14th place in Flachau!

Flachau!

Yesterday we had a night race at Herman Maier's home-hill Flachau!  We even met the legend himself!!! (well, we posed for a picture with him.... so we're pretty much best friends now).

It was my first time in Flachau and I loved it!  We had ski-in ski-out, a luge track that we mastered 2 times just outside of our hotel, and we had a sweet late-night race that apparently got up to 15000 fans waching!!!

AND, I finally got back into my race rhythm in yesterday's second run and I ended up 14th overall!

This year has had lots of ups and downs  and the comeback from injury has been tougher than not coming back from injury! who woulda thought!  I finally had one of those runs that makes me remember why I love the sport so much.  Obviously I love everything we get to do along with the sport (mostly everything you see on my blog) but the actual racing is the reason why I keep coming back for more year after year.  Trying to get closer and closer to victory and knowing that in my second run I was right in there with the best is the biggest motivation that exists for me.  So, I'm pumped and relieved that I finally performed up to speed with what I've been training, and now that I've had a taste of what a sweet race feels like, I can't wait to dive into some more!

So here's some pics courtesy of Stefania Rizzo and Eve Routhier!!! Thanks!!!  It was the first time in the history of this blog that I forgot to bring my camera somewhere!!! It was devastating!!! haha. not.

 WE GOT NEW SWAGG!!! And Hugues peeking through the window! haha.

MP hooked us all up with sweeeeeeeet new nekkies! YES!

 Jim and Hugues being funnnnnny.

 The crowds during the second run were filling up the whole hillside!!

 The Start of my second run!  This part was my fastest split, I was attacking like a crazy woman after coming 26th in the first run!

 Reaching for the finish line!

 ahhh. that was fun!!!

 Leaderbox!!

All the girls came and hung out with me at the leaderbox! It was so sweet!

Anyway, it was an important day for me yesterday because I finally completely trusted myself and went for it.  I was so stoked that the girls were all there with me in the finish area and hopefully next race we'll all be competing against each other in the second run.  Sunday in Maribor!

On the way home from the race today we got to stop and see Kelly Mcbroom in the hospital.  She suffered a terrible leg-break while training the other day followed by compartment syndrome and has been undergoing surgeries since her accident.  It's a terrible thing to happen to anyone and especially Kelly since she just finished coming back from her previous injuries.
Her friend Elli set up a coffee fund for her that will be put towards a coffee card in Canmore to help her through her rehab!  If you wanna help her through this, buy her a coffee!!!!!!!!
CLICK HERE TO BUY KELLY A GET-WELL-SOON COFFEE!!!

Good luck and tons of healing vibes to Kelly!