by both the food and accommodation, We were looked after so well that we have already reserved rooms for next year!. It was good to have some other teams around to socialise with, the Dutch and Monaco teams were with us and the Americans were in hotel next door.
Training for the race was on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week with early morning starts every day. The team are fast becoming morning people and it’s a good job! Being first sled down the hill on Tuesday morning meant ordering an early breakfast for 6.45am. There are some plus points to training early, the main one being we have the rest of the day to fit in physical training, bob work and to relax.
Kat kept everyone laughing, not always on purpose, her crowning moment being searching desperately for the camera bag for 20 minutes, getting in a real panic, before shouting down the track to Jo that she couldn’t find it. Jo had no trouble finding the bag as soon as Kat turned round - it had been on her back the whole time!
The team was a bit worse for wear this week as Gomer, Gill and Jo were all feeling unwell the first few days and then, two days before the race, Gill hurt her foot when she got jammed between two bobs. Luckily it was not serious and Kat did a great job of making sure Gill was fit to race. Jackie was put on standby just incase.
The last training day before the race Nic drove very well and got some very good speeds. This was a great indicator for the race and we were all confident that this would be our best race to date. We were very organised with our race preparations. With the race being on Friday instead of Saturday, we were not going to have our usual day off before the race, so had to make the most of the time. We had decided it was best to polish two of our sets of runners for the race; one set for if the temperature stayed similar to what it had been during training and another set for if it was very cold or snowing heavily. We could then make a decision early in the morning.
We had yet another great race draw which saw us off second behind Germany 3. It is always an advantage to get the fresh ice. In the first run Nic and Gill posted a start time of 5.65, equal 4th fastest time, and Nic drove them into 5th place, tied with Germany 2. There were only 22 hundredths between 1st and 6th place meaning it was very close and very exciting. The girls improved the start to a 5.64 in the second run and the drive was better than the first. It was unfortunate that it wasn’t quite enough to hold onto 5th place and they lost out by only 4 hundredths to the Germans. Despite the narrow margin to 5th place the team were very happy with 6th and it was a step forward in the right direction. Our goal is to achieve as many top six positions as possible.
We had an extra treat this week when our chairman, Martin Allinson, and the team psychologist, Scott White, came out to watch the race. We had a session with Scott after the race to talk about our individual and collective team strengths which proved a very valuable exercise and sent everyone away feeling very positive about the contributions they give to make the team a success. We will now go from strength to strength and can’t wait to report on our next top six result!!!!
