Me...piloting a sled...well I dare say I do

Greetings!

and what merry ones at that! So today in my inbox came a fantastic little email from the Director of BCBSA, or British Columbia Bobsleigh, Skeleton Association. "YOU ARE INVITED TO WHISTLER DRIVING SCHOOL FOR FREE" Now normally you have to pay about $500 for the week of driver training and its with a coach or someone who used to be a pilot, usually in a group of 8-10. My invite was to learn how to drive under Jill Bakken (she won the gold in Salt Lake City, as a pilot) and there were only 5 invites sent out, and I was the only girl invited. Am I excited or what!! I've always wanted to at least feel what it would be like to drive one of those things, I mean I sit in the back enough, now it would be nice to see where I was going! I had wanted to take a driving course but finances weren't really there, and 90% of the driving schools are out in either Calgary, or Lake Placid, ie add in flights, and accomodation etc and the week becomes an expensive one, albeit a very cool experience. But now its in Whistler and I get in for free, and if I do well in this school I will be invited to compete in Canadian Nationals, as a pilot. Pretty freaking cool if you ask me. So I will be scrounging around trying to find a place to stay in Whistler for the week of Jan 4-10th (also my 24th birthday - amazing experience) and I should be pretty good to go! I will keep everyone posted but I am definitely excited. Even if I don't do well, at least I know that I tried it, I sat in the front and couldn't handle it, but if I love it, we will see what happens. I truly believe that when one door closes another opens, scrap the window part.

Merry Christmas!!!!

The Final Farewell

So I am back in Vancouver now, after my 19 days on tour. Calgary started off with a bang, we were unable to train on Monday and Tuesday due to severe weather conditions (-30 on bare skin at 120km/h leads to some unhappy people) so that meant that instead of racing twice, we were only going to have 1 race of 2 heats on Friday. So we slid on Wednesday, and that training session was a gong show, we were supposed to slide from 430-6pm, and well my first run didn't start until 5:25and we were the first nation, and women none the less, we knew it was downhill from there. So 6:30 comes and we go on our second run, by the time we pack up our sleds its nearly 8pm. Ridiculous I say. And sadly my pilot and I are told we are not allowed to put our sled in the heated garage over night, as it would be seen as "unfair" (even though we are racing for canada) so we were a little unimpressed, and bundled poor little Precious (our sled) and kept her outside in her bin. Well the next day comes and its reverse order and reverse slot times, and oh, our steering has frozen, I mean it was down past -30C at night, so all the grease froze - those were interesting runs to say the least, after those horrible runs, the driving coach tells the head coach that we are putting our sled inside, as we cannot race well if the steering were to freeze again. So we have to wait an hour and do all the sled work outside, before we are allowed to put our sled into the garage. Needless to say we don't get home until 10pm and then we have to polish our runners for the race the next day. So my pilot and I polish and polish and polish and it hits 11:45pm and we are finally finished. I head right to bed and sleep for at least 10 hours.

The next morning is RACE DAY so I make sure to eat a lot, rest, stretch, and well start to pack, as I will be flying home that day. My boyfriend was nice enough to fly out to watch me race, and well he did carry on, so he will be carrying some of my stuff home with him haha.

Its a cold day at the track on Friday, but we manage, get two decent hits and a great first run, but then the temperature dropped and our runners decided they didn't like the cold, so they skidded all over the place on our second run, despite our sled weighing a MONSTROUS 196kgs (roughly 450lbs) this is without me and my pilot in it, so its much closer to 330kgs. We finish 5th overall, had the temperature not dropped we could've and would've come 3rd, thats how close the 3rd, 4th and 5th sleds were in times. Sad but nothing we can do about it. Then we are told when we get down to the bottom after our 2nd heat (so the race is done) that we have a Material Check. Randomly the Jury has selected our sled to dismantle and take apart and make sure all the components are of FIBT standing, and nothing is illegal. So instead of being able to take our sled apart and put it away and leave, we have to drag our sled all the way back up to the top, flip it and open it up. Fortunately the Official doing the Material check knows me and my pilot well, and knows that we are both retired and were only going on tour to have more sleds for Canada 1 pilot. So he takes it easy on us and just crawls into the sled with a flash light. We soon find out that our frame is cracked in a few places and rather unstable. Good thing this was after the race was done, because I should would not have gotten back into that sled knowing that!

Finalllllly we are done, so we take Precious back to the finish dock, take her apart and put her away in her outside bin. I am officially retired and very satisfied with my end results.

Then my now frozen boyfriend and I are driven to the airport via my big sis, where we find out that our red flight, has been delayed 2 hours...sigh, all I want to do is go home and sleep! I'm tired after race day. We finally arrive in vancouver at 2am local time and get home around 3am (which is really 4am for me, now that I've been on mountain time for the past 3 weeks) well let me tell you, I slept, and slept and slept and woke up at 2pm the next day!

Now its all said and done, I've sold a bunch of my sliding stuff, a pair of bobspikes, helmet, super suit and speed suit. So I've done a bit of an inhouse clean, but I kept enough stuff that if I wanted to, I could go back.

And here we have arrived at the finale of my bobsleigh career, did I think it was going to be longer - absolutely, but life has its own way of going about things and I really can't do much about it. So I will be returning to UBC this January and graduating in April. I am very excited about that.

Thanks for all of your support :) It meant the world to me

Oh and here is a fun clip from a modelling gig I did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5W-J4-Ru-E

Love,

Danaka

Utah Races, travel to Calgary

So now I'm back in Calgary, it seems a fleeting memory that I was in Utah. Park City is one of the most gorgeous places I've been too. Its got this crystal cold clean air, it fills your lungs with pure oxygen and lights up your body from the inside. The 2002 Olympic Track is a rather nice track to slide on, its fun, fast, with some seriously twisted corners, namely 11, 14 and 15. Our races went well, though I've never raced 2 days in a row let-a-lone 3, but I did it and survived. I pushed my massive beast of a sled fast down my little icy runway. We should've come 3rd on our last day, but it just wasn't in the books, so we finished with a 4th, and two 5th places. Not bad, but not amazing. Hopefully Calgary will be better.

A bunch of us decided to drive home to Calgary a day early, so that we could have all of Sunday off to hang out, do laundry and sleep in. On our drive home, a drive that should've taken 13 hours, we hit two blizzards and were forced to drive at 60km/h on the I-15 the fog was so thick that we couldn't see but 10m in front of us. My trusty pilot who was navigating decided to take a picture of this incredible fog, and of course as soon as she brings out the camera, the fog moves away, so we ended up just hanging the camera from the mirror and away we went, with much better visability - Murphy's Law really works! Our drive ended 16 hours later...so it was a very long day. While I was in the back with one of the little sliders, I ended up tutoring him on my favourite of all favourite Shakespeare works - Macbeth. We had a great time and got him all caught up while the two drivers up front discussed the road conditions and visibility.

Needless to say, it was amazing to have Sunday off and once again I got to sleep in this morning so I am a happy camper.

Today unfortunately its around -33C here in Calgary, and while sliding is cancelled at -25 we only have 3 days of official training so that would leave us with only 2 days, and 4 runs, not much time to memorize the track. But I know my pilot can do it. So heres to hoping the weather warms up and I get to race...

Park City, Utah

So we have long arrived in Park City, and I've done my part of taking pictures as well as shopping and sliding. We were here for American Thanksgiving and boy, that is quite the experience! The stores open at 12 midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning and stay open for 21 hours straight with amazing store specials and sales, additional percentages off for being in before 10am or 6am. So I went to Coach, Nike, Adidas, Banana Republic so on and etc and scooped up some massive deals. Got a few little things for myself and picked up a bunch of Christmas gifts!

Sliding has been going really well, just 2 runs each day, and today was day 4 overall, and day 3 in a row for me, I get a day off tomorrow and then I have 3 days of racing come Tuesday-Thursday. Along with sliding come the regular bruising and long days, but it's definitely a lot of fun. As I retired from the National Development Team, my pilot and I are self funding ourselves for sliding. But we are still representing our Country, so it becomes a weird middle where we don't quite fit in, but Alberta Bobsleigh Association has kindly taken us in. So they all help us load and unload sleds, set up and take down, film our starts and corners - its so nice of them. So I try to help all of them out as much as I can. Lending them sliding gear, or just giving it to them, I have nearly 2-3 of everything! Might as well give it to people who are just beginning and don't have anything.

One Last Hooray!

And we are outta the blocks on this one! Sunday evening I get a text from a retired Team Canada Pilot "Wanna slide, in 5 races with me in PC and Calgary?" So I'm reading this text thinking hmm I did retire...I haven't been training too much I was sick, I was modelling..oh what the heck she's a favourite of mine, why not see what the costs associated with the trip are and go from there. Less than 24 hours later, with many many phone calls, emails, texts, facebooking and number crunching I will be her one and only brakeman. We will be doing the same Tour that I would've done had I been on the team. So this way, I will be with a pilot I like and enjoy sliding for, I will be supervising myself, I won't have to stand around in the cold filming for hours and I will be racing every single race - did I mention its going to be much cheaper? So I chat with my parents who are away in Egypt and update them, their response "why not??????? you better do it!" After all I am going back to school in January, so between now and then, I don't have much planned, I wanted to take it easy, paint, socialize and just for once not have to be running around like a mad woman. I needed downtime. But after 3 weeks of it, I'm definitely ready for something new, and something new is going back to the something old. This gives me a great opportunity to show my ex coach just what he is missing, while there is no pressure on me at all. I will be flying to Calgary next monday, and departing for Park City, Utah at 6 am Tuesday morning. My pilot and I will be joined by 3 other team mates and we will be sharing the 10-14 hour drive down to Park City. We will be in Park City for 10 days before returning to Calgary for more races and then I will wave farewell to my old team mates and my pilot and return to Vancouver fully finished with Bobsled and ready to go back to school. I am one of the lucky ones who gets to have closure.

I will keep everyone updated on how it all goes!

Retirement

It is with great sadness that I write this blog.

This past Sunday I was forced to retire, not due to injury, not due to not being good enough, but because I couldn't afford to slide this year. After a season of being told that I am needed by my team, that I am a great asset to my team, my coach told me that I wouldn't be getting carding money, a Federal program that gives a monthly stipend to elite athletes. I didn't receive it last season and it was extremely difficult on me, as it meant that as soon as season ended I was forced to find a job and work full time while training full time and attending UBC part-time.

This year I couldn't pay the $6,000.00 team fee as well as pay for my living, rent, groceries etc without help. I applied to every grant, scholarship I could and somehow always made the short list and then came in second place and didn't get any money. Since I had to quit my job at the end of June I have had no income coming in since then, and was looking at a large quantity of money going out and I simply could not afford it this year. Unfortunately when I discussed this with my coach, the one who told me he needed me on the team, he simply said, "I can't help you" and thus I was forced to hang up my bobspikes and end my season before it even began.

If that isn't heart break enough for one week, watching ones' Olympic Dreams come crashing down, UBC Track team turned me down, as they had filled their quota of sprinters this year. Despite the fact that I am coming off a 14 month National Team Training Program and am stronger and faster than I have ever been, there was simply no room for me.

So here I will be going back to UBC in January to complete the last 9 credits (3 classes) so that I will be graduating in April, and I will be a retired athlete who is fairly unwanted. I know I have so much more to give to my sports, unfortunately no one else seems to think that. So despite having 2 large doors slammed in my face I will competing at the indoor meets as an unattached - I just want to see where I stand after all of my training. If I am not up to par then I will retire and go on and enjoy something different. Pick up my golf clubs, get back in the pool, hit the road to ride or run. But I can't just let all my work go unused I refuse.

I have yet to decide if I will continue updating my blog - I was never really all that good at it anyway! I'm sorry to all of you who I let down, I know I did all that I could do - I trained, I slept, I ate, I saw physios, chiros, doctors, acupunturists. Everything that I could control I did, unfortunately I do not control who gets funding, the funding cuts, who gets the grants so it is with great sadness that I am hanging up my bobspikes and possibly my track ones as well.

I would like to thank everyone for your continued support and encouragement in my athletic endeavours - it is so much appreciated.

Thank you :)

Few days off followed by a highspeed crash

Well its been a week since I last wrote, and sadly, I have only had 1 more run, and not even a complete run at that, we crashed in corner 14. Last Thursday I was supposed to slide, but didn't end up sliding so I was trying to slide on Friday, but that also didn't happen as we had a sled malfunction - runners weren't responding to the steering. So saturday I spend the morning sanding runners, then into the shop for the early afternoon and then up at the track for early evening. My boyfriend had come up for the weekend to see me slide and Saturday would be the first time ever he'd see me slide - naturally we were both excited. My pilot and I are roaring and ready to go, I do 90% of the push, as she will be racing on Sunday, but we want it to be decently fast. Do our loads, and the run is going soooo smoothly, little pings here and there, but for the most part a very perfect run, and then we have a hit in corner 11 and suddenly the sled has flipped and I am violently yanked from the sled, at around 140km/h (it was a fast night at the track), I am spinning down the track on the ice, out of my sled. I try to stop myself so I dig my bobspikes into the ice on the short wall and on the actual corner, and eventually grind myself to a hault, where I know the sled will most likely be careening backwards towards me. So I drag myself out of the track and on to the platform in the middle of corner 16. By the time I am out, and sitting, that is when the pain hits me, my left hand is searing in pain, and my elbows well I can barely move my arms. The medics rush up and watch as my adrenaline levels plummet to the ground - now everything hurts. So they check me all out and decide its not worth the risk, send me to the hospital for x-rays on both elbows and my hand. As Terrance the track med says "I misdiagnosed hand last week, there is just too many bones, off to get x-rays you go, better to be safe than sorry". So now my poor boyfriend who has had to watch this wicked wild crash, where the bobsled ejects me then proceeds to do barrel rolls, breaking the back axle in the sled, destroying the bunk in the process and mushing the 15kg solid steel runner into some form of melted art. He rushes into the Medical room and sees me, alive and well, bandaged up, but smiling. What a relief, but he comments that he will never get that image of me being blown out of the sled at 140km/h. It's the nights like these that make you remember just why you are doing what you are doing, who you are with and what your life is about. I got lucky. So my boyfriend drives me to the hospital, get all my x-rays and I assumed I would be fine. I am, just crushed the tissue in my left index finger, and severely bruised my elbows - they are now black and deep shades of indigo and violet - but all good none the less. We then head home for a quiet evening of icing and movies.

Third day of sliding, what a ride

So I've now had 3 runs down Whistler, over 2 days, much nicer from last year, where in 2 days I had had 5 runs down. I slid with CAN 6 and CAN 3. Yesterday our runs were a bit tricky, the track is much much faster than its ever been, which is obviously a huge bonus for Team Canada as we prepare for the Games, where the ice will be about this fast if not faster. But it means the pilots need to be on top of their game every run down the track.

Before sliding even started, I needed to get my sled, which was down in the shop, so a few brakemen and myself steal two trucks, book it to the shop, lift our sleds into the trucks, only to realize that we only have 1 strap, and now definitely not enough time to take 1 sled up and come back with the other, so one of the other brakemen and I sit in the back of the truck with my sled, and we hold on to it, while we drive up the winding steep road, as a light snow comes down. Safe, probably not, hilarious to look at, most definitely.

Last night there were 4 crashes, which is not so awesome. Fortunately two were very minor tip overs, so no one was injured, the other two I can't say the same. For my two runs last night, we had some bumping and hard hitting, our second run was more like us being a little ping pong ball being bounced from wall to wall to wall. Definitely not fun on my head nor my body, and today I am definitely feeling it. Fortunately for me, its a day off from not only working out, but from sliding as well, so I will be rested for tomorrow's workout and then sliding. But onwards and upwards!

Whistler Selections have arrived!

So its that time of year, when the crisp autumn air and the crimson leaves appear - must mean its SLIDING SEASON! and oh is it ever. We have been told that the ice on the track is extremely fast - which is fantastic, but as its our first day it would be nice if it was slower! I am not sliding today, or tomorrow but I'll be at the track moving sleds and helping out which is a nice way to get back into everything - I haven't slid since January, so I know my body will be feeling it after I slide on Tuesday.

This year we are doing things a little differently, for the girls at least, no longer are the pilots picking their brakemen, but the coaches have put us girls in a rotation, so that everyone slides with everyone, so no one gets too beat up. I am rather excited to be sliding with Canada 2 and Canada 3 for my entire time here at whistler.

Unfortunately that means I am up here in Whistler, alone for Thanksgiving - not so great, but will definitely be worth it if I make it all the way to the Games.

Second Training Camp

Helllllo team!

So second training camp has come and gone (by a long shot - I've been a bit busy) but I did well at that placing 2nd overall in the sprints and doing well enough on my pushing. Had some minor glitches but life isn't perfect. Overall Calgary was very productive for me, and so has my training been since I got home. I have been training a lot with the Vancouver Canucks - which is obviously a huge deal for me, and definitely pushes me harder than I would've thought - can't let them lift more than me! My bench press, cleans and squats have come along nicely! I can nearly bench my weight (140lbs) I can clean 70kgs, and squat a nice 250lbs for reps - making my 1 rep max nearly 300lbs. Go me Go!

With work and school out of the way I used September as purely a training month, seeing my docs multiple times a week for check ups and acupuncture, massage and phsyio. Its been wonderful and I can see the improvements in my own body - definitely much more muscle mass. I am very excited for this up coming season - although nervous at the same time. We have selection races coming up in Whistler and I really want to make the World Cup Team this year, yes it means a whole lot more travel and competition but I know I'm ready for the challenge.

First Training Camp

Its been a while!

Just finished first training camp and it went really well, all PB's from last fall, so I'm very happy with myself, as is my coach! It felt soooo good to be back on the ice, its been a while.

We have a new training set up, and its fairly heavy, but now that I am finished my work term, handling training and school will be a lot easier!

When it Rains it Pours

Not 4 days after I posted my last post about work, did I start my new job. Course I go in thinking its an 8-4 job, no big deal I can train and finish my class no problem, my 4th day of work arrives (a monday) and well 8pm rolls around, and well I'm still at work, likewise the next day, and the day after and the day after that, Friday I stay till 1030, I come back for 8am on the saturday...my oh my, 60 hour work weeks later, and well at least I get paid hourly, because anything over 12.5 hours in a day becomes double time for me - which is really rather nice. But needless to say, 2.5 weeks of 60 hour work weeks, was good enough for me. Its calmer now, which is nice, but what a way to start a new job!

Looking for Work

So I like most of my sliding friends am now looking for work. I need something part time with flexible hours, as I am taking summer school and still need to train. I've worked as an Auditor, in Insurance, and the Auto Industry. If any one knows of some place hiring, please post a comment here.

Thanks so much.

Cleared for take-off

and I'm healthy, went to the gym today and it was amazing, sadly a little too late to make it to Canadian Nationals, but I'll take being able to work out. So excited.

Whistler ITW

So

 back at Whistler (even though I'm home now, my internet was crappy there) our first day we unloaded the sleds, my genious ability at getting the track workers to help us out, using their forklift to lift the sleds and bins so that the 5 brakemen there didn't have to lift half as much. It was a beautiful sunny day, with many rides up the skinny dangerously winding road, to the top with sleds and then back down...we took all 7 sleds up to the top, moved them into the bins, flip flopping them around to make sure that they all fit....it was like a puzzle!

Day 1 of sliding, we leave for the track at 615pm...so its about -10C and we're going from Damen (women's start) move the sleds down from the top to the tinnnnny little dock at Damen, start our warm up, gear up and get in our sleds. I was sliding with one of the America's Cup girls as her brakemen wouldn't be out until the following week. We get into the sled, get pushed off...by the time corner 11 hits we're already rocking by at 136kmph. The pressure in 15/16 was so intense that it felt as though time was slowing...probably the most intense feeling ever! My friends from Great Britain were out to see me that night, they took pictures, and found it very difficult as they had to click the picture when they could hear the sled, before they even saw it, in order for us to even be in the picture.

Day 2 of sliding I stayed at home, due to a massive sickness, and being put back on antibiotics that day - hospital called and it was confirmed I had Strep throat, yet again, 2nd time in 2.5 weeks. So I took the night off, went to bed early, slept for about 11 hours and woke up not feeling so hot.

Day 3 of sliding, I put on my brave face and give'r anyway. My pilot needs me, so we slide, have really good top part, have two massive hits, and still have a faster time than the tuesday, and hit 140kmph...

Day 4, day off, I go back to the hospital because I'm getting nosebleeds and I'm feeling worse and worse I fear I'm allergic to the new antibiotics. But I'm not, so that is good news, but unfortunately these antibiotics aren't doing their job, so I get stuck on IV antibiotics, which is just plain so fun. So I call my parents and they come and take me home, so that I can finish up my treatment here at home and get real rest.

So that ended my 3 weeks at whistler, I only got two days of sliding in. I was really upset, but realize that my health needs to come first. I'm back at home awaiting my clearance so that I can go back to working out and training.