This past weekend has given me another few crazy life situations and learning curves.
- Listen to your body all the time.
- If you push through the pain you won’t regret a thing.
- You only regret the opportunities you didn’t take.
My mother drove myself and all our gear to Airolo on Thursday 23rd January. After a four hour drive we found our apartment for the next four days, during which we had to trapze the small streets. The woman letting us in found us. A little authentic Italian flat in the small town of Airolo, Switzerland. Saga 1 over.
We got all settled in, food bought before we realised that our adaptors to charge our electronicals simply wouldn’t fit. Our adaptor was round and the socket had three pins in a rather peculiar shape. When this had been bought to my attention,
I said “Why don’t we go down to the Co-op and see if they have adaptors for our adaptors?”.
To which my mother replied “They will be shut and I’m sure they won’t have adaptors that we’re looking for in such a small town.”
After grabbing our adaptor and one charging cable we walked along to the Co-op after plugging my mother’s phone into the car to start charging. It was 18:40, the pharmacy was shut. It wasn’t looking good. However, I walked down the stairs confidently with my mother walking behind. Thankfully the Co-op was open and shut at 19:00. I strode in confident they would stock this adaptor we needed, after walking passed several aisles we discovered the adaptors we were sought after. I wanted to get to the till to buy our adaptors and eventually that occurred. We marched home victoriously-ish. As we didn’t know whether our adaptors would fit. Fortunately they did. Saga 2 over.
We found my teammates hotel, chatted to them and wished them luck for the Super G race which I was not racing in the next day. We then walked briskly back to our self catering apartment in order to have dinner, relax and watch our sought after TV series that we are watching together ‘How to Get Away With Murder’.
The next thing on our agenda after a good nights sleep, was a reccie of the hill for the weekends races. I, unfortunately, was not feeling well enough to complete the reccie and stayed behind to recover. After a few hours of rest, the reccie was complete and we had to eat dinner, watch ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ and get ready for sleep, for the alarm was set for 0615 the next morning. A race morning or training day time. My mother then attended the Team Captains Meeting alongside the AFPST coach, where we get our bibs and timings for the next days race.
Following on from a nights sleep, we awoke, got dressed and drove to the gondola for 0800. The weather was sunny, better than the previous day. Suddenly the inspection happened and the Giant Slalom race started, I was bib 3. A number I have never been before. At the moment, I am racing without my pole which means the race start is something I really need to practice, as I found out. As the Visually Impaired Women went, I clicked my skis on. ready to go. Without my pole, I had to shove myself out of the start gate which, therefore, meant I was in the backseat of my skis which saw that I skidded all my turns, was late turning before the next gate and scrubbed a lot of speed off resulting in a ‘bad’ time. Thankfully I had worked it out with what went wrong and my second run was improved, a higher frequency of better, earlier turns and more edge set.
Despite the timings not reflecting my ability, I am proud of that race as it demonstrated clearly what I have to work on.
Due to the fact I got emotional at lunch, myself and my mother went up to do one more run, to just ski the terrain that the Slalom, the next day’s race would be on. During this, I got hit on the head by the lift mechanism, a t-bar, followed by a rather nasty fall where I injured my left hip as I fell onto the rear binding of my left ski.
After the descent, I analysed more and more with my ‘thinking’ hat on. Discovered what exactly I needed to work on for the Sunday’s race. Food, relaxation and bed called.
Sunday. 0615. Alarm goes off. I wish I could say on race days I jump excitedly out of bed, however, that is not the case. I am excited for the day’s event although I am definitely not an early morning person. I always need fifteen minutes to mobilise and put my feet to the floor. Being sore after the previous days injuries did not add to the excitement.
We put our gear on as much as we do on, the drive to gondola occurs.
The ascent occurs. A quick few warm up runs and inspection occur.
All of a sudden, it’s my turn to push out of the gate on the hunt for the fastest time down the course. In essence, throwing myself down a hill for fun and competition on an international scale.
“Are you ready?” the start gate inspector asks.
I nod intently.
The countdown begins. Ready. Five, four, three, two, one.
Out I go.
Left, right, left, right. Blue, red, blue, red.
Edge to edge as quickly as possible and as dynamically as possible.
I zone out the rest of the world.
I focus on my performance. My technique.
Finally I see the finishing gates and as soon as I pass the final gate, I tuck for the fastest finish.
The finish area was rather peculiar. There was a compression of terrain and an uphill section to get top the lift. You have to be going straight at quite a speed to make it.
I managed to only be seven seconds behind my competitor, a massive difference in comparison to yesterday. Elation.
Now all I have to do is do the same the next run. However at this point, yesterday’s pain hadn’t subsided but had gotten worse. I pushed through and was persuaded to do the final two runs of the day.
It happens again;
“Are you ready?” the start gate inspector asks.
I nod intently.
The countdown begins. Ready. Five, four, three, two, one.
Out I go.
Left, right, left, right. Blue, red, blue, red.
Edge to edge as quickly as possible and as dynamically as possible.
I zone out the rest of the world.
I focus on my performance. My technique.
Finally I see the finishing gates and as soon as I pass the final gate, I tuck for the fastest finish.
This time, my mother has made it down and I grin with almost an insane amount that I have completed the race. I have finished. Won another bag of cheese, instead of a medal, which being a vegan I will let my family enjoy my hard earned gift.
Finally the return back to base. Prizegiving. Descent. Pack up apartment. Drive back to Introd, Aosta Valley. Back to the dogs and my father. After a quick turn around and an exceptionally fast drive we returned. Bags not in yet, we enter to the best greeting ever. To Darcy, Poppy and Chloe jumping excitedly at our presence. As always, they thought we had left them for good.
I watched Ted Talks.
We ate dinner.
I wrote my Sankt Moritz blog and fell into bed.
I eventually woke up at 11:03 today and have had a well deserved rest. Breakfast, writing this, listening to music and reading. What bliss.
Until next time, Molly
Molly Griffith 