March 06, 2009
What up Everyone!!?
Well, it has finally happened! As of Sunday March Second the 2008-2099 season is over and now its the 2009-2010 season of as we like to say....are you ready? cause here it comes ITS OLYMPIC YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How did the year end you wonder well just sit right back and you will hear a tale, a tale of a faithful race, that started atop a mountain slope. The Pushers were there sledding Men the Driver brace and sure. For bobsledders set to race two days of four runs not more! Four Runs Not More! The track started getting rough, the bobsled hit the wall, and if not for the courage of the crew the bobsled would be lost. The Bobsled Would Be Lost!!! lol Ok enough of that I know.
Going in into four-man week unplanned events began to occur on our team. Since the start of the Second Half our crew has been John Napier, Jamie Moriarty, Corey Buckner and myself. Like any other team we had differences here and there but we worked past them, came together leading to some good results and great push times. As it is every year in our sport toward the end of a season, injuries pop up! During 4-man training week Corey pulled up two times in practice once we hit over-speed as we ran the bobsled over the crest. It turns out that his hamstring had been bothering him and he was not able to get up to full speed at the time. Once the problem was known our people in sports med went to work on Corey trying to get him back healthy to race Worlds, three days away. Unfortunately for Corey time and the importance of World Championships were not on his side. He was put through a series of test to see if he would be able to race. He performed well in the test but there was still to much doubt about whether he would be able to perform One Hundred Percent over two days of racing! The decision was made to replace Corey with Nick Cunningham the USA 1 alternate. In all honesty it broke the teams heart to have to replace Corey but it was a decision that unfortunately had to be made. We welcomed Nick to the team and started our race preparation. We made sure to let Nick know that he is one of us regardless of how he came to the team and that we had full confidence in his ability to perform.
We were able to squeeze in a full day of practice with nick the Thursday before the race. This was important in order for us to work on loading in the sled and getting settled as a team going into the first curve. If a team is not fully settled going in or the load is off it kills the sleds velocity going into the first curve, which in turn can multiply down the track whereby you may never actually reclaim that speed again.
After training we took the sled down to the Bodyne garage flipped her (Elanor our sled) upside down to allow her to dry for the night. In the breaking stretch Bobsleds pack in a lot of snow and ice into the sled once the breaks are pulled. We are able to get the majority of the snow out but flipping it upside down, placing a space heater underneath it helps with the drying out process further. On Friday the day before the start of racing we waxed the bottom of Elanor whiled she was still flipped, then flipped her down and waxed the top. We also added two more 10lb lead sheets to the sled in order to compensate for the weight difference between Nick and Corey which brought our sled up to a total of 50lb or more being added to it. We add weight to a sled to make sure the we're as close to the 630kilo(1,386lb) maximum that a 4-man team and sled combined is permitted to weigh. It is always better if the team members themselves are heavier that way they can race with a lighter sled, helping to make for faster push times while still keeping that maximum velocity down the hill. Being that Napier only about 187lb or so and Nick is 200lb we needed the weight to ensure the speed down the track unfortunately it does have a direct affect on the start times.
Also this marked a Gear occasion for me personally because it was the first time some of my family was able come see me race!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My sister Ulanka flew out from San Diego, and my Sister Tina drove down with her husband Mark and their children my niece and nephew. They were here for the whole weekend!!!! I got a chance to show them around the training center, introducing them to my teammates, coaches and other staff members. We went up to the Bodyne garage to see how we prepare our sleds for racing. During the race they were lined up at the start SCREAMING!!!!! J B 3! J B 3! J B 3! IT WAS PRETTY COOL TO HEAR AND SEE THAT! Everyone had a really good time. My sister Ulanka was even able to stay till this Thursday to help me with anything after I have my surgery....I will come back to that!
Going into the race the order was by Overall World Cup Ranking so we went of 16th. This was not the best time to be going on in Placid since it had been in the 40's and 50's earlier this week making for less than desirable ice conditions, added with 15 four-man sleds going down before us chewing up the ice. Napier's fastest start time in four-man here is 5.19 we pushed 5.18 and 5.19 on the first day, two descent pushes but not as fast as we would have liked. The first run down was not a good run for us especially since this is Napier's home track, so we ended up in tenth position after the first run and held the same position after the second run going into day two. On Day two of racing we dropped our start times down to 5.15 and 5.16 marking the Fastest Napier had ever been at the start!
This was good for us a pushers especially considering how heavy(weight in the sled) we were running comparatively USA 2 pushed 5.12 with an empty sled! However our runs down the track were not that good and we ended up in 11th place overall. It was the highest Napier and us had finished in World Championships but we still thought we should have gone faster, because earlier this year with a start of 5.37 in practice Napier drove better and we had a faster down time. But hey sometimes things changes on race day and we were still blessed to finish the way we did! Also our teammates on USA 1 WON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!! THE FIRST TIME IN 5OYRS THAT AN AMERICAN CREW HAD WON A GOLD MEDAL IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS AND THE OLYMPICS COMBINED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Overall it was a great weekend for Men's and Women's Bobsled. We took Silver,6th, and 10th place in the women's race, we took Bronze in the men's two-man, Bronze and 6th in the Team Competition, Gold, 8th and 11th place in Four-Man!!!!!!
After the race was said and done we all sat down for a nice formal picnic. Lol Just playing!!!!!!!!!!!! we all went out for dinner, and dancing and all those great season ending festivities!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a good night! I got my dance on BIG TIME because I knew the next morning I had to have surgery on both of my legs for the compartment syndrome that I have!
I will continue the surgery story in the next e-mail just to break it up and......................keep you wanting more!!! No it does not have anything to do with wanting you to visit my web-site http://www.jessebeckom3.com/ for pictures under my Media section or my blog page http://www.jessebeckom.blogspot.com/ more!!!!! That's just crazy talk! Straight Crazy Talk!
LOL
God Bless!
Jesse
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