RACE DAY and SCHOOL

Friday was a good day for pretty much everyone who competed. There were lots of PR’s all around. I had a few myself, I pushed a new pr of 5.59 and had a new pr down time of 57.83. The best part for me was probably getting in the 57’s. A lot of sliders who have been here longer than I have, have not gotten into the 57’s yet so I’m extremely happy about my progress. But it was also an awesome day for me because I was consistent with both of my runs. My second run was 57.90. It cant get much more consistent than that! Overall I got 6th place out of…17 people..i think?


School has sucked big time. When I was at home, I did my schoolwork pretty diligently because I was so bored I had nothing else to do. Here, I try to still do a little every night but its not easy. I have 2 tests due the weekend of nationals so I have to take them a week early, which doesn’t help me out. Good thing a lot of the work is easy.

On another note, I signed up today to compete in the empire state games. I’m not really sure what they are but they have opening ceremonies and we get a sweat suit for it. So it sounds pretty legit.

After 2 weeks here, I don’t love skeleton any less than I did from day one. If anything, these two weeks have made me enjoy it more. Of course that could definitely change in the next 3 weeks. But I feel that I have reached a point where I know I want to seriously peruse this sport. A point where I’m considering transferring to SUNY Plattsburg. (Sorry mom and dad that you had to read it here first) At first I wanted to avoid SUNY Plattsburg because it doesn’t have the academic reputation that UMW does. But I’m loving skeleton so much right now that I’m trying to convince myself that life is what you put into it, that I can still get an awesome job based on my personality, and drive. And maybe when I’m done with skeleton I can get into an awesome grad program. If I were to transfer to Plattsburg It would be cheapest for me to live at the OTC and commute to class 3 times a week.

A lot of people have asked me if I will regret not having the typical college experience. And I was worried about that too for a while. There are three reasons I don’t think I will. 1. UMW wasn’t your typical college experience anyways. There are no frats, no raging parties, no clubs, and an insane amount of girls. 2. This sport might offer me opportunities to go Europe and to compete at a level that few people will ever experience. I think those experiences will be priceless, and more valuable than the future hangovers that would surely be awaiting me in college. :) And finally, 3. I talked with a veteran athlete here who started at the same age I am, and did go to SUNY Plattsburg. He managed to slide, finish school, and be the alternate for the Olympics twice. And the best part is that he said he did not regret in the least that he did not have the typical college experience.

I know what my parents will probably be thinking right now, What about track? Yeah I’m going miss it a lot. And I know college track is an experience that I would like to have, and my parents would love me to have. But I don’t enjoy track anywhere near as much as skeleton. AND if I wanted to run track at Plattsburg, I could. A skeleton athlete who was just at the past Olympics in Vancouver, also started skeleton close to the same age as me and went to Plattsburg. AND he was an all American track athlete. So…not making any promises…but I could run track, do skeleton, and go to school all at the same time!