A very small but dark area of space exists in my psyche – right between my desire to perform at my highest level imaginable and my ability to execute that performance on-demand.
It is my belief, that all elite level athletes possess this dark area.
Much like a room with no light, it can be difficult to navigate. Our eyes don’t ever adjust.
There are times that we make our way to the other side thanks to what one might call luck – or other moments where we cautiously bump our way through. Regardless, and more often than not; no matter how many times we visit the room, the layout seems to change. Where we remembered there being a chair, there is now a lamp. Where the coffee table definitely sat, a house plant has taken it’s place.
The reality of this space, is that in order to connect desire and ability an athlete must make a choice during a high pressure situation and in the blink of an eye, decide whether the moment requires navigation by memory or purely by feel: make the right choice and the possibility of success increases exponentially; make the wrong one and the performance will undoubtedly suffer.
Enter: Königssee, Germany – yet another new-to-me track and a relatively short, but finicky mistress.
I stuffed in three paid training runs the morning after we arrived and then pressed through official training – bringing my grand total trips from top to bottom (before the race) to 9.
The track layout and corner geometry presents a few sneaky zones, and they are extremely costly areas – the steers required must be executed with perfection for optimal speed and velocity. I yearned to feel fast through it all and (as always) I had high expectations of myself.
Training was training … as it needs to be – it’s the time to learn the nuances, to find the absolute limits and to make the mistakes. Yes, I do really believe that as I write it today, but when my times were coming up on the clock as a second back from the top of the field – it was hard not to feel slightly discouraged … so from the outset, it was clear that Königssee (which the English like to translate into King’s Lake) was going to rule with a firm hand.
But, as a loyal subject, I promised to fight for the King.
I ignored those inner thoughts that filled me with fear and the troubles that I, just as easily, could have let drag me down. Skeleton really is a very unique sport and being able to stack up against the world’s best in this – my 4th year as a slider – is truly incredible! I love what I do and I do it well. So, even when I feel like I’m standing in the middle of that dark room without a clue – I make a choice.
The race was by no means my finest hour. While I once again pushed better than I had in training, and finally succeeded at navigating the series of S-corners to have a nice entrance into the bent straight away – I messed up parts of the Kreisel curve both runs. Tack that loss of speed onto a few other errors and I would finish in 14th place overall. Mel and Sarah however, picked up 4th and 5th respectively, which helped fill me with pride for what we are still continuing to accomplish as a team. Go Canada!
In case you missed it – here is the replay for run 2. (I am at the line around 17:45)
I would like to acknowledge the fact that this entry might be criticized as a slight over-simplification of what is actually endless hours of preparation meeting opportunity and ultimately colliding at the perfect moment with execution … but my point is still clear – it’s tough, and it doesn’t work out exactly like we might imagine, or plan for, every single time.
A much more rational individual than me, met my result by saying this:”If what we do was easy, it really wouldn’t be any fun.” And despite the fact that my child-like reaction leaned towards stomping my feet in anger, I smiled and knew he was entirely right.
From the first moment I crossed the finish line in Königssee, I liked the track. And even now, after it is all said and done – I really am looking forward to our future encounters. To take on the twists and turns with more experience, to find the speed and to continue along my path to being the best Skeleton Racer I can ultimately be.
“Persistence is the twin sister of excellence.
One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time.” – H. Akande
This week, we prepare for the Viessmann FIBT World Cup Race #8 in Igls, Austria!
Synchronize your watches people – Women Race is set to start at 09.00 (Eastern European Time) this Friday, January 18th, 2013 – always streaming LIVE thanks to BobSkeleTV on YouTube!