Whhhhhaaaaaaazzzzzzzzup! Oh yeah it’s coming back!
Abbreviated Version
For anyone who would prefer not to read the whole
story an abbreviated version is available on the last page of this update.
The Extended and more exciting version!!
It has been about three years since I was last in
Whistler, Canada for a World Race, and I have to admit it felt nice to be back.
The track itself was, of course, the same, but the last time I was there was
pre-Olympic Games so all the banners and decorations had not been put up yet.
It was bitter-sweet seeing how it looks now, after the games, since the
majority of my thoughts were of how amazing it would have been to be there
competing in the Games! But in all honesty those thoughts only lasted about a
day, my main thought was, it World Cup week, I’m racing and let’s make it
happen!
Training had gone well all week; our pushes were
right up there with the other two teams from the USA and the rest of the world.
As a team we were all feeling pretty good about our chances going into the
race. After training, however, our driver (Corey Butner) spoke with the coaches
about what he was feeling with the sled. Unfortunately for us, the feeling he
had about the back of the sled not responding properly was correct, the sled
was broken! One of the bolts that kept the body of the sled stable with the
frame was missing at the back end of the sled making the sled flex in a weird
manner and possibly causing the sled to be slow. Since we did not have the
equipment to fix the sled for this half of the tour, the plan was to use it one
more time then ship if back to Placid. This scenario was only possible because
one of our coaches who constructs sleds had another 4-man sled ready for USA 2
to use once we arrived in Germany the following week. USA 2 would get the new
sled then our crew would take over their sled, which is a good sled and the
same one I raced in during World Championships last year.
Regardless of the possible future scenarios and the
mechanical issues going on with the sled, we still had a race in the morning!
As usual the night before the race we sanded the runners (Ice Skates of the
sled), checked the inside handles, did some practice loads into the sled, waxed
the sled, then threw the sled cover on top.
Since the race was at 9am we were all up by 6am in
order to have breakfast and a pre-workout lift completed before we left for the
track at 7:15am. The weather at the track had been in the high 30’s to low 40’s
which is pretty warm weather for bobsledding. In conditions like this all you
can hope is that your team has chosen the correct runners to use for the race
temperatures on that day. Luckily, or unluckily, for us our driver only has one
set of race runners which make the decision much easier (but, at about $8-10,000
for a good set of runners, who can blame him). If by chance you are wondering,
No…..we do not have runners for truly hot conditions because, if it were that
hot, the track would turn into a water park, and our sleds do not float. Lol.
The Four-Man Race had a field of about twenty-seven
sleds. Of them, only the top twenty
sleds get a second and final run. The top ten sleds, based on their world
ranking, have a random draw to see who goes off in what order. After that,
sleds 11-whatever go off in the order that they are ranked in the world. That
being said our sled was off nineteenth. The first two American sleds had
already gone and were sitting in top ten positions, and now it was our turn to
join the party.
The Team of USA3 that I am currently on consists of
Corey Butner (Driver), me (nicknamed Jesse Law), Johnny Quinn (JQ), Nick Taylor
(Nic).
(Yes, yes I know what you are thinking, How many
nicknames do I have? Well, I will summarize a few I have been given; Immortal,
Predator, Terminator, The Truth (no offense A.I) and now Jesse Law! The Law
Dawg if you’re funky! Lol, but I digress.)
After a strong warm-up we all stepped onto the start
block ready to push. Nick initiated our cadence and as usual Corey finished it,
and we were off and running. After Corey loaded, I loaded four steps after him
as usual, with JQ following directly after me.
I knew something was off.
Apparently JQ’s foot got caught up getting into the sled which delayed
his load. JQ recovered quickly enough to get in and down in the sled with Nic
loading right after him. Considering the small difficulty, the start was ok
(should have been faster). Corey’s drive down the hill was pretty smooth, but
at the finish the time did not match how smooth the trip was, leaving us in 15th
place. We were all baffled and noticeably upset at the bottom of the track! It
was not until we got to the top of the track, flipped the sled and were
preparing to sand the runners (to remove any scratches they might have picked
up after the first heat) for the second heat that we discovered why we were so
slow down the hill. To our horror a piece of ice had come off the track leaving
some concrete exposed which put some huge, deep, monstrous scratches in both
runners on the right side of the sled! Once we hit that concrete, the groves in
our runners began digging into the ice, causing us immediately to begin losing
time all the way down the track!
Unfortunately and fortunately for us the sleds behind us all hit concrete
as well ensuring that we would at least get a second run. Now, normally, the
FIBT jury provides identical grades and pieces of sand paper for each sled
going into the second heat. However, our
runners were so badly scratched that they let us use our own sand paper to try
and get the groves out!! We got the scratches out the best we could in the time
we had, but we also still had to warm-up for the second heat of racing!
In the second heat we made a good improvement,
dropping four hundredths of a second off our first push. That start helped to
put us up by three tenths of a second over the sled that had gone down before
us! It was at that time our troubles started.
Unfortunately we got caught in some frost in the curve which made the
sled climb higher than it should have. Normally a driver can pull the sled down
quickly when the ice is fast/glazed the way it should be. But when it’s a bit frosty, there is more
grip and that makes it harder to pull the sled off the curve when you are
supposed to. This started a chain reaction of being late into other approaching
curves resulting in being very late in curve nine. That led to us rolling over and crashing!!!
Luckily it was an easy roll over and not a fall from
a ten foot curve! However, we did briefly roll upside-down - getting a little
height and then banging pretty hard into the bottom of curve eleven, with only
4 more curves to go! As you may know, I am seated in the second position in the
sled, just behind the driver. That is
normally a comfortable position. But in a crash, I quickly go from a smooth
Cadillac ride to becoming the kickstand of the sled!! (Not a lot of fun).
What’s that a question in the back row!!? Well I’m
glad you asked that! To answer your question:
In case you are ever in a bobsled crash you want to try and get every
part of your body off the ice if you can, since at those speeds (85-100mph)
your flesh can be ripped or burned off! (Yeah I could have used the word “skin”
but “flesh” has more flare lol)
Once we rolled over I did my best to get most of my
body off the ice and into the sled while at the same time pressing my head/helmet
against the ice. This insures that the helmet takes most of the rubbing and
burning instead of my body. The whole ordeal lasted a couple of minutes, towards the end I was actually, briefly,
happy when I saw, while we were still sliding on our side, that we had crossed the red finish line that
is under the ice. The reason for that moment of happiness was that, as long as
we cross the finish line, we would still get points for the race (IF everyone
were still in the sled). As I said, I was only happy for a brief moment
because, as I got out the sled in order to assist my teammates getting out, I
noticed that our brakeman/fourth guy was not in the sled! The fact that he came
out of the sled before we finished meant that we were instantly disqualified from
the race! You all can imagine how upsetting that must have been for all us to
crash, cross the line, and still be disqualified! Hey I guess that is a part of
racing! And most importantly none of us was hurt, so I know God was definitely
watching over us!
I will have pictures of Whistler, Canada posted on
my web-page in a few days.
Abbreviated Version
Hey you guys (its Chicago lingo, men and women can
both be called guys when referring to a group) do you remember when I said I
was ready to rock and roll for my race in Whistler? Yeah well….we rocked and
rolled a little more than I or the rest of my team had planned! Yeah uhm….we crashed in the 4-man sled and
were disqualified from the race because our fourth guy fell out of the sled
during the crash. Don’t worry, I tell the full story above, this short version
is just for those of my readers who
don’t enjoy my long e-mails!
God bless
Jesse
P.S I will be sending out conse
www. Jessebeckom3.com
Twitter: @jessbeck3
P.S In the near future I will send out 2 more
updates that will bring everyone up to current events.
