Mea Culpas, H1N1 and a New Season!

Ok, Ok, I know....it's been a long time. Understate things much, Shelley? Alriiiight, it's been a long LONG time since I've updated and I'm so SORRY!!! If you've physically been around me in the last few months you know that I've promised and promised again to update, and that I really do feel quite badly about not making the time to do it. So, it's very late, but it's an update and it comes with a new promise: I will be more regular in updating my blog from here on out. Forgive me? Great! Thanks!

So, much of the reason that I have been putting off updating you all is that there is SO much catching up to do! Rather than try to fill you in with all the details of the past few months, let's just start fresh with this season

I had a really great summer of training - and by great, I mean grueling, challenging, and the hardest summer of training I've ever had -EVER! This means a lot coming from someone who has been doing some type of athletics since I was 13! It was tough. But, I had some good gains in speed and strength and I was happy that I was able to work as hard as I did.

Our pre-season began in Whistler ( the Olympic track) where we spent 2 weeks having our team selection races, and one week of international training.

We had a huge costume party for my teammate Helen's birthday the day we arrived in Whistler for international training. It was fun and all the nations participated. I went as Cleopatra!

During the week of international training I suddenly began to feel ill one night. Helen, Jenny and I were sitting in the living room of our suite drinking tea when my throat started to feel tight, sore and scratchy. Thinking I probably just needed some sleep, I headed to bed and my throat proceeded to get more sore! When I woke up in the morning I felt even worse but went to the gym with the rest of my teammates to get our physical training in. I felt overly warm, and tired through the entire workout and eventually spent the last 45 minutes of training curled up in a ball on the floor in the corner of the gym, waiting for my teammates to finish but really not caring to move a muscle at all!

Jenny called our team therapist Murray(over my vehement protests!) who took me to the clinic. When I arrived I had to put on one of those mouth and nose masks - you know the ones- circa the SARS scare era? I was laughing embarrassedly behind that mask thinking,

'Wow! this is a LOT of precaution." Until they led me to the hallway where the nurse who was to look after me promptly put on a Haz-Mat suit and sterilized an entire examination room for me to sit in! 10 short minutes later, she deduced that I indeed had a virus and since there was no other virus out right now, it was probably SWINE FLU!

I spent the next 48 hours quarantined and barely leaving my bed, and the following two days slowly recovering. Then as suddenly as it arrived, it left. Let me tell you I was very happy to see it go! Good Riddance H1N1!

We travelled to Park City, Utah for the first World Cup. I raced with Helen Upperton and we finished up in fifth place with the Germans in 1st and 2nd and the Americans in 3rd and 4th. Kaillie finished right behind us in 6th place, while Amanda Stepenko and Amanda finished in 11th.

After Park City, we went to Lake Placid, NY, for the second stop on the World Cup tour. Lake Placid is about 5 hours from Toronto so my family was able to come up and watch me race! It was my parents' second time seeing a bobsleigh event, but my sister, my aunt and my little nephew were also able to make the trip this time. It was so good to see them after being away for so long. Helen and I finished in 6th place, and our teammates Kaillie and Heather made the podium and finished 3rd, thankfully breaking up a German sweep of the podium! Amanda Stepenko and Amanda Moreley finished in 12th.

I got to go home for 4 days of much needed R&R before getting on a plane to Europe. We flew to Munich and drove to Nuremburg, the site of the Adidas Factory out let where we get special discounts as sponsored athletes and received our bag of adidas gear for this year. This is also the place where I got my  nephew Andre's cute little winter jacket. Isn't he the cutest!!!

The next day we made the 7 hour ( 9 after getting lost!) to Cesana, Italy where I'll be racing tomorrow with Kaillie at 6pm.

For those of you on Eastern Standard Time, I race at about 12noon on Saturday. Mountain time, that's 10am!

Ok, that's it for now,

Wish me luck and don't forget to tune in to cbcsports.ca for the live online streaming of the event

British Holdiays and Back to Business!

Hello All!

I know, I know! It's been like, forever since I last updated and I'm SO sorry to all of you that came by (thanks!) hoping to see something and not finding anything new! My apologies.

So, first let me say 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  

I hope that you had an excellent Christmas and New Year and my wish is that 2009 brings you all continued growth and all the joy and peace your hearts can handle.

As many of you know, after the cancelled race in Cesana, I went to England to spend my Christmas break in London with some family that I have there.  If you've never been to London....GO THERE!!  It was wonderful and I loved it immensely!  I am kind of a big fan of old things and history that you can actually touch fascinates me. It was SO cool to walk around the streets of London and see buildings that have been standing for hundreds of years.  Plus, I am completely enamoured of the English accent!  :-)

 The best part of the trip through, was getting to spend time with my wonderful cousins and visit with some dear friends.   One of my friends is a guard in the British Army and so I was able to tour around with him and see some pretty special things, and get the "insider's" perpective. 

An old college friend of mine is from London and she just happened to be having her 30th birthday party while I was there and we were able to reconnect 

after 6 YEARS of not having seen each other! That was amazing.  Here some pics of me and my cousins

My break went by very quickly and soon enough it was time to get back to the business of bobsledding!

Our first race back after the break was in Konigsee, Germany.   I didn't race in Konigsee last year, so at the beginning of the week I was looking forward to being able to race there.   We were able to push very well and Kaillie drove well also and we had our second top 6 finish of the season finishing the race in 5th place in a very tight field. 

One very unfortunate thing that took place during the race to one of my teammates Helen Upperton was a freak injury to her ribs that she sustained 

while trying to load into the sled.  We found out afterwards that she has torn the cartilage off  one of her ribs....OUCH!!!   

Again, if you're a praying person...please keep her health and speedy 

recovery in your prayers.  Here's a picture of Kaillie and I on the podium!

I race again tomorrow in St.Moritz, Switzerland as a make up race for the one that was cancelled. I'm racing with Helen this weekend and because she's very injured she may have to sit in the sled while I push it by myself!  It should be fun, anyhow and I'll be sure to update you as to how that went!

Oh, one more thing:  Everyone wants to know how I was able to be away from my immediate family during the Christmas season. I can tell you, that it was very hard, but it was something that I had committed to before the season even began. I do miss my family terribly, but I brought a little piece of them to Europe with me and every week when we travel to a new destination and we drop our Adidas bags in our room and prepare to slide the next day, I set up something special on my bedside table.  When I'm feeling like the stress is getting to me,  or when I've had a particularly hectic or bad day or just whenever I feel like it is necessary, I have a VERY good reminder of what's most important: