Wow! I forgot just how emotional (in every possible way) World Cup racing is!
St. Moritz race weekend started off great with two very sunny training run days on Wednesday and Thursday. I’m trying to approach every training run with full intensity to get into race mode as soon as possible, and I think I did a much better job of this than in previous years. I was hitting my marks and made good improvements from run 1 to 2, and was only 1.9 seconds out on the second training. For reference I was over 5 seconds out on the second training run here last year!
But maybe because of this added intensity, I felt so many more emotions on the training run days than I remember from previous seasons. Or maybe it’s just been a while, so I forgot what it was like to be in the start gate of a World Cup Downhill. Regardless, I was really feeling it all during the training runs. So much so, that I had a thought at the top of the second training runs along the lines of “woah, how am I possibly going to handle this level of nerves and excitement every run and hype myself up to charge each course for the entire season.”
Fast forward to Friday, which was the first super-g race day. It was cloudy and snowy and super low visibility. It was also super-g, which always adds another layer of unexpected! I was actually quite calm on this day. I have always loved racing in bad weather and was excited that it was snowing. I think there’s something about the hard conditions that makes my brain go more into fight mode than when it is sunny and perfect conditions and I’m thinking about trying to be perfect on every turn and execute the plan precisely.
This was actually a big revelation and learning lesson for me this weekend to realize that I get the most nervous when conditions are perfect and there are no (or less) excuses for making mistakes vs. when its tough conditions and I just have to think about fighting my way down and not worry so much about the small mistakes. I’ll try to remember in future runs that no matter how perfect the conditions are the fight is always what matters the most, and hopefully this will help with the nerves.
Unfortunately the super-g did not go very well. I made two big mistakes with the line coming over terrain at the top of the course and also totally misjudged the surface which was wayyyy bumpier than I expected. I did have some okay turns at the bottom and finished 38th, but I was pretty bummed with my errors up top and especially not adjusting to the bumpy surface.
I was hit with another wave of emotions that afternoon and was reminded of how badly it feels to be disappointed in myself after a race. I was finishing up my dry-land after the super-g race when I realized “AH, this feeling is what motivates me in the start gate of the next race to send it as hard as I possibly can.” I answered my own question from the training runs. It’s hard to hype yourself up when you haven’t felt the emotions from races (both good and bad) in a while. But once I felt the post-race emotions after the Super-G, I had absolutely zero question in my mind that I would be able to hype myself up for every race this season!
I think this realization was a good reminder that you really need to put yourself in the arena from time to time to motivate yourself to keep improving. I definitely felt less motivated towards the end of copper than I usually do while training, but I think this was simply because we had been training for soooo long with no races. It feels incredibly good to be racing again. It is truly my favorite part of the sport and a pretty incredible feeling that I haven’t felt in any other area of my life.
Unfortunately, the downhill race the next day was cancelled after 35 racers (I was bib 47) because weather came in and there was bad visibility which FIS deemed unsafe. The second super-g on Sunday was cancelled before we even went up to the hill for weather as well.
But! We were able to race in a Europa Cup (the level beneath World Cup) Super-G on Tuesday in St. Moritz and I finished third earning my first ever Europa Cup podium! My teammates Lauren and Keely also had really good results in the World Cup SG (24th and 30th) and Bella in the World Cup DH(11th), so it’s very encouraging that the whole team is skiing well!
Other notable weekend events was Alice Merryweather (my roomie :)) starting her first World Cup in 3.5 years!!!! and Mikaela winning the downhill - she ran through her race plan with us the night before the downhill and we all talked over the course which was super nice of her and made me very excited to race - but alas - next year :)
Now for the photos:
Congratulations Trish! Super excited for you. Love you updates.
Tricia - your mom set out 2 hours go to come see you. Can there be anything better than having family at the bottom of the hill?
I love your musings.....keep ‘em coming.
Uncle Jack