Hurry up and wait.

I traveled home yesterday after the first set of races in Colorado.  Leaving for the Denver airport at 5:30 a.m. on the busiest travel day of the year was definitely an experience.  When I travel - I wait in line, it comes with the territory. 

I arrived, got a cart, loaded it up with my ski gear (which is slightly more than the average person travels with) and waited in line to check it.  Then waited again to go through security - which is a real process if you are travelling through the United States and you have an artificial leg made with a lot of metal.

Travelling reminded me a lot of the anticipation of ski racing.  I trained very hard all summer to get ready for the race season.  I did many training runs and did my best to compare my times with my teammates, but the thing is you never really know how you are going to stack up until you race.  So you wait.

The first race in Copper, Colorado was  a giant slalom, historically my weakest race, but one I was excited for because it was the first of the season. I was skiing well and I looked forward to seeing where I stacked up.  I drew bib number 59 which was the second start number in my category (the standing men's category).  And then, I waited.

We do race simulation all the time in the training season, but it is impossible to simulate showing up at the hill at 8:00 a.m., warming up, inspecting the course at 9:30 and then not getting your first run until 12:30.  The hurry up and wait philosophy is a major part of ski racing and one that is always difficult to deal with.  Waiting for course workers, malfunctioning time systems, officials to be in place and for the delays from the unwanted falls and even injuries (hopefully few of the this last one). 

I sat in the lodge after inspecting the course and warming up - the anticipation grew.  It was killing me to be honest.  There were many what we call 'course holds' and everyone was a bit rusty so it took much longer than expected before it was my turn.

As you can imagine there are many thoughts that start to creep into your mind when the wait is on.  Am I ready? What do I need to do?  Should I push it?  Where will I finish?  Should I ski solid, or take lots of chances?

If you are not careful these thought can waste a lot of your energy and take away from the summer's long preparations.  You need to duplicate what you have been training all summer, but the mind has a funny way of wanting to take you away from that.  You can psych yourself out.

I skied very well the first day in Copper.  I finished a respectable fifth.  Three of the four guys in front of me had been on World Cup podiums in the event so that is a good indication that I am in a solid position to start the season.  I followed that up with another fifth the next day. 

I got to Friday December 18  with some solid results and was happy with how I skied and happy with how I was dealing mentally with the beginning of the season.  Friday was a super combined which is one run of super G and one run of slalom. 

I skied ok in the first run of super G.  I struggled a little in the tough middle section of the course, but did well to finish sixth following the first part of the race, and going into my stronger event the slalom. 

I was finally able to ski a slalom run in a race like I had been in training.  I put up the third fasted time and passed three people for my first podium of the series on the last day.  Again, it was a lot of waiting, but this time it was well worth it.

It was a great way to finish off the North American race series.  It gives me a ton of confidence going into the World Cup season where I will need to qualify for the 2010 Paralympics and hopefully improve to the point where I can be a contender. 

But until January 8, I'll just have to wait.