With a competitive lifestyle, we are currently "on the go." However, this last week the term has taken on a whole new meaning, making the rest of the season seem like a stroll in a park. The last 24 hours have been a full-on sprint. Since 6 PM last night I have made it through 4 states, 3 time zones, 2 separate car rides, and 2 separate plane rides. The best part? I'm not done! We still have a 3 hour drive ahead of us from Boston to Vermont. Talk about a whirlwind! The team left Mammoth last night after Grand Prix finals and a quick change and pack in the parking lot to embark on the 9 hour drive back to Utah. After arriving in Utah at 3 am, I quickly drove to my house and packed my snowboard bag then set out to Salt Lake to catch my 7 am flight, after a short plane ride to Phoenix and a one hour layover, I continued on to Boston, where I'm at now waiting for the rest of the crew to show up so we can do the 3 hour drive to Vermont (major shout out to Dustin for taking the hit on driving for this one). All so we can arrive in Vermont in time to register tomorrow to compete on Monday! Not only are the time zones messing with us, but I can guarantee that none of our sleep-deprived internal clocks have any idea what time it is right now.
By the second plane ride, I was done fighting to catch up on sleep and finally had some time to just sit and think. It had been quite the week and had all gotten caught up in the rush of getting from A to B (to C to D). We had packed Clifford up for Mammoth at 4 am Tuesday morning so we could make Grand Prix registration on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday were scheduled practice days, but we woke up Wednesday morning to 8 inches of snow on the ground. After heading up to the mountain and inspecting the 30-70 ft jumps with 20 ft lips, there was no way practice was about to be held, so it was cancelled and we got the day to explore some powder on the mountain. Thursday morning looked a little more promising in the village, but as soon as we got to the mountain it was completely socked in and the winds were gusting. Pipe was called off and practice was postponed until 1. At 1, things still were not looking promising, the winds were gusting and the course was put on course hold every 5 minutes, making jumping in this weather incredibly sketchy. A lot of girls were getting hurt, and Elin and I ended up only hitting about half of the features by the time practice was up. Sitting around looking at the biggest jumps I had seen in a while was not good for the mental game, but at least after we got to hit the first jump we felt a little more comfortable. However, we were still going into the competition pretty blind. At this point though, there was not much we could do about it. On Friday, neither of us were really sure what our run would be since we had not hit the whole course. Due to time constraints barely got our full 30 minutes of practice. At the end of practice more girls had taken the third jump deep and gotten hurt, and about 6 girls had pulled the night before, and 6 the day of, and I still had not made it through the whole course - great way to start off my first run. The course was definitely a little intimidating, although I did manage to make it through my first run (falling on the last jump... naturally), and Elin made it to finals, finishing with a 4th. The boys also dominated, Ryan in 4th and Caden in 8th. I unfortunately fell on both runs (good thing I'm being consistent) and did not make it to finals, but was thankful to walk away with two legs. After that, the rest is history...
The girls were forced to play it safe, which made for an interesting competition, but definitely started to prepare us for the US open where we only get an hour of practice before we compete. This is a whole new ball game and a whole new mental game. It forces us to take things as they come and be constantly on our toes. Especially with all this traveling, we kinda just have to go along for the ride. But we also have to remember to slow down. Now is the most important time to look inward and be confident in my self-knowledge and to find the balance between playing it safe and pushing boundaries. Without it, a lot is at risk. But this is why we do this sport, because everyday we grow and we learn something new about ourselves. No one said it was going to be easy.
I am looking forward to a good trip to my old stomping grounds!
No comments:
Post a Comment