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Altenberg Germany Race Week Jan 02-Jan08 2012

2012-02-05T17:24:00.005-05:00

Flight to Frankfurt

On December 30th after ten days of semi-rest and semi-relaxation we headed back over to Europe for the second half of the World Cup Tour. In keeping with my history of flight delays/cancellations the flight back to Europe sadly would not disappoint. My flight out of Colorado Springs left at 6:20 am (I looked on line and there was a flight I could have been booked on that left at 9am) meaning I had to leave for the airport at 4:30 in the morning, then I was scheduled for a 5 hour layover at Washington Dulles Airport all of this before a 9hour flight to Frankfurt!!...yeah, I was not happy about any of this. After about four hours of sitting and playing on the internet in Washington Dulles Airport about 12 of my other teammates begin to arrive, (Must have been nice to sleep in Ahhh!).

Shortly thereafter we all boarded our plane, and after sitting there for about twenty minutes the Pilot announces that there will be about an hour delay while they fix a cargo bay door that was malfunctioning! (Thinking what I'm thinking?). We sat on the plane a good hour when it became apparent that we are not going anywhere for at least another hour if not longer. Having a good feeling about the next plausible outcome and to the chagrin of others passengers my teammates and I began making joke after joke about how we would not be going anywhere for a while. In the midst of our joking the Pilot who was in need of attention…. And…… apparently jealous of our conversation rudely comes over the PA announcing that they are unable to fix the cargo bay door and that we need to switch planes!!! I know right!! It’s not good enough for this guy to be sitting up front but he has to disrupt our conversation as well! The nerve of such people! Lol. Regardless at this point there was no need to be mad so I continued to joke with my teammates as we went to Taco Bell for a quick bite as we waited or change in aircrafts. Ironically enough the change in planes benefited everyone, since we were now on a more modern plane and.....I now had three row seat to myself! Ok so when I say everyone I mainly mean me! Lol After the plane doors officially closed I may or may not have teased our teams Physio (Sports Physician) who was sitting behind me! And I may or may not have informed him that I would be watching three different movies on each of the screens at my disposal! And… I may or may not have fully laid out in each direction possibly still teasing our Physio each time I changed direction.....I'm just saying that may have happened and that he may have deserved it since he was giving me guff (yes I just used that word) about my previous tight seating arrangement on the plane before. WHOSE THE BIG MAN NOW BUDDY!!!! OH YEAH I'M YO DADDY TODAY, THE PASSENGER WITH EXTRA LEG ROOMS LOOKS LIKE WHO? YUP HE LOOKS LIKE JESSE! ........Are some statements that I can neither confirm nor deny that I may possibly, could have made! But mind you this is purely based on speculation, hearsay, and eye witness reports by those with conflicts of interest lol

Taking into the time difference between the US and Germany we arrived on New Year's Eve. We rang in the New Year with bottles of juice in the hotel lobby!! It was so crazy; with all that apple juice we almost started a riot! lol Since we were looking at a five hour drive to Altenberg Germany we did not have any time of big celebration to ring in the New Year. And after that we tried to create a Hands Across America Chain but in Germany (Movie Beerfest reference)......yeah in short it did not work but that is a whole other story! lol

Altenberg, Germany Race Week

After arriving in Altenberg, Germany we checked into the Best Western Waldhoutel Stephanahohe. Usually when we stay in hotels overseas we are the only ones staying there (except in St. Moritz where the Canadians and the Netherlands stay at the same hotel as us), however the Entire Russian Bobsled and Skeleton Team, Austrian Bobsled Team, German Skeleton, and Australian Skeleton were at this hotel along with regular guest staying at the hotel. Although it’s fun to stat at a hotel with other teams we do enjoy being at a hotel where it’s just the American Team staying there, but not only because the competitive nature of the sport and the thought of eating three meals a day next to your competition, but also because we all use the internet which causes for an extremely slow connection. Now when I say its slow I am not being a spoiled athlete or anything but I tried to send one email that was maybe a paragraph long, without any attachments and it took me twenty minutes to do so because the server kept timing out on me. Needless to say I never even attempted to upload and pictures or videos since I could not imagine how long that would take.

Being that I had yet to race on the track in Altenberg I was extremely excited. I was not only excited because it was a new track for me but because it is in the top 3 of the hardest and more dangerous tracks in the world!! That same excitement may have been the reason for my little truck malfunction. For all practical purposes this is my first year actually driving one of our cargo trucks which happen to be all stick shifts/manual. Admittedly I am not the best manual car driver in the world and frankly I wish every car was automatic! I truly hate the fact that on a hill you have a great possibility of rolling backward or forward more easily, in my opinion it’s just dumb and now I have even more reason to hate them. It was the first day of training and since I had not driven the truck in a while figured it was my turn to drive to the track, so we load the two man sled in and head out. The day was typical enough being a just as cold and snowy and I have to admit I was handling the driving conditions like a champ. I was shifting gears a lot smoother, feeling pretty confident in my driving skills. I pulled up to the track executing a three point turn backed the truck up and unloaded the sleds just as smooth as I would in an automatic car. After the sled is unloaded I go to park our truck next to the other trucks but there is no room, causing me to have to try and park on the private road leading up to the track where other trucks are parked as well. Unfortunately all the wider parts of the road were filled and if I tried to park on a narrower part I would be blocking traffic. I end up doing a circle down to the road entrance and back up through the gate where we unloaded the bobsled when I see a space to park!!! Once again I am feeling like new money because I have been backing up and down hills doing U turns I'm Like "WHAT Stick Shift I got this!!" yeah I was Wrong So Very Wrong!! So I park the truck and hop out and head over to help with the sled. Two minutes later as I am walking towards our sled one of the Belgium girls comes running up screaming "Jesse! Jesse! were you driving the Europacar Cargo Van!? I say yes why? She says you forgot to put on the Emergency Break and it rolled backwards into a car (evidently I was parked on a slight incline)!!!.....YEAH exactly what I'm thinking! Making the situation even worse is that I knew the only car it could have rolled into was one of the BMW X5' that was parked behind it!!! I start running back towards the vehicle and the only thing I can imagine in my head is that I just totaled a $90,000 car and I am not going to be able to pay for this in any form of currency unless they take monopoly money! I get to the vehicles and to my surprise the BMW is not totaled but the Cargo Van definitely hit it. I hop into the cargo van, slowly pulling forward re-parking it and pulling the Emergency Break! then hopping out. Go look at the BMW and thankfully it only has a nice sized dent in the back door!! Thank you God!! I was so relived because it did not hit anyone, the BMW nor the truck was totaled nor did it roll forward into the track which would have been horrible. And that was my start of the week how was yours? lol

Snowball Fight USA vs. Russia

As I previously mentioned the Russian and other teams were staying at the hotel with us and as long as it not race day we all pretty much get along with one another. However we were in close proximity to one another and there was snow on the ground soooooooooooo………yeah one day at the hotel after training IT WAS Snowball Fight Time Apparently! I suppose it was bound to happen, but the Russian pulled the trigger firs….but we held the trigger a bit longer. Here’s how it began, we pulled up to the back of the hotel to unload our Four-Man sled and as the truck is backing up to the garage we see a few snowballs come flying in!! We all start looking around to see where they are coming from and Surprise Surprise they are coming from the direction of the Russians whose garage was about 150 feet down from ours. These snowballs came in with a vengeance, hard fast and accurate which should be expected since we are a bunch of 220 plus guys who lift all day throwing snow balls at each other. After a few snow ball came in we devised a plan to flank the Russians! About four guys (usually only one person parks the van hoped in the truck as if to only park the van like normal. The great thing about where we parked the Vans is that it is a hill that is to the West of the garages housing all the sleds, Yup Taking the High Grown!!! While at the same time me and two other guys are straight military crawling from the North heading straight on towards the Russians alongside the Row of Russian Vans that were parked there! As a diversionary tactic we throw snowballs from our position as our guys up top got into position. The Russians started throwing snowballs in my direction, creeping up on us getting more in the open!! Soon as they got into a good clearing Snowballs from the guys positioned at the top began raining down on them!!! In our mind it was Gladiator and we had Just Unleashed Hell!!! Lol The guys at the top of the Hill was letting them have it something serious, while we were also letting loose! The Russians were caught completely surprised and began to scatter! They put up a good fight and we were still surprised at how accurate they were it was amazing!!! But in the end we drove them back into their Garages!! Lol USA 1-Russia 0 babe!!!

Start of Racing

In following with this season’s tradition the forecast for the races showed strong signs of blizzard types of snow. I guess we should have expected that since most of our race venues are in ski towns. The day of the race we could tell it would be one of those days, especially since the race was delayed twice!!! The first delay we were aware and planned accordingly, leaving for the track later than earlier planned. Once we arrived at the track the FIBT Jury members decided to delay the race another hour due to snow. Four hours after the originally planned event the race began!! The Germans were some of the earlier sleds and the weather was actually a bit nice (Yeah they have a snow maker they control lol), ironically enough after the German sleds had gone snow flurries began off and on throughout the rest of the first heat. The Start ramp did not look that bad but I do doubt how well they really sweep the start groves out Team USA is on the block in a foreign country. Any way after the first heat USA-1 (Holcomb Driving/Langton Braking) was in fifth position and USA-2 (Napier Driving/Robinson Braking) was in 17th position. During the last fifteen minutes of the forty-five minutes break between heats they begin to send forerunners down the track to insure the track conditions are safe to continue the race. Unfortunately the snow fall significantly increased, so much that by the time the pilots of the forerunner sleds reached the bottom there visors were covered with snow making visibility difficult. After the FIBT Jury members spoke with the drivers of the forerunning sleds they decided to cancel the second heat of the race for safety issues. With the cancellation of the second heat it meant that whatever sled position you were in after heat would be the official and final results of the race. Needless to say Team USA was extremely frustrated but that's the way racing goes at times...The only positive we could take from this is that tomorrow was the four-man race which we were banking on being a better day!

The next day I woke up at 6am to start my normal preparations for our 9 a.m. race, which included a quick breakfast and a forty-five minute weight room session focusing on explosion and speed (a.k.a Potentiation). With all that done it was time to load up the 4-Man Sled and head to the Track (I was not driving!! lol) This week we (USA 2 Napier, Beckom, Clark, and Fogt) were off 12th, and at about 2-minutes per sled I knew I needed to be ready at 9:24 a.m. get or take a few minutes. This is important information to know since it dictates when I need to start my one hour warm-up. During my warm-up can you guessed what happened?.....Yup it began snowing!! I am just like oh great another lovely day with perfect race day conditions! The good thing is that as the race began the snow started to stop, well.......that is until we stepped to the line and the snow just began falling like crazy!! In an effort to minimize the amount of time snow had to build on the start ramp we began stripping down to our race suits while the before us was half way down the hill; allowing us to place the sled on the Ice quicker and go as soon as we had the green light. Like clockwork we hear the start tone, see the green light, drop into position, call the cadence and we are off!! The hit felt good and as I was pushing I was thinking we are money since the timing felt great!! We get down to the bottom and look and are surprised by the down time and then we here the push time, we are not happy! It was pretty slow and off the pace we and no clue what happened. We stood at the bottom looking up at the monitor watching as the snow cleared up and sleds with seemingly sloppier runs down the track were beating us. It was not until we got to the top that the coaches told us how bad the groves were, the force was not with us on this run and it was extremely disappointing. Our Driver Napier also informed us that we were like a snow plow coming down with all the snow that had been built up in the track. But we had one more heat to go, so we had to forget about the first, and concentrate on the next heat and see if we can make up some time.

Just a quick note, in bobsled the second starts in reverse order from 20-1. Being that our first run was so fabulous we were third or so off. Thank God that this time the snow had actually stopped for us and when we got down to the bottom we found out that we had dropped our start by .11 which is a ton of time!! The face that we dropped so much time off was a relief since we have been battling all season against the stereotype that we have a slow crew when we Don’t! We were pleased with the start but that first heat killed us and we ended up in 16th a little better than the 2-man race but nothing to write home about which is also part of the reason it has taken me so long to send out an update since I like to be in a little better spirits when I send them out!

After the Altenberg, Germany Race it was time to pack up and head to Konigssee the site of Next World Cup Race.

Also, I want to remind you all that you can watch our races live and replay races you missed at http://eurovision.digotel.com/fibt/index.html.

God Bless

JB3

www.jessebeckom3.com

Members of the Mens USA Bobsled National Team Training Videos

2012-01-26T12:05:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone

Really quick I just wanted to make you all aware that in hopes to get more exposure for the sport of Bobsled and to show the hard work it takes to be a member of a National Team we have created a channel on Youtube.

Please Check out some of the Training videos posted by members of the USA Men's National Bobsled Team!!! at http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamUSABobsled?ob=0

We have a handful of videos up now but more are to come!! Be sure to subscribe to our channel so you want miss out on any future post!

Thank you

Jesse

Part 2 First Half Update

2012-01-25T18:11:00.000-05:00

It’s been a good while now, I trust everyone has fully recovered from your Christmas and New Year Shenanigans!!! (Hey Favra what’s that restaurant you like to eat at with all the stuff on the wall!? Oh you Mean Shenagigans!? OOoooooo!! Lol ) and are well on your way in fulfilling your New Year’s Resolutions.

Now where were we…hmmmm…..starting memory enhancing…Enhances…..Enhance……Enhance! lol

Ah yes, the interesting people that I met coming back from Germany. After the last race we drove two hours to Frankfurt where we spent the night in a hotel five minutes from the airport. Just a quick FYI throughout the season there are really only two nights during the season where we as athletes get a chance to relax a bit; the first is the break after the first half of the season and the second is the night after World Championships. It just so happened that the Canadians were also staying at this hotel for the night, making for some good fun challenges that ended with a few people sleeping in later than they originally planned. I can neither confirm nor deny the reports of one of the Canadians missing his originally planned airport shuttle and allegedly running after said shuttle in an attempt to board it! Once again this is purely speculation! Lol

After successfully waking up to catch my shuttle from the hotel to the Frankfurt Airport I was looking at a sixteen hour travel day!! My first flight I managed to squeeze in a few hours of sleep in between watching movies (this would pay off later in the story). Ironically enough as I searched for a good movie to watch it dawned on me that I may spend a little too much time watching movies and T.V shows! Why do I say that you ask? Ding! Ding! Survey Say!! Because I had literally already seen 95% of all the show they had to offer T.V and Movies, Das ist Nicht Gut! Actually as I type this I just turned off the T.V next to me!! Lol I may need to read a bit more. Curse you Hollywood you mother of all temptresses with your shows of wonder and amazement!

Sorry I'm back on track now. Unlike others on my team I was not heading home to be around family for the holidays although I would have greatly enjoyed that. Instead I was heading back to Colorado Springs in preparations for the second half of the season and any possible testing/race offs the coaches may throw at us. The longest leg of my trip was the nine hour flight from Frankfurt to the Washington Dulles Airport, which as I mentioned was not to eventful but ironically very important. From there I caught a three hour flight to Colorado Springs where I had to pleasure of meeting Stuart W. Symington. I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that I have traveled so much over the last ten years but I can now tell when I am going to have a good conversation with a person sitting next to me on the plane, this was the case when I met Stuart on the flight to Colorado Springs.

As I boarded the plane I was in straight Zombie Mode equipped with headphones in blaring music from my iPod. While I was preparing to sit down I noticed this guy who looked to be a good 6’4 in a suit behind me motioning as to say he was sitting in the window seat next to me. I took one of my ear buds to better hear what the guy was saying. To my astonishment I heard a booming voice come out as if this guy was the White House Speaker. He was holding his suit coat in one hand and a drink from Starbucks in the other. Without hesitation he looks at me and says “Hey you mind holding this for me?” I’m not sure if was just his general candor but something told me I was about to engage in a good conversation. At that moment I agreed to hold his drink and decided to take my other ear bud out, wrap up my iPhone and place it in my pocket. Immediately after we sat down the conversation begins. We exchange normal pleasantries ending with both of us respecting each others career choices (I have to admit I was astonished at what all Stuart had and is currently accomplishing). It turned out that Stuart is currently working at NORAD/NORTHCOM and was previously an ambassador to Rwanda and several South American Countries. There is a ton of things this man has accomplished but instead of listing them all (sorry Stuart I hope you don’t mind me talking you up) here is a general link about him http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/115603.htm .

We began talking about City Planning, Foreign Policy, Domestic Policy, how to effectively build relationships between communities, and how to address gang and drug problems that we are having in both the USA and Mexico. Keep in mind people I am physically and mentally exhausted from a brutal first half of racing and travel. As I was listening to every bit of insight that Stuart was providing one of the main thoughts going to my head is “Jesse please use some five dollar words so you don’t sound like a dumb athlete!” lol. Nothing against any of the conversations that I have had since beginning Bobsled but I had forgot how much I enjoyed in-depth mentally challenging conversations, it was by far one the best conversation I ever had. Halfway through the conversation we conversation we actually came up with a project of similar interest that we could assist each other with so we exchanged business information. As we continued to converse I could see the gears turning in Stuarts mind; and each time I asked what he was thinking one great ideal after another came from this man including the Name of the book for my Autobiography. To say I was in amazement was an understatement, Stuart possessed an honest general concern for his common man and I find that rare. The conversation continued until touchdown and ended with us exchanging contact information before parting ways.

After grabbing my luggage I hopped on the OTC shuttle that was awaiting me. I was very happy that it was only a twenty minutes ride from the airport to the OTC since in New York it’s a Two and a half hour shuttle from Albany to the OTC in Lake Placid. Upon my arrival I was pleased to see that dinner was still being served. I have to say that after a long day of traveling having fast food as my sole source of nutrition a good meal at the OTC was more than welcomed. (Come on that’s a line you would see in a fancy novel or a T.V stars inner monologue! Lol I am handing out gold here and no one wants it? You’re killing me smalls you’re killing me!)

Once I was done eating I went to my room to begin unpacking my bags along with everything I had packed in my car and that I had in storage in the OTC. By the way have I mentioned it was 9pm by now and I had been traveling since the crack of existence the day before!! But for some reason I tend to have OCD when it comes to settling into my room. Because I can never really seem to sleep until every little thing is unpacked, in its correct place and my bags are stored where they need to be. Jesse what time did I eventually go to be you ask…? Why 1am naturally but thank you for asking. What’s that you say….What time did I wake up because surely you slept in right? Sleep in? Are you kidding me you talking about SLEEPING IN!? SLEEP IN?! WHAT YOU REALLY ASKING ME ABOUT SLEEPING IN!? Being that I am brilliant and all Naturally woke up at 6am ready to eat breakfast and start my normal training routine.

As usual after I was done training I hit up Sports Med to stretch out, Ice down, and spent 30 minutes in the Normatec Recovering pants (Air pressured compression pants that aid in muscle recovery). I then returned to my room and figured I would shoot Stuart an e-mail to revisit what we had talked about the previous day. Later on that evening I received a response back from Stuart which eventually led to him inviting me to an annual Holiday lunch for his family and some of their close friends the following week. Yeah Exactly I was blown away by the invite myself so of course I accepted it.

The following week I met with Stuart and his group at the Garden of the Gods Club house for lunch. Unfortunately I did not have a blue blazer to where which was preferred, but I did have a nice shirt and tie which fit the occasion. For the record I have been to many luncheons to date but ironically and no offense to anyone but this was one of the most impressive luncheons I had been to. Not to mention the fact that the Symington’s as a family have their ducks in a row!! This was not your average luncheon! From the parents down to the kids in high school everyone here were world travelers and were fully aware of what was happening socially and economically. I want say any specific names but the high school kids were doing well in sports (golf, basketball, football and I believe swimming) and in their class work. When it came to those children college age and older, one was going to film school in Singapore, another was studying to be an actor in New York, one as a paralegal at a law firm, another was working on her Doctorate in Microbiology. Since Stuart was now working for NORAD/NORTCOM I also meet Lieutenant General, USA Deputy Commander Frank Grass, as well and a very successful multiple restaurant franchise owner named Christopher. Yeah yeah when I type it out it sounds like a random group of people but in actuality the thing that everyone there had in common was their ability to turn their work ethic and drive into success!

Among the general lighter get to know you conversations that you would expect at such a gathering Christopher posed a very thought provoking question. He asked us “Considering all of individual success how could we use our motivation to inspire others around us? He also asked us if we thought that the majority of our piers possessed the same since of pride in country as generations before us?” Once again I was thrilled to express myself in another format other than squatting an ungodly (That was a play on words because we were at the Garden of the Gods Club…..come on people!! Gold I tell you Gold! Lol) amount of weight or pushing a sled fast as Hermes!! (Gold again people!) After the lunch we exchanged pleasantries, I left and went to go workout. Another day in the life of the International Man of Mystery that is Jesse Beckom III! lol (come on that is funny!). The conversation was great and full of several good answers.

If you cannot tell I had a blast at this lunch getting to know Stuart , his family, and some of their friends. I may have only been in Colorado Springs for ten days, but in those ten days I met some great people, started a new project that will be very fruitful, made headway on a current project and had some solid training days! It was a Great Christmas Break.

God Bless Everyone

Jesse

2011-2012 Bobsled Season First Half Pictures

2012-01-13T10:28:00.002-05:00

Greetings everyone I have posted the pictures form the first half of the season just paste the following link in your browser. http://www.jessebeckom3.com/37.html

Thank you

First half of the Season

2011-12-31T18:38:00.003-05:00

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas everyone and have a Happy New Year! 2012 Here we come!!

The Curve Ball

Ah yes the surprise….Well not all surprises come with balloons and happy faces which ironically was actually the type of surprise this was.

I might not have explained this earlier but after the National Team is chose the Head coach has final say on who races and who does not. This allows coaches to make changes if for whatever reason they believe that a particular athlete(s) on a team production may have decreased. In an attempt to start figuring out what was going on with the start and why considering the push athletes testing numbers our start times were not in the top ten or higher, they informed the team that they were taking me off the 4-man team this week and were replacing me with the alternate!! Without me saying it you can imagine what was going through my head, actually from the expression on my face everyone in the room knew what was going through my head as well. The coaches asked if anyone had any questions and surprisingly enough I was able to hold my tongue because I knew that with the way I was feeling nothing positive, coherent or proper would have come out of my mouth.

After the meeting one of my teammates came over to speak with me about the coach’s decision. We talked about a few different things, resulting in me calming down enough so I could speak to the -coaches about the decision they just made. I ended up having about a forty-five minute conversation with the coaches, doing my best to understand their logic. I won’t go into the details of the conversation that was had but they were not happy with my two-man push the week before and as I mentioned before they had not been pleased with our four-man pushes either. They explained that this is the first of many evaluations and that they will possibly try something different next week. I admit I did not like their answer but I had to respect their decision just as they had to respect my reasons for why I thought taking me of the four-man was a mistake. Regardless their decision was their decision and for this week I would not be racing.

I would like to say that after talking to the coaches my anger had subsided but that would be a complete lie! In my head I was kicking over furniture, burning down cities, blowing up cars along with a million other things that would not be politically correct to type. Along with those thoughts a part of me was feverishly repeating the Lord’s Prayer to keep me calm. While this was going on I reached out to one of my sisters asking her to pray for me. The extra time from not racing made me really think about the bible verses that I read in the book of James ch2 v14 that says “what good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has not actions?” It made me realize that if I claim to have faith that no matter what is going on in my life, no matter how horrible it looks from my perspective that if I truly have faith and trust that God has my best interest in mind then it will work out in the long run. Having those thoughts in my mind I decided to use this time to my advantage; I studied a ton of mines and others push video with my head coach as to identify any possible inefficiencies I may have in my push technique. That week I did have some intense lifting and sprinting sessions since I was not worried about my legs being too tired before a race. I even created a couple of new drills designed to reinforce proper push technique; personally although I was not racing it was a great week of training for me. On Thursday training it was my turn to push, allowing me to apply drills and technique I had been practicing. This resulted in me pushing closer to USA 1 in practice than I previously had; it was good sign from my stand point.

Like normal the 2-Man Race was scheduled to take place on Saturday with the 4-Man Race to be held on Sunday. Although I was not racing I still helped with sanding the runner along with all other normal sled preparations. At best the feeling of racing felt extremely weird but to counteract that weirdness I had an intense sprint workout before the start of the 4-man race, but sorry I am getting ahead of myself. For this week 2-man race it was Chris Fogt’s turn to push with napes once again the start was not exactly what people were expecting but being that Napes is a good driver and the track was long they finished in 11^th place. As I mentioned the next day was the 4-man race and I was definitely feeling like I was in a Bizzaro Land having to watch. Once again I kept repeating the Lord’s Prayer to keep me calm that along with doing a sprint workout helped me to keep calm. On this day the USA 2 sled was 12^th off, I helped carried the sled to the line for the guys as they prepared to push; placing it in the start groves for them as the sixty second start countdown began. While watching the guys push my adrenaline was pumping for them….I felt like a Wyld Stallyns(Be Excellent to Each Other! Thank you Bill & Ted) tied to a two-thousand year old tree forbidden to help my team! The guys pushed and the time was relatively slower to the field than it was our past races, once again Napes was able to drive to 13^th. After the race not much was really said we just packed up the gear like normal and headed on to the next race in Winterberg, Germany.

A day after we arrived in Germany one of my Teammates informed me that I was back on the 4-Man Team for the race; I thought the coaches would have informed me about this but I was wrong in that thinking but I was racing again like I should have been so who cares how the info came about. In their continual attempt to figure out our start issues the coaches decided to have a 2-man race off between Johnny Quinn and Adam Clark to see who would race in the 4-man race. This move was a bit unusual since the race off is normally in the discipline that you are racing i.e. if you race of for the 2-man position using the 2-man sled and switching out the two guys in question and you race of for the 4-man position using the 4-man sled plus crew switching out the two guys in question. Regardless Johnny won the race off thereby keeping our team together, now for the life of me I don’t understand why I was not given any type of Race off before they took me off the sled but that is just some of the things I have to deal with. Yeah not fun! Now our 4-man team was back to its original group, the man 2-was another story. In order to try and get Napes a faster start Justin Olsen was chosen to push 2-man with napes this week. Me and the other guys did not take it personal at all, we just figured do what you guys feel you need to do to get a faster start plus we were more concerned about getting a good 4-man result.

I feel like I keep repeating myself but the first half of the season was just not going the way any of us could have imagined. We thought we were good to go for 4-man until Fogt started showing flu like systems forcing us to use Adam for the day of 4-man training, allowing Fogt to rest up for the 4-man race. The 2-Man race went off as planned with bit of snow in the forecast that was pretty sporadic snowing for some sleds and stopping for others. Napes and Justin pushes were once again not as fast as people expected and initially they were in 20^th (only the top 20 sleds get a second run) but we thought they were in 21^st and we almost packed the sled up! Luckily Gomer the Russian coach told us he thought we were in 20^th so we waited for the official results from the first heat and Gomer was right! The sled was very close to being put on the truck!! It’s a good thing when the sled came back up we just left it in the scabbards and never attempted to take of the runners otherwise we would have been disqualified!! Once we found out that they had a second run we told Napes and Justin, they did a quick warm-up and were back on the start block. Their second push was better but still not where the coaches would have like to see it and in the end they finished in 14^th.

The weather conditions were pretty much the same for the 4-man race if not worse. The warm-up for the race if you want to call it that was straight blizzard conditions on and off, added to the fact that Fogt was still throwing up before the race and would be afterwards. In conditions like this the plan is to get the sled down and into the start groves as soon as possible before more snow builds up in the start groves and within the track itself. We get to the start line with our plan in effect! The sled before us goes off and half way down there run we all begin stripping down to our speed suits so we are ready to go as soon as possible. They clear the start of the track for our run, the 60 second clock starts, we drop the sled and are getting ready to go. However the light system that is a secondary measure is still red and not green! So they stop us from going! They then reset the clock and the light but by this time more snow has built up, my coach then stops the guys at the start and asks them if we can get the start swept again (it was a good catch). First of all they did a crappy job of sweeping out the start and snow was building up in the track as well since the message to sweep apparently got out slow. Meanwhile we are getting colder by the minute and this is not helping Fogt’s flu systems by any means of the imagination. Finally we get the go ahead to start and we fire out the hole…..yup at the bottom we find out our push is not what we had hoped compared to the field. Napes then tell us about the snow build-up he saw in the track and wouldn’t you know it that after the run the snot STOPS!! Are you Kidding me right now is all I’m thinking as I see sleds we out pushed coming down the track faster than us by a good amount. The second heat would not go much different except the snow had stopped but it was a lot to recover from and we finished up in 15^th! We were not happy by any means but sometimes racing is not always peachy keen. However it does mean that we have to work harder second half to fix whatever issues we are having and God willing second half will go better! I have to take my hat off to the guys on USA 1 because they have had some great finishes but I know we are capable of being on that same level!

The Break and Second Half

Due to this year’s Race schedule we only had a ten day break. I arrived in the States on December 20 and left for Frankfurt Germany yesterday, arriving in time to ring in the New Year!! Over the break I stayed at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs so I could regroup and focus on how I can help my team get better on the second half of tour. I took a few days off while I was back but then it was back to training. Along with lifting and sprint workouts I continued to break down my pushing form working on the small details that go a long was; slowing it down in my head in order to improve my overall technique. While I was back in Colorado I had the opportunity to meet some really great people who I am still getting to know but I’m pretty sure we will be friends for a very long time. I met one gentleman on the plane ride back from Frankfurt he name was…….well this e-mail is getting long so I will finish in my next installment!!! Yeah I just did that!

Sorry you all know I have a weird sense of humor

I am almost done labeling my pictures so check them out in the next couple days. They will be posted on the Media page on my web site under the title 2011 First Half Photos!!

P.S we just rang in the New Years at Hotel Mercure in Frankfurt Germany!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE AND GOD BLESS!!!

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

EC and WC Update 12-12-11

2011-12-12T17:21:00.000-05:00

Bonjur,

Yes I am in France right now how did you guess, Belle Plange, France to be precise. It’s pretty exciting since France has been of the Race Circuit for a while, and none the current members of Team USA have ever slid here well besides our coaches. It should be an exciting time. We are staying at the Ski Resort La Caralina, located in the French Alps! Yeah no big deal lol

Europa Cup races

I hope you do not mind but I have to back track for a minute. This year before the Official start of the World Cup Season we decided to Two Europa Cup Races as we prepared for the Season. The Europa Cup tour is a lower ranked tour but there is still a ton of competition on that level, similar to Division 1 and Division 1AA or whatever it is nowadays In a Europa Cup Race you can have anywhere from 45-60 2-Man sleds in a race while World Cup will have about 27-32 2-Man Sleds in a race. The race week is also very different; on world cup we have one 2-Man race and one 4-Man race a week that are held on Saturday and Sunday. On Europa Cup you have two 2-Man Races and two 4-Man Races in a week; we were racing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, along with our normal sprint and weight lifting routine. Needless to say it was a tiring couple of weeks. We flew in to the Munich, Germany Airport picked up our rental cars (Shout-Out to BMW for outfitting the USA team with 6 BMW X5’s while on tour!!) and rental Vans that we transport out bobsleds in as we travel from venue to venue.

The first stop on our Europa Cup Tour was Igls, Austria which is two-hours away from the airport; while in Austria we stayed at the Sportshotel. It’s a massive hotel complete with the always needed Hot Tub, Cold Tub, Sauna, Steam Room, and pool or simply put a Spa. The Spar area is really nice but the only catch is…….is that it’s a nude area!! Yeah that’s a whole other story now back to bobsled. Unlike in Team Trials our crew was finally able to race in its proper positions, I pushed from the left, Fogt from the brakes and JQ from the Right, but we still needed repetition as a crew and these Europa Cup races would provide that. The race two 2-man races had 49 sleds in it. On the first day Napier and Fogt finished 7^{th (Thursday)}, in the second day of racing Napier and I finished 10^{th (Friday)}. The first day of 4-man we finished 12^th, on the second day of 4-man we finished 9^th. A top ten finish was good but we always want top 6 if we don’t win. In both of the-man races we dropped between 5 and 7 hundredths between our first and second pushes!! It was good that we went faster on the pushes but we need to be more consistent and not leave so much time at the block on the first push. It basically comes down to timing and the crew being on the same page, but the more reps we have together the better our timing on the hit and our load will get resulting in a faster start time.

Directly after the 4-man race we went back to the hotel, showered, packed bags and the trucks then hit the road for a two and a half hour drive to Konigssee, Germany; the next stop on the Europa Cup tour. In Konigssee we usually stay at the hotel Fischer during the World Cup but they were booked, so we stayed at a hotel that was closer to the track called Hotel Brunneck. I have to interject for a moment: since we have been traveling over to Europe every hotel we stayed at served these five course meals that took a good two hours till completion. We accepted it and figured it was tradition and when in Rome blah blah! OUR THEORY WAS PROVEN WRONG AT THE HOTEL BRUNNECK!!! It was a staff of three people in the kitchen (2 cooks and a waitress) and they served all five courses in a good thirty-five minutes. This German lady was on it, running out salad, soup, drinks, bread before we thought about asking and the main meal came out just as quick! Meanwhile when we were in Austria they have a staff about ten preparing our meals, taking two hours to finish. Needless to say we loved the food and service at Hotel Brunneck added to the fact it was five minutes closer to the track it was definitely a good spot to be at.

The track in Konigssee is about ten minutes away from Berchtesgaden, Germany; it is also home to Hitler’s Crow’s nest and is a stone’s throw away from the Austrian Border. It’s a beautiful area, but you will be able to see it in my picture album. The races in Konigssee, Germany went about the same as they did in Igls. I did not race 2-man this week instead the duty feel on my teammate JQ and Fogt. JQ and Napes finished 13^th in the first 2-man Race, then Fogt and Napes finished 5^th in the second 2-Man race. We only had one 4-man race where we finished in 13^th place just .05 out of the top ten. Our timing was a bit off and one of the guys got hung up on the load which did not help; It was a race we definitely felt we should have finished higher in but that is why we race and practice you never know what’s going to happen.

World Cup Races

Ironically enough he start of the World Cup Season began in Igls, Austria; and yes you guessed it after the 4-Man Race we packed up, showered, and hit the road another two and a half hours back to Austria and two hour dinners! Lol However this time when we got to Austria our Team Manager Lenny spoke with the staff, informing them that they need to be quicker in their meal service for us since we don’t have time to sit around for hours enjoying the ambiance. Lol We were all glad he talked to them because it allowed us to come in and just have the main course then leave or they set it up buffet style saving us a ton of time. That’s Right AMERICA!!! Lol

I may have mentioned this before but whenever we change the normal operations of something in Europe, Drive down a road we may or may not supposed to be on, pull a U turn in the wrong place or do something like the Honey Badger would do we SCREAM OUT AMERICA (Movie: The Other Guys) and it Makes it all OK!! Lol Oh and Completely Legal!! It’s a rule written on the back of your passport, don’t bother looking trust me it’s there!

Going into the World Cup week I won a race-off against one of my teammates and the right to race the 2-Man race that week. The days of training leading up to the race went well we were pushing fine in 2-man and in 4-man; we all were feeling pretty excited going into our first World Cup Event of the year. I wish I could sugar coat it but I’m not good at that, the 2-man race was a bad day the start was not what we wanted and we ended up in 18^th place. I went back and looked at the film with my coaches to see how to improve and the film looked pretty good but we did see that my ground contact could have been longer. Since looking at the film I have been correcting that issue in my pushing and sprint work out making sure that will not happen again. Because in my sport you are only as good as your last push, if you give people a reason to doubt your ability it will snowball into a ton “is he really that good” theories no matter what you have done in the past. My sport is measured in hundredths of a second and if they are not fast then one race can be your last race. It’s a harsh reality but sometimes one mistake is all you get if that depending on the year. Please do not confuse my tone it is one of passion and determination knowing that my next race will be a thousand times better than my last.

Thankfully the 4-man race went a bit better, we were 12^th off in the starting order and after the first heat we were sitting in a tie for 10^th position. The first heat we pushed a 5.16, we were pissed because we knew we had a lot more in us than that. Going into the second heat we got our mind right! Emotions started to fly, words were said, and our blood was pumping a million miles per second!! My eyes were blood shot red and beads of sweat and adrenalin were pouring down mine, JQ, and Fogt’s face we were ready to blast this sled of the hill! We step to the line each of us grabbing the sled in our designation position. I call out “GOOD” to Fogt letting him know me and JQ are ready, Fogt screams out “BACKSET”!! Napier Yells “FRONTSET READY” and we all hit the sled with more power and speed then in the first heat! We can feel it as we are pushing down the hill and the load was a lot smoother and quicker than before. The trip down the hill felt good! When we got down to the bottom we were told that we pushed 5.11 dropping .05 of our start but the Canadian before us had a smoking r had a hell of a run and they pushed 5.10 beating us to the bottom by .02 at the bottom and a Netherland sled had pushed a 5.07 beating us to the bottom by .01 landing us in 12 position by .03. If we would have pushed at least 5.11 both heats we would have been in the top 10 to 8 sleds. Anyway the race was over and all we could do is take what we learned and apply it to the next race in Laplange, France which by the way was a 9 hour drive away!! Once again we headed back to the hotel showered, ate a quick lunch, packed the trucks and were off to France for World Cup race #2.

The drive to France actually went by pretty fast but at the team meeting that night the Coaches had a little surprise that I will tell you about in the next e-mail. Yeah I’m a little stinker I know.

God Bless

Jesse

P.S I will have to post pictures when I get back to the states

www.jessebeckom3.com

Bobsled Race Broadcast Information

2011-12-03T12:50:00.000-05:00

Greetings everyone between the hectic Europa cup Schedule and now World Cup Schedule my Updates have been a little slow, hopefully I will be able to catch you all up to speed by next week.

In the meantime I wanted to provide you all with the race broadcast information below detailing when and where you can watch bobsled races live or on delay.

The IBSF will provide LIVE streaming for World Cup events on their website at www.fibt.com. (Click on live broadcast on the opening page and remember we are 6hrs ahead of EST) Universal Sports will also broadcast the events with commentary and interviews on one-week delay. Programs will air Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 6 pm EST.

Universal Sports Broadcast schedule (schedule subject to change)

ALL TIMES ET

Fri., Dec. 9 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Sat., Dec. 10 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Sun., Dec. 11 6-7 PM World Cup #1 Igls, Austria

Fri., Dec. 16 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Sat., Dec. 17 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Sun., Dec. 18 6-7 PM World Cup #2 LaPlagne, France

Fri., Dec. 23 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sat., Dec. 24 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sun., Dec. 25 6-7 PM World Cup #3 Winterberg, Germany

Sat., Jan. 5:30-7PM World Cup Team Competition Igls, Austria

Fri., Jan. 13 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Sat., Jan. 14 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Sun., Jan. 15 6-7 PM World Cup #4 Altenberg, Germany

Fri., Jan. 20 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Sat., Jan. 21 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Sun., Jan. 22 6-7 PM World Cup #5 Konigssee, Germany

Fri., Jan. 27 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sat., Jan. 28 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

Sun., Jan. 29 6-7 PM World Cup #6 St. Moritz, Switzerland

God Bless
Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T16:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone from the Powerful Men of USA Bobsled!

Back Row: Steve Langton, Justin Olsen, Adam Clark, Chris Fogt

Front Row: Jesse Beckom III and Curt Tomasevicz

Calgary Training and 2011 National Team Trials Update

2011-11-02T23:20:00.003-04:00

Hellooo Peoples and Gouls I hope you all had a Happy Halloween!! Remembering to Eat the Split Pea Soup before the Split Pea Soup Eats you!!! (Harry Potter)

Yeah I know, I know, I've been a bad updater but Its been kind of busy with going op to CalgaryTraining and National Team Selection Races. Since it has been a while I guess I feel a bit obligated to give you a quick short version of what has transpired.You can also can choose to read on for a more detail story.

In order not to ruin the story for those who want to read everything if you scroll down to the bottom of this e-mail the Very last paragraph is the short version.

The Long of It

As I mentioned in my last e-mail the top two push crews USA 1&2 headed up to Calgary Canada for a week of on ice push training in the Calgary Olympic Park Ice House, since we do not have such a facility here in the States. The Ice House is exactly how it sounds, it houses a 100 meter iced push track equipped with built in timing eyes that allows us to time the speed and velocity of our pushes, and coordination required in a four man load.

While in Calgary we did our weight/sprint training inside the Calgary Olympic Oval located at the University of Calgary; which also has an indoor speed skating track (this is and important fact). I think I have mentioned this before but my teammates and I are very..very...very...verry competitive in everything! Literally EVERTTHING!! What’s that!? Jesse please give us and example? Of course I will anything for you guys!!! Now in order to get into the Olympic Oval you have to be issued an I.D card that you scan at a pair of locked glass turnstile. These barriers are nothing to serious and we could just as easily jump over them if we choose to. However there is a trick when scanning these I.D cards, you can't just press them right up against the laser light scanner or it will not work, you have to hold it back a good four inches or so. After we got our I.D cards we approached the two access gates and whatever two guys were standing there kind of paused look at each other, squinting our eyes a bit and we know the Race WAS ON!! lol we immediately started to scan our I.D's faster than the other person to get through the gate faster!!! It just so happened that there was some arbitrary red lined just past the gate that we made the finish line just on pure instinct!! Some bags were getting stuck on the gate, almost breaking the gate but we did not care we each just wanted to win!! The lady who issued us the passes was just laughing her head off at us in amusement and disbelief!! She later informed us that every athlete that comes through the gates tend to do the same thing if they are with their teammates!! lol Oh and by the way I won the Great Gate Race of 2011!

Speaking of racing there was actually one more race that came aboout (that's Canadian for about). For the the first couple of days in Calgary we did a normal dynamic warm composed of different foot work drills and sprints before we lifted. Until Justin Olsen one of the guys on USA 1 noticed a sign for skate rentals (yeah its all downhill from here lol!), and it just so happened that the open ice time was right before our normal lifting time. At that very moment the gauntlet was thrown down for a USA 1 vs. USA 2 Ice Skating Race around the Oval!! It may not have been the smartest thing we ever did but a race is a race and it was on!! Two days later on Friday we made sure to bring a video camera to document the race!! I have to admit that Justin and I were the two worst skaters of the bunch hands down!! Here were the teams USA 1 ( Steve Langton, Curt Tomasevicz, Justin Olsen) USA 2 (Jesse Beckom, Chris Fogt, Johnny Quinn); each team had a strategy going into this massive relay race where we used The Stick as a baton lol it was awesome!!

Each team had a strategy going into the race USA 1 decided to have their slowest guy (a.k.a Justin Olsen) go first and we opted to have our slowest guy (a.k.a ME) go last! I suggested to my team that I go first and they could make up ground at the end if need be, but my team was thinking "lets get as big as lead as we can and I could finish it off, I was out voted so we went with their plan. The first leg of the race was Johnny Quinn (our fastest skater) vs. Justin Olsen (Slowest skater)! JQ got into a hockey like stance and took off with Justin tinkering behind him! JQ was a good 40 meters ahead of Justin 30 seconds into the race. JQ looked like a NHL player all the way, he had told us he knew how to skate but this was beyond anything we would have guessed. After a minute into the race JQ was out to a 200 meter lead on this 400 meter track!!

The second leg of the race was Chris Fogt (Second Best Skater) vs Steve Langton (Second best skater); Langton grew up in Boston so he was a bit better skater than Chris, but regardless we had a huge lead of about 200 meters by the time Christ got the baton!! At this point I am thinking all I have to do is not fall and we are good! lol Before the race we did two practice laps to get warmed up so I was feeling more confident than I had before, being that this was my third time Ice Skating ever. Now it’s the last Leg of the race Me ( Worst Skater) vs Curt Tomasevicz (Best Skater). I get the baton from Chris and in my mind’s eye I took off like Shanni Davis!!! Yeah about that.....it was more like Shanni Davis when he was two years old and his mother handed him some skates for the first time and he said Ooooo pretty skates! lol. I was just tinkering along like a baby dear learning how to walk! I thought I was going so fast! lol When we watched the film you could just see Curt eyeing me up for the kill!! Fyi Curt’s parents apparently had a lake house he often visited as a Kid and he frequently skated on it growing up (he failed to mention that before the race) As I continued to tinker around the track thoughts of opportunities where I could have learned how to skate better flashed through my head. The most recently being the offer that I passed on from my friends on the USA Figure skating Team who wanted to give me lessons this summer!! Right about now I was wishing I had taken that offer! Continually inching my way around the track (keep in mind we are in Canada where babies are born wearing ice skates) this 8yr old kid and his father come flying by me at what had to be 80mph! lol and all I could think is how badly I wanted to trip them both, watching as they crash into the boards! I approach the last turn I start thinking just don’t fall and don’t go to wide, but as I try to turn I find myself having some difficulty and almost fall. Then right as I am recovering from running into people there goes Curt pushed me and passed me for the me for the win!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Ok so maybe he didn't physically push me but he definitely pushed my Ego! lol I was so mad we ended up losing by about 50 meters or so but I finished the race and did not fall on my face....Well I fell over the side barrier after crossing the finish line but the race was over so it did not count! This summer I am going to learn how to skate and next year will be a whole different story!! Stupid Stupid Curt! lol

And did I mention that we got the whole race on video and at some point in time when one of the guys puts it to music and edits it, I will post it. The video and interviews are classic to say the least.

After finishing up Training in Calgary on October 9th, it was on to Lake Placid to prepare for the USBSF 2011 National Team Trial Selection Races. Our Team Trial Races were scheduled for Oct 21st for men’s and women’s 2-man, and another race on October 28 men’s 4-man and women’s 2-man (women solely race 2-man and not 4-man). This time frame allowed for a week of training on the track before the races, in order to ensure that both drivers and brakeman have enough time to familiarize ourselves with the track again. It’s an exciting time for both athletes new to the sport and for those of us who have been around for a while because at team trials anything can happen!

Luckily the only major thing that happened or should I say did not happen is that we got absolutely NO Snow at all during team trials and the days leading up to team trials temperatures were in the mid 60's. The high temperatures led to some days of sliding being cancelled and some of the skeleton races being rescheduled.For the most part team trials went smoothly, there were about 3 or four crashes and thankfully no one got injured. No one likes to crash, but I think when you are a rookie its best to get that first crash out of the way so you understand how not to get hurt when the sled rolls over and that you can survive it. I do have to say that the talent pool in Bobsled is getting a ton better. The rookies this year are really picking up the technique and concepts of pushing a sled quicker than rookies in the past have. That being there still remains a learning curve in properly applying pressure and force on the ice in the right direction to propel the sled forward, learning how to shine up runners for the race, as well as moving and maintain the sleds etc..etc..etc..

Going in to 2-Man race week I was giving the nod to race with Napier over the other two guys on my team. The race went well and I pushed Napier to his second fastest start time and the same time he had pushed during Olympic Trials. I was feeling great, and after my first push my teammates told me I looked powerful and my angles looked good. After the first heat we were in first place. Going into the second run I was feeling just as good as the first and my push was only a hundredth off my first push, the run felt good but we ended up in second by .11 of a second. I was a bit upset because like anything else in life I want to WIN plain and simple, but at that point in time I needed to reassure my driver of his abilities to drive and I needed him to have his head in the game because we still had a 4-man race coming up the following week that we needed to do good in. I told him "listen yeah we did not finish where we wanted but we are still in position to be on the National Team, and that he had tonight to mope but come tomorrow its 4-man time and we need to get the job done!" Even though Napes was still feeling a bit down he got my point. After the race we broke the sled down, removing the runners and putting on the travel transports so we can move it into our travel crates. That Saturday and Sunday we have off, which was really relaxing. We hit up church and were back to work on Monday.

Monday we began our prepping our 4-man sled for the race, adjusting handles and foot pegs to fit our ridding position because it had not been touched since last year and that was a totally different crew. After we set the sled up we work on dry loads (Practicing loading into the sled while the sled is in the garage and not moving) to work on or timing and loading position. Then the unexpected happened!!. On our second dry load Chris who pushes from the brakes loaded into the sled, reached for the lever that pulls the side push bars in, missed them and cut the inside of three of his fingers on the piece of thin metal that the push bars abut against! The cuts were really deep Chris ended up rushing to the emergency room where he received eight stitches in his fingers and was out for the next two days of training. On Monday and Tuesday we used a kid name Jeremy who was a rookie but had pretty good speed in his sprint testing similar to Chris. It was Big Time that Jeremy was able to step up and take trips with us, and we all expressed our gratitude to him for doing so! It also took us back a bit because he was so excited to be able to slide with us even if it was just for practice. It once again made me realize how privileged I am to be on one of the Top Sleds in the USA and representing my country! On Wednesday Chris was able to train with us, but because of his stitches he was unable to push from the breaks so he and Johnny switched positions so not to risk Chris ripping out his stitches. The loads in training were not as smooth as we would have liked but considering the circumstances that would have to do.

The race was not until Friday night and as usual everyone took that Thursday off to prepare the sled and runners for the race.As Friday rolled around it felt like forever waiting for when it was time to head out to the Bobsled race. For our team trials we follow the same format that we would if we were racing World Cup (Meaning that the sleds need to be at the top of the run/track, flipped and all sled work done forty-five minutes before the start of the race). Everything was going according to plan, our war-up was good and we were all ready to do our thing, to do what we were trained to do, to do what we were born to do, Glorious, THIS IS BOBSLED!!! lol (300 reference) We stepped on the block Johnny on the brakes, me on the left, Chris on the right and Napes on the Drivers Bar! Johnny screams out BACK SET Napier replies FRONT SET READY!!, we all hit the sled push giving it our all! Napes hopes in I take three more cycles in my sprint and load after him, Chris hopes in with Johnny following directly after! Johnny screams DOWN! we all sit, hands in the sled and Johnny hits the side push bars in right before entering curve one. We drew fourth in the race draw and at the bottom of the hill we were in second place behind USA 1 (USA 1 raced but had a bye because they finished 3rd in World Championships last year).

For the second run we went in reverse order from last to first. We stepped on the line and like before Johnny sets the sled then proceed to call the Cadence and Napier finishes it! We hit the sled like normal and I am feeling great pushing, Napes hopes in and like before I load three cycles after him but this time I do not feel Chris hope in directly after me so I know something is wrong, then I feel Chris hoped in with Johnny following after! I hear the down call so I sit down bringing my arms into the sled. I instantly feel that Chris is a bit out of position and he is not holding on inside the sled with his hurt hand. I then change my position a bit and push back against Chris more than usual as to securely lock him into the sled. We reached the bottom of the track in first position with USA1 waiting at the top to come down. As we are pulling the sled of the Ice I asked Chris what took him so long to load, he told me he had slipped then ended up running on the short wall for a bit before pulling himself into the sled! lol Its funny because he made it in the sled safely and we made it down safely. If we had finished outside of second I would not have been amused and to tell you the truth I am only amused as I type this e-mail because I was not so happy at the end of the race. After USA 1 pushed finish their run they still remained in first place with us in second and qualified for World Cup/National Team!!

It was a stressful few weeks at times but we did what we needed and on November 11th we head over to Europe and Ingls, Austria to Begin racing!Oh and before I forget you all need to check out two Things!

The first, is a Video that one of the guys made about Steve the number 1 Pusher in the World and Member of USA 1! Its a spoof video but its all true He won the World Push Championships In Italy last year! Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE-kPQeDsbo

Second, is series of new all natural cleaning and washing products I have been using at http://www.shutoutsolutions.com/(Tell Them I sent you) These products are great for people with sensitive skin, personally I love them and have been using the body wash, athletic spray and laundry soap for the past three months. Their cleaning line is amazing on all surfaces, leaving behind not chemical smells. Seriously check them out.

Pictures are posted on my web-site www.jessebeckom3.com, click the media tab then click on Calgary Training and 2011 National Team Trials

The Short of It

Here we go.......Training Up in Calgary wen really well; we got some good four-man training pushes in. One day to switch it up we had a USA 1 vs. USA 2 Ice skating race at the Canadian Olympic Oval where we lift at. Comedy ensued and USA 1 won. After a week of training we packed up and headed to Lake Placid, NY for our 2011 National Team Trials. In the Two-Man race I pushed my driver John Napier to his second fastest start since Olympic Year. We were in first place after our first run but ended up in second by .11 after the second heat finishing in Second/Silver Medal Position. During the four-man race we had to make some changes in race positions since Chris who is normally pushing from the fourth position sustained cuts on his right hand requiring eight stitches changed places with Johnny Quinn who usually pushes from the 3 man position to alleviate pain in Chris's hands. The race went well and we finished in Second/Silver position after two heats.

I and my teammates made the 2011 National Team and will be heading over to Europe on November 11, 2011 to begin racing, we will be there until December 19, 2011 so please say a prayer or two for us.

God Bless you all

Jesse

http://www.jessebeckom3.com/

2011 Push Championships

2011-09-21T19:30:00.009-04:00

Good Day Everybody!!!! (This e-mail is longer than most)

How Bout Dem Cyclones!!! 3-0 With Texas coming into Ames!! Time to make some all-beef patties, throw them on the Grill! Oh Yeah!!! Oh Yeah!!! They call me VECTOR!! It’s a mathematical term represented by an arrow with both Direction and Magnitude! VECTOR! That’s me because I Creating Crime with both direction and Maaaaggggnitude!! (Despicable Me)

If you have found yourself wondering hmmmm….where in the World is Jesse Beckom III, well I am back in Colorado Springs at The Olympic Training Center training for the approaching Bobsled World Cup Tour. I finished up a great Planning Internship at HB&A www.hbaa.com on September 15, where I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by a brilliant group of Planning Professionals and Architects. I owe them a ton of gratitude for what I learned over the summer and their willingness to work around my demanding training schedule. If you get a chance do me a favor and check out their web-site, they are doing some great work!

Sunday night I returned to Colorado Springs via a Giant Metal Bird that soars through the heavens with the speed of a million eagles from our annual Testing and Push Championships, which were held in Lake Placid, New York. The physical testing portion of our Push Championships consists of 5 events: a 60m sprint, standing broad jump, shot toss, Clean (150 kilos for 1), and squats (200 kilos for 3). For the push testing since the men each take one push from the side (as seen on four-man push) and from the back of the sled (seen in two-man and four-man), the women push from the back of the sled (As of now women only race two-man). As you may have guessed, the fastest person down the hill wins.

Overall things went pretty good but there was a bit of up and down that occurred. Before I get started…I Warn Thee, that thou shall get an insight into a portion of the crazy that is my mind.

I am not exactly sure why but every year in Lake Placid when we have testing the weather is always horrible; having rain, snow or a mixture of both. It never fails, days before and after testing are always sunny but soon as we get ready to test BOOM!! Rain and Clouds! However Hurricane Irene did give Lake Placid a valid excuse this time. Also ,thanks to that wretch of a woman Irene my flight to Lake Placid was changed from leaving Sunday August 29^th to not leaving until Wednesday August 31^st. Actually the fact that my flight was postponed did not bother me at all; I was just happy that I was alerted of my flight cancelation while I was still at home and not in the airport. My flights went smoothly and the OTC Shuttle that picks athletes up from the Albany Airport was on time. I and a few of my teammates who had arrived at the airport the same time as I did all hoped on to the shuttle did what we could to enjoy our 2 ½ hour ride to Lake Placid!! (This feels like the longest part of the trip, especially after flying all day) After a few game on my Droid and a short nap I find myself back in good ole Lake Placid ready to put in some work.

After getting settled into my room, I did the normal meet and greet with the teammates I had not seen since last season. Later that evening in order to loosen up my legs up from that day of traveling I rode the stationary bike for about 30 minutes. In preparations for testing I spent the next few days doing a combination of 50 meter over speed sprint work; 15 meter starts; and pushes at the push track. All of which are designed to keep me running fluid, while maintaining my explosive nature. Sunday September 1^st the day before our 5 item test I did my normal 30 minute pretesting day warm-up and everything felt the way it should have physically but still a little bit uneasy for some reason. I think part of the uneasiness was due to the fact that weather conditions in placid had our scheduled testing on Monday questionable. That Monday morning our Head Coach sent out a Text confirming we would definitely be testing today rain or not. Yup, you guessed it! It was definitely raining all day! Thank you Lake Placid!

As I began my warm-up I did my best to block out the rain while focusing on relaxing when I run, but with rain hitting me in the face it complicated things a bit. Unfortunately this type of things happens in sports and you just have to push through, and that’s what I and the other guys did. The sprint testing began and most of the past bobsledders were running their normal time if not a tad bit slower. Suddenly it was my turn to! (ok actually it was not sudden I knew the order but “Suddenly” makes the story better) Moving on, I get to the line and I am thinking just stay relaxed Jesse and be smooth! In hind sight I should have been thinking be fast, stay low and be a little pissed! My sprint time was not what I wanted it to be at all!! During my training I ran a 2.05 in my 15meter and in testing I had just run a 2.15 (Same as last year)!! I was feeling like I was in a nightmare! I was pretty upset because I had been training extremely hard, making huge gains and wanted to show everyone how much faster I had gotten. I wanted to make a Statement, I wanted to be perfect but evidently it was not meant to be. The good thing is that I realized why I ran so much slower. In my sprint I did not stay low for the normal 15-20meters working my drive phase, but instead I immediately popped up with complete disregard for my drive phase and started running resulting in a loss of power/speed from the start. Not my best sprint day at all.

Being that testing was far from over I needed to quickly re-gather myself, forget about the sprint and worry about the next events on the testing. Next was the Broad Jump I jumped a 3.0 meters (same as last year) but I was hoping for 3.1 or better, so once again I was not as pleased as I would have like to be.

After that was the shot toss, where we throw a 16lb shot for distance. I step on the block to perform my toss, throwing a 15.3m (I threw 16.25m last year)! I am thinking JESSE HELLOO ARE YOU IN THERE!? GET IT TOGETHER BECKOM! My next throw is 15.4! By this time in my mind say screw Jesse!! And SCREAM OUT IMMORTAL (Yeah I have an athletic alter ego and he is a Beast with it) Wake The Hell Up and Let’s GO!! And everything around me went quiet. At this point it’s just me and the shot in my hand staring down at the measuring tape. I drop down and explode out tossing the shot 17.3 meters!! I was line Finally. I was also a bit pissed that it took me until this moment to actually use the power and skill I poses inside of me. Regardless Jesse was put to sleep and the IMMORTAL was out of his cage with no intention of going back in until Sunday night after testing had ended.

The last two events of the day were to Clean 150 kilos for one and Squat 200 kilos for three. I walk into the weight room, heads phones on and up high enough to block out all the sounds of everyone around me. I step up on the Clean Plat form to begin my warm up. After a couple of technique exercises I load up 120 kilos, lift it once and set it down, loaded up 140 Kilos and doing the same. Then I load up 150 kilos, pulling it off the ground quicker than I had lifted the 120 kilos. With cleans done it was straight on to Squats. Similar to cleans I once again loaded up 120 kilos squatted it a few times, then loaded up 170 kilos squatted that weight a couple of times, then loaded up 200 kilos squatted it three time and was done! I was knocking it out like clock work. I did not realize how much of a mental zone I was in until one of my teammates informed me of the speed I had done everything in and that on my squats the bar was popping a good 6 inches off my neck every time I stood up!!

Later that night at the team meeting Coach Shimer handed out the testing sheet and I saw that I had tested 10^th overall out of 26 guys. Yeah I was not pleased because if I had just duplicated my numbers from practice I would have 2^nd or 3^rd. At that point I was so mad at myself it was not even funny, but I also knew that a good day of pushing on Wednesday would erase a bad sprint day. The next day or so I really shut down everything, ignoring messages from family and friends as to focus on what I was in Lake Placid to do! Now, the funny thing about bobsledding is that most people have a short memory span about a person’s performance. So for that 48hrs until Push Champs I had to deal with looks from some veterans and rookies looking at me like I had fallen off and gotten old and slow. Rookies were excited and joking about how they had run faster than me and some of the other veterans and some veterans thought they were riding high on the hog. However, they did not realize their actions was just stacking the powder kegs beneath the IMMORTAL who was already mad at his performance even higher, and they were going to get a good dose of Him come Wednesday. I do appreciate my teammates who realized I had a bad day that tried to keep my spirits high by reminding me that Wednesday is what matters the most. The next day and some change I spent my time reminding myself of who I am and what I am capable of, as well as watching push video from past training, World Cup Races, pushing at the push track, and working on the push cart in the gym.

Wednesday afternoon was the scheduled times for the Men’s Push Championships, making the morning seem to drag on forever. With my sprint testing fresh in my mind I was hell bent on doing things different; I even went so far as ridding with a different set of guys to the push track then the day I went to sprint Lol. Taking further notes from that first day of testing I turned my music up loud enough to block out everyone and everything around me as I started my warm-up. As my time to push approached I began watching some of the guys push and I knew I was better. My time to push finally came; I stepped on the block to the chants of people cheering me on. I take a deep breath and it all goes silent all I can hear is my heart pumping a million miles per hour as the blood and adrenaline flow throw my veins. I know it sounds like it would be nerve racking but it was actually calming in a since because I knew I was ready. I grabbed hold of the sled at the brake position, dropped down in my stance and explode off the block and it felt good. I was off the block low and hard the transition into my sprint felt smooth and natural. As I rode the sled back up to the start position I saw people giving me the thumbs up letting me know it was a good push. My second push would be from the side position, and once again I go through the same routine as before, resulting in the same feeling when I was pushing. With one more push to go from the position of each person choosing Coach Shimer gives us the option to see where we are currently ranked, so of course we want to view the results. Viewing the results allows each person to see where they stand and if they have a better chance to catch the person ahead of them from the side position or the brake position. After looking at the results, Corey a teammate I use to push with who now drives gave me some helpful criticism. He informed me that on the side push my first step was not as long as it should have been, I thanked him and made the adjustment on my last push gaining me another two hundredths on my push.

At the finally of the Push Championships I had finished 4^th overall with the second fastest time to the 15meter eye, beating some 2010 Olympians and beating one of the guys on USA 1. It was a good day and it made up for my bad day of sprinting. I was more pleased that people said my pushing form looked the best they have seen. It felt good that what I had been working on this summer was translating into better numbers. However, the analyst in me immediately began thinking that since I was the second fastest to the 15 meter eye I should have been second overall. After more contemplation I realized that I should have entered my sprint phase sooner which I believe I would have made my push faster. Once again there is always room for improvement and my thirst to be better is not even close to being quenched!

At the meeting after Push Championships Coach Shimer announced that the push team for USA 1 would remain the same (Curt Tomasevicz 2010 Olympian/Gold Medalist, Justin Olsen 2010 Olympian/Gold Medalist, and Steve Langton 2010 Olympian) and that the drivers were free to approach any other athletes to push for them. So as of now I will be pushing with John Napier (USA 2 Driver 2010 Olympian), Chris Fogt (2010 Olympian), and Laszlo Vandercseck (National Team Member) heading into Team Trials and God willing on World Cup.

On Saturday we held our 3-man Combo pushes where the crew I was on had the second fastest time after the guys on USA 1. I was a decent result especially since one of the guys who I will be racing with was not pushing with us due to some complications to his knee after the Individual pushes on Wednesday causing us to use another push athlete.

It was a good week of testing helping me to confirm the realization that for me to perform well I can’t be the happy go lucky, laughing playing with puppy’s type when it comes to performing! I am more the pissed of Warrior Angle straight out of Heaven come to right the wrongs of man type! Sword of Gold Blazing, Wings Flared, Veins A Pumping, and Eyes set a Blaze by a Pure Blue Flame! I know that may sound a bit crazy to some but I’m cool with that. I have to be a Beast with it and I’m Good….I’m good! lol Seriously though that’s my mentality.

As of right now I don’t have any pictures uploaded to my web page but the USBSF has some posted that you can view at the following link http://bobsled.teamusa.org/multimedia/photo_gallery/2549 I will add pictures once I get back to placid. I have attached the results of all our testing below (click on each picture for a larger view) and ironically the top 9 guys in push championships are returning veterans.

Next on my Agenda is

Oct 2-9: Additional Push Training For top 6 pushers in Calgary

Oct 9-28: National Team Trials in Lake Placid, NY

Nov 14: Head over to Europe to begin racing.

View my web-page www.jessebeckom3.com for more race details

God Bless and thank you everyone one for your support

Sincerely

Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Park City Summer Training

2011-08-06T16:21:00.011-04:00

Happy August Everybody!! Yay its August so Au-Gust it’s time for me to send out another e-mail!! lol You get it? Its a play on words! HA

First and foremost I now have Twitter so now anyone who wants can follow me on Twitter
Follow @Jessbeck3

In this issue of Where Did I Come From Where Did I Go? Where Did I Come From Only Jesse Knows. (P.S that song will be stuck in your head the rest of the day and that's why I did it! lol)

In preparations for next month's Push Championships I just returned from spending two weeks of training on the push track out at the Olympic Park in Park City, Utah where I performed over 100 starts and pushes from the brakes, left and right sides combined (Pictures can be found on the media section of my web page under Park City Summer Training). The push track is a tool that enables myself and other bobsledders to push a bobsled during the summer and is an essential part of my off-season training. Its 200 meters of train railing sloping down a decline that mimics the start of the Park City Boblsed Track, equipped with a bobsled that has been retrofitted with train wheels on to push.

The push track allows me to expand my training from lifting and running to more sports specific technique. I work on perfecting the angle at which I hit the sled, my shin angle as I run, keeping feet dorsal flexed, and making sure that my foot strikes underneath my body's center of Mass (COM). In the past I have had troubles with keeping good body position over the crest so I made sure I keyed in on that the most. While I was there in PC I did over a hundred hits and pushes, and by hits I mean working on those first three to four steps off the starting bock. It was a productive two weeks of pushing and I made great progress as I continue to improve one step at a time. As you can imagine all the pushing, lifting, and running combined was making me a little tired but luckily I was taking ZMA and Amino-9 supplied by my friends at NOW http://www.nowsportsproducts.com/ that helped to keep me pushing hard and fast.

I am extremely excited for this year’s testing and season! I am making excellent progress in my sprinting, weight and push training. I am feeling muscle fire that have never really fired before, and I am more relaxed when I run than ever before something my current coach Eric and my coaches before all have helped with it. It’s going to be a Great Season!!

And Yes......... I have some stories to tell! I mean come on I was in PC for two whole weeks, that’s 14 days of fun, 336 hours of something that could happen, 20,160 minutes of possible madness, 1,209,600seconds of what is coming next!! lol (yes something is definitely wrong with me I can accept that...now can we move on?Thank you very much lol)

The first week I was in PC was the weekend after Harry Potter had come out and I wanted to see it, I mean who didn't! After having dinner with my friends Shauna and Val and some of their friends on the patio at Maxwell’s restaurant that’s right below my hotel, I start my two block walk to the movie theater. A little bit into my walk I got a strong urge to go to the restroom but I’m like it can wait. I get to the theater at 9:00pm which was perfect timing since the movie started at 8:50, since I was figuring that I would hit the bathroom then head into the movies right at the end of the previews. The best thing is that the theater I need to go to is right next to the bathroom. My objective and plan of attack was set, and it was time to execute! I head into bathroom while checking my watch and head for stall number 1! While a random though of hmmm it’s a lot of stalls in this bathroom quickly ran through my mind but no worries I am on a schedule here, and all bathrooms are different anyway! I am in an out, business done, hands washed and on to my date at Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardary. As I am walking out of the bathroom I see these Obviously confused women walking in to the bathroom! So being the stand up guy that I am who is never wrong I quickly warn them that they are headed into the wrong bathroom!! And like a newly unfrozen Austin Powers who has lost his inner monologue; while noticing the female image next to the bathroom I say out loud and to the giggles of the ladies “Oh wait was I in the wrong bathroom!? Yup I think I was” Guess I was the confused man who just abused the ladies room and was apparently running from the scene of the crime. Lol!

While in PC and against my better judgement I decided to try a Yoga Class! Actually the subject cam up while at Maxwell's because the girlfriend of their neighbor teaches Yoga and invited us to go. Initially was pretty certain I was not going but at the night wore on I began to realize that did need a good stretch to work on my flexibility and plus it was for only an hour so I figured why not. Two days later Shauna, Val, Jim (one of their friends), all head over to do some Power Vinyas Yoga taught by their friend Lindsay. As we are laying down our yoga mats Val informs me and Jim that they made a mistake the class is not an hour long its an hour and a half long, sorry guys! Me and Jim both had the What you talking about Willis look on our faces, because we both had to be convinced to come for just an hour and the thought of 30 more minutes was nightmarish!! While this thought is sinking in Shauna then tells me that guys in yoga class usually take their shirts off because it gets pretty hot and sweaty. I'm reply yeah and the Yoga class is only and hour right, yeah I'm not taking my shirt off till I see other guys in here with no shirt on! lol But this time they were correct because every other guy came in with their shirts off so I decided to take mines off instead. We are about half way through the class, a ton of downward facing dogs and an alleged neutral position that had no neutrality to it I am in am sweating my tights off and my shoulders are on fire from being in all these static positions. Then we go into some pose where both we are bent over forward both arms extended one leg on the ground and the other one extended behind us, the teacher instructs those who are able to go into some hand stand using their forearms as a base!! Yeah my thoughts exactly!! So of course three or four people in the class are able to do it so they start showing off!! Every part of me wanted to leave my mat and kick them over...but I didn't! lol Were going through all kinds of poses back and forth than in what sounds like the voice from the angel of mercy I hear...."Now for our last two stretches" and with out thinking I shout out "ITS OVER WERE DONE!!!!" everyone in the class starts laughing as the instructors says Yes!!!! Thank you God is all I was thinking!! After the class I did feel pretty good but during the class I was thinking I would rather do football gassers than try to contort my body into all these weird positions! I am not a Tree nor a Upward/Downward facing dog or happy baby! I mean really who came up with these positions. Furthermore NO Shauna, Val and Tim I don't want to come back on Monday are you kidding me!! lol I did think it worked really well I just need a less intense class to start with.

Now onward to a environment I am more comfortable in, one of the best things about training at an Olympic Training Center is that 99.9% of the people around you know proper weight room conduct. You know like don’t stand and stare directly in the face of someone when they are lifting heavy weight and trying to focus, or making what you assume to be witty remarks as they are about to perform a lift. Well in park city we don’t have a Training Center so we have to work out at the Park Basin http://www.basinrecreation.org/ which is pretty good facility. However not everyone who trains there are aware of the rules I mentioned. Now I am aware that my team mates are bigger than average and we do move a lot of weight around that most people are not normally witnessed to. Added with the fact that I am lifting in Under Armour running tights and Top!! For the record I am not a fan of lifting in spandex but it does keep your body heat in, keeping your muscles warm and loose. Since spandex moves with the contours of your body it does not restrict any movement, but….it’s not for everyone! Really it’s Not!!

Anyway on to the story. Now, usually when I walk into a weight room I get random stares from people that are internally thinking (Yes I am Psychic thank you very much) “what sport does he do? he is pretty ripped, but why is he in spandex? Lol Then of course there are the looks from the guys in the gym as to say “hey weird spandex guy, this is my weight room and seriously how can you possibly lift looking like Peter Pans Head of Security?” And my mental and facial response to those guys who find muscles via a syringe is “A lot buddy so take notes” lol This particular day happened to be my squat day so I go through my normal warm-up and by my third set of warm up weight so of the sarcastic grins begin to fade. I guess my spandex is no longer that funny to the people watching. Smile now Syringe boy! Oh…what’s wrong not in a laughing mood anymore? Hmmmm…..I wonder why? Could it be that my first warm up weight was your max hmmm…is that it? Ohhh too bad, guess you better buy some bigger needles! Lol

But all jokes aside, as I am about to do my last set of squat of 562 for a quick 2 reps, I am in full zone out mode, walking into the squat, headphones in with music up, rack let’s do the Leeeeroooy a Jeeenkins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU) , my boy Jim behind me ready to spot me; when this older gentlemen of about 65-70yrs of age approaches me to ask a question/statement that he figured to be amusing. As I see this guy walking up I stick my hand out in his direction as to say halt I am in the middle of something, but he keeps walking up just a smiling laughing to himself. I do my best to ignore him, not because I am being arrogant or anything but due to the fact that it’s a ton of weight on the bar and I need to be focus so I don’t drop it and or hurt myself. I wish I would have had my music up higher because as I get up under the bar the old man is finally gets his question/statement out! And can you guess what it was that was so important he just had to interrupt my focus to say….no it was not that little Timmy is stuck in the well can you pull him out! It was “hey can I work in with you but maybe we should add more weight!?” Like most weight rooms there is a wall of mirrors in front of the squat rack, so as I am still trying to block out the old man I see about 7 guys surrounding the squat rack with camera phones preparing to take pictures and video of me squatting. Once again it’s flattering and I get it, I just would have preferred if they would have taken the flash off their cameras and stood a little further back from me. I get done with my set, turn to gym saying “man that was so hard to focus in on” he replied “hell I had a hard time focusing on spotting you, I felt like we were in a circus” lol. I then asked Jim what else the old guy said, so apparently the old guy was offended that I did not want to talk to him at that time and remarked by saying “that guy is pretty serious I take it?” Jim’s response was “Ya Think!” lol The one cool thing about it was that one of the guys taking the video actually e-mailed me a copy of the video, so at least I have a that now.

On a more exciting note an a prime example of everything happens for a reason, I met/had dinner/hung out with the Host, producers, makeup artists, and camera crew of HGTV’s Designstar TV Show! This is how it happened. Originally I was staying with one of the ex-bobsledders who stays in Park City but the following week he was headed out of town so I decided to go stay at the New Park Hotel. My first day there I was on my way to go workout (yes I was in full spandex again lol) and I saw this confident woman walking through the hallways dressed with a bit more style and swag then most people I have seen in Park City. We happened to be getting on the same elevator so we did the usual polite hello and went on about our business. This situation happened about five more times within two days seeing each other on the elevator or in the hotel lobby, until one day she asked me “Okay! What do you do?!” So I told her who I was and what I was in town for some Bobsled Training over at the Olympic Park. She thought it was pretty cool and began asking a ton of the usual who, what, when, questions. I answered them an asking the same of her. She replied I’m Tanika Ray the Host of Designstar on HGTV, then asked if I watched HGTV much or seen the show. I admitted that I don’t watch HGTV much unless I am flicking through the channels and something catches my eye then I stop and watch for a bit. Long story short she ends up inviting me out to dinner to meet her producers and everyone, I agreed and she said she would let me know when. Later that evening a woman from the front desk was knocking on my door with a formal invitation to dinner. I have to admit I was feeling pretty honored by the invite.

I headed down to dinner about 8pm met everyone, talking bobsled, interior and exterior home design. It was a really good time meeting all these new people, sharing insight to each other’s world. It also turned out that Tim one of the camera men is a huge Olympic and Bobsled fan so he had tons of in-depth questions for me about the sport. Towards the end of dinner Tankia thought that it would be a great ideal if they could get a camera crew out to the park and record some of my push track training. I was thinking Brilliant and heck yeah! The next day Tim (Associate Producer) and Candence (makeup artist) came out to record me and my teammates training. I was happy Tim and Candence enjoyed it, plus I introduced them to some of the Olympians in Bobsled and Skeleton. They were both impressed at the power, speed, and technique they learned about while they watched us train. My teammates and I enjoyed the enthusiasm about our sport and it was good to talk to true fans who were not more interested in making Jamaican Bobsled Team references.Since I’ve gotten back to Colorado Springs I have started watching HGTV’s Designstar its a pretty good show and I recommend watching it so check it out.

Overall it was a great trip, training was awesome, I met some good people and God is continuing to bless me with great opportunities and keeping me healthy.

Thanks for Tuning in to another installment of As The Bobsled Turns!! This has been another 3Beckom production ;) winking

God Bless, and remember to follow me on Twitter @Jessbeck3

Summer Update 7-11-11

2011-07-11T13:37:00.004-04:00

Happy Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven!!!!!!!

God continues to bless me in my life, training is going great, I'm feeling very powerful and fast so lookout!!! I am still working at HB&A www.hbaa.com five days a week, bobsled training six days a week which is broken down to three days of lifting, three days of running, six days of body maintenance and one day of complete rest. Working for HB&A I was able to take my first business trip. We took a three day trip out to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho to meet with base personnel and to get a general lay of the land for the project we are working on. I would tell you details but I don't want to put your life in danger.. Taking this trip was a bit different not because it was overwhelming or above my head but for the first time since the start of my sports career I was waking up for business meetings and not a sports related matter. It may not sound like a big deal but it really was for me. It was three days of 10-12 hours of meetings per day, luckily for me the base had a new workout facility complete with outdoor track so I did not miss any training. I do have to admit seeing jets take off every day while I was sprinting did not get old at all!! It felt like something out of a movies scene as I watched several jets take off and bank to the right to join their formation it was a pretty amazing experience.

As it regards to training I will say this, my flexibility and range of motion continue to increase along with my pushing technique. My lifting and sprint workouts are a little bit different since I am training under a new coach but I trust the change is working. For push training we have this piece of equipment call a Prowler Sled http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=prowler+sled&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1280&bih=800&wrapid=tlif131040007122010&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=withat we load up with weight and push across the concrete, along with the push kart I had built and my sister Tina shipped from Pennsylvania are part of the tools we use to practicing pushing in the off season. The other tools we use for summer pushing are the Bobsled Push tracks located in Park City, UT; Lake Placid, NY; and Calgary, Canada. Speaking of the Push Track I will actually be heading out to Park City for push training the last couple of weeks of July, which I am really looking forward to. The push training we do I do in the summer not only prepares me for the seaon but also prepares me for our Annual Push Championships in September that is used in the determination of what Sled we push on during the season!! This is a huge deal, one that I am looking forward to.

I would've throw a lot of lifting numbers and exercises at you but I usually only do that when I hit a personal record or some other milestone, this avoids the looking like a meat-head look. lol However if any of you would like to know some of the lifting and things I am doing shoot me an e-mail and I will tell you all about it.

On a personal note my sister Tina is safely back home from a six month stint in Iraq where she was doing some private contracting for the government, which the family is very thankful and excited about!!

I do have a quick funny story to tell........

I will like to preference this story by saying I can neither confirm or deny that I went out Saturday night with my teammates and danced the night away, while supposedly wearing a cowboy hat!! lol I can also neither confirm or deny that the alleged time of departure from alleged venue..... However back at the training center my room is on the second floor right next to the basketball courts. The next morning at 7:25am one of the young high-school camp kids decides this is the perfect time for him to work on his jump shot! Needless to say that from my previous extened night of studying the affects of long-term choreography on the body lol, I was not in the mood for this early Sunday morning wake up call! It was at this point that I became THAT GUY!!! I ripped open my blinds, lifted my window and Screamed HEY KID!!! "YOU MIND NOT PLAYING BASKETBALL SO EARLY IN THE MORNING!!?"

The kid throw the basketball away like it was on fire, said sorry and ran into the adjacent building!!!! I almost could not go back to sleep because I was laughing so hard! For a moment (.05seconds exactly) I felt a little bad then I remembered that their are signs by the basketball court that specifically say no basketball playing till after 10am every day. So you know what that little kid was breaking the law and someone had to stop him!! And being the law abiding citizen that I am I could not let this child's delinquency continue. By me intervening at a such a vital moment in this kids development I saved him from a life of continual law breaking and a possible criminal future that could see him breaking into one of your houses or cars. On that note, I say you are welcome society and no I don't need a plaque for my contributions to the mentorship of today's youth. I take my satisfaction in knowing that I am among those who are helping! lol

Please keep me in your praryers and pray that I continue to do great. I wish you all the best!

God Bless

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Still Here!.....lol

2011-06-01T01:59:00.002-04:00

Hello everybody!!!

WOW O WOW that was a close one!! Sorry I have been out of contact for a while but I had been so busy after the season preparing for end of the world!! lol! I mean seriously I never new making posters, cardboard cut outs, writing on T-shirts, and exchanging all my shoes for sandal would take so long!!! (fyi my fingers may or may not be hurting from laughing so hard right now!) Oh! and it also turns out that it is a really BAD Ideal to think the world is coming to an end, borrow 2 million dollars from a bookie and use your spleen as collateral!!!!. So I will be changing my name to Don Honcho and moving!! lol I repeat learn from me don't try this!! Seriously though the end of the world predictions are a laughing matter and we are lucky this guy was wrong...again....this time!!!! Ok...OK...I have to stop really this group reportedly had over 200 million followers!!! I am boggled at the fact that this guy got so many people to believe him again after previously saying the world is going to end in 1994. Moving on.... Since it takes me a few days to write some e-mails can you believe this idiot of a guy has made another prediction for the world to end on October 21, 2011 because he claims that he misinterpreted the signs! lol O....O lordy the sticks and da trees done did told me a great storm be a rollin in, its gonna shake this her ground and things go get a rumblin!!! lol I really wish this guy was in Smacking Distance lol

A lot has been going on in the World of Jesse or as the laymen call it....Earth!! Hahahahah O'Come on that was funny. God has continued to bless me on my Journey towards 2014. I am still living and training at the Olympic Training Center out here in Colorado Springs, Co, and it is going Great!!! I am not sure if I had mentioned it before but the two Strength and Conditioning Coaches I was working with (Jon and Jason) moved on to go work with the US Army Special forces!! I wish them the best and know they are getting those soldiers in better shape than ever.

And don't worry about my training Jon left us in the hands of a pretty good coach named Eric. I have to admit I was not sure about Eric when I first met him, partially because he seemed to be a bit arrogant at first I guess we tend not to like people who remind us of ourselves!! lol Then last season over Christmas break I came back to the OTC (Olympic Training Center) here in Colorado Springs to prepare for the second half of the season and Eric was in the weight room. The major lift component on that day was Cleans, fyi I do not have the best technique in the world when it comes to cleans. It's and epic battle between me and cleans every time! Sometime the Cleans win other times I win! So as I am lifting I see Eric watching me and not saying anything, this goes on during my first two sets out of three! So on the third set I asked him what he thought and he told me it looked like crap and just kept watching!! lol I did another rep and he just shook his head! So I tell him hey you just going to sit there and critique me or are you going to actually help with some coaching!!! (My word choice was a bit more colorful) He told me he did not want to mess up anything I was taught. I replied telling him that this is the one exercise I struggle with and what's the point of me doing it wrong especially if he can help me fix it (here again my word choice was a bit more colorful lol). After that little bit of back and forth we began to talk more and get on the same page regarding his theories on how to lift and run. Eric's workouts are a bit different than what I am use to but I think they are effective and what I need right now. He is big on increasing my neurological system firing faster and more explosively, and I have to admit....its working!

Last year was good for me getting back in to competing and making gains at the start of this new quad! I know this year and every year following will continue to build upon one another. I feel a since of fluidity in my running that I had lost after my surgeries and injuries. For a while I lost that 5th and 6th gear in top in speed and I feel that returning and then some! As I mentioned at first I was really worried about switching over training styles and I have to admit some of the workouts I have been doing have made me wonder about them from time to time but they are effective and I am pretty excited about this summer of training and the start of our season.

Oh I almost forgot something important. God blessed me once more allowing me to get a job working for in the Urban Planning section of HB&A www.hbaa.com , an architectural company here in Colorado Springs. This company does the majority of its work on military installations (I am very interested in this type of work), college campuses, as well as some community planning. I love the diversity of the projects I have gotten to work on and it is a quick turn around of creating Area Development Plans. The work environment is great and I am learning how to use Google Sketch-up http://sketchup.google.com , which is a 3D design program that I have wanted to learn how to use for a while now. Later on this month I will travel out to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho on a project site visit, it should be a pretty good experience.

Well that's all for now, if I remember any good stories I will let you all know!

God Bless and thank you all for your continued support!

Jesse

2011 World Championships Update

2011-03-12T15:41:00.003-05:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope every ones week is off to a Great Start and if not Maybe you need to do a Desk Pop! I believe my last Desk Pop was September "08" (The Other Guys Reference, Watch it! It Good Un huh lol)

Thanks too the USA's High Speed Internet I have been able to upload all of my pictures!!! And unfortunately it was this Shirt Fairy going around stealing shirts before some photos and for some reason he kept getting me when I was not looking! lol All the new pictures are on my Media page within the first five selections on the list.

The last three weeks of the season were kind of interesting, some of it was good and some of it was uhmmmm not so good!! But before I get a head of myself let me reiterate the World Championships (WCH) format. As I stated we were there for three week the first week was an international training week that allows for drivers to get acquainted with a newly constructed tract or in this case a tracked that made changes to existing turns, followed by two weeks of racing. During World Championships there is one week of racing dedicated to each discipline within the sport. Thereby meaning that one week is dedicated solely to 2-man training followed by the 2-man race, and one week is dedicated solely to 4-man training and racing. In both instances four heats of racing are held over two days (Saturday and Sunday) with two heats per day. In the first heat of the race all sleds go off in order according to their World Ranking, in the second heat the sleds go off in reverse order 20-1 then the sleds not in the top twenty go off 21... until the end. On the third day of racing sleds go off 1 till the end, and only the top twenty sleds get a fourth run.

For the USA after National Team Trials are over with we have a Selection Committee who has been given the authority to choose who races what races in World Championships and also in the Olympic Games. In this case my teammate Laszlo was chosen to race 2-Man WCH with our Driver Napier and I was chosen to race the Team Event for WCH. The team event is where each discipline Men's and Women's Bobsled, and Men's and Women's Skeleton from a country take one run each down the track, the totals are taken and the team with the overall fastest time down wins. Each country is allocated two teams as long as they have the available athletes. The hard thing about the team event is that unlike a regular race where you know exactly how much time you have to warm up before you go, in this format it is constantly changing depending on how team member in front of you finished. At one point depending on your teammate you could be going off 1st and the next minute you can be going off 15th, so you have to do your best to be warmed up good but too soon. In addition to the fact that the Team Event was about four hours after the two man event making for a very long day considering we arrived at the track at 8:30 am and did not leave until 6pm.

In the 2-Man race my team mates finished on USA 2 finished 22nd, USA 1 Holcomb and Langton finished 6th, and USA 3 Butner and Quinn finished 25th out of 32 sleds. And while I am on the subject our girls kicked some Serious butt in there 2-man race!!! USA 1 Shauna and Val took Silver, USA 3 Meyers (First World Cup Season and WCH) and Gruebel took 9th, and USA 2 Schaaf and Azevedo took 10th out of 22 sleds!!!

In the team event USA 2 ( Daly, Meyers/Koplin, O'shea, and Napier/Beckom) the team I was on finished 8th and the USA 1 (Antoine, Schaaf/Azevedo, Uhlaender, and Holcomb/Tomasevicz) team finished 9th out of 15 teams. Don't get me wrong we always want to win every race we are in but it did feel good to be the USA 1 team!! Also, on this particular track there is a series of curves called the S's (S1-S4) because they are literally shaped like to S's laid horizontally. During most of the training week and in the earlier 2-Man race Napier had trouble with S4 where he came off the turn too early causing a dramatic skid going into a long straight away resulting in a significant lost of time. However during the team event Napier improved his exit on S4 (I am going to say it was due to my excellent ridding position in the back of the sled!!! I make it go straight lol! But its true!) resulting in us going faster than all of his heats in the 2-man race and closer too Holcomb in down time then he had been all week. After the race Napier was feeling confident heading into the week of 4-man, and I was feeling happy because he seemed to be getting a little of his swagger back.

Bobsled racing is like any other thing in life where if you have a bad moment, play, heat, presentation, test, race or day you have to quickly put it behind you and move forward. This is the mentality I have and what I expect of my teammates going into 4-man week. Four-Man week is the week everyone is excited for since it is the Original Bobsled format before Two-Man was introduced at the 1932 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York. The 4-man is the event where all four of your Big Dawgs are at the line and all 800lbs of them combined are Jacked up out of their minds, blood pumping like a volcano ready to erupt, chompin at the bit to push the sled to Ludicrous speed right past Lone Star and Barf!!! lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0 The point is that come 4-Man day WCH the boys are ready!! and the Grim Reaper better take the day of if he knows what's good for him because if he wants some he can get some too!! We'll make that Sickle into and Popsicle and send his butt home to Momma Grimm! That's what I'm...Talkin....Bout! lol

Early in the the week of 4-man training we were pretty equal at the push with everyone else but our down times were pretty far off the mark so we were examining every possibility to the cause. Napier and the coaches were adjusting the sled steering to set it up just the way Napes wanted to where he thought it would be fast on this track. With the steering you can either give the driver more control or less control which determines how much he has to steer through a turn. On some tracks some drivers feel like they need one or the other so they obtain input from the coaches then make the appropriate changes. While this was going on the other brakemen and I were working on our loads and ridding position, finding ways to become more aerodynamic. The coaches and Napes would look at us from different angles of the sled taking pictures at times to show us how we looked in the sled. We changed helmets for this race that were more rounded than some of the previous helmets we were wearing resulting in better air flow and allowed us to get lower. Resulting in us shaving a little more time off at the bottom of the track and being closer to USA 1 and the other sleds, however there seemed to be some time being left on the tack but that is not something we could really dwell on much longer since the race was in two days, sometimes you just have to trust it will all come together on race day.

On the day of the race we were the 14th sled of the top of the hill, which is an important number for me to know as an athlete who is planning the perfect warm-up before a race. Depending on the athlete a pre-race warm-up can last between 30-60 minutes, and each sled take about two minutes to make it down and the track is cleared. So being the 14th sled off lets me know that I will go off about twenty-five minutes after the start of the race, I then add (count 35minutes backwards) an additional Thirty-five minutes to that to determine my warm up time. For example if the race starts at 11:30 am I will start my warm up at 10:25am which allows me a few extra minutes to spare.

We all warm up like usual, get to the line and ready to go! Since I am running the Brakes on the Sled I check both side pushers positions and the drivers position to make sure everyone is ready than I start the Cadence screaming out BACK-SET!!! Napier then Scream FRONT SET READY AND!!! I start my drop on the A since I have the longest distance to travel, which ensures that I hit the sled on the D in and along with my teammates. Now the race is on!! We all push and load with no major issues the ride down was not the smoothest and it show in our down time. We were in 11th when we finished our trip but it was still some good teams to follow and by the end of the first heat we were sitting in 18th place, this is not where we wanted to be but hey it happens. On the ride up to the top the only thing on our mind is push harder get lower and trust Napes will do his thing. The second run we push and load the same and Napes finds a little of what he did not have the first trip and on this trip instead of the being the 18th fastest sled down the hill we were the 14th fastest sled down! However some other sleds went faster the second run as well so we were only able to over take one sled moving us into 17th place going into the second day of racing. But even though we were in 17th place the best news is that we are only .12 out of the top ten!!! This is a tight race people and believe me knowing this we are all pretty excited since our goal is still in sight!

That night .12 was the only thing on my mind and what could I do to try and help us grab that .12. I talked to m teammates stressing the fact that we if we each just push 3 hundredths faster we can grab that time at the top and it will just multiply down the track! Literally that was the only thing on my mind the whole night! The next morning I woke up I thinking WAX!! I need some WAX because we were out and since our sleds had these new vinyl wraps on them we were told we did not need to wax the sleds. Today I was uhmmm .12 yeah I am going to wax the heck out of Elanor (The Sleds Name) and she is going to fly down the track! I knocked on one of the Skeleton girls rooms who I know had some wax (this may have been at 7:30am) asked her to look through her already packed bags for her wax because we really needed it. Thankfully she searched through her bags and found it for me, I then grabbed my teammates to help me flip the sled so I could wax it down. By the time I got done waxing Elanor she was looking so fast and smooth, the sled cover would not even stay on she was look smooth as butter babe!!

Our race was at 12:05 in the afternoon and as usual we left out an hour and a half before the race. We do this to make sure we have enough time to warm up plus you have to have all sled work done forty-five minutes before the start of the race. This means that the runners have to be on, cover off the sled and any mechanical adjustments that need to be made all need to be finished by that time. If you are still working on the sled or the sled is not at the top within that time frame your team would be disqualified or at the least get a hefty fine.

Like normal we are all warming-up getting ready for the race talking with each other making sure we are all feeling good. I am happy to say that we all were feeling good maybe even better than we did the first day! As we warmed up it began to snow a bit then after a while the snow began to get more consistent which changes the way we need to go about our start. Recognizing this I talked to my other brakemen and told them that make sure by the time the sled is dropped that they are ready to go! I told them to have their warm-up gear off and we are not going to wast time putting our shoe covers in the sled, we are just going to drop the sled call cadence and go. I then spoke with Napier letting him know that due to the snow we are going to be on a quick pace to get the sled down and go. We do this because even though they sweep the snow out of the start groves before every sled the snow still continues to accumulate in the start grooves. As you can imagine that extra snow in the start grooves cause the start to be slower and in order to mitigate the affects of the snow you get the sled down as quick as possible and go. So that was our plan.......funny things about plans is that they are not always executed.

We get to the line and as the coaches are moving the sled into position we are stripping down to our speed suits, taking off our shoe covers and stepping on to the start block!! We get the clear from the Starter, the coaches drop the sled and all the brakeman are in position soon as the sled touches the ice! I look up towards the left of the sled and I see napes get down into his start position and I start the cadence screaming BACK-SET!.....but there is a pause, or silence, or maybe its to noisy and we can not hear napes say anything. Now for our sport a pause is anything that is not immediate and that could be as little as half a second because it slows down the normal speed of the cadence and our reaction time. The day before we all talked about if I call the cadence and for some reason w are not able to hear napes then we will continue to fall and hit the sled with our normal timing and like clock work all of the brakemen fall and hit the sled at the same time!! Problem is Napes does not and we all see this and feel this as we hit! The sled is moving and napes is on the bar but he is now trying to catch up with the sled instead of helping push! Even though this all happens within a few seconds it plays in slow motion in our head, it is also at that moment that we realize that we are now out of any possible chance of getting into the top ten and may be out of the top twenty removing the possibility of getting a second run. Now Napes getting into the sled has to try mentally recover from what just happened at the start so that he can effectively drive the sled down. At this point as we load the thought that is in my mind and I am sure it is in the other guys mind is you have to be kidding me we are now out of this race. We get to the bottom and it is not a happy scene by any means of the imagination some tempers fly and now we play the waiting game to see if we get a fourth run. This was not the way this day was suppose to go and none of us saw this coming. As we get back to the top our teammates watching and had watched the replay told us what we already knew, that we left Napier at the start! Luckily we get a fourth run, so now we have to regroup to push one more time. The second heat the timing was better since we all hit the sled at the same time but we lost so much time on the 3rd heat it was really no coming back from it and we finished 19th overall.

It just goes to show you that no matter the situation be it sports, office work, or personal life if you are working on a team with a person(s) if you are all not on the same page in achieving a goal than that goal will not be achieved.

There may be a little frustration in my e-mail but it can not be helped because we were really close to acheiving our goal and we fell short when it counted the most. I am frustrated but my spirits are not down it just gives me motivation to work harder and get into a better situation next year.

I am pleased to say that USA 1 4-Man team took Bronze in the race and although it was cool watching them get their awards it would have been cooler to getting one right next to them.

Thank you again for all your support this Season and I will Bring home some Better Medals this Next Season!!

The 2010/2011 Season has come to an end and now starts the 2011-2012 Season!! And its off to Colorado Springs to Start training.

Special Thanks to all My Financial Sponsors

NOW Foods - the official site of NOW Foods International Contractors - Construction Salem Baptist Church of Chicago - Rev. James T. Meeks

Courts Plus | Elmhurst, IL, Fraternal Order of Police-Chicago Lodge 7 Wake Forest University VIsion Salon Manatts Construction

John D. Jevitz, DC - Chiropractic - Elmhurst, IL
Dr. Thomas Greenwald Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Joseph Thometz Otrhopedic Surgeon

Frank & Jolene Randall Sports Medicine, Consultants

Venus Beckom

Keith Mitchell Tina & Mark Fornwald
Ulanka Beckom Jesse & Addie beckom
Albert Beckom Denise Beckom
James & Anne Dout David Martin
James Elmore Verne Celestaine
Rebecca Anthony Jennifer John
Sarah Tores Albert Beckom
Stacey Ross Steve Smotherman
David Moore Kristin Houston
Beth Henning Danielle Williams
Thomas Greenwald Ernest, Hailey, Mary Hannah and Elle O'Brien Carolyn Spencer Elmhurst JC'S
Tate & Amanda Marcinkowski

God Bless
Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Italy World Cup Update

2011-02-22T03:55:00.004-05:00

Hello Everyone,

I would like to apologize for not being able to post the pictures from the last couple of race venues due to low internet access. However once I get back to the States I will upload all my photos from St. Moritz, Switzerland; Cesana, Italy; BMW World Munchen, Germany; and World Championships Konigssee, Germany.

The last stop on the World Cup was in Cesana, Italy or home to the 2006 Torino Olympics. I took some what I believe to be nice pictures of the area but in all honestly the Cesana / Sistere area of Italy is not somewhere I would suggest as a place to visit. I have been here before and I think the first time I was here I was more excite that the Olympics had been held here the year before but looking at it now I’m like yeah….not so much. I do stand by the fact that Vancouver Canada and the Whistler area where the Bobsled Event was held is an awesome place to go and visit!

In regards to the races one of my teammates the rookie on the team pushed with Napier because the coaches wanted him to get a World Cup 2-Man race under his belt. Pushing 2-man with Napier this year has been hard this year since Napes coming home from war is not in as good as of shape as he was the previous season heading into the Olympics. They ended up finishing in 11th place which was pretty good and nice momentum going into 4-Man the next day. If I have failed to mention it before the two man races are held on Saturday and the four-man races are on Sunday. The next day on Sunday we chomping at the bit for the four-man race, but for some reason Napes seem to not really have his head in the game. I wanted to say something to him however a deep conversation before a race is not always a good time to talk about things because you run the risk of opening up Pandora’s Box. Oh and speaking of Pandora’s Box in seventh grade for a play I played one of the seven demons that Pandora unleashed on to the Earth, I was Envy. We made Paper Mache mask that we wore on stage as we danced around and teased Pandora, thanking her for letting us out to wreak havoc upon the lands. If you have not figured it out by now This Was An Epic Play!!! If this play was performed today you would have to get to the Box Office a month in advance if you wanted tickets!!! It was so, so, so, so Serious!!! Lol

Now back to the race, after the first heat we were sitting in a disappointing 17th position! The run down the track was not as smooth as it could have been and Napes knew it, hell we all knew it! On the truck ride up after the first heat Napes apologized for the run then started to sulk a bit saying how he is always slow on this track and that even on the second run we have been slow all year!! Now people I am not one for licking wounds and bowing out of a fight! I am more like Dawg you better Suck it Up!! and Man Up!! At this point of the season I am tired of not standing in the Winners circle after our first run all year, so I cut Napes off and told him we don’t have time to think about this last run or down talk ourselves thinking we are going to be slow on the next heat. I told him to get that mess out of his head and focus on the fact that it is not an option and that we will go faster on the next heat!! After reviewing film we noticed that we loaded too early. Here is the thing with loading, usually the two guy loads directly of their driver unless the driver does not run the sled deep enough then the two guy usually picks a spot to load regardless of where the driver loads. When I was riding in the two spot I always picked a spot to load that allows each brakeman to be still accelerating the sled as they get in, since Jared who is a rookie is in the two spot with me on the breaks he just loaded off the driver who happened to load early. To avoid this from happening again I pointed out the spot on the track where Jared should load at.

The trick in picking a spot to load is taking in consideration the slope of the track and the rate of speed at which the sled is going after more weight is added to the sled in this case the added weight from the driver and brakeman. Since after the driver loads the total mass of the sled increases as it is going down the sloped start ramp thereby increasing the speed of the sled. This event is multiplied as each crew member loads into the sled, at this point on average we are moving at 30-35mph. The spot that is picked to load at must take all these factors into consideration, so as not to string out the fourth guy in the sled to a point where he is no longer accelerating the sled but slowing it down.

The second heat we loaded where we needed enabling us to drop five hundredths of our first push and Napes drove a lot better!! We stood in the Winners Circle for a good while watching as four sleds fell behind the run we had just put together!! We were joking, high-fiving, and laughing having a good ole time, we ended up in 13th which was not the top ten we had been looking for but it was good to end the season on a relative high point with Napes knowing that he just got over a hump especially as we were heading to World Championships.

You may be wondering what I mean by the World Cup Season coming to an end but we still have World Championships, so let me explain. For the sport of Bobsled we have a regular season that runs from about November to the middle of February. At the conclusion of the about 8 World Cup Races held around the world the FIBT announces and hands out awards to the top 6 ranked teams in the world on both the men’s and women’s team. The men receive awards in both Two-Man and Four-Man separately, then the points from Two-Man and Four-Man are combined resulting in the overall World Cup leader and top Six. For the women since they only do Two-man they receive only one award for the overall point’s leader and top 6. Then starting in the Middle of February we have our World Championship Race, which are basically the Olympics for the non-Olympic year! So it’s kind of a big deal since the winner is the World Champion! (Yeah I know you all figured that out already lol!). Unlike world cup races where the winner is declared after one day of racing and two heats, The World Championship format is similar to the Olympics where the winner is declared after two days of racing and four heats I hope that clears up any confusion. Also, if anyone ever has any questions about bobsled please feel free to ask.

Well I think that is probably enough information to read right now, so I will end here and send out another one in a few days if the internet allows it.

P.S. My phone has been off since I have been here so I have not received any voicemail, SMS, BBM, nor picture messages

God Bless
Jesse

www.jessebeckom3.com

Winterberg and St. Moritz Update

2011-02-04T11:15:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone,

I am currently in Cesana, Italy the last stop on the World Cup tour before World Championships!! The last two weeks have been up and down.

In order to find the fastest pushing combinations on USA 2 we had been changing positions and people on our four-man crew. Two weeks ago in Winterberg, Germany we came up with a pretty good combination resulting in my team mates Collin, and Laszlo on the side with me on the brakes (back of the sled) we pushed relatively faster together than the combinations before and ended up finishing 11th in the race, so close to a top ten finish.

Now while World Cup is going on Junior World Championships is also about to begin this week in Park City Utah. The athletes eligible for Junior Worlds must be 16 to 26yrs of age. Besides Napier my driver there is a new driver named nick who started driving last year who meets this age requirement, along with Laszlo and Collin as brakemen. In order to see who would have the choice of going to race Junior Worlds or not Collin and Laszlo had a race-off which Laszlo won. After conversations among the coaches it was decided that Collin would go back to the States and race Junior Worlds with Nick. Colin was also sent back because this was his first experience being away from home and after Junior Worlds he voiced that he had no intentions on continuing with the sport at this time.

This turn of events lead to the combination of Jared and Laszlo on the side with me on the brakes going into the St. Moritz Switzerland race the following week. The Track at St. Moritz is by far every bobsledders favorite track and the coolest! It is the last remaining naturally man made track in the World!! It is where bobsledding was invented, it is over a mile long, passes through two nearby cities, winds through a forest, and we hit speeds up to 91 mph! The track is made from the existing snow in the area and if there is not enough snow they truck it down from the Alps. The track is so smooth and long and our Bodies sleds hum when they get up to speed, it’s a beautiful thing! I have a ton of pictures on my web site www.jessebeckom3.com of Winterberg, Germany and St. Moritz just look for the folders marked by each city’s perspective name. However it takes a while for me to upload pictures to my site and the hotel we are staying us charges us hourly to use the internet so I will not be able to post pictures till Tuesday. But take my word for it these places are beautiful!

Four-man Training went well on Thursday, we were about .04 off the push of USA 1 on both practice runs, and we were all feeling pretty good going into the race. That Friday like every week we took off to rest and prepare the 2-man sled for the 2-man race Saturday. The two man race on Saturday was at 9 a.m. so we had breakfast at 6:45 and headed to the track at 7. The race seemed to be going smoothly my team mates Napier and Lazlo pushed and came down the hill. As I helping with the sled at the bottom Laszlo had a weird look on his face, then explained that he felt his hamstring pull on his last step getting into the sled. At that point several thoughts rushed through my head, I felt bad for Laszlo but I knew I had to get my mind in race mode because I would have to take the next run. While thinking about getting back to the top of the hill as quick as possible I began thinking what are we going to do for 4-man now! I quickly regrouped my thoughts taking them off of 4-man and placing them on the moment at hand. I usually take an hour to warm up, but today I only had about 25 minutes!! One of my team mates asked me if I would have enough time, I told him It will have to be enough today! This is the moment where in my warm-up I start praying several prayers to God asking him to heat my muscles up quicker so I don’t pull anything. Immediately during the warm-up my heart race started to increase, my adrenaline was starting to flow I had to remind myself this is not my first rodeo, and calm down before I got going too soon. I gathered my thoughts focused on what I had to do and did it. We ended up pushing 4 hundredths faster than they had pushed in the first heat. Under the circumstances I was ok of the push and I know if I had be just 1 hundredth slower than their first push time they would have tried to hold it against me regardless of the circumstances. We ended up finishing 15th but on the run I went down on we our down time was in 12th position so overall it was a pretty solid performance.

Then next day since Laszlo was unable to race we went with the alternate Johnny Q for the race (the alternate has changed every week it’s been crazy). This is not the ideal situation since our alternate had never done a World Cup race nor had we spent anytime practicing together but hey we made lemonade. The night before the race we made internal modifications to the sled, adjusting foot pegs and handles for Johnny Q, and then did about 15 loads in the sled to get ready for the race in the morning. During the race we did not have our smoothest loads or fastest pushes and ended up in 16th place. It was not the best situation for Johnny Q to be thrown in but I give him a lot of credit for stepping in and giving it his all when his number was called. Sorry I do not have any amusing tid bits in this e-mail but like I have said before I will do my best to tell stories the way I experience them and all the changing up over the last few weeks does not make for fun or productive bobsledding.

The good news is that our trainer Peter has been doing a ton of rehab with Laszlo’s hamstring and it seems to be better, so this week he will be able to do 4-man with us! Wish us luck.

God Bless you all.

Jesse

Ingls, Austria Update

2011-01-18T14:48:00.002-05:00

January 18, 2010

Guten Tag, aus Austria,

On January 9th we arrived in Ingls, Austria for our first World Cup Race of the second half of tour. We flew into the Munich airport in Germany where we spent the night a Holiday Inn Express. In the morning we drove our rental cars and large rental trucks over to the storage warehouse where our bobsleds were shipped. We loaded up seven bobsleds five 2-man’s and two 4-man’s, along with our luggage, weights, tools and our sports medicine supplies and were off into the deep dark world known as Europa!!! A Warning for those meek at heart! Oh yes many a men have made such a trek all have come back from……but not all have come back alive……nor sane! BEWARE!!BEWARE!! My bag I am watching movies and typing again, that’s never a good combination! Lol In Ingls we stayed at the Sportshotel that was about ten minutes away from the bobsled track.

It is now January 17, 2011 and we have completed our first race in Ingls, Austria. It was a rough week to say the least, the Sled I race on USA 2 finished outside of the top ten in both two-man and four-man. My driver is still getting his feel and strength back up since before he left to help fight the War in Afghanistan. It seems that we are still shaking the rust off in terms of driving and pushing but the overall goal is to be strong five weeks from now as we head into Konigesse, Germany for World Championships. After the 4-man race in Ingls we went back to the hotel ate lunch, then jumped in the rentals making an eight our drive to the next race venue located here in Winterberg, Germany. While in Winterberg the USA team enjoys the comforts of the Avital Hotel. J As the City Planner side of me comes out I was in awe at the fact that this hotel is in the middle of single family residential with a small hint of multi-family residential. Now using most city designs and planning laws that I know about this hotel is in the wrong place along with the other spot zoning surrounding this place. However they did do a great job matching the hotel façade with the façade on residential structures making for a smoother transition between two distinctive uses. Ok enough of that….Ouch my brain hurts now, just messing it hurts because earlier today I figured out the meaning of life and have been creating the calculations that explain my discovery in laymen terms. Now where was I, oh yes bobsled.

As we went on strolls around Austria I have had about six different collisions with people walking. Either I or the other people have come around the corner too fast along with their perspective group and I have almost run them over! Immediately upon seeing me before they even get a chance to take another breath they quickly say Entschuldigung! Entschuldigung! Entschuldigung! with a look like they have just saw their life flash in front of their eyes, while their friends either are laughing or fearful for them. Oh and Entschuldigung! means excuse me! A couple of other times as we walk away you hear them speaking in German saying that was a big guy. My group and I found it pretty amusing.

Oh!!! And I am not sure how many of you all know it but I have an extraordinarily huge sweet tooth!!! They have this chocolate over here by Milka that is amazingly good!!! Now they sell Milka in the states but it tastes nothing like the Milka in Europe! The chocolate here is very smooth and rich, it makes Hershey taste like you brought it out of a gum ball machine. To my delight they have two different sizes of Milka one is the normal candy bar size and the other is about three times the size of a normal candy bar!! So you know what I did, yeah I have already brought about 14 of the large bars 8 small bars and about 6 other different types of chocolate bars. I brought this one bar that was pear/Carmel flavor it was all types of awesome. And don’t worry I have included pictures of everything on my web page. www.jessebeckom3.com so enjoy but unfortunately not as much as I will!!

God Bless

Jesse

A 3Beckom Studio Production

2010-12-30T12:03:00.006-05:00

Greetings everyone I know this is not really bobsled related but a lot of you inquire about what I do in downtime and the truth is my mind tends to wander and think up stories, plays, skits you know the usual. So below is a skit I thought up this summer and sent in to Saturday Night Live but never heard anything back so I figured I will let you all take a look at it and I hope it makes you laugh! Becasuse I laughed! lol Enjoy!

A Skit By Jesse Beckom III with input from Jimmy Moody and Pat Judge:

Twilight Spoof-Edward Stars on Dateline to catch a Predator

Edward arrives at Bella’s house but notices something is different so he enters slowly he smells something in the air unlike anything he has known. He sees a shadowy figure.
Lights come on and its Chris Hansen standing there arms folded looking at Edward with judgmental eyes

Chris: Hello sir how are you tonight?

Edward: (While trying to hide his six pack of beer, box of condoms, and feather duster) Uhm…Who are you, why are you here and where is Bella?

Chris: Well why don’t you have a seat in that chair?

Edward: No I don’t want to sit (Chris’s voice somehow compels Edward towards the chair against his will)

Chris: Please sir just have a seat in that chair right there.

Edward: Well ok but I was just, I mean, ok I will just sit down. (The whole time Edward does not want to sit down but he can’t resist Chris’s persuasiveness)

Chris: My name is Chris Hansen sir and who are you?

Edward: Edward Cullen but where is Bella?

Chris: Oh….(said sarcastically) you are looking for Bella?

Edward: (Begins to feel a lil uncomfortable he starts to lie) Uhhhh Yeah I came over cause we are suppose to study together.

Chris: Really? study? You just came to study Edward….ok. (Chris nods his head in slight disbelief of Edwards story)

Edward: Yeah we have Biology class together. Is there something wrong with that?

Chris: Well Edward there’s really no reason to get upset (Chris mumbles under his voice “Pervert”)
Edward: What!?

Chris: (Having a slight smirk on his face) Oh nothing something was in my throat (Chris mumbles “Sicko”)

Edward: Come On! (Edward is getting irritated has hand up looking around as if to say did anyone else here that?).

Chris: (While smiling) And as you probably guessed by now Bella is here but she is safe so Just relax (and conveniently pulls the cross he has being wearing out from under his collared shirt so Edward to see) there’s nothing to get mad about, plus we are here to talk about you not Bella!

Edward: what’s with the cross

Chris: Oh nothing you know I’m catholic why does it bother you? (Chris inner monologue: oh yeah vamp weirdo you don’t like it and I know it! Let it burn demon boy…man that Usher is really good. He begins to bob his head a lil as he sings the song in his head. Then immediately goes straight face and stairs back at Edward) now where were we, oh yes biology class.

Edward: (Edward is disturbed and confused)Yes biology we are in high school together

Chris: You say you are here to study yet you have no books, paper, or study guide but you have beer? How exactly do you study where you come from Edward!?

Edward: (Edwards eyes dash around the room frantically looking for a excuse) Oh uhm no, no see it’s not like that the beer was for her father yeah..her father cause um he likes beer so I got it from him….yeah I got it for him.
(A member of the camera crew scream from the background You Lie!)

Edward: (Looks toward the camera obviously upset trying to play innocent motions whit his mouth what)

Chris: (pulls out the transcript of e-mails sent back and forth from Bella and Edward) Let me ask you another question Edward?

Edward: ok sure

Chris: Your screen name is…., and correct me if I say this wrong Sweetdaddyfang1! Is that correct?

Edward: w…w….well

Chris: (In an accusing and sarcastic voice) You are Sweetdaddyfang1 correct, that is the name you go by on line? you’re the sweet fang daddy! That’s cool right!? The kids Like that its catchy its hip? (Chris does a slight strut and should swag while saying this)

Edward: Well I guess you can say that…I mean it’s just a screen name…it’s more like a joke than anything.

Chris: Mmm…hmmm… I see, so if I said Hell I am Chris Sugar Nuts Hansen that would not be weird to you? Because as you say it’s just a name right?

Edward: (hesitantly and unsure) Yeah sure

Chris: Well Sweetdaddyfang1, looking at the notes from your online chat with Bella you..(Edward buts in)

Edward: (Nervous concern) Notes did you say notes?

Chris: Yeah this piece of paper that I am holding is your entire online conversation with Bella, and I have to tell you it’s pretty interesting.

Edward: Gulps!

Chris: Did you type I want to suck you dry like a Capri sun juice packet? You did type that correct, those are your words right?

Edward: Listen I know it sounds bad but that’s really not how I meant it, I was not meaning her I…(Chris cuts in)

Chris: Not bad you say, really? Ok then I will read more.

Chris: You go further on to say that you want to open her up like a new book and thumb through your pages. I can continue if you like? You go on to talk about a feather duster, a turkey baister, a hamster, and two poodles! (Chris pulls the paper down looking at Edward in rebuke) You are really sick, I mean I have met some sick people but yeah you are a piece of work I tell you.

Edward: No…No…Stop please stop reading ok I did not come here to study ok are you happy!

Chris: (making a hand gesture) yeah mmmm a lil bit!

Chris: Now we all know you did not come here for studying but are you aware that Bella is only 16? Which is considered a minor in the state of Washington?

Edward: Yeah but it’s ok cause I am a minor as well I am only 17! (Crap I knew we should have moved to Utah or Germany, at least I know 16 is legal there Mua hahaha)

Chris: (Looking at Edward intently and in disbelief) You’re 17!?

Chris: Ohhhh….you’re 17! Ohh?

Edward: Yes I am 17, just look at me I’m still in high school, !

Chris: That’s your final answer you’re 17 (Music from who wants to be a millionaire plays briefely)

Chris: (Mumbles) What a D-Bag.

Edward: Ok really!?...Really!? I heard that and you are starting to piss me off!

Chris: (pulling out a shaker of garlic and setting it on the table nonchalantly keeping a straight face and continuing with the conversation) Hey Buddy, Hey Buddy it’s ok Fangdaddy just relax I am not here to hurt you. Just trying to find out the facts.

Edward: (Starting to look for a way out but not willing to let on he is a Vampire casually) what’s with the garlic?

Chris: Oh nothing, nothing at all I was just cooking a pizza (pizza buzzer goes off at that moment, Chris stops talking to grab the pizza out the oven cuts it applies a ton of garlic) Fangdaddy do you want a slice? (Not waiting for the answer) No oh ok, figured I would ask. (Chris eats a slice of pizza shaking his head up/down/sideways) this is some good Za! (small smirk)

Edward: (says nothing just sits there visibly pissed shaking his head)

Chris: Pizza make you angry or something Fangdaddy

Edward: My name is Edward not Fangdaddy can you please stop calling me that

Chris: Ok so Fangdaddy…I mean Pedo… I meant Edward sorry was going to say Edward, I am so thirsty are you thirst? Want some water? (Chris then reaches in the refrigerator and grabs a bottle of Spring Holy Water gestures out a bottle towards Edward)

Chris: Ok Edward, now you claim to be 17 but according to Wikipedia it says you are 117!? How does that work for ya?!

Edward: (trying to explain and back track) well what had happen was, It’s like…(Chris cuts him off)

Chris: Exactly how long have you been a in high school? Is geometry really that hard these days?

Edward: (Breaking down a lil) ok listen, I may have repeated my junior year once ok it happens and I am not the only one!

Chris: (mumbles) yeah you and your whole dumb blood sucking family!
Edward: WHAT! Now I know I heard that!

Chris: Whaaaat, Oh I said I can’t wait to duck out of here to go sailing! Sail…ing. Speaking of sailing.

Edward: What, sailing? What?

Chris: I’m talking about sailing; you know a boat some water? Now, as I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted! (Stares condescendingly at Edward) The oddest thing happened though last time I was sailing and a piece of the mass broke off in a weird shape, oh here take a look at it (Chris pulls out the piece of the mass from a kitchen drawer which resembles a wooden stake, he begins to twirling it and doing a stabbing and hammering motion) I was trying to hammer it back in but it just would not go. You would not know an old fashion way to get this piece back in there so it never ever comes out do you?!

Edward: No I would not..why would I? What is wrong with you!

Chris: (Looses his cool) What’s wrong with me!? You are asking What’s wrong with me!? Listen Here R-Kelly Dracula is my here boy we know exactly who you are and what you are and frankly I don’t like any of it! You’re 117 years old and you are trying to date a 16yr old! And you ask what’ wrong with me!? What’s wrong with you!? What do the women at the bars don’t go for your boy band charms!?

Edward: No no that’s not it all its..I like... (Chris interrupts)

Chris: Hell I like marshmallows in my Hot chocolate but do you see me going over to the Stay Puff marshmallows Man house asking for his teenage daughter Stacy and asking her to jump in cup so I can stir her around till she melts and drink my Hot Chocolate….!

Edward: (trying to interrupt) What?

Chris: (Keeps on talking right through Edward’s comment) Do You!? Do you!? No you don’t I drink my hot chocolate plain! It’s called self control you should have some it tastes good! mmmmm sooo good!

Edward: (Finally starting to cry and break down)Ok…ok you are right I do prey on silly teenage girls but its only cause their blood is so young and sweet, plus older women make fun of how never stand like a man! They ask me if Horatio from CSI is my dad cause I always stand sideways! They make fun of me for not being tan and they call me Casper the Lonely ghost and they never want to go out with me….what’s wrong with me! I mean I look like diamonds and I thought girls liked that! And yeah so what I like to suck a lil blood that they are not going to miss much right!? Right!?

Chris: ohhhh buddy I would love to stake you putting you out your misery, taking you off the street but you know what that’s out of my authority, as much as I would really… really love to! So you are free to go!

Edward: (sobbing leaning over with his head in his hands) really I am free to walk out of here?

Chris: (Smirking) yeah sure you are free to go

Edward: (sniffling walking out hanging his head) thank you and by the way garlic, crosses, and holy water don’t really work on us. And the sun just shows our skin to be diamonds.

Chris: Diamonds….did you say Diamonds?

Edward: yeah diamonds!

Chris: (looking sinister) Really…..?

Screen fades to black and then fades back in.
Bella: (walks in the room)Hey Chris have you seen Edward?
Chris: (There is a sledge hammer on the table and Chris is using his arms and hands to scrape a pile of diamonds off the table in too a bag, looking extremely guilty) Edward? Naw…. No Edward here, haven’t seen him all day!

Screen fades to the next scene previewing the next week’s episode of To Catch a Predator. At that point you see the actual Predator walks into the house looking for lil Danny (a.k.a Danny Glover) Calling his name in the creepy predator voice. He sees Chris.

Chris: Hello sir, please have a seat
Predator: (Looks around knowing he is caught) Oh bleep! Uhm I am in the wrong house (presses his cloaking device turning invisible and walking backwards out of the room)

Show fades to Black.

This has been a Jesse Beckom

November updat in December cont.

2010-12-29T00:54:00.000-05:00

Yo! Yo! YO! Everyone Happy weekday all around!

I pray that everyone had a great Christmas and that your New Years Celebration will be Historic but safe!

As I continue to play catch up I realized that I forgot to tell you all about Thanksgiving. After the America Cup Races in Calgary we drove back down to Park City for Thanksgiving. I regret that I can not tell you about the conversations in the 14hr car ride from Calgary to Park City but it was five Manly Men in a extended cab Suburban talking so I am pretty sure you can imagine how the convo went. However we did hook up my computer to the power outlet and played movies most of the time, which mad the trip seem a lot shorter.

The original plan for coming back down to Park City was to get additional training on the track out there while waiting for World Cup to begin in Calgary a week later. Unfortunately for some odd reason there was only paid training available even for USA athletes, not really wanting pay to play we opted to only workout that week. I used it as a prep week for the World Cup Race in Calgary the following week. In my opinion this actually worked out better since it allowed me to give my body a little more rest.

Being that it was Thanksgiving week the girls on the team thought it would be a good ideal to have team Thanksgiving Dinner. They also decided to have at the Condo we were staying at as opposed to their smaller hotel rooms. They then decided that they would cook the turkey along with the majority of the other food. Yeah our girls are pretty decisive, nothing wrong with that because everyone loves a go getter!!! And easy there people! Yes the guys cooked some stuff we made Mixed Greens, Rolls, green bean casserole, and we brought the egg nog and wine as well. Overall the spread was pretty good, surprisingly to us the girls well actually Elana did a great Job on cooking the turkey. Megan's Mom sent a ton of Thanksgiving Day decorations up from Atlanta. The decorations included lil cartoon Indian/pilgrim cut outs, turkey cut outs, turkey designed candles, turkey napkins, Turkey and pumpkin confetti, it was pretty Epic!!! The pictures will be up posted on my web page www.jessebeckom3.com on my media page.

Megan's mom also sent us an 10 boxes of crayon with a turkey picture we could color. I am not sure if it was the wine that made the ideal of coloring a turkey fun or not, well actually I was not drinking so I have no excuse! lol Now like most things coloring the turkey becomes a contest to see who has the best turkey!! Ridiculous I know but everything is a competition. After dinner you have about 10 bobsledders men and women combined sitting here feverishly coloring a turkey picture. We are all sitting there joking and chatting and most people are coloring the clothes on their turkey a solid color so I say out loud just as clear as day that I am going to color my turkey clothes ti-dye! Now everyone at the table heard me and wouldn't you know it that the Camron the guy sitting next to me starts to color the clothes on his turkey ti-dye! I was thinking "Is Jesse Beckom going to have to choke somebody" now this guys lies about every little thing in the world and re-tales stories that he was never a part of then inserting himself into the story! These reasons made me more annoyed than normal with the situation. So I question him on his choice of colors for his turkey's clothes and he says "well I just decided to do something different" and I respond "You did not just hear me say that I was going to do that?" he says "No" I respond "Really Dawg!? Really!? I mean you are sitting right next to me when I said it, everyone else heard me and you did not!?" he replies "No I was talking to someone else and not paying attention when you were talking!" I told him "Well your sub conscious must have been listening because you are coloring you turkey the way I said I was going to color mine!" Yes, Yes I know I am 33yrs old, and this should not be a big deal but at this point its just the principal that I have been listening to this guy tell lie after lie for the past two months and I am fed up with it! By this time my teammates are laughing at us both because they know how much this guy lies and they see me getting visibly pissed! lol The banter continues until we are done coloring. We are lining up the pictures side by side to compare then all of a sudden the picture that Camron colored strangely spontaneously combusted!!!! Yeah I know it was so strange, we were all surprised!! And spontaneously combust I mean I may or may not have held it over the stove, lit it on fire, let it burn till only half the body and head was left. Then I may or may not have written " I WILL NOT STEAL IDEALS" in the top corner of the picture! lol By this time everyone is dying laughing and looking in disbelief!! Some may say I over reacted I say I REALLY DON'T CARE ITS ABOUT PRINCIPAL!! I KEEPS IT REAL!!! LOL

And that was Thanksgiving!!! I can't wait for New Years!

God Bless

Jesse

November Update in December

2010-12-08T12:18:00.000-05:00

Hey Everyone sorry I am behind on my updates so I will try to catch you all up with several e-mails here is the first I starte in Canada last week.

Greetings from the northern wilderness they call Canada or as we like to call it North North America, or America Lite, or Diet America, or The Un America.....yeah our Canadian counterparts for some reason do not like any of those new names. They also really don't like it when we tell them if we wanted we could invade and take control over their little country over the weekend and still be back home to watch Sunday football!! lol

I am done racing with my former teammate and ex-brakeman Corey and now racing on the World Cup Tour with John Napier. The races with Corey went good we had a Little trouble in Park City where we finished in 7th place twice but we ended the races in Calgary on the Podium in Bronze Medal Position. It was a great time and Corey is improving rapidly so hopefully he will be driving World Cup by next year.

As of now the plan is to race World Cup Races here in Calgary Canada, Park City, UT; and finishing up in Lake Placid before Christmas. Sliding has been going well and I am looking forward to some great results. However I do have a few interesting stories to tell you all about so here it goes.

To refresh everyone memories about two years ago I went through a 4 month ordeal with an HP laptop I purchased that was having problems due to a faulty hard drive. In the long run I wound up sending the computer in to HP 3 times for them to replace it and every time they replaced it the hard drive was bad. After arguing for 4 months my I finally lost it over the phone and they ended up sending me a new computer with all the bells and whistles. But guess what?....Yup 1yr and 10 months later the new HP they sent me began experiencing problems. It started performing random memory dumps, freezing up, not playing media files correctly and etc. At this point I am about a good minute from just throwing this stupid machine against the wall or taking it out to a field like in the movie Office Space to introduce it to my Baseball Bat or better yet the bottom of my boot!

Two weeks ago Monday I finally had time to take it over to Best Buy's self-proclaimed Geek Squad (Bad Ideal), Ok, so I tell them the issues occurring with my computer and that I had downloaded some codecs for my media player to see if that would get the movies to play correctly. I informed them that when I ran the internal diagnostic to test the system and hard drive that the computer froze up without completing the full test. The guy there said they will have a look at it and it should only take about twenty minutes (lets be honest waiting twenty minutes in best buy for a guy is not long enough!lol). I agree to having them look at my computer,signing the paperwork for to the $69.99 Diagnostic fee the Bleak Squad charges hoping by some form of nerd magic they are going to perform some epic test beyond my understanding that will say what wrong with my computer. You know this dude runs the same internal diagnostic that I ran at home and I am looking like you got to be kidding me right now!! I come back twenty minutes later and he explains me that their are no malicious worms or viruses on my computer that is causing the problem and that they need to keep it over night to run some stress test on it, I agree and leave the store.

I come back the next day to pick up the computer and now a different member of the Bleak Squad comes out hands me my computer and tells me that I need to purchase a new hard drive. I say ok thanks and I will buy one later. However because I was in a hurry I did not turn my computer on in the store (Not Smart on my part). Immediately when I get back to the condo I attempt to start it and of course it would not even boot up! The screen did not even come on at all! I immediately take it back to the store and give the computer back to them and politely ask what happened during your test that caused my computer to not run or even attempt to start? She tells me well your hard drive is completely bad. I explain to her that I understand that but my computer screen should still come on and at least give an error message or something, but now the screen is not working and the hard drive is not even starting. She then returns a blank stare at me, you know the stare where someone has screwed up but don't want to admit it. With no other option at the moment I purchase a new hard drive from the store for them to install (in the back of my mind I am just thinking I know its not the hard drive because that would not affect my screen). Tjhe biggest thing about replacing a hard drive is that you have to transfer all your data over and re-install all your programs, in my case all my program disk are in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center so I am really not happy about the thought of this. The woman there tells me that she found 250GB of recoverable info on my old hard drive that she can transfer over and she should be able to Ghost my programs onto the new hard drive as well, so I am happy as a pig in mud and leave the store and await the phone call letting me know my computer is ready. Yeah.....she never called me, so I call back to the store later that night and end up speaking to the original guy I dropped my computer off to, he informs me that Patricia was not able to transfer the files over because my original hard drive was unrecoverable. I inform him that I believe she may have done something wrong and asked if he could take a look at my computer. He calls back 20 minutes later to tell me that yeah she had in fact hooked the hard drive up incorrectly and the information is recoverable. I am thinking great, then he thinks something is wrong with my media card which is causing my screen not to come on but he will look at it more tomorrow because they are about to close, and that I should come by the store in the afternoon.

The next afternoon I go to the Worst Buy to speak with the Bleak Squad and guess who's there.....Miss I Hook Up Hard Drives wrong! Sooooooo now they tell me well sir your motherboard is gone bad! I am like what!!! (Fyi Cool Calm Jesse has left the building at this point!) I then ask ok well my computer was working a lot better when I brought it in to you and now its not coming on at all so you all need to find away to fix it. The lady is just looking at me like she does not know what to say, I then ask to speak with the manager so they call him up to the front of the store. The manager arrives he walks to the back and is informed of the situation he then comes out and says they can not do anything about my compute! I say really you mean to tell me that you break my computer and now you can not fix it or replace it!? At this point I ask you are the store manager correct? He replies yes I am the manager on duty, I say see, that's not what I asked you, I asked are you the Store Manager, meaning are you in Charge of the Store? He says well I am the operational manager, I say ok so what time time does the Store Manager come in because that's who I need to talk to. He informs me that the Store Manager comes in at 3:30. I tell him ok I will be back at 3:30, he then tries to give me back my computer and I say no thanks you guys can hold on to that until I get back.

While waiting three hours for the manager to come I decide to call my sister Tina for some advice a.k.a calm me down a bit before I go back over to this store. My sister tells me to just relax and be civil and explain the situation and see what he says. I am like ok I will try it but I will make no promises and I will call her when I am done. She jokingly says "Don't make me your One phone call" lol

I go back over to the store at 3:30, by now everyone at the front of the store knows the situation and I can see it in there eyes and they can see I am not happy! The people at the Bleak Squad call up the manager soon as I walk in. He goes to the back to speak with them. Now I hear my sister's voice in the back of my head and I am listening. However, when I came into the store I head my USA full winter coat on so me being who I am and knowing I had a short sleeve shirt on under it I decide to take it off so this manager could get the full grasp of who he is talking too! (Yup today I am that guy!) Now I would not really hurt this manager in anyway but if he is a little intimidated by the frustration in my voice, my physique muscle in my arms flexing as I talk to him or the glare in my eyes then hey it happens. lol

So the manager comes out and he informs me that he is aware of the situation but I take time to explain it to him again. And when I explain it to him I am in full Chicago Mode!! I am fully using all types of hand gestures, hitting my hands together on occasion to explain things I mean this conversation is epic! lol I tell him how would you feel in your brought your car to a dealer ship to have the muffler repaired then you come back and they tell you, uhm while we were working on the car your engine fell out some how but it's not our fault. I go on to tell him that all my information for college and bobsled races is on that machine your guys broke and now you expect me to just leave without my computer and an inaccessible hard drive!? I don't think so (For the record I do have all the information backed up on an external drive but they do not need to know that :-) ). The whole time I am talking the Manager is looking at my build and has that "What is this guy going to do to me look on his face" and I am loving every minute of it. He then tries to point out that I signed a wavier that says they are not responsible if something breaks while they are working on it. I then point out a section on another one of their documents that says that they will fix free of charge any problems that may occur from them working on my computer (he was a bit speechless on that one). He tells me that he understand the situation and its bad on both sides. So I say listen if you all can not fix my computer that your technicians manage to break maybe you can give me a new one. Now I know he is not going to agree do giving me a new computer but he does end up discounting an $800 Asus Computer that was better than my HP down to $400 dollars, and they transfer all my data over for me and I should come back on Friday to pick the computer up. Oh and I forgot to mention this is all happening on the week of black Friday.

Now its Wednesday and I come to pick up my computer and its not ready. The tell me that its taking longer than they thought it would to transfer all the information over, but now they will try something different to speed up the process and It should be ready by Friday. The only thing I can think of is why did you all not do the faster method in the first place. I return to the store on Friday and Yup you guessed it they are still not done. This is the point where Calm Jesse leaves again and I explain that I leave out of the country on Sunday and I need my computer ASAP! They promise me that it will be ready by 11am on Saturday. On Saturday I call in at 9:30 to check on the computer and they said it was ready for me to pick up! lol

I arrive at the store at 10 am, they boot up the new computer to show me that everything is working and that all of my data is in place. Then they hand me my old laptop back as I requested since I think someone smarter can still fix it. But when they give it back to me my power cord is nowhere to be found. I ask excuse me but where is my power cord that I gave you all? The Bleak Squad member ask me "You sure you gave it to us?" I responded yes I left it here because what on earth could I do with a power cord and no computer!? He then goes to the back comes out and says sorry we can not find it. I say well you all need to replace it because I gave it to you. At this time the Store Manager comes up to make sure everything was being taken care of, which it was not. The manager then says well there is no place for it to be in the back its a pretty clean area. I tell him that's all good and fine but the fact is that I gave you a working computer and you manage to break it causing me to purchase a new one and now you all loose a piece of equipment to that same laptop! He asked me what do I need it for anyway since my motherboard is broke, I told him because its mine and I am going to leave with everything I brought into you all! He replies "Hey we did you a favor with this computer and transferring your information over...I stopped him mid sentence a and channeled my inner Allen Iverson and Said "Favor! Favor! you did me a Favor!....how exactly by replacing a computer your technicians broke and putting my information back on my computer if anything that is professional courtesy I started to continue but I was getting so mad I had to stop. Also by this time he was marking down a new computer cord to 0 to give to me. lol

So as you can see I had a great experience with acquiring a new laptop :-)!! Well stay tuned for an update to my Calgary adventures!

P.S.
here is the link to where you can watch the bobsled races on-line http://www.universalsports.com/bobsled/index.html but it is delayed playback.

God Bless you all

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

2010-2011 National Team Trials

2010-11-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

Happy Tuesday Everyone!!

Finally we are done with National Team Trials, we were in Lake Placid for only two weeks but it seriously felt like three months! This was by far the warmest Team Trial Races that I have been apart of. The day before the race it was 70 degrees and the day of the race it was 68 degrees, now most times I would love this type of weather but when its suppose to be cold I kind of like it to be cold. The sun was shinning people were in T-Shirts, it just felt really weird. Due to the weather the race was push back about two times so instead of being at 11am the race took place at 6pm when it was a little cooler.

The races went pretty well, I raced with Corey Buckner a former pusher who was on a four-man team with me and now is driving. This is Corey's second year driving and he is picking it up fast and making it down the hill safe, which is always good! Unlike past years where I raced 2-man and 4-man I only raced 2-man this year because of the depth of the veteran drivers. It also gave some of the new guys a chance to race 4-man who would not have been able to race if me and another one of the veteran's would have done four-man. In the two man race we finished in third but we had the fastest start/push time in the first heat and the second fastest start/push time in the second heat!

Soooo what does this all mean you are asking yourself, and the second thing you are asking yourself is how does Jesse always know what I am thinking, the third thing you are asking yourself is really is Jesse actually going to keep going with this, the fourth thing you are asking yourself is why on earth does he think this is funny?, and the fifth thing you are asking yourself is oh God why wont he stop already, I swear if he does it one more time I am never reading his e-mail again.....and the Sixth thing...ok I'm done! lol

At the end of National Team Selection Races I was named to the National Team and I will be racing on USA 2 with 2010 Olympic Driver John Napier once he gets back from war in Afghanistan (he is in the Military World Class Athlete Program). Napier will not be back until the second World Cup race of the season in Calgary, Canada. In the mean time instead of sitting up in Lake Placid training and playing on the push track I have decided to go and race America's Cup with Corey in two-man until Napier gets back. I figured it will help me stay competitive while constantly improving and I help out a former team mate.

Currently I am in Park City, Utah until Nov 13, then we will head up to Calgary till the Nov 21st for a week of racing, then back here to Park City for a week of training. On the 28 I will then head back to Calgary's and Join the World Cup tour to race with Napier and my crew, from there I head back to Park City for World Cup the week of the Dec 6-12th, then on to the World Cup in Lake Placid finishing up on December 19th. Its kind of a world wind of events but this is Bobsled.

I finally got a new camera that is really sweet so please check my web-site by Friday for some new pictures

God Bless

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Push Championships/October Update

2010-10-07T15:52:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone I hope you are all doing great headed into the weekend, well except you Evil Closet Monkey! You Sir are no friend of mine....no friend indeed!! lol

Now where did I leave off at? Oh ok I remember Just as the mighty warriors enter the cave to the forbidden abyss a thousand year old smell of brimstone and sulphate rose from the caverns floor, but behind this stench was the army of the......Sorry wrong story!

Ok so we had our Push Championships Out in Lake Placid two weeks ago and I am happy to say that testing went pretty good for me. I finished in fith place about .06 or so out of third in the push championships and had the third fastest time to the 15meter eye out of 22 guys that tested. I would have done the same in the combine test however my left bicep was bothering me so I did not do the Clean so I left points on the table. The good thing about the combine though is that my strength has never really been questioned and it is basically a given that I would have cleaned the 160 k (and the coaches know it) for the points I needed placing me in the top 5 of the combine test as well. Now is that a bit cocky, yeah maybe but its also the truth and sometimes you need to be confident in your abilities. I am also pleased with the fact that I fixed some technique issues with my pushing that really paid off that the coaches and everyone noticed immediately when I was pushing and running behind the sled. The best part about it is that I know I can go faster, since I know the new position is good now I just need to get a lil more comfortable with it, letting my speed and power do the rest.

However, I am a lil disappointed in the fact that I did not sprint as fast as I could have, because I was running faster in Colorado Springs then what I tested in Placid. I blame some of that on flying in the day before testing (Not Smart) and not being fully warmed up when I ran, but that's on me still and not a mistake I will make again.

After Push Champs I flew back to Colorado Springs for a week or so to get my things packed up and stored away out there, now as of yesterday I am back in Lake Placid Preparing for Team Trials (Nov 11-29 Lake Placid, NY)

Team trials will be a lil different this year since a few of the veteran drivers retired leaving Steve Holcomb (USA 2010 Gold Medalist) and John Napier (2010 Olympian) as the only two veteran drivers with about 4 upcoming drivers in the wings. The twist is that Napier is also in the Army program and is over in Afghanistan but will be back for the Park City, UT Dec 6-11. What this means for me is that since I did not finish in the top 3 over all I am now fighting for the alternate spot on USA 1 and to do that I need to race in Team Trials and push great with one of the upcoming drivers in both two-man and four-man. Then when ever Napier comes back I will most likely be added to USA 2 for the remainder of the first half onto second half World Cup.

The good thing is though I am feeling great, my bicep is feeling great, my legs are great, and I am a lil bit slimmer at 217 and JB is ready and I am in this until 2014!

Thank you all for your constant prayers and support! I am still working on getting a new camera.

P.S I am in need of some financial sponsors so if you know of any possibilities please send them my way, I have a 501 c 3 set up

Sincerely

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

August Update

2010-08-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

Here Ye! Here Ye! Come one! Come All to the e-mail that tells the tail Jesse's Mountain Adventures!!

Ok you got me Colorado Springs is a City but there are mountains here and we run up them! You may ask how does one run up a mountain and the answer is you take bigger faster steps. lol

Training continues to go as planned here in Colorado and I am pleased with the progression in my running and lifting. My speed and strength are improving each week, making me feel pretty great actually! Its also worth noting that my Calf's are finally getting back to being rock solid like they were before my surgery. Honestly it was weird for a while trying to contract my Calf's and having them never really harden up as I have grown accustomed to them doing. But now they are responding the way they should, giving me back that explosive feeling coming of the the line or starting block. The Kid is very pleased with this! (To the new commers on my e-mail list I tend to refer to myself in the third perso either using my formal name or The Kid....and yes I am 32 and fully aware of my MANLY Status, The Kid term has no age refference associated to it. Plus Jesse Beckom likes to use it! so just go with it. Oh and I tend to use puncuation as I please fully aware that my old professors are having heart attacks everytime they read my e-mails, See that, I just used a comma as a period! lol)

In regards to the upcoming season, we have our Push Championships scheduled in Lake Placid from September 20-26. The push championships is how we determine who the best push athletes are, which also goes into the determination of who will be pushing on USA Sleds 1-3. Then starting on October 11, 2010 out Team Selection Races will begin. In preparation for Push Championships I am currently in Park City till next Tuesday to train on the Push Track there. The push track will allow me to better perfect my pushing and loading from each side of the sled, God willing it will be a great week of training. Also, I have updated my web-page www.jessebeckom3.com with the USA Bobsled 2010-2011 Schedule, so please take a look.

A couple of weeks ago I had a great surprise in the weight room! My Strength Coach from Iowa State Coach Matt McGettigan who is now the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Air Force Football came down to the OTC to speak with my Coach out here Jon Carlock and watch me train!!!!! Coach Getty said he would stop down one day but it was still a good surprise to walk in the weight room and see him there. Having the opportunity to lift in front of Getty immediately got jacked up and wanted to throw around some big weight.....you know just to show Coach that I'm still a Beast with it in the weight-room! For those of you are unfamiliar with who Coach Matthew McGettigan is, he was one of the Man at Iowa State that helped to get us physically and mentally ready for the rigors of college football and in part for life after football.....or as we liked to say "Getty will get you Right! Right!" You may not have liked certain coaches from time to time but Coach Getty was respected by all and even though he worked the hell out of you, you could not help but like him because he pushed you beyond your limitations for your own good! When cocky lil freshmen would come in we use to tell them that "they were not ready till they got some Getty in them, then they can come talk to us about working out!" It was not until their first day of heavy lifting and gasser's did they truly understand what we meant as their cockyness expelled itself into a garbage can while they were doubled over! Ahhh....college,It was definitely some great times. I.S.U BABE!!!!! Unfortunately though Getty came during my down week (this past week though Getty you missed 4x3 at 230K) of lifting which is where I lift about 75-80 percent of the normal weight I usually lift, but it was still a surreal moment for me. Because in my opinion Coach Getty, Carlock (Colorado Spring OTC Strength Coach), and Jason Hartman (Lake Placid OTC Strength Coach) form my holy trinity of Strength and Conditioning! and I dare anyone to challenge that .....Come on I dare you! Bring it!! And you will loose and not partially but by a lot, a whole lot! So there! lol.

On another note I had the honor of being one of the speakers for the USOC 17th annual Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere (FLAME) Program http://www.teamusa.org/resources/usoc-programs/f-l-a-m-e. From some odd reason they wanted me to tell my story to the college students attending the event. For this talk I addressed more of the road that lead me bobsledding as opposed to the sport itself, stressing the success and pitfalls that I have experienced in chasing my dream. We talked about surrounding yourself with the right kind of people and cutting off those that may be detrimental as you pursue personal goals. I touched on how peoples perception matter, the importance of first impressions, and making sure you are always networking and building good relationships with people. In these types of talks I like to encourage questions at anytime which allows for a better dialog between me and my audience helping to remove that lecture like atmosphere. From the response I received from the student after speaking with them I gather that they enjoyed the experience and found some of the information useful. Who knows maybe I can make a career out of speaking one day, hmmmm.......its a possibility! I may have to have David look over my speeches though since I am a genius at typos.

Talk to you all soon.

God Bless

Jesse

July Update

2010-07-06T18:01:00.004-04:00

I hope you all had a great 4th of July!!!!

Things are continuing to go good out here in the Springs (for now on Colorado Springs will be abbreviated Springs and Lake Placid as Placid cause I like short cuts!) I am happy to say that my running is improving, my heart rate is getting lower and the Kid is feeling pretty good. I am also going to drop a little weight this summer so I can be more ripped than Hulk Hogans pile of old T-Shirts! lol seriously though I will be faster when I drop a few pounds.....but being more ripped is a burden I am willing to to carry.

On another and less narcissistic note I do have a some interesting story from the last month or so. Since its the year after the Olympics the schedule tends to change a bit, some things happen later in the year and others happen earlier in the year. That being said we have already had our National Team Camp this year out here in Colorado Springs. The camp was a bit more laid back then last year, not being even close to the physical challenges of the camp last year. It was more of a celebration of the success that we had at the Olympics and how we plan to build on that as we head toward Sochi, Russia in 2014.

During the camp we did get a chance to pay tribute to some of America's true Heroes. We spent an afternoon with the Wounded Warriors http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org out on For Carson Army Base here in Colorado Springs. These are military personnel who have been injured while serving, suffering from amputations, brain damage, nerve damage and etc. The Wounded Warrior program helps these soldiers to return to some form of normalcy through physical activities and rehabilitating some soldiers back to active duty status. Its truly a humbling experience being surrounded by men and women who have sacrificed themselves and lifestyles fighting for our freedom, especially when they tell you that you inspire them and make them proud! I mean seriously how do you respond to something like that. Not sure if its the right answer but I thanked them for their service and sacrifice.

Overall it was a really fun of getting to know the soldiers, their stories, their families, and the sports that they were currently competing in. Some of my teammates sang karaoke at the band stand with some of the kids there, which I must say was very amusing. However I did provide some amusement for everyone in return. Hold on don't rush me I am getting to how I achieved such a thing bare with me, I just have to preference this story with a few things.

So evidently and unbeknown to me in certain situations other than before I am about to compete the sane part of my mind shuts down and Insane Jesse wakes up and is happy to take over!!! lol This became obvious to me when soon as we stepped of the bus at the Wounded Warrior picnic the woman showing us around told us about all the events that were going on. She pointed out the food, the karaoke, the dollar bash a car with sledge hammer area, and also that the Colorado Springs Police K-9 unit was there giving attack demonstrations!!! Yup!! this is the point where the sane part of my mind took a seat in my mental recliner, picked up the remote control and watched THE INSANE JESSE SHOW!!! This all happened in nanoseconds, since upon hearing this I immediately said HEY ARE THEY LETTING PEOPLE PUT ON THE ATTACK SUIT!!! (I was hyper like a 8yr old kid who just herd the ice cream truck coming!) our handler said she did not think so since the officers were only demonstrating. All I heard was.....she had no clue! Yeah....I'm that guy. I decided to go over and ask the officers myself and you know what THEY LET THE KID DO IT!!! THAT'S RIGHT EVIDENTLY GETTING ATTACKED BY A DOG IS MY IDEAL OF A GOOD TIME!!! LOL! (Dean Stop Laughing and Paul you hired me no laughing either!! )

After getting the ok to put on the attack suit and go head to head with the K-9 units I tell my teammates of my triumphant negotiations. Everyone kind of shook their head and said only Jesse! We all headed over to the K-9 demonstration area and I began to put on the protective gear. The officer in charge game me some tips on what to do when the dog was charging me, and that he wanted me to go with the blow so I do not jam the dog up and hurt it. That's right Jesse ain't scared of Dogs, Dogs are scared of Jesse!! He tells me that after the dog latches on to move my arm in a figure eight motion so the dog can test its grip. I am standing there in the middle of the field staring at the officer about 60ft away who is holding back an attack dog that is barking feverishly wanting a piece of me! At this point my adrenalin is starting to point and I am thinking YOU WANT SOME OF ME!!! YOU WANT SOME OF THIS DOG!? THEN COME GET YOU SOME!!! OH YEAH BRING IT!!!

All I can say is that it was a good time, I could actually feel some of the dogs teeth sinking through the protective suit. It was definitely worth it.

Well that's all I have for now, thank you for tuning into another episode of Jesse A True Story.

God Bless and enjoy the videos below

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Russia?......Hmmmm

2010-05-24T21:27:00.002-04:00

Greetings and Salutations everyone,

Sorry it has been so long since my last update but The Kid needed sometime personal time to decide the next step in my journey. However it's amazing how clearing my head translated into numerous punches and kicks into multiple walls (sorry OTC Maintenance), it was also surprising that with all that adrenalin flowing I did not hurt myself! lol Guess it just goes that physical therapy is calming!

But honestly I am doing good and by the Grace of God my legs are feeling excellent and have been since December, unfortunately though it was too late for me to make the Vancouver games. I admit that was a really hard pill to swallow considering the sacrifices that were made to reach that point. The support that I received from my family, friends, sponsors and all others was extremely encouraging.

Since that time I have been able to stop in PA, Chicago, and Iowa to visit old friends, family and my Alma Matter Iowa State. It has been a great couple of months getting back to the places and people that helped shape me into the Man I am today (For the record I AM ALL THAT IS MAN!! Lol! Seriously I am!)
This time has made me decide to keep on pushing forward this year and towards Russia, no pun intended. But be careful because pun will possible be intended later on so watch out for it cause pun has away of popping up with you least expect it.

Currently I am at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for the summer in preparation for the upcoming season. I have spoken with my weightlifting and running coaches and we have put together a plan to make me faster and stronger than ever before. I have been running and lifting like I never missed a beat. If I sound excited I am since last year this time I could barely walk let alone run full speed. My trainers and are getting back to basics in my running and lifting technique improving on every aspect of them, and with God's help I will be Beast on the Ice when it's all said and done! And for those of you wondering the tap out age of a bobsledder is 40 for the most part, not that I plan on going for that long but figured I would throw that out there.

Along with training I will be job hunting and looking for more sponsors to help off-set my expenses so please let that rich Uncle/Aunt or Company who just do not know what to spend their money on, that Jesse Beckom is a great investment!! I am also looking into some opportunities that may set me up where I would not need any sponsors so please pray that comes to fruition.

God Bless

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Rehab Update

2009-11-08T20:45:00.000-05:00

Nov 8, 2009

Good Evening Everyone,

So a bit of GREAT news........The Ralph Lauren web page is up and running and it is great!!!! The entire staff over at Ralph Lauren did a great job and I can not wait to see what comes next. Here is the link http://www.ralphlauren.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3880779&ab=global_usolympic

Once on the web-site be sure to move the sound selection from off to on, on the web page itself. Have a look around the site, click on the meet the athlete tab, hightlite the athlete and you will find out information about each of us! Some of it is quite amusing!!!! I will also post a link on my web-page www.jessebeckom3.com

I am currently in Lake Placid rehabbing my leg while steadily weight training and running. Since I have been back my trainers and I re-evaluated what has been going on with my groin/abductor area. They have put me on a new rehab schedule that is focusing on the more supportive muscles in my leg that play a key role when I run and push, which seem to be the main cause of why I have been having this issue so long.

It is my opinion that after my lower leg surgery we concentrated on all the major muscles like my quad, hamstring and calf muscles and did not pay enough attention to the smaller muscle groups in my leg that help with stability that need to be firing correctly and play a key role when I run. Since we have identified this as a problem we now have a good place to work from. I thank God that my leg continues feel better each morning I wake up, my strength, quickness, endurance, and speed seemingly improve as well. My mind is in a really good place right now! I have seen adversity before and I have been groomed to handle it! You DIG DEEP and that is what I am doing I am DIGGING DEEP for all my worth!!!

After I am completely healthy which should be in the next week or so I will race the America's Cup Circuit, push great and with God's blessing show the coaches what I am capable of and that when I am healthy I should no doubt be on World Cup. Depending on my performance and how the guys are pushing on World Cup our Coaches have the ability to call me up to World Cup during the First Half or the Second Half of the season. So if you have time please say a prayer or two that I am finally able to compete at 100 percent of my ability!!! And Like my football coaches always told us "Perform and let the numbers speak for themselves!"

Thank you all and God bless

Jesse

2009 Team Trials

2009-10-25T21:06:00.002-04:00

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you all have had a great weekend and got out to see Saw IV or Law Abiding citizen, I did not get a chance to but I plan on it when I get a chance.

It has been a couple of interesting weeks since last I spoke with you and a lot has happened. Ok, so the week of October 5th I was feeling better my leg was getting stronger, I had spoken with Todd Hays the driver of USA 2 about getting a race off for a spot on his sled which he was going to give me so I was feeling pretty good! Later that week me and some of the other guys he was thinking about using was at the Push Track in Lake Placid training and recording times, well my first few pushes felt great than on my fifth push of four-man we fired out the hole pretty good then on like my sixth step something Popped in my right abductor and I had to hop on the sled early since I was unable to keep running!!!! This is NOT what I needed to happen to say the least!!! I was extremely upset I ended up punching the ground and a nearby wooden sign, I could not believe what was going on!. It was one of those moments where I saw 8yrs of my life just floating by my eyes.

I immediately got dressed and one of my teammates let me use his car to drive back to the training center to have our sport trainers take a look at my leg. The trainers began examining my leg, but it was really tender to the touch so they immediately placed ice on it to take down the swelling. The only weird thing is that it hurt but it felt like something that needed to be loosen got loosened up. Don't get me wrong it was still really sore but it did feel better than it did before (or maybe I just got use to the pain, kind of hard to tell since I am not use to being injured)

From that day on I was in the training room four times a day (twice in the morning, and twice in the afternoon) getting Ice and stem, Ultrasound, Compression, and any other treatment I could do to get my leg back. I was also applying anti-inflammatory cream to my leg and wrapping it with and ace bandage every day. All this and a ton of praying my leg began to recover and really fast pace unfortunately though my chance at a race off had past since team trial race would start next week on the 14th and 15th. Needless to say it was not any fun having to watch team trials in Placid, but like any other brakeman who does not race I helped move the sleds for those people who were racing so that they can concentrate solely on racing.

It was very frustrating for me but I just kept thinking that ok I did not get a chance to race in Lake Placid but maybe that is just God's way of giving me more time to rest for the last part of Team Trial Races the upcoming week in Park City, Utah. Due to the fact that some drivers were not happy with their crews and their start times and some other shuffling that was going on with some crews not happy with their driver I was given the opportunity to race with Mike Bradley USA 5. Yeah of course I would have liked to race with a higher ranked driver but the opportunity came with mike first so I took it! Thank God now at least I know I was going to race team trials at the least!!!

I arrived in Park City on Sunday the 18th, training started on Monday the 19th with some two man training. I pushed on Monday and my leg felt pretty good which I was happy about!!! The next day we did some 4-man training and I was still feeling pretty good. Each day I felt like my leg was continually getting stronger and I was beginning to get back into my running rhythm, it felt a little tight but I just assumed it was because I needed to just warm up longer. The 2-man race was on the 23rd which another guy on my team raced in. The for man was the next day on the 24th. On the night of the 23rd I did my usual pre race day warm-up and stretch, I ran a few laps around the track in the gym and was feeling pretty loose, I did a couple of drills and stretch like usual and left the gym feeling confident for the next day of racing.

The day of the race I began my preparations for the race doing my completed warm-up drills, stretching, and sprints. I was ready to go!!
Me and my team got to the starting block, got in our ready stance and took off!! My running felt fine to me, the load was good but when we got down to the bottom of the hill our start time was 5.12 when other teams were pushing 4.88 and 4.94 or so! We were not happy at the bottom we had the slowest start. When we got back to the top I heard that the coaches thought I had gotten hurt running because I was running really wide and away from the sled as if I was protecting my leg. I immediately let the coaches know that I was not hurt and I was running wide because in training I kept hitting the side bunk of the sled we were using. I was use to racing in a Bo-dyne sled and this one was different and I evidently over compensated by running to wide to avoid hitting the bunk in the race. The second heat I said forget and just got back in my normal running position, if I hit the bunk I hit the bunk! We pushed again and the time was still only 5.10. I was told by a few teammates watching that it my pushing looked a lot better but my coach still thought I was guarding and I did not look like I normally look when I push. Honestly I felt good pushing and I thought our start time would be faster, I know I am not the only one pushing but it felt like everyone was looking at me for the slow times because of my recent injuries. Needless to say we finished 5th out of 5 sleds. We had hoped to prove that we could put up a strong start time with Mike, which would had looked good for myself and Corey(my teammate from last year who was just added to Mike's sled for this race) since mike is not the fastest pushing driver. Unfortunately this did not turn out the way we had hoped.

However a couple of hours after the race my left leg was pretty sore more so than usual after a race, which I know now that I still have some healing to do before I am able to push and run the way I should be.

Later that day on the 24th at 4pm the official announcement of the National Team was made and I was not on it, which was disappointing but with the timing of what has been going on with my leg especially these last few weeks I was not surprised that I was not on the team.
Thankfully there is still time for me to get fully better and continue chasing my Olympic Dreams! How is that possible you ask, well let me tell you!

Each year there is a World Cup Tour that the National Team races on , but there is also a America's Cup Tour for those athletes who do not make World Cup race on! Due to changes in the Olympic Qualifying Process a driver can still make it to the Olympics if he does well on the America's Cup tour. And we have drivers on the America's cup that are capable of doing just that. My job now is to get back to placid, get in sports med and get my leg fully ready and stronger than before! After that I will start pushing on the America's Cup Tour which starts here in Park City three weeks from now, then to Calgary, and to Lake Placid for a total of 14 races in three weeks. It is important that I push the driver I am with extremely well in order to be selected to attend a another Push Championship the month of January over in Germany that will be used to determine the Olympic Team, added with past competition results.

The road would be a lot easier if I was on World Cup but there is a chance slim as it may be for me to make it and that is good enough for me!!! A good friend of mine once told me to just keep pushing, let everything sort itself out and that is what I will do. With God's blessing I will continue to get healthy, train and do my best so that my coaches see that I should be called up!

My spirit is high, my confidence is up and there is no quit in my heart!!!

Thank you all for your support and the e-mails that you send me. You all keep me going

Thanks and God Bless!

Jesse

2009-10-25T21:05:00.001-04:00

Hello all,

Well I will get right to the point in this e-mail. We had our annual Push Championships last week and unfortunately I had the worse day of testing in my life! I was about .13 of where I should have been. I finished out of the top 10 when it came to pushing. It was by far not my best day. I know what happened, how it happened but not sure why it had to happen at that moment. I let myself get to amped up before I was going to push which, translated to me having bad form when I was pushing. Also for some crazy reason right before I pushed decided to change the hand position that I have been using for the past 5yrs (for some reason I thought it would be faster). These factors resulted in all of momentum and power was not going in the correct direction, it was going east and west when I ran instead of North and South down into the Ice. I looked at the video , output force chart, forward acceleration chart, speed (mph) charts and saw where I lost the time in my pushing and realized what I did wrong.

The next day when we had 3-man combination pushes and I was able to gather my self and correct what went wrong the day before. The trick for me is to get amped up but to breathe and refocus and calm down before I push. The combination pushes I was in on times were right up there with the fastest times or withing .03. However most drivers make their decisions regarding teams based on the individual pushes, so the 3 man combos hold some weight but not a lot.

It has been a trying off-season for me this year dealing with my leg surgery, then a hyper extended ligament in my right knee, high hamstring issues in my right leg, a strained right abductor and groin. My Trainers in Sport Medicine gave me the treatment I needed to get back training normal. But before heading up to Calgary I ended up me receive a shot in my groin to relieve the pain that was still feeling in it. I am not good at discussing injuries because frankly they annoy me more than I can verbally express nor do I like the fact that I have had to take time off in order to heal. I feel that I need to let you all know because I did promise to keep you all up to date with the highs and lows in my journey to become an Olympian.

I know you are all wondering where things stand with me and what my next move is, so let here it goes. Since I did not do myself any favors pushing I will have to talk to some drivers about getting a race off against push athletes that drivers may have already named to their team for National Team Trials. Once I get the driver or drivers to understand that I just had a off day and I have always preformed in races, and agree to a race off between me and one of their guys I will then beat them out of their spot and take their place on the sled, and compete in Team Trials. The bottom line is that if I do not compete in Team Trials my quest for 2010 ends here....But that is not going to happen! I have given up to much and fought to hard to let it end like this! I WILL GET MY RACE OFF, I WILL TAKE THE SPOT THAT IS IS MINE, I WILL MAKE WORLD CUP AND WITH BY GRACE OF GOD I WILL BECOME AN OLYMPIAN!!

Team Trials start Oct 5-10 in Lake Palcid then we had to Park City for a week to finish up Team Trials. I will continue to keep you all up to date with my progress as it happens.

God Bless and thank you all for your support!

Jesse

Polo Ralph Lauren update part 1

2009-07-16T17:46:00.000-04:00

Greetings everyone!!!

I apologize that it has been a while since my last update but a lot of things have been going on, which is Great but my mind has been all over the place.

About a month and a half ago I received a phone call from Chris Coleman who is a former Olympic Bobsledder, and current Associate Director of Marketing Properties for the USOC (United States Olympic Committee). Chris informed me that Polo Ralph Lauren was doing an Olympic Photo shoot in NYC and they were looking for the right athletes to represent the Winter Olympics. Evidently some of the ladies in the marketing department remembered me from training out there last summer and mentioned to Chris that I would be a good candidate. That's when I received a phone call on Tuesday afternoon informing me about what was going on. Chris explained the situation to me and asked me if that was something I would be interested in. I told him I was not sure I have to check my schedule! JUST JOKING!! I felt like Renee Zellweger I was like "You had me at Po!" lol. Chris was on a tight deadline and needed to know if I had a copy of my biography and some pictures that I could forward him since Ralph and his staff wanted to look over the pictures tomorrow! I was thinking hmmm...does Jesse Beckom III have a few pictures of himself? let me see..... I informed Chris that I might have a few laying around that I can send you.(Yes, Yes sometimes I speak about myself in the third person, its ok everyone does it at least once in their life).

I immediately started shuffling through my pictures looking at some modeling pictures and some lifestyle (pictures from everyday life) that I had on my computer. After finding the pictures that I thought would work, I e-mailed them along with a copy of my biography to Chris who forwarded them on Ralph Lauren and his staff.

Two days later at the Push Track I hear my phone ringing but I did since I was in the middle of training, and I figure if its important they will leave me a message. Turned out the message was important, it was Chris calling to relay a message from the people at Polo Ralph Lauren. Turns out they like my look, my story and they want to know if I would be available from June 17-20th for the shoot!!!! Yup my head may have suddenly gotten a wee bit heavy after listening to that message. Seriously though I was actually feeling pretty grateful of the opportunity God just place in my hands because I knew it was nothing I had done to make this happen. Right after I listened to the message I dropped down to my knees for a quick little thank you prayer to God, then called Chris back to let him know that I would definitely be available.

Soon after I began receiving e-mails form Jill Krizelman the Director of Retail Marketing, welcoming me to the project, letting me know that her and the staff are looking forward to meeting and working with me. The e-mails definitely made me feel really comfortable and even more excited about the opportunity in front of me.

This is where the story gets a little bit embarrassing but oh well I am going to tell it the way it happened........

Now for those of you who do not know it, I like to be as prepared as possible for any situation that I find myself in. That being said once I had the dates for the photo shoot I e-mailed my friend Ari who is former Miss Teen Iowa, and has done a ton of other modeling over the years for some advice. I tell her about the shoot and ask her if she has some tips what I should do to get prepared. Ari congratulated me then preference's her response with "Jesse this may sound feminine but this is what my male model friends have told me works for them!" I was thinking Ok......what is she about to say next? Ari goes on to tell me that I should get a manicure and a pedicure before the shoot, I need to go to a spa a day or so before the shoot and have a soak in Dead Sea Salt because its suppose to make my skin look amazing. Yeah I know right but just wanted to remind everyone out there that I still bench over 450lbs and can squat a small country....just in case some are starting to doubt my membership in the MANCLUB and are feeling a need to crack a joke! (I.E Tate, Bobby Mac, Dean, Atif, and Hayhurst!) Just throwing that out there! Skittles Tate! Skittles!

Ari continues telling me I need to buy some Evian Natural Mineral Water Facial Spray which will help keep my face looking moisturized and soft, and I need to use some teeth whitening products and if I do not have these things that she can send them to me! How great is that?! I was thinking Ari, you no good and well that I do not have any Evian Facial Spray so stop playing with me! lol Ari ends up sending me some bottles of the facial spray and the teeth whitening products. Ari- also included instructions regarding how and when to use the products cause she knew I had no clue what so ever on what to do with them!

As far as the spa thing goes I was not about to spend money just to soak in Dead Sea Salt! However, I did get on line and order a 5lb bag of Bokek Dead Salt, ran some warm water in the bath and soaking in that. Oh and yes if you are wondering I did go get the manicure and pedicure AND WHAT ABOUT IT!!!!?

Leading up to the photo shoot I was strictly buisness every night. I was spraying my face the Evian facial spray, using the teeth whitening products, and doing sit-ups, crunches, side crunches, Jack knife crunches, side crunches, bicycle crunches I mean Everything! The only thing in my mind is that I am going to a 24pack by the time this photo shoot come around, just in case I have a picture with my shirt open I need to be ready!!

June 17th finally rolls around and I head to the airport. Yes I flew from Lake Placid, NY to Ny, NY! Don't judge me! lol Man its getting kind of late I am going to have to finish this another time. Sorry!

This e-mail is supported and backed by the friends of Jesse Beckom III who wish you a happy tomorrow!

God Bless,

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Polo Ralph Lauren Photo Shoot finale

2009-07-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

Vie Ghets! (What's Up)

So this e-mail became longer than I thought it would be.

As I was saying Boss Hog was hot on our trails, Luke and Bo were going crazy in the back seat telling me to drop the hammer! and daisy was nowhere to be found!.....Sorry bout that wrong story. lol

Back to my original story. Ralph Lauren was flying me from Lake Placid, NY to New York City, NY and yes I know how that sounds but hey I like it in them! It kind of reminded me in college at Iowa State when we flew from Des Moines, IA to that Other City where that Other Schools plays at to beat them! lol

Since Lake Placid does not have a airport I flew out of Saranc Lake which is twenty minutes away. I could have flown out of Albany, NY but its a two and a half hour ride from Lake Placid to the airport. The airport in Sarnac Lake is not what yo would call your major hub of activity to say the least!! This is a fact that I knew but knowing that I was still surprised when I came to the airport, an airport which by the way you only have arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled flight. I get to the airport about an hour before my flight, you know just to be on the safe side. I check my bags in but security was no open yet so I had to wait 30 minutes before security opened. I thought this was pretty amusing because the TSA Agents that checked my bags walked around the counter and over twenty feet to the security table, metal detector and proceeded to Open Up Security!!! Lol I am still amused by this so feel free to laugh!

As I pass through security with the biggest GRIN ever on my face I proceed to walk out on the tarmac. I expected to see a small plane from the size of the airport and the 5 other passengers sitting in the airport but I did not expect to be a Cessna!, and at that moment my grin got a little be smaller, actually transforming into a smirk! The strangest thought of hmmm....how exactly is this going to work passed through my mind a million times in those fifteen steps to the airplane. As we board this glider, sorry airplane our usher/baggage claim attendant/ security person informs us that due to weight balancing no one can sit in the very last seat. We board the plane which is actually equipped with some pretty nice bucket leather seats. To my further amusements after I have my seat-belt fastened the Co-Pilot leans back, turns around and briefs us on the the safety procedures. Seriously I could not talk and was barely breathing at this point because if I did I would have exploded in laughter!!

The plane starts its taxi down the runway which is right about when the win began blowing a little bit harder causing the plane to sway slightly! I was thinking "So this is how it all ends I guess, well its been fun!" As the plane picked up speed the swaying stopped, next thing I new we were in the air! It was actually a pretty smooth flight and the view was extraordinary. Since Cessna's do not fly as high as your regular charter airplane it made it easier to take in the sights of the landscape and cities that we were flying over. Being in that plane gave me a new respect for the greenery of the Adirondack's during the summer months. The treetops seemed to go on forever, the mountains looked terrific and the streams flowed for miles on end. If you never have the pleasure of coming to see me race here in the winter during those -50 degree days, I highly recommend you coming out this way, bring your family if you have one and enjoy the great outdoors here in the summer months.

The plane lands in Boston with no problems and I successfully make it to my connecting flight to NYC, which was on a normal sized plane.

When I arrived I received a phone call from the chauffeur company informing me that my driver was at the airport waiting my arrival! This is when I begin to think "I have not met any of the people at Ralph Lauren but I am liking the way the operate!", I come down the escalator and true enough there is a guy holding a sign that say BECKOM! Yup that's me!!! My driver (I am really liking the fact that I can say My Driver by the way and I may say My Driver a lot so try not to get too annoyed if I tell you something that My Driver does, or something My Driver does not do because because being My Driver, My Driver has a lot of responsibilities that come along with being My Driver but its ok cause he is My Driver! lol). Where was I again....oh yeah My Driver followed me to the baggage claim where we bot watched as the carousel stopped and guess what people, you knew it had to happen...Yup once again my luggage was lost in transit!! I swear my bags have been lost more times than a T.V remote. I have said it once and I will say it again KEEP UP WITH YOUR BAGGAGE CLAIM TICKET!! After talking to the lady in baggage claim I find out that my bag is still in Boston and should be coming in later tonight before midnight. This is has happened to me so many times I am not stressed out to much, especially since I have my laptop with me at all times and that is the most important item I travel with.

I followed My Driver out to the Lincoln Town Car that was awaiting me and was on my way. The drive through NYC was pretty sweet and I enjoyed every minute of it! My Driver was originally from Beijing, China. He asked me if I was a model, I told him was an Bobsled athlete playing model for a couple of days.
It was a forty-five minute drive from the airport to the Empire Hotel NYC http://www.empirehotelnyc.com where I would be staying (You really have to go on-line and look at this hotel it is really nice and trying to describe it would take forever. When I checked in at the hotel the laddies at the hotel were all smiling contagiously at me, I can only assume since the reservation were under Ralph Lauren they assumed I was one of their real models. One of the ladies informed me that there was a package waiting for me and promptly grabbed it for me. She walked to the back room, returning with a Polo Ralph Lauren bag in her hand and gave to me. A driver!, women constantly smiling at me during my arrival!, a gift at the front desk!, I tell you what if this if the life of a model I then please sign me up cause I am loving this treatment!

After thanking the front desk girl for my bag I head up to my room. My room had a king size bed a nice view of the city and a fully stocked fridge complete with two bottles of champagne, two bottles of wine and anything else you would want to drink. I ended up drinking a couple bottles of water, a sprite, a coke and a few snickers. lol Yeah I know but hey I am training here not time for the other stuff. Next I open up the Polo box that was in the bag. Inside was a red Polo Ralph Lauren shirt with a large navy blue Polo emblem on the left breast and the number 3 on the right sleeve. I like to think they knew I was Jesse Beckom III and that's why my shirt had a 3 on it but then I noticed all of their shirts like that have a number 3 on it. lol Along with the shirt was a cool little card from Jill telling me how happy everyone is to work with me and finally meet me, it was a good feeling by far! Later that night Jill called to make sure my flight was ok and that I made it in safe. I informed her about my baggage situation and she said some the greatest word I have every heard she said " Well Jesse I sorry this happend but you picked the right place to loose your bag because if you do not receive it then we will get you some things from the Polo Store!" I was thinking What was that you say sweet angel? lol Did you say from the Polo Store? I have never wished so hard that my bag never turned up in my life!! lol but it did and that was fine too! So close so very very close! lol

First Day of the shoot

The next morning at 7:15 am I and eight other winter sports athletes met Jill in the hotel lobby. I knew Noelle Pikus-Pace (Skeleton), Ryan St.Onge (Aerialist 2009 World Champion) and Tim Burke (Bi-athlete 2006 Olympian) since we all come across each other from being in the Olympic Training Center. I met Ben Agosto and Tanith Belbin (Paired Ice Dances and 2006 Silver Medalist), Ted (Alpine Skier 2006 Gold Medalist), Evan Lysacek (2009 World Champion), Resi Stiegler (Down Hill Skier GS). Who are all a great group of people and accomplished athletes. We all did the normal hello's but not much was said though aw we all piled into the van outside that would take us to our photo shoot at Brooklyn Studios in Brooklyn, NY. At the start of thirty-five minute drive to the studio Jill began to informed us that we will be trying on the Opening and Closing Ceremony Clothing for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics!!!! EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING!!! Then Jill told us the ideology that were behind the designs of the clothing we will be modeling and all of us were quite and were really.....how is this going to look? lol I would like to tell you the theme behind the apparel but it is meant to be a surprised so I will not ruin it and we signed waivers that we would not talk about the clothing in detail. So I will have some pictures up on my web-site but only a few and none of any of the outfits that we were wearing.

When we arrived in the studio we were directed over to the wardrobe section where there were about four racks of outfits, 5 rows of sun glasses, belts, ties, hats, socks boots everything we needed just waiting for us to try on. A few things were going through my mind at this time the first being "This is pretty serious" and the second being "God let me do what I need to do so that I can put these clothes on For Real come the Olympics!"

The Ralph-Lauren Polo staff was slowly introduced to us through out the day. The staff which consisted of about 35 or more people included the Polo Ralph Lauren Staff Directors, Managers, VP's; Photo Team, Video Team, Production Crew, and Styling Crew.

In the wardrobe area the men and women had at least three people at any given time helping us with our outfits. I believe it was Meryl the director of Men's Styling who handed me my first outfit to try on. As I am walking with the outfit I happen to look at the size of the shirt, and to my surprise I see the letter "M" so I started to laugh a bit thinking this should be interesting to say the least cause I have not been medium size in a looooooooooooong time! No one must have told them that bobsled guys are not small by any means! Anyway I go put the shirt and pants on which was not made out of spandex but the way they fit on me they could have easily been mistaken for spandex. I barely got the shirt to go on my arms but I tugged and pulled till it did but was only able to get about 4 buttons buttoned and I truly thought my legs were going to bust out of the pants they gave me. As I am slowly walking back to the wardrobe area looking like the in between stage of Bruce Banner to the Incredible Hulk I hollar out "I AM NOT SURE THIS FITS!" The other athletes were laughing but some of the ladies in the room seemed to think it fit just right! lol It got better because then they squeezed a medium sized sweater on over the shirt! Are you kidding me! lol It turned out that this was only the pre-fitting process. So while I was standing there looking like Thomas Tight pants they had the tailor come over to see where he needed to take out the arms, legs and add material in some places (and by some places I mean around the Gun Show Yeah FIRE POWER! BOOM!). After the tailor looked at me that took a few quick Polaroid pics of me and placed them on a show board. They did this process with all of us in whatever outfits we were going to be modeling. I had two changes I would be modeling and after I was done with the second change and the tailor was done making the appropriate marks he took the clothes and began to make the alterations. I was really impressed with this because it was only two tailors and they were making the adjustments to all of our outfits right on the spot!

Once I was done trying on my clothes it was off to hair and make-up. Of course I was sporting the freshly shave bald head so I did not have to see the hair dresser but I joked around with them asking if they could take a bit off the top for me. I laughed anyways! So as I looked at the other guys around me waiting for the make-up artist to do her thing you can tell we all were thinking the same thought which was. "Make-up Seriously Make-up when my friends find out about this it is not going to be good! Man Make-UP! GOD WHY MAKE UP!!?" But some of the girls seemed to be thrilled at a professional hair styling and make-up session, Yippee for them I guess. After we were done with a that area we sat around for a bit getting to know one another and finding out about each others sports. We also had a chance to converse with some of the staff members who were there and were very busy but made time for a chat or two.

They had a few different possible rooms that we were suppose to shoot including outside on the roof, but due to the rain that day we were not able to go outside. We each took our turn in the room they had set-up inside for us. Arnoldo was the name of our photographer and like everyone else he was a cool person but definitely serious about his job. During the photo shoot he would say things lik "Look Strong!" and I was thinking if I look any stronger I may bust out of this shirt! But he meant look strong facially. One time he said look heroic and I could think about was what how do I look like a military person, or kind of hard to look like a fireman or police man! What is this guy talking about look heroic but he meant to stand tall with my chest out and look daring Like HERE I AM TO SAVE THE DAY!!!! But his direction were pretty good just a few times hearing it to understand what he was looking for and how he wanted us to pose. At different point during our photos we took pictures with some of our sports specific gear which was sweet if I say so my self When we were not taking pictures we all would watch each other up there to see how we were doing and looking at the pictures that were taken as they popped up on a near by computer screen.

There was also a camera crew there from Teen/Kid T.V doing individual interviews with all of us, asking the basic battery of questions. They inquired about what makes us want to do the sport we do, what would it be like to walk in the opening ceremonies, what drives us and etc. It was a nice little addition to the photo shoot in between waiting for your time to shoot.

After my first round of photos I was standing around watching someone else take their shoots when Lizzie the Sr. Director of Corporate Communications came up and asked me if I had seen my shirt. I said to Lizzie "What Shirt?" she said with a huge smile "Here come follow me!" I followed Lizzie to a rack where several white Ralph Lauren Polo's were hanging. On the front was a navy blue Polo emblem with the Name BECKOM underneath it! On the back it read BECKOM under that was TEAM USA, under that were the Olympic Rings, and under that was VANCOUVER 2010!!!! When I saw this shirt I SMILED THE BIGGEST SMILE THAT I HAVE IN A LONG TIME!!! It is unexplainable how much of a rush I felt from seeing this piece of clothing. But the meaning behind it, the meaning if God willing I will be able to wear this shirt true to form it in February can not be expressed!!! And to make it ever better right after that I saw Tanith and Ben doing their photos together wearing their 2006 Silver Medals, then Ted took the stage wearing his 2006 Gold medal!! Seeing all these things motivated more than I could ever have imagined this trip would do! Seeing them up there is where I want to be. It was not envy or jealousy but a deep respect for them and what they have accomplished and to have a clue of the hard work and sacrifice that must go into reaching that point!! The chance to be the Best hands down and to do what it takes to get there and can never be stripped from you! That is what I saw and that is what I strive to have the fortitude to achieve!

It was a great first day of shooting and getting to know everyone. After the shoot at about 6pm went back to the hotel to relax for a couple of hours before we were taken to dinner at Rosa Mexicana http://www.rosamexicano.com/, which is a high end Mexican restaurant. From the food to the atmosphere this restaurant was excellent! We had reserved table upstairs and as we walked up to the right of us was a trickling waterfall flowing over a marble wall. And what waterfall will be complete without a diver, so there were countless mini sculptures positioned to show the numerous positions of a diver jumping off a cliff. The restaurant was very well lit, the food preparation was great and served in a timely manner. We all really enjoyed the dinner which gave us a chance to realax and get to know each other a bit more.

Second and final Day of the shoot

On the second day we met Jill and Jenna (Intern) in the lobby at 8:15, piled up in the van and headed back over to Brooklyn Studios. This second day of the shoot was the individual video interview day. There was a sound studio two blocks down from our current location where we would be doing separate interviews in front of a green screen. I need to regress for a minute. Before we came out to the shoot we were requested to bring old photos, videos, and news paper articles of ourselves to be added into this project. Now, we were informed that the camera crew we were working with was really creative so I am not sure if some of the media that we gave them will be on the green screen or not. However I did make them aware that if possible I would like to be seen Flying on Falcore (you know Falcore he is the Luck Dragon from the Neverending Story) not sure if that will actually happen but if you see it....that was my ideal! lol

The green screen day was pretty straight forward. We went down to the studio in groups of two to four depending on every ones flight schedule. They had each person talk about themselves, their sports achievements, some of the technical aspects about our sports and the mental focus it takes to perform in our respective sport. We demonstrated some of the motions and positions that we put our body through. So we were jumping, running in place, flipping just your basic action shots for the most part. The more amusing things of this day was what was happening when we were waiting to go to the video studio.

The first thing was that on this second day was some of the Real models that Ralph-Lauren Polo works with were there, modeling the same outfits that we were in the day before. It seemed like they brought in some of our modeling doubles. lol One guy look like Ted with the whole beach boy ice surfer look but may have been a little bit taller. One guy look like me without the weight room of course so he was about 50lbs less than me! lol It was completely opposite in some regards because instead of having to make clothes bigger they were taking out material to make the clothes smaller to fit them. We were thinking yup they are burning all the pictures of us right now but we are glad they invited us! lol Seriously though are going to use our pictures for a campaign Ralph Lauren Polo will be starting later this year around November. I will keep you all up to date with how the project progresses so you can be on the look out for it.

Next is what I have decided to call the Bored Olympics! Not sure if any of you know it or not but most of us are in the middle of our summer training and have three days of not training, lifting weights, or running makes an athlete get a little bit restless. With that being said while we waited for our turn to go over to the studio our minds started to wonder and think of physical challenges that we could. It started off slow as I was looking up to the celling, when Noelle must have read my mind cause she asked me "Hey Jesse you think you can touch that pipe?" I was like I should be able to get about how high is it? We tried to guess it out using Noelle height as a measuring stick and mentally stacking her upon herself! Then someone remembered that the tailors had some measuring tape and Noelle and Ryan ran to the table and grabbed it. They then ran up the spiral stair case that lead to the roof and drop the measuring tape from the break in the celling to the floor. The pipe was about 12.5 feet or so, so I was really confident that I could get it with a little running start. By this time we kind of forgot that we were working in a professional environment but we also live by the rule THAT EVERYTHING IS A COMPETITION! and by Noelle asking me could I touch the pipe the competition was ON! lol In hind sight this may not have been one of our brightest ideals but hey it happens. So I take a three step running start leap into the air Touching the Pipe of course, but i forgot to control my momentum as I landed! So all 225lbs of me come hurling down to the ground full force and BOOM I land and the whole floor shook! It was so loud it was crazy! I felt like a little kid that just got in troubled when I heard Jill call out JESSE!!! We all kind of laughed and I apologized, explaining to Jill that we got a little bored.

Since the jumping was out of things we could do or should do, we had to switch gears. Luckily Ryan (The Aerialist) travels with a set of push up bars that he uses to practice his L-Sits and hand stands with, which he happily made me aware off! And I could not resist telling Ryan to break them out! Once again EVERYTHING IS A COMPETITION! It is worth mentioning that the competition we were about to begin started in Lake Placid a week prior when some of the Bobsled, Bi-athletes, aerialist and skeleton athletes were all sitting around in the hallway talking and Ryan broke out the push up bars. The goal is to hold your self in the air using your arms as you are in the L position and your feet or legs are not allowed to touch the floor. The trick is to position the majority of your mass slightly behind your arms while also tightening your abs. Ryan and I went first then we challenged some of the other athletes there to do it as well. After that the next challenge was to while holding onto each of the push up bars that were positioned on the to do a handstand. But instead of just kicking your legs over your head you had to start in a crab position with your knees on the back of your elbow then slowly raise yourself into the air. The last thing we did was to see how many push ups you could do while in the handstand position. We each held one another leg just enough ensure we kept our balance but it still is a difficult thing to do.

Now while all this was going on one of the models there who was our age (yes she was 9yrs old too! lol) broke out her video camera and recorded all of these shananggins! There was also a young 8yr old boy there who was a model and with his grandmother. We had met them earlier in the day and when he saw me doing the handstand push ups he asked his grandmother if he could give it a try. His grandmother brought him over and of course we let him join in on the fun! The little kid was actually pretty strong doing 10 push-ups! Afterward upon their request we took pictures with him and his grandmother. Little guy was smiling from ear to ear it was really Great he was a cool little kid!

Our day ended at 6:30 we said our goodbyes to one another, thanked the Ralph Lauren Polo staff for all their hard work and went on our way! This was truly a great opportunity for me to be a part off and I am still honored that I was chosen to do it! Oh and we got to keep those white Polo Shirts with our names on them. Mine is folded in a box under my bed until God willing I punch my ticket this year!

God Bless

Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com

Second Surgery Update Finale

2009-04-09T12:51:00.001-04:00

Thank you for tuning back in to Channel JB3 brought to you by Mokceb Entertainment LLC.
Jesse is on his way to surgery....Sorry its hard to break character sometimes....I GOT TO FOCUS! lolOn my way to surgery at 9:00pm (March 9th) I remind the nurses that when I wake up this time and ask for water, that no one better shove a wet sponge in my mouth like they did last time!! I told them I want a real glass of water otherwise there is going to be a Fight! As I am being rolled down to the surgery it dawns on me that in my first surgery I did not remember any of my trip into the actual operating room. I immediately start to think that Mr.Hippie Anesthesiologist failed to give me enough drugs to knock me out! After that thought the next thought in my head I blame on watching too many movies on the Sci-Fi Channel. I see all these bright lights and people in mask and rubber gloves I am thinking ALIEN IMPLANT TIME OR My Head Will Be Forever Alive In A Glass Jar On a Shelf!!! And Can I Take Another Look At That Waiver I Signed! However, If they place some Bionic Implants inside my legs well.........that could just be our little secert!

After I am moved onto the surgery table the Anesthesiologist gives me some more drugs, places an oxygen mask over my face and instructs me to take a deep breath in. It was lights out after that Do Not Pass Go, Go Straight To The Land of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

GOOD NEWS!
But to my delight when I woke up and asked for a glass of water THEY ACTUALLY GAVE ME A GLASS OF WATER AND NOT A WET SPONGE!! Cheers to me! I was happy the procedure was over but still a bit upset that I had to stay overnight. Doc came in after the surgery and explained to me that he had successfully removed all of the standing fluid/blood out of my leg and that no signs of infection had been detected. Doc went on to tell me that he also had to cut away more of the fascia in my leg. He cut lower towards my ankle and higher towards my knee to make sure all of my muscles were full released. Doc joked and said he wanted to make sure I did not have to come back a third time! I DID NOT LAUGH! All I was thinking is that if I have to come back a third time it will not be to you because I got two Great Surgeons Doc Greenwald at ISU and Doc Thometz in Chicago that I would be calling, and I know they would get the job don on the first try!!!

Then next morning Doc came back in the room explained the operation to me again and removed the wraps that were on my legs. The pressure, pain, and swelling that was once in my leg was finally gone! It was as drastic improvement from a week ago let alone a few hours ago. I was free to leave the hospital that afternoon under my own power with a little help from my crutches of course. Three days later on the 13th I was in the training room going through my therapy exercises. My legs were starting to feel a lot stronger and I was able to walk without the need of my crutches but I continued to use them because of my Doctor's orders. I continued therapy through out the week and each day my muscles continued to get stronger and I began to regain the flexibility in my lower legs.

The next week on the 17th Doc came in to remove all of the stitches from my legs, except at the point on my right leg where he had to go back in at a week ago. I asked Doc when could I get off the crutches, he told me two more weeks. I was not thrilled about that thought at all. I also asked him when I could start running again, he said maybe a couple of weeks after I get off the crutches. I failed to tell him that I had already started jogging, back peddling and side shuffling the last couple of days now!(I am very impatient people and I personally feel that my body needs to respond when I need it to!) I had told the trainers that it would not take me the 8 or more weeks Doc had said I would need to get back to lifting and running, but they were skeptical at first! They are Believers now!

GREAT NEWS!!!
Two days later on the 19th I informed the trainers that it is harder for me to walk around with the crutches than it is walking without the crutches. This was due to me grossly over compensating on my left leg for my right leg resulting in my left leg beginning to hurt. I asked them if they thought it would be ok if I did not use my crutches for short distances like walking around the cafeteria, the gym and in my room. Because in all honestly my legs felt better when I was able to perform walking motions on my own.

Doc came back on the 23rd to remove the last of my stitches and saw me walking around the cafeteria with out my crutches, he was not amused! He joked with me saying "Hey Nice Invisible Crutches You Have Their Jesse!" I Told Him I Had A Guy That Specially Makes Them For Me! lol After we both ate lunch we went into the Training Room where Doc removed the last of my stitches and cleared me to start LIFTING WEIGHTS!!!!! AND HE SAID THAT I WAS THREE WEEKS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE IN MY HEALING!!!!!! That's What I'M Talking About Doc!!! I COULD ONLY REALLY THANK GOD FOR BLESSING ME BECAUSE I WAS SERIOUSLY PRAYING EVERY DAY OVER MY LEGS THAT THEY GET BETTER FAST! And The BIG MAN UPSTAIRS CAME THROUGH AS USUAL! Doc also gave me advice on taking it easy and that I was not fully cleared to go really heavy yet. I actually listened to him on this because I did not want to have any accidents or cause too much inflammation in my legs too soon. Ok well I sorta of, kind of, eventually listened to him! lol Ok so after I got cleared and left the training room I was not going to go and lift BUT...(please tell me you got the joke that it was a big but! lol) I had to find out how much strength I had or had not lost because I would not be able to sleep at night if I did not know, and that would not be healthy. So, I did a little warm-up for squats and my last set on squat ended up being 160k or 352lbs for seven reps! Some of my teammates were in the weight room and saw me lifting after I got cleared and just shook their head at me and said "Are you kidding me Jesse! Only you would be in the weight room now!) They didn't know I still had some GETTY stored in me! The KID was feeling GREAT!!! After that for the last couple of weeks I have only been doing 4 sets of 80k or 176lbs for 10 reps, to make sure I do not over do it.

This past Monday on the 6th I was able to step up the pace of my running/jogging and my lifting since I got fully clearance from Doc!!! I still have to go a little bit easy on my plyometric exercises but other than that ITS TIME TO ROCK AGAIN!!!!!

I am feeling good! I have more flexibility in my lower leg than I can ever remember having, my strength has not really drooped off any and most importantly I continue to pray that my recovery continues to progress and I do not have any set backs!!! I also have some good trainers and strength people up here who are giving me everything I need to stay healthy, stronger and faster than I have ever been!

I am currently lifting three days a week (depending on how my legs are feeling), doing therapy five days a week (7 total therapy sessions a week) and running sorry jogging twice a week. lol And I will be able to sprint next week!!

Just want to say thank you for everyones well wishes and prayers!

God Bless you all!

Jesse

Second Surgery and Training Update

2009-04-09T12:43:00.002-04:00

April 7, 2009

Good morning everyone!

I have a little bad news, Good News, and GREAT News!

BAD NEWS FIRST.

As you all know I had surgery on March second on both my lower legs for compartment syndrome. Well after that surgery I came back to the OTC and my legs were starting to feel a little bit better. However, my right leg was still more swollen than my left leg, which was initially attributed to more cutting needing to be done in that leg. After being back at the OTC for a few days, and walking around on my crutches I noticed that it became more and more painful to put any type of pressure on my right leg. I immediately let my trainers know what was going on and asked them if they thought it was possible that I had some sort of infection. They went through a gauntlet of questions with me to determine if in fact any infection was going on. It was determined that I did not have any type of infection. But I knew something was not right. One more day had gone by and the pain was really starting to build. Being that I needed the healing pads covering my stitches changed out, I talked with our head trainer and told him how my leg was feeling. He texted the doctor (It was Doc's surgery day and texting him works better because he is in and out of the office) informing him about what was going on with me. Doc, called the training room in about 5 minutes to talk with my trainer to figure out what was all happening with me. Evidently they were worried that the blood was not flowing in and out of my leg properly. We went over some symptoms I was having to see if I was experiencing a blood clot, but the symptoms were not consistent with a blood clot. Doc was still a little bit concerned and said he would call back a little later when he had more time to talk.

After Doc got off the phone I spoke a little bit more with my head trainer and he informed me that one of the tell tell signs would be if that a section of my leg was shinny like it was directly after my surgery. Little background information for everyone, before a surgery a nurse(s) come in to shave and rub iodine around the area that is going to be operated on. Once this is done this area becomes extremely shinny and almost metallic looking. Swelling also occurs around the area due to the body's way of healing itself causing the skin to be over stretched. Not seeing any of these tell tell signs I went through my normal therapy exercises, iced down and went to go take a shower before we put the healing pads on my legs.

This is where it gets interesting....I get out of the shower and as I begin to dry off what do I notice? Yup you guessed it! On the inside of my leg where most of the pain has been occurring is really shinning, People my leg looks like a Penny Fresh from the USA Mint! lol All I am thinking at this point in GREAT just what I needed! Not only is it shinny but a boil or something has popped up as well. I get dressed as soon as possible and cruthc my way back down to the training room and show my Head Trainer my leg! He immediately calls Doc and lets him know the situation. Doc was evidently in surgery again because he did not respond back. My head trainer tells me he will let me know what Doc says so I go back to my room at about Noon . At 1pm I get a call from one of the other trainers telling me that Doc wants to see me in his office within the hour so he can look at my leg really quick. At this point I already know this is not going to be a short examination! lol Especially since he has surgery's scheduled all day and he is taking time in between surgeries to look at my leg.

We get to the hospital, they sit me in a waiting room and about ten minutes later Doc comes in. Doc is as cheerful as ever, like I mentioned before he loves surgery and he has been doing them all day. He looks at my leg and orders a ultrasound be done so they can see what is going on inside. While Doc is walking out of the room he ask me "hey when was the last time you had something to eat" I told him about two hours ago, he says "Oh OK" and continues on down the hall. I immediately look at the trainer that brought me to the hospital and asked, That was a surgery question wasn't it? He said uhmmmmm....Yeah! This is the point where I start to realize I have a 40% chance of walking out of this hospital today.

I go down for the ultra sound and they find that I do not have a blood clot but there is 13 centimeters of standing fluid and blood inside my leg which is causing the swelling and added pain. I am thinking ok no big deal just go ahead stick a needle in there and suck it out! Right? Right? Yeah......I am not a doctor! lol Doc comes back in to the room, while standing at the foot of the table I am on and stares at the results. He starts to talk about what he see.....then he pauses.....looks up at me then walks around to my right side! I look at him and I say DON"T EVEN SAY IT!........... YOU HAVE TO OPERATE AGAIN DON'T YOU! Doc shook his head yes and said he needs to go in and extract the fluid and make sure no infection has set in! This is not what I wanted to hear!

I finish this lovely conversation with Doc about 2:30pm, which is when the nurse comes in and rolls me out down to the preoperative holding room. My trainer walked down with us but had to leave for another appointment. This worked out pretty good for him because initially I was suppose to be operated on within the next hour which soon became 5 HOURS but I will come back to that! Because now I get to tell you about my Really Fun Time of Playing HUMAN PIN CUSHION!!!...it was fun everyone should try it! lol I am laying in the hospital bed when my nurse Nancy comes in to insert my I.V. While she is trying to do this I see my nurse from last week Wendy walks by and she says "Hey what are you doing back here and where are your Sisters!?" lol We talked about what was going on and she told my current nurse that she is getting off easy today because my sisters were not there to interrogate here!! I then here Wendy telling the other nurses at the nurses station about how my sisters questioned beat her up with question! It was really funny she kept saying that it was not fair that my current nurse was getting off so easy! lol

For whatever reason my nurse seemed a bit distracted or flustered for some reason. It showed a she was trying to insert my I.V, she got the needle in my arm and somehow missed the vein she was going for so she moved the needle left and right in my arm trying to catch the vein. She finally catches the vein but some how it got blown and she could not use it. She takes the needle out and goes for another vein....Can yo guess what happened? Yeah she did the same thing, this woman is providing the definition of insanity in my arm right now. You know doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result! lol. Besides being frustrated with the fact that she was going to go for a third attempt I could not help but think that...God must really like this nurse Because she seriously Lucked out that none of my sisters were there with me!!! Because they would have thrown Nancy in a Head Lock Soooo Quick she would not have time to say "Let me try again"! On Nancy's third attempt knowing that she is having no luck getting this I.V in she decides to bring in the lefty from the dug out, namely Nurse Lisa. Nurse Lisa tries to get the I.V. in my arm and working properly but she fails on her first attempt! Evidently I a came to Hospital Las Vegas because these people keep rolling the dice on my Veins!! NOW...I am really getting frustrated, I am thinking ok, you all get one more shot before I call for another nurse! Finally on the fifth try, and after switching from my right arm to my left arm they successfully get the I.V. into my arm. They tell me that it is flowing slow but it will be ok! UHM....No! See this does not work for me at all!

Thankfully Wendy the nurse from my first operation was still wandering the halls and I was able to call her in to redo my I.V. By this time I a visibly unhappy, I told her the situation and I am not confident with this I.V and have serious concerns about whether or not the anesthesia would flow effectively or not. Wendy takes out my current I.V. attempts to put another one in! This is really not my day! Wendy's first attempt fails but her first attempt was Golden, the I.V. was in and flowing normal! THANK GOD!! Its around 3:15 now. Doc comes in at about 4:30 to let me know he has one more quick surgery and that I will be next. At 6:00pm I ask the nurse what was taking so long, she informed me that the surgery before mine is taking longer than they expected.

At 7:00 pm I had the privilege of getting the one Hippie anesthesiologist in the whole hospital! This guy strolls in all melo lik with long stringy hair, scruffy beard and is talking to me like I am just one of the guys in his Friday night smoking club! He runs through the usual list of options for anesthesia. I inform him that I do not want any tubes stuck down my throat and into my lungs. He understands the reason why and goes on to tell me about a lawsuit he is currently involved with where his throat was damaged a bit after he had tubes stuck down it during a surgical procedure. He then tells me about some anesthesia that he can give me that would require no tubes, but they use to use it in VIETNAM! EXCUSE ME MR CHEECH! DID YOU SAY VIETNAM!? He continues his little speech and tells me that they use to give it to soldiers on the battlefield after they had been shot and they would just leave them there until they can attend to them. He said that some people wake up feeling nauseated and it causes others to hallucinate!! By this time I am looking at this guy in disbelief while I am giving his ID Badge another look over!

I throw this guy one the sternest look that I have in my arsenal and tell him "Listen the fact that you just said VIETNAM, NAUSEA AND HALLUCINATION all in describing this particular anesthesia THERE IS NO WAY THAT WILL BE AN OPTION FOR ME SO GO AHEAD AND MARK THAT OFF YOUR LIST! Then he says well maybe we can come back to that one. EXCUSE ME HIPPIE MAN DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID THAT IS NOT AN OPTION! I then made it clear to him that the possibility of me waking up hallucinating and thinking I am surrounded by monsters or something might result to some serious harm for him and any other person attending to me who I mistake for a creature from out of space! He Seem To Amazingly Ge The Point This Time!

He goes on to tell me about the other options. I said I would like to be awake if possible, and I did not want an epidural because I did not like waking up with my lower body completely numb. He said ok, well let me go talk to Doc and see what his recommendations are, then we can see what you both agree on. As he is leaving he asks me to sign the release form saying that I agree to have an anesthesia administered. I tell him Listen Man, I am not signing anything until me and Doc have agreed to what type of anesthesia I will be receiving. So after you get done talking to Doc, come back and tell me what he thinks I should do then I will make my decision and only then will I sign your release! We finally agreed to putting me to sleep and having a tube placed in my throat but only to the top of my esophagus. After that lovely dialogue they start to role me down to surgery. But this e-mail is long enough so I will finish the story in the next email. TO BE

CONTINUED........Duh............Duh............Duh.........Duh!

P.S I always wanted to end an email like that so do not be surprised if it happens again!

God Bless

Jesse

4-Man World Cup Whistler Heat 2

2009-03-14T18:20:00.003-04:00

4-Man World Cup Whistler Cut-UP Heat 1

2009-03-14T16:14:00.005-04:00

2009-03-14T00:06:00.005-04:00

Start Video From World Championships

Surgery.....I Stand Before Thee

2009-03-08T11:01:00.000-04:00

HI!!

Little background info I am having surgery on both my lower legs for what has been termed "Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome". This lead to poor flexability in my legs, added with a loss of muscle stregth at different periods. Please try to hold of your laughter...so basically the muscles in my lower leg got to big for the compartments that house them. The doctor went into my legs and cut away some of the fascia that encases my muscles so they can fully expand the way they need to.

After a night of dancing like it was my job It was off to Saranac Lake to have surgery performed by our team doctor Dr.Byrne!!! This is one of those moments where I know I need to get the surgery but not necessarily excited to have it. It was not the actual fact that I had to be cut open but more so the thought of not being able to walk and run on my power for a while, let alone not being able to really lift for 8 WEEKS! WE ARE TALKING 8 WEEKS HERE PEOPLE!!! I have NEVER gone 1 week without stepping in a weight room and doing something! So this whole 8 week thing is definitely going to be a little different for me to say the least!

In order to make the trip to the hospital easy or more annoying...............lol, two of my older sisters Ulanka and Tina drove me to the Hospital. Well actually Tina drove and Ulanka sat in the back trying to figure out where in the boonies she was!! LOL Sorry Ulanka.....and she had a GPS UNIT! lol Guess getting lost runs in our family....well that is unless you talk to pops!! but he would not admit to it anyway, and I digress! Oh and for those who every wonder why I do not use the the semi-colon and the colon in my writing much at all it because nothing about me says Semi and come on the word colon speaks for its self and....its my email! SO HA!!! HA! HA! HA! THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! (giving full credit to the writers of 300....P.S I have no money to sue me for) But, I do admit it was cool having my sisters in the hospital with me! Save the Awwwwwwwwww's people "Seriously"

I checked in to the hospital on Monday 02, 2009at 8:30 am to receive the instructions of where I need to go for 10:40 am scheduled surgery. My sisters and I walked down to the surgery waiting room, shortly a nurse comes in and walks us down to one of those curtained off rooms with a hospital bed and a few chairs in it. Evidently the nurse assumed that one of my sister's was my wife or girlfriend because she offered them to stay in the room while I changed into my hospital garments....umm yeah my sisters let her know it was not that type of party!

After I changed out of my street clothes my sisters and the nurse all reentered the room. The nurse begins to tell me about options for anesthesia that are available to me. The first option was for me to be awake and administered an epidural that would numb me from the chest down, they would also place screen in front of my waist so I can not see the actual surgery. Second, was to be completely knocked out and a tube placed down my throat so I can breathe. YOU know what I am thinking....TUBE down MY throat? I can just see it now.... some med school student shoving a tube down my throat Screaming Out DOCTOR!!! I Need Some Help I Think The Tube Is Stuck On His Lungs AGAIN!! Naw Miss Nurse I will pass on that option. LOL The final option, was to be given a lesser form of sedation that would allow me to breathe without any assistance, and administered the epidural that would numb me from the waist down. I actually wanted the first option of being awake through the surgery, in talking with the nurse this was not an option since I was having both legs done. In the end I chose the third option.

The nurse continued to question me about my health history and etc. She asked if I had any other questions, which I really did not have since I had been talking to Dr. Bryne and my trainers all week. My nurse made the fatal error of thinking just because I.... did not have any questions that here job of answering was done! Poor Poor Nurse Do You NOT SEE MY SISTERS OVER IN THE CORNER JUST ITCHING TO ASK YOU EVERYTHING FROM HERE TO THERE!!! LOL I have to admit I was just waiting for my sisters to strike cause I knew they would! Now just for the record, NONE of my sister are soft by any means (One was in the Marines, One in the Army, One a school teacher you would not want to cross, and One who is currently a Chief in the Navy!) and they WISH....(They Have Dreams About People Getting Out Of Line Just To Give Them A Reason to Do Something) someone would try to get something over on their little brother! lol It was like watching a tag team wrestling match! My sister Ulanka (Navy) would ask a question and before the nurse could answer Tina (Army) would add a little bit and vice versa!!! It was brilliant, they even made the nurse go find a form that enabled family members to call in and ask intimate questions about my surgery and status. The nurse did not even know that such a form existed....How Great is That!!! I was Like What! Mmmmhhmmmm that's right I brought some SOLDIERS up in here with me today!! "SHOCK AND AWE BABE" "SHOCK AND AWE"!!! I guess God figured that I needed a little more humor in my life because after my sisters got done shinning the flash light in the nurses eyes, here comes the anesthesiologist! Yup Round 2 Babe! Actually, this guy was ready for the questions and was pretty happy to answer making it slightly less amusing but my sisters hit him up with questions anyway. The anesthesiologist repeated my different options about the surgery with a little more detail about the Anastasia I would be receiving. After he left Doctor Byrne came in marked on my legs information regarding the surgery answered a couple of questions, then reluctantly took my sister's camera so pictures could be taken of the procedure. These pictures can be viewed at www.jessebeckom3.com on my "Media" page. The Minster of the North Country Ministries Pastor Derek Spain was also at the hospital with me before the surgery to keep me company and to say a prayer for me before I went in to play with Edward Scissor Hands! LoL I also thought that was pretty cool!

Once Doc left the anesthesiologist came back administered the anesthesia, then wheeled me into the operating room. Once in the operating room he asked me to move over to the operating table, had me sit up so they can administer the epidural and that is all I remember until I woke up! The Kid was OUT COLD!

Being that I have a sets of three stitches in each of my legs now I can only assume that while I was sleeping Doc did what he needed to do! The funny thing about waking up after surgery is that your vision is not really as clear as it should be. Personally for me I felt like I was in a dream sequence of some sort, I mean things are happening around me that I have no control over. I hear nurses talking to me and can barely make them out. I asked for water and a nurse rubbed some weird water filled sponge across my lips....Yeah exactly! I thought I was going crazy so I asked for water again! Sure enough she hit me the sponge! lol My throat is dry as the Gobi Desert and this nurse keeps hitting me the sponge! What is this all about. All I am thinking is you are so lucky I can not move my arms right now cause I would throw that sponge across the room so fast....it would make her head spin, and she would break her neck trying to get me a glass of water! Now to add to my feeling of craziness, someone thought it was a good ideal to have two nurses named Patty helping me as I come back to consciousness. So me being the brilliant person I am I asked these two women their names about five different times a piece, wondering why is the name the same but I SWEAR THIS WOMAN FACE IS CHANGING EVERY TIME I ASK HER WHAT HER NAME IS. Keep in mind I half way awake and the other half of me is playing in the field of dreams with Papa Smurf and He-Man! I do not know whats going on except in that in this new land I am all the water has turned into sponges, every woman has the same name!! lol

The nurses rolled me back to my room where I slowly start to phase back into reality. By this time my sister Tina and her family are on there way back home and my sister Ulanka was on her way back to the hospital. Ulanka had already made plans to stay in town till Thursday just in-case I needed anything after surgery! Pretty cool once again! At 4:30pm my mind finally decides to fully come back to this plane of existence, with my appetite bringing up the rear! I see one of the nurses in my room and I ask her can I have some food? She says to me" you just got out of surgery you should get some rest!" EXCUSE ME!? Does She Not Know I Have Not Eaten Since Last Night! I inform her that I have had plenty of sleep and I need some food because I have not eating anything since 12am the previous night! She complies and ends up grabbing me a turkey club from the Hospital Cafeteria. About two hours later I get a text message from my friend Julie letting me know that her and some of the other girls on the team are coming to visit me. Being that Julie knows my strict diet she asks.............SO, what do you want from McDonald's? YES!!! THANK YOU JULZ!! I would like two cheeseburgers, fries and a drink please! They show up with my McDonald's a pound bag of M&M's, and a bag of Gummie Worms!!!!! I am GOOD real GOOD right now! It was sweet that they came to hospital and chilled with me for a bit.

After they left one of the nurses came by and asked me if I had gone to the bathroom yet (bathroom being that little portable plastic container that they give men)? I told he no I have not yet gone. She tells me "You have until 11:30pm to go" Say what? What do you mean I have until 11:30.....I am like what happens at 11:30? She tells me that if I have not gone by then they would have give me a decatheter! Decatahwho? You fixin Coffee or something!? Naw Miss Nurse The Kid is not playing that game!!!! I grabbed that little bottle so quick like I Neo in the Matrix, Said a couple of Prayers and Said SELF!!! Oh God SELF LETS GET IT DONE SO I DO NOT HAVE TO FIGHT ANYONE IN HERE!!! cause they trying to decaffeinate me! LOL Soon as the nurse came back in the room I pointed to the bottle and was like there you go...enjoy! Save you inquisition tactics for someone else lady!

Doctor Byrne came by the next day to check on my status. I have not had a chance to mention it but Dr.Byrne is a funny dude who loves surgery!!! He tells me the surgery went well and that I my recovery should go good. This is the same man that last week when I was in the training room with one of the trainers Josh told Josh that he should come watch the surgery its going to be bloody! I say its going to be what then he tells me oh I mean its going to be cool! "WHAT" hold Doc!..you can not go from bloody to cool in one breath and expect me to believe the latter! Then he says in 12wks you will be back lifting and running! WHAT Did You Just Say DOC, 12wks!? You Told Me 8wks before I had the surgery! Then he said 8wks before I am able to lift and run and about 12wks before I am back at full strength! Ok Doc that's a little bit better! I told him to stop playing with me! He just laughed then says that Mike said he did not feel really better for 6 months!! I did not pay him any attention this time! I was suppose to be in the hospital for one night but he decided to keep me in another night to make sure I stay off my feet completely a little longer.

On Wednesday morning Dr.Byrne came in changed my badinage's and released me from the hospital. My sister Ulanka and Pastor Derek were both there to help me back to the OTC (Olympic Training Center). Both of them had actually visited me ever-day I was in the hospital! The nurse actually asked me would I prefer to get wheeled out or walk out? I said walk out before she could even finish her question. Thank God I am able to use crutches instead of being restricted to a wheel chair!

This is the first time in my life I have ever had to use crutches. Needless to say learning how to walk on these things around the OTC is definitely interesting. Some of the athletes from other sports who did not know I was having surgery thought I was playing around and could not believe that I was actually on crutches! I have never really been hurt so it was something new for them as well as myself. It is a humbling experience but it is not permanent and I know that GOD has given me the mental capacity, determination, and support I need to come back soon and better than ever.

I will continue to update you all on my progress as I get back to form but until then have a great week and Thank You For Your Support This Season!!!!

God Bless,

Jesse B
www.jessebeckom3.com
www.jessebeckom.blogspot.com

End of the Season, Start of A New Season

2009-03-06T11:12:00.004-05:00

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

Park City Race Update and More

2009-03-06T10:59:00.000-05:00

February 26, 2009

What up Everyone!!!!!

Really quick all of our races can be viewed for FREE at www.universalsports.com under the bobsled and luge link!!!! Or if you get the Universal Sports Channel. As usual I have posted pictures on my web-site www.jessebeckom3.com

I appologize for being behind on my updates but it has been a little busy lately which is a very good thing! Well here is the recap of what has been going on....Come...Travel with me back in time to a long....long...time of three weeks and three WORLD CUPS ago in a Bobsled Far....Far....Far.......Far...............Far.............Far..............I can do this all day...........Far.............Away! lol
Still Further................Away!

The race in whistler got off to an ok start my teammates who race ended up taking 11th in the race. My driver drove really well but the start was next to the slowest start of the day, my driver was able to drive up but that is a long way to drive up from. The four man went a little bit better we finished 10th (which is always good especially when the USOC is seeing all there USA sleds finish in the top ten). It was a good runs and we were able to take a way some good things from the race, we had the fastest speed going into turn one which is a direct result of our start and well executed load, and we had the fifth fastest down time of the heat. This was good because it gave our driver John Napier a little more confidence going into Park City. The big thing was that the coaches were happy and so was our CEO, but in all honestly we just considered it to be a good start because we know we can be better!!!

After the race we do what we usually do and begin packing up the sleds to be shipped to Park City. Now packing the sleds is definitely not one of the more fun things we do in the sport of Bobsled but unfortunately its one of those things that has to be done. Why do you ask is this not fun? Well of course I will tell you don't be coy its ok. Directly after racing in about twenty degree weather and after the sun has fully gone making it around 5 degrees or colder we have brake down the sled in a snow covered parking lot. When we break down the sled we flip the sled upside down in order to take the runners off and put the transports on for shipping. Taking the runners off takes about five minutes or so but when you are tired from racing, your fingers are freezing because your adrenalin rush has run out, and you are starving it seems like it takes forever. Once we take the runners off we wipe of any remaining ice that may be left on the runners, then we place the runners in their perspective runner box.

We then flip the sled down pack it full of bags (we pack the majority of our bags in our crates to avoid overweight fees at the airport) or toolbox, stand, and runners. When the sled (2-man or 4-man) is about half way full (we only fill it half way to avoid making the sled to heavy to push into the crate) we push it half way into the crate then fill the sled up all the way and finishing pushing it fully into the crate. Next we pack up the scabboards, workmates, and any other equipment that we use. From there we usually head back to our hotel and prepare to leave in the morning for our next race.

Two ago weeks when we arrived in Park City the weather was really nice, the temperature was somewhere around twenty-five degrees or so. Yes I know to some that is cold but after you have been in twenty or thirty below like we were in Placid twenty-five degrees now feels like summer!!!! Now if you do not mind I will return back to telling my story....and please no more sighs and doubts about what I consider to be warm weather because if it continues this will be a really long e-mail! lol Oh and as it just popped in my mind on of my teammates Jamie Moriarty came up with a great ideal and way to name our sled!! We call her Elenaor! We took an ideal from the old World War II figher pilots who would place a picture of a model on the side of their Jets! So we did the same thing! IT LOOKS GREAT IF I DO SAY SO!!! I put pictures up on my web site.

In Park City, Utah one 2-man race and two 4-man races were scheduled. The extra 4-Man race was a make up race for the 4-man race that was canceled due to excessive amounts of snow in Cesana, Italy earlier this season. On Thursday February 12, my Teammate Corey raced the two-man race with John and and the start times were not where they wanted them to be and my team ended up in 20th place at the end of the race. But our spirits were still high because we know as a team we push better and have better results in 4-man. We were really geeked up (Extremely Exited and Pumped up) for the race and ready to got at the start! Our first push was a top 8 push which was ok but once again at the bottom we were not personally pleased and new that we have more speed in us. We talked about going faster and harder, quicker for the next heat. In hind sight it kind of reminds me of that saying "The best laid plans of mice and men" because our second push was respectively slower than our first push. This happened because at the start right as we were calling our cadence tons of people were still screaming and shouting for us, and we could not hear the final cadence that John was calling. This called the timing to be off between all of us when we went to hit (The initial movement when we all begin to run at the same time) the sled. Now don't get me wrong it is great when people cheer for us, but its kind of like 4th and 1 in a football game when the home team quarter back is trying to call the play. And the crowd is screaming really loud until the quarterback steps up behind center and then crowds knows to quiet down when the play calling starts. In bobsled its the same thing we love for everyone to be screaming at the top of their lungs while we are standing at the start but once we get set and begin our cadence we prefer if the crowd quiets down a little and then begin screaming again once we start running. Well needless to say we were not happy with our final result of 13th especially when we finished three spots higher the previous week.

That night we went over what had occurred and decided if a situation like that goes again that John would either scream louder or we would go off hand gestures to make sure we all hit the sled at the same time. It was not my best night sleep before a race but it did have me more motivated for the next day's race.

During the second 4-man race it was snowing pretty good during the race and before every competitive sled they were sweeping down the start. They do this because the snow accumulates in the start lines which causes for slower push times and could possibly cause the sled to pop out of the groves during the start. When our teammates from USA 1 were on the line the snow was beginning to slow a bit then it picked back up again after they went. Then in a act of Divine Intervention kind of like when God opened up the Red Sea for moses, God pushed away the snow clouds for us right as we got to the line!!! I am serious the snow had stopped and the sun began to shine!! All I was thinking was YES!!!! Thank you God this is what we needed especially all of the sled that usually finish in the top five or so had already gone down the hill, and we would know exactly where we stood when we got to the bottom of the hill! The start was good it was in the top 5 of all the pushes and John drove like a champ!!! and we got to the bottom we saw a 3 pop up on the down clock.....meaning that we were in Bronze Medal position after the first heat WE WENT CRAZY SCREAMING BECAUSE WE WERE IN THE MEDAL HUNT!! The video is pretty funny the Men's Head Coach Brian Shimer was going crazy at the top it was great! This is where we knew we could be at in every race and it was a great spot to be in. Once again at the bottom we all talked about pushing harder and faster just like we do after each first run, and this time we would not fall off like before...WE WERE DETERMINED TO GET THIS RIGHT! It had been too long since I had been in this position and for some of my team mates it was their first time in it. I WAS CHOMPIN AT THE BIT FOR THIS MEDAL!!!

Now, in World Cup Races their is about a thirty minute break between the last sled of the first heat and the first sled in the second heat. The second heat starts in reverse order so the the sled in last place goes first and so on. While we are waiting to take our second run we hurry and put our warm-up clothes on, flip the sled and grab equally distributed pieces of sandpaper from the FIBT (Federatin Internationale Bobsled and Tobogganing) Jury members for our runners. We do this because during the first heat the runners on our bobsled get scratches in them, sometimes they are worse than others but any scratch can cause the second run to be slower which is why we sand in between heats. After we are done sanding we wipe each runner down with acetone wipes to remove any residue that may be on the runner. Once that is complete we begin a second warm up in preparation for final run! This is a great feeling by the way because USA 1 is in 1st position and then, Latvia is in second and we are in third. So it is just our three sleds left alone the top of the hill, we are all sitting in medal position we just have to hold on to our spots. We get to the start and we are really geeked up....we all hit the sled at the same time and we are off!! Once again we have a good push and the ride is going pretty smooth. Then we hit the curve three and the sled just taps the wall! Not good! On this track an early bump will kill your speed at the bottom. So we get down to the bottom and as we are coming up the breaking stretch I am looking for that number 1 to pop up meaning that we are in 1st position until the next two sleds come down, it also means that we hold on to Bronze Medal position........And what do I see...I see the number 2! Yeah not what I wanted to see! We were now 7 hundredths of a second (.07) out of third place and sitting in fifth. It was one of those Bittersweet moments because we were so close to that Bronze but 5th was also the best result for my driver in his life!!! We were happy but still not completely satisfied...I know some of you all are probably thinking that we should be happy....But come on people this is SPORTS if you are not hungry for the number 1 Spot and every essence of your soul does not want it then this is not the place for you. I am greatly humbled for what the Lord allowed us to do in Park City, I also believe God has given us the ability to be number 1 and I personally want to see that come to fruition!

Needless to say we are excited to be going into 4-man at Lake Placid we are looking to put up some good times and we are looking to WIN!

On two other notes I was squatting the other day and it dawned on me that this would be my last back squat for a good 8wks because I will have my surgery on March 2nd so please say a prayer for me that it goes well and I recover quicker than expected. Also my father called me the other day and the police have caught the guy accused of murdering my cousin. Thank you all for your support in all that I have done even when it has not been anything sport related!

God Bless and Thank you all

.
Jesse Beckom III
www.jessebeckom3.com

Whistler Update

2009-02-05T20:56:00.001-05:00

Helloooooooooooooo Eh! That's Canadian for Hello! LoL.........Come on that's funny!

It is only by the Grace of God that I am privileged to represent my country, family, and friends around the world, and for that Father I am thankful.

We are currently up in Whistler, Canada, last week was strictly dedicated for training and this week is World Cup race week. Being that this is a new track as a safety precaution the FIBT rules require that a week of Training is provided to all competing nations prior to the race week. This gives all the drivers a chance to get acclimated to the track as much as possible before the actual race. During the training week the Ice is not what we refer to as race ready. When the ice is race ready the track crew will spritz down the entire track with warm water which causes the ice to glaze over even more making it faster. Oh, and by the way this track is FAST I mean VERY VERY FAST even-though the ice is not ready we are already going 89.5 mph in a 2-man sled! Now as a point of reference on most tracks 4-man sleds do not hit this speed, so the 4-man sleds here are going to easily break 100mph!!! ALL ENGINES PREPARE FOR LUDACRIS SPEED!!

The scenery out here is beautiful, it is a great ski resort type of town. The mountains are covered with snow and from the top of the Bob run you get a gorgeous view of the mountains piercing through the clouds, and the town below. The village area where we are staying is completely walkable. Within in a mile radius their are numerous clothing stores, jewelery stores, grocery stores, movie, pub, night-clubs, hotels and condos on every corner and etc it has everything. Also if you happen to be in Whistler and you have a craving for some good Mexican food you should stop by Dups Burrito on Main Street www.dupsburritos.com we got a chance to meet the owners and some of the employees, they are a great group of people and the food is excellent!!!! And for my City Planners out there, there is not a Wal-Mart, Target or any other big box store in sight! As you make your way through town it seems like everyone is walking around in ski shoes and either have a snowboard or some form of ski in their hands.

The hotel we are staying at is called the Tantalus. The rooms are set up like suites, having their own kitchen area, living room equipped with pull out bed,one room with two twin beds, and one room with a queen size bed, and 2 bathrooms. I love it when the hotels that we stay at have their own cooking area, because I enjoy cooking for myself instead of having to eat out at restaurants for a week or more. Outside the hotel there is a three lane wide swimming pool, two hot tubs and a sauna. The hot tubs are a great way to loosen up my legs after a day of sliding!!!!! I could probably live in those things and be fine with it....well I mean if I did not prune up and things! lol If not for that you would walk down the street and be like hey why does this lot have just a gate and a hot tub surrounded by TV's, appliances, and a mail box? Then someone would turn to you and say of that's Jesse's house! Then you would say Oh! and keep on walking. HA!HA! And......I digress!

Like the other hotels we stay at when we are not in the USA this one has a separate garage from its main garage where we store our bobsleds at. And like most of these garages this one is not heated either, so you can imagine it gets a little chilly at times when we are down there doing sled work. Due to the fact that the other countries do not always have training centers or training centers they let other countries use we bring weights with us and these garages double as our weight room and track for doing sprints. It is definitely not ideal but hey we make the best out of what we have to work with. It can also get a little hairy at times trying to sprint in a cold garage that has ice spots on the ground, I know this because I took a nice little fall the other day on a patch of ice as I was trying to slow down. Not Fun!

The bobsled track is five minutes away from the the Hotel we are staying at, which works out pretty nice. When we head to practice each USA team loads up the sled they will be training with on that day (Men have a choice between using the 2-Man or 4-Man sled, women only have 2-Man sled) into the back of their pick-up truck, then head over to the Bobsled Track parking lot. Once at the parking lot every team unloads their sleds onto a flat bed trailer, where we wait for the sled trucks to come down and take our sleds to the top of the hill for training. The sled trucks are just your basic enclosed U-Haul type of truck that have some form of chain, hook tie-down that we secure to our sled so they do not fall out the back on the way up the hill. I have posted some pictures of the sled truck on my web site. It is not always the smoothest ride up the hill but it gets us there.

At the top of the hill it is organized confusion! The start area at the top is sectioned off by movable gates. Each gate has reserved sled spots for each country depending on the sliding order that day. The sliding order is determined at the beginning of the week through a random draw. Last week of training had both the men and the women sliding together, but this week gender will have their own sliding session. The separate sliding session splits up the 50 sleds and 130 or more people being on the top of the hill at one time, thus making each session smaller and more manageable.

I have posted a TON of pictures of Whistler and the Bobsled Track here on my web-site www.jessebeckom3.com on the Media Page so have a look see! At you can watch our races online if you follow this link http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=11674&SPSID=95677

Well that is all I have for now everyone, I wish you all the best and please say prayer for me and my team that we do our best and kick som butt up here!

God Bless

Jesse Beckom III
www.jessebeckom3.com
www.jessebeckom.blogspot.com

World Championships Here we Come!!!

2009-01-15T09:38:00.000-05:00

Hellooooooooooooo Everbody!!!

WCH HERE WE COME!!!

This past weekend was a great one for my team, we qualifed for second half of World Cup and World Championships which will be held in Lake Placid, NY the last two weeks of Feburary!!!! My teammates and I are extremely excited to get a chance to race again! Our first race will be in Vancouver on the 2010 Olympic Track the first week of February!!! This track is fast really FAST we will hit over 100mph on this bad boy....so we will be living on the edge each time we go down.

Also there is a nice article written on my Driver John Napier on the USOC web-site http://teamusa.org/news/article/8858 that I think you all should read when you have time.

I have posted some new pictures of the team and I am on on my web site www.jessebeckom3.com for you all to view. In the pictures I am on the right side of the sled as the pictures are facing you, there are only a few but they are some pretty good shots. The pictures of the entire event and the rest of the Members of Team USA can be viewed on http://www.photoshelter.com/c/rtbphoto/gallery-list in the album U.S Bobsled Nationals 2009 4-Man.

Thank you all for your continued support and I wish you a great rest of the week!

God Bless you all

Jesse

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

2009-01-07T21:13:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone Greetings from the frozen tundra which is Lake Placid, NY! Sorry I intended this to be a short e-mail but it became rather long.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, a safe and fun New Year Celebration!

Thanks to one of my Major sponsors International Contractors Inc. www.iciinc.com of Elmhurst, IL who covered my travel expenses I was able to head out to Calgary, Canada for a week of training, and spend Christmas with my sister Tina and her family in Pennsylvania before returning back here to lake Placid.

So as we all know my luck with traveling is probably the worse when it comes to dealing with the airports......well this trip was no different! But between some of the stress it was quit comical at times.

Before I start I do have one question for everyone and that is.... Why are we still paying extra money for baggage on planes even-though the price of gas is so low? I could have thought the only reason we were paying these extra fees were due to the high price of gas which planes burned more of due to the weight of luggage. But that in itself is weird to me since plane tickets are high due to the high price of gas, which means we are being taxed double or triple for that fact! So why are we still paying these baggage fees is beyond me but that is my gripe for the week. And now back to our original scheduled story! lol

My trip final destinations takes me from Lake Placid, NY (I fly out of Albany, NY) to Calgary, Canada, to Cresco, PA ( I fly into Newark, NJ), back to Lake Placid, NY. My flight leaves from the Albany airport at 7:33 am and arrives in Chicago O'hare at 9:00am. My next flight was scheduled to leave at 9:48 and it was on time. As I am getting on the plane I hear the flight attendant comes over the loud speaker and he says "This is a full flight and if you can not fit all your bags into the overhead compartment we will place your bags under the plane". Now guess who was the only person who's bag did not fit because there was not anymore room?...Yeah ME! I WON THE PRIZE! lol Once I realize there was not anymore room I walked back up to the flight attendant and told him my bag would not fit in the overhead compartment, he told me "oh its ok, what seat are you in I will mark the bag and place it under the plane" Now, as I am handing him my bag that has all my training shoes (track spikes, weight lifting shoes, and winter boots) along with a training ladder, only one thought is going through my head. That one thought is I AM NOT GOING TO SEE THIS BAG FOR A WHILE BECAUSE THIS GUY...THIS GUY STANDING IN FRONT OF ME SMILING AND TAKING MY BAG IS ABOUT TO MISPLACE MY BAG SOMETHING SERIOUS! LOL

As I sit on the plane I begin to think hey this flight attendant never gave me a ticket for my bag, hmm.....that seems weird! After realizing my mistake I then start to think of all the wonderful places that my bag is going to see before me. I see it in Austria, Japan or India somewhere with people starring at it thinking who is Jesse Beckom seat 12E? Then it gets thrown in a small room with a hundred other bags covered in dust with other people's names and seat numbers on it. As you can imagine I a really relaxed during this flight.

My plane arrives in Calgary at 12:42 pm on time and guess what is not on the plane...come on just guess......ok I will give you a hint it belongs to me. Ok I will tell you Yup it’s MY carry on bag! And I am thinking Yup that's about right! I go over to the baggage department in Calgary and inform them about the situation, describe the bag to them, leave them a phone number and address to reach me. They call me later that evening around 2pm and told me my bag was left in Chicago and they will have it to me between 5 and 9pm. I am like cool because I will not train until tomorrow anyway. At 8:45 pm I begin to question if they are going to make it..NOPE it did not make before 9pm imagine that. But I can accept that because the roads are covered in snow. However I was upset and happy when the bag was delivered at 1 a.m. Yippee! Thank you United Airlines I love to play the Lets Loose Jesse's bag and bring it to him early in the morning Game if my favorite game of them all!

After my adventures in flying I did get some good training in at the Talisman Centre and the Canadian Olympic Park in Calgary, which was great! Calgary has an indoor track facility like some place in the states but they also have the Ice House that we use for push training. After training each day I was able to sit in a whirl pool for about thirty minutes or so, which helped my legs to loosen up and recover from that day of working out and training. The muscles in my leg seem to stay tight for whatever reasons no matter how much I stretch and use a foam roller and the only time they really seem to relax is after I use a Whirlpool. Just for the record my legs feel a hundred times better right now!

I spent a total of five days out in Calgary from December 18-23rd. On the 23rd my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:45 am to Chicago ORD landing at 12:08 pm, and then from Chicago at 1;12p.m to Newark, NJ arriving at 4:30 p.m. Now, when traveling internationally they suggest that you arrive at the airport two hours ahead of time to make sure you do not miss your flight. Have I ever mentioned that I think some rules are optional for me to follow.....well there are of few rules like that for me and this is one of them. lol Yeah....I know! so sue me. Me and all my wisdom show up to the airport around 6:15 or so which I thought was enough time actually. Uhmmm I was wrong. lol

As I am standing in line for about twenty minutes I see one of the lady from united walking through the line telling everyone "that if you are on the 8:45 flight to Chicago then please come to the front of the line. This is kind of curious to me since my flight leaves at 7:45 and they do not seem to be calling for me. Luckily my friend I was with stayed with my bags while I walked to the front of the line to speak with someone from united. I made my way to the front counter and asked the guy at the desk distributing tickets how much time I had to get checked in. He told me that I had 15minutes to get checked in, past him and past security. Considering that I was about a good hour back in the line from even reaching the counter, I soon had the THIS IS NOT GOOD LOOK ON MY FACE! LOL. I started back towards the end of the line to tell my friend what was going on and she suggested that I go and talk to the woman who was bringing people to the front of the line. So we walk towards the front of the line and I begin to ask people if I can get in front of them because I have 15 minutes to check in. This worked until I got about two feet from the check in, where I ran into a group of people who were also going to Chicago. They pointed me to the woman who had been moving them to the front of the line. I went over to her and asked her if I could get into line behind the other people waiting for the flight to Chicago.

While I was trying to talk to her this guy who was by himself started fussing about me to everyone around him about how I thought I was better than them, and who did I think I was, and that I must think I am Big Time! And he had been standing in line for thirty minutes and I just walked up and jumped in front of them. The other people in line did not care and the more this guy kept complaining the more everyone else moved away from him. He even went so far as to call over this elderly woman from United who I believe was similar to the people that great you in wal-mart and told her that I was cutting in front of everyone. Now I am starting to get a little bit annoyed with this guy. As I am standing waiting to talk with the woman from United this elderly lady approaches me and asked me what I am trying to do. I calmly told her that I am waiting to speak with the woman from United standing in front of me. She then tells me that is fine but I cannot ask her if I can cut the line....I said Excuse me? I informed her that I am not sure what that guy back there told you but this lady has been asking who is on the flight to Chicago and have been bringing those people to the front and I am waiting to talk with her. This elderly lady continues to stand behind me looking at me like I am a 6yr old kid who just got caught sneaking desert before dinner. Noticing her still standing there I asked her if I could help her?...she told me that she was waiting to ask the other United representative a question as well.

After another five minutes passed the United representative I was waiting for was able to speak to me. I told her the situation and she said it was ok, and that everyone who were traveling to Chicago would make the flight as she is about to move all of us through together. Through all of this, this guy is still running off at the mouth to everyone around him but never directly talking to me. I begin to get more annoyed but still have not said anything to him. Everyone is starting to check into the automated machines and I see one open so I go up to it. Soon as I get there I hear the guy say look there he goes again jumping in front of us again!, there is Mr. I am Better than you I have been standing here and he just jumps right in. This is when I stop holding my tongue and I turn toward him and with some very colorful metaphors I asked what his problem was and what's his problem with me is! He starts complaining more so I told him he should calm down and stop running off at the mouth about me, I also let him know that I had been in line in the back and I did not just walk up and jump in front of him. The United representative hears what is going on and turns to the guy and tells him "If you do not shut up and keep the line moving then I am going to put you at the back of the line and you will miss your flight!" You all know me so I began to smirk a little bit as I looked at the guy. The guy began to mumble under his breath and rustle his bags along the floor like a little child. I am just thinking wow this is impressive. At this point the guy is in front of me in the line so this little miserable person is happy for a bit....well that is until he gets to the person weighing bags to be checked. Just as soon as he is about to place his bags on the scale the baggage tag prints out and the United worker calls of ONE BAG TAG FOR A JESSE BECKOM!!!! LOL The turns around and sees me walking up and he has a fit!! he throws his bags down and just starts cursing and pouting it was hysterical! I just walked past him and did not say a word. As I walked through customs I could not help but laugh at the whole situation.

I make to Chicago O'Hare on time landing at Gate B4. I am thinking this is cool because my departing gate is B8 and my flight did not leave for another forty-five minutes. I am like sweet I will be to Newark in a bit, and then off to my sisters’ place. My flight leaves Chicago on time and I land in Newark at 4:39, I have my two carry on items, my brother-in-law Mark called me and was on his way things were running smooth....well so I thought. I get to the baggage claim and am waiting for my checked luggage....I keep waiting until the carousel stops and to my dismay my bag was nowhere to be found!!!Hey imagine that lol!

Once again I go to my favorite spot in the airport....the baggage claim office! At least this time I have a Baggage Claim Number that I presented to the United Representative. After checking her computer she saw that my was still in O'hare. She informed me that since the city I was staying in was outside of the airports private delivery service they would send my luggage via FedEx and I will have it by tomorrow. Note to everyone’s ALWAYS SAVE YOUR BAGGAGE CLAIM TICKET!!!ALWAYS!!

I figure ok 24hrs and I have my bag no worries that will work! I WAS WRONG!!! My bag did not arrive on the 24th A.K.A Christmas Eve. I call United to find out where my bag is and they tell me that due to the amount of snow in the area that the bags were getting to people late and that my bag will now arrive on the 26th! Yeah not too happy at this point, but they gave me a baggage claim number for fed ex in order to check my baggage status online. I get log on to the FedEx web page, type in my delivery confirmation number and it has no record of my bag! I am Really not happy now...Actually I become Mr.ANTIHAPPY which causes me to go to the mall and smack everyone who is smiling around me! lol Just playing! I then call United using the 1-800 number I was given in an attempt to find out where my bag is, of course they tell me that my bag is on the way! Oh really I tell them....well I when I type the claim number for FedEx that you all gave me into their system it tells me the number is not recognized! The guy on the phone tells me that it is because the bag was just picked up and it has probably not hit their system yet! Wrong answer Buddy Boy, because I know that all FedEx delivery people have hand held transponders and log items in as soon as they deliver or pick them up SO....Once again WHERE IS MY BAG! Of course he has no clue because he is working at an offsite location for United Airlines in another country somewhere and is just reading me answers off a computer screen. I then ask him for the direct number for the Baggage Claim Office in the Newark Airport so I can speak to them directly but he tells me that this is a number that they cannot give out! Have I mentioned that I am not really happy right now! But instead he will note my account and have someone call me back.

True enough I received a phone call later that night from the people in the Newark, NJ Airport telling me that FedEx somehow forgot to pick my bag up from the airport and that I should receive my bag on the 27th before 10:30am. They have to be kidding me right? Nope they were serious. Then two hours later I get another message telling me that my baggage will now arrive sometime before 4:30pm and someone needs to be at the house. Here is another problem I am suppose to go with my sister and her family down to her husband’s brothers place two hours away for a belated Christmas celebration around 5pm. Not only that, but my flight back to Lake Placid was scheduled to leave the morning of the 28th. This causes me to stress out more because now I am not sure if I will have my bag before I leave to go back to placid let alone with my sister! Did I mention that this bag has the majority of my winter sliding gear, 1TB External hard drive that has all my computer information backed up on it, video camera, camera, and GPS Unit in it! This is the type of stuff people lie about having in their bag when it gets lost so they get more money. I did not want the money I just wanted my bag. By I had already purchased new clothes just to get me through the week.

Thank God My bag finally came on the 27th around 2pm that afternoon and I was finally able to smile....that is until my flight back to Lake placid. A flight that included one cancellation, three delays and a flight change. I left Newark, NJ at 10:30 a.m and was suppose to arrive in Albany at 4 p.m with another two hour drive to the training center. With all the delays I did not make it back to the training center till 3 a.m the next morning! YEAAAAHHHH that was fun!! lol

Besides all the mishaps it was a great trip and I got another fun story to tell all of you about my travels!!! Well have a great week and thank you all for your support!!

GOD BLESS!

Jesse

December Update

2008-12-09T15:45:00.003-05:00

December 09, 2008

Greetings and Salutations to everyone,

Cheers to the up coming CHRISTmas Holiday. Just wanted to update you all on a few things that have been going on with me.

Ok, (my e-mail so yes I CAN start an e-mail with Ok...DON'T JUDGE ME! LOL) so I do not know if I had mentioned it this summer but for a little while during my training I started to have some weakness in my left lower leg about three weeks before we had our Push Championships. I along with my trainers in Colorado were not sure why this was occurring but we assumed it was being caused by a pinched nerve somewhere in my hip, back or knee. Thinking this was the problem I began to do therapy 3 times a day to get my leg better before I really needed to use it in Push Championships. My trainers had me doing specialized exercises to help me regain strength in my lower leg, placing my leg in a cold tub, having ice and stem (electric stem machine sends low pulses of electricty down your leg to stimulate your muscle which helps with the healing proccess) formed on my leg basically doing everything I could do to get better. By the time Push Championships came I was definitely a lot better off then a few weeks earlier.

This brings me to today, a few weeks ago I began to experience the same symptoms again with my leg. Now I am getting mad! I am looking at my leg like "Seriously Leg! Are you Kidding Me,This Is What I Get Are You Serious"! My leg said nothing back of course, which made me more mad! (Its ok if I am a little crazy and come on...I throw myself down a sheet of ice at 90 plus miles an hour on a regular basics......we all knew something was not right upstairs! lol)

I let my trainers here in Placid know what's going on and the history of my leg, and they too figured it was a pinched nerve so once again I began the same treatment proccess as before. But this time I was not completely convinced that it was only a pinched nerve. Fortunately for me though this time my symptoms happened to occur right when we had a group of specialist come in to provide all the World Cup Athletes with a base line health examination. We had and EKG taken to look at our, blood drawn to check protein and cholesterol levels, our team doctor/arthroscopic surgeon Dr. Byrne, impact pact analysis done which examined our concussion history, Ultrasound Specialist looking at any known problem issues for each athlete, and a neurologist.

While being examined by the Neurologist I informed him about what was going on with me, he immediately began looking at my leg. He noticed that I was suffering from some muscle atrophy in my left leg in correlation to my right leg, along with some loss in strength. After our examinations were done I told my Trainers and Dr. Byrne what the neurologist had said, Dr. Byrned suggested that I have another Ultra Sound done in my leg and hip area again just to make sure nothing was missed. Once those results came back negative he suggested that I have X-Rays of my legs, back and hips to make sure no nerves were being pinched in any area. After all those X-Rays came back negative I had an MRI done on my back and hip to look a little bit deeper. The MRI was also negative making the situation more frustrating because I knew something is wrong but nothing was showing up!

I continued to talk to Dr. Byrne about what I was feeling in my leg, as Dr. Byrne listened to me, one more test popped up in his head. He decided that I should be tested for Compartment Syndrome http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00789.html. Now here comes the fun part......to test for Compartment Syndrome it requires that they take a base line numbers from four different spots on each of your legs, 8 spots total. This required them to stick a needle, about the thickness of a writing pen stem into my lower leg in four different spots on each leg. The needle is attached to a gage that displays the pressure at each point. The normal persons baseline is usually around 15-20.....guess I am not normal my baseline started off at 30-35, yeah not good! lol When Dr. Byrne saw this he knew immediately that he was on the right track, but we still needed to complete the testing to make sure. After my baseline was taking Dr.Byrne had me run on a treadmill and several drills to cause my symptoms flared up. Once my legs were fatigued and flared up, Dr.Byrne had only a minute to do the needle test again on my legs. Dr.Byrne expected my the numbers to increase a little bit but me being the special person I am my numbers jumped up to 105, 85, 90 and mid 50's in some spots! Just for the record that is not a good thing at all with a potential to be dangerous.

What does this mean you ask?...well I shall tell you..... STOP BEING SO DEMANDING OF ME GEESSS its hard to arrange these thoughts! lol It means that in my lower legs, when blood starts to pump strongly causing my muscles to expand there is not enough room for them to do so, because the fascia which in-cases my muscles restricts the expansion to much. So at the end of the season I will have surgery where Dr.Byrne will go in and cut away some of this fascia enabling my muscles to expand the way they need. And I know some of you are thinking that I have gotten too big for my body but that's not the case so throw away all those jokes going though your heads....Amy, Rebbecca, Bobby Mac and the rest of you. lol

The truth is for some reason this condition occurs in some people regardless of athletic background, age, or muscle maturity, and the only way that has proven successful in resolving this issue is through surgery.

Of course when I found out this is what was going on I was relieved and stressed at the same time. Because at least now I knew what the source of my pain and strength loss was and at least if I have it taken care of then I do not have to worry about it aggravating me anymore while I train, but on the other hand who really likes to have surgery be it mild or massive. Keep the knives to yourself Doc I have enough in the kitchen! At least that is the way I see it. The surgery will be good though because if gone untreated the worse case scenario is that my legs could explode open from the build up in pressure which would really set me back in training a little. But I do not think that God has brought me this far to allow that to happen. In the mean time now that I know what it is I will just keep an eye on it making sure I pay more attention to how I am feeling and continuing to ice down after every practice, lifting session, and running session.

On a more personal note I stepped back and looked at my entire situation at look at the fact that my leg bothered me right before some of the most important bobsled test in my life. But I think it was God's way of getting my attention because if I was in Europe right now I would continue to push through the pain and have no clue what was going on with my leg and who knows what tragedy could have happen. Goes back to God works in Mysterious ways!

Other than that things have been going good with running, lifting, and sliding and God Continues to surround with me with good people which I am thankful for!!!! Wishing you all the Best!!!

GOD BLESS!!

Jesse
http://www.jessebeckom3.com/
http://www.jessebeckom.blogspot.com/

Lake Placid AC Update

2008-11-26T16:06:00.002-05:00

November 26, 2008

Good Morning Everyone,

It is almost Turkey day so be sure to have that bird marinating the night before, to ensure the seasoning mixes with the bird just right. For those of you going out to eat.....WE SALUTE YOU FOR YOU ARE AT THE MERCY OF STRANGERS!!! LOL

This past weekend was a Golden Success for my teammates and I. We won all four of the America's Cup races that were held!!!

Since there were two days of 2-man racing I split the pushing responsibility with Corey Buckner another one of the push athletes on my team, meaning that he pushed one race day with our driver and I pushed the other race day. However, when it comes to racing 2-man and determining who gets to race the driver or even a brakemen will call for a race-off against another person to see who is the fastest of the two......Yeah this time me and the other two brakemen decided to use a more scientific method to determine who will race.

I called my buddies at NASA and gave them all of our weights, body measurements, heights, dietary information, lung capacity, and temperature at the top of the track. They then took this information ran it through a few supper computers that analyzed the data taking into consideration the smallest variables. This data was designed to tell us with all things being equal which one of us would be the most efficient pusher in these weather conditions. Of course you know I am joking we all just decided to flip 3 quarters and the odd man out did not race!! LOL Come on you know I got you with the NASA Story though........You all were probably like WOW NASA helps out with Bobsled! LOL I am GOOD! It's ok Dean you can laugh buddy cause I got you too!

On another note during our race it was COLD!! 4 degrees to be exact! I know I have been in a lot of colder weather but this was the first day of it being real COLD and the first day of that kind of temperature is no fun for anyone! But through Cold, Rain, Snow, Fog we will be on that heel racing if the schedule calls for it. The amazing thing is that no matter how cold it is on the hill while I am warming up once I get to the start block all that cold is somehow blocked out, the only thing that is of consequence to me is the start time and the finish time. I go in that zone where all I hear and see is myself, my teammates and the sled. Now after we cross the finish line at the bottom the cold sets in again and I can not wait to get inside a warm building and throw my warm-up gear back on.

After the races were over a medal ceremony was held on the finish dock where bot the men's and women's teams receive their medals. I was a nice sight to see three American flags been hoisted up on the poles which represent the country of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers. Once the flags are raised to their height according to ranking the National Anthem of the winning nation is played for all to hear and respect. STARS AND STRIPES WAS PLAYING ALL WEEKEND!!! I have posted pictures from this weekend on my web-page for you all to view www.jessebeckom3.com

Now that the races here in Lake Placid are over my team and I will continue to slide, weight train, and sprint as we prepare for World Championship Race off that will be held the first week of January.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday season and God Bless

Sincerely,

Jesse