Devastation...fades.

Yesterday was the most devastating day I have had racing in a long time. This year I have been very consistant with my performances on the Nor-Am Circuit for slalom which led to me being second in the overall slalom standings going into the last Nor-Am race of the year. The top two at the end of the year get their own World Cup spot...thus propelling them immediately into every slalom World Cup next year. All I had to do to keep my spot was have a good finish. After first run I was sitting in 12th position which though not exactly where I wanted to be was a great start position for second run. On really warm spring days like yesterday having a great start for second run can be the best thing because you have a smoother course than the girls who were winning first run. Smoother course= faster time. The start of my second run was good. I felt like I was attacking and moving down the hill well. On the flats there were two hairpin combinations four gates apart. THe first was a delay into a hairpin and the second just a hairpin. Coming into the second hairpin I had a moment of confusion as the control gate was right in line with the end of the hairpin making it look like a flush. I screwed up royally by looking at the tracks set to make sure. Unfortunately I saw the tracks of a fore runner who had skied it as a flush and followed. This all happened within a second and as soon as I realised my mistake it was too late. I blew it. I lost my World Cup spot. Complete devastation.

After the race I ended up driving Marie-Michele Gagnon's car back to Quebec by myself which was a good opportunity for me to have some time to collect myself a bit before spending the night at Eve Routhier (my team mates) house. There was a change of plans after the race and Eve, Erin Mielzynski and myself are now heading down to US Nationals in Lake Placid before heading to Canadian Champs. I am feeling the need for some redemption.

It was my worst possible outcome for the Nor-Am series but it ended up being a great one for Canada. We took all four of the World Cup spots for Womens Tech. Marie-Michele Gagnon and Marie-Pier Prefontaine took the GS and the slalom spots went to my team mates Eve Routhier and Erin Mielzynski.

Tomorrow is another day and I am definitely going to take the opportunity to talk to my amazing sports psych Dave Freeze before continuing racing on Sunday.

Hope everyone got amazing weather this past week like we had in New Hampshire. We were playing soccer in tank tops and shorts!

Cheers,

Elli