Birds of Prey Recap
sad, sad, but still happy!
A quick (somewhat sad) summary of the races, a much more positive summary of the entire weekend, and thoughts for the next races in St. Moritz!
I had my best downhill training runs ever in the lead up to the race this past week, but I made a big mistake (got squished and low on the line) coming on to the flats on the downhill race run and was very slow for the rest of the relatively flat bottom half of the course. Looking back, I think I tried to tuck too much in a very important spot of the course. Downhill is tricky because you need to be willing to take risks, but there is so little room for error in some areas of the course. So it’s about balancing the critical spots (tactics) with good skiing and enough send! The positive is that I had some other good turns throughout the course and this is by far the best I’ve felt about my downhill skiing!
The super g race day was quite windy and unfortunately this was not in my favor when I ran. Of course, I still could have skied well enough where it didn’t matter if I had wind or not, but I didn’t :/ Reflecting on this a couple days later, I’m still super disappointed, but also very confident in my super -g, so I’m trying not to let this one race affect my mindset too much.
One of the biggest struggles I have during the season is to try not to sound too sad because I know how incredibly lucky I am to be living the ski racing dream still.
But honestly, this weekend was super disappointing for me and I felt pretty down after it finished.
When you work very hard at something and care so much about it, and then it doesn’t go very well, it is hard not to feel like you’ve failed. And for a while, I did feel like that.
But, past experience has taught me a few things that help a lot when I’m dealing with disappointment.
Time always makes it feel better.
Breaking down the ‘challenge’ and being objective about the process and what did and did not go well, instead of just dwelling on the outcome.
Getting back to work and focusing on future chances.
Remembering the bigger picture and enjoying each and every moment.
The truth is, I have high expectations for myself, for better or worse. And when I fall short, I definitely am hard on myself. But I am also pretty good at using each disappointment as a learning opportunity, and not staying down for too long! And, I’m hoping that when I do finally have some better results, this disappointment will make them feel even sweeter :)
Results aside, the weekend in Beaver Creek was an amazing experience. It was so fun to race in the US and have so many friends and family there. AND it was amazing to race the infamous Birds of Prey course for the very first women’s race there. I can’t tell you how nice it was to have so many supporters at the finish cheering me on and telling me how amazing I skied (even though I didn’t think I did a very well :/ ) It was a good reminder for me to not lose sight of just how far I have come. And if I can make it from little Holimont in Ellicottville, NY to Birds of Prey, then there is still so much more that is possible - for me and for you :) We just have to keep working hard and believing!
And that’s exactly what I plan to do!
tiktok video of my first training run - this is a ‘valley cam’ shot, where you can see the whole course from across the valley. We also have coaches on the course with much closer video shots too. You can see in this video most of them climb trees to get the best angle.
