27 August 2009

That's Ski Racing!

Tuesday: Super G race
• 6am: Load minibus with people, skis, wheelchairs. Ride minibus up, listening to some tunes and getting excited about racing my favourite discipline.
• 7am: unload in the rain. Told to wait ‘Race is on hold!’
• 8am: message to wait until next announcement at 10am (still feeling positive and excited about the prospect of racing although the rain doesn’t look pleasant).
• 10am: told to wait until 12 (the rain eventually stops).
• 12am: Inspect the course, it looks nice, the snow has held up really well and is perfect for me, hard packed but not icy. Feeling positive about racing.
• Race ‘On hold’ for a few more hours, then told to go to start. The weather has improved. Forerunners run the course.
• ‘Race postponed until tomorrow’. It turns out the timing gear was run over by groomers and is not working.

Wednesday: Super G race, take 2
• Load bus, get up hill in rain. Rain stops, racers warm up.
• Race on hold, safety netting has blown off course.
• Chairlift stops due to high winds but the race organisers are doing everything they can to make the race happen so we take another chairlift then get dragged by skidoo to the start for course inspection (its now an ice rink).
• The able-bodied guys do their race, and make the steep icy section look difficult.
• We get dragged up to the start again to wait for another hour, the safety netting gets blown off the track again and the organisers call it a day.

No Super G race for team GB in NZ. Really frustrating but that’s ski racing.

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