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 :)