Denied the Dream...For Now

I finally made it to Lake Placid! Let's take a moment, though, and reflect on the actual journey up from Albany. Last night, I was treated to a healthy dinner of chicken wings and spinach & artichoke dip washed down by nothing but the finest tap water in all of Mechanicville. The general dinner discussion revolved around gawking at the unnaturally attractive bartender and JoshO and Jason "Meat" Donlin saying, as loud as possible, without actually yelling, that I was trying out for the Olympics. Much to my relief, JoshO and Jason did not succeed in their endeavors and no sandwiches were named after me. After dinner we retired to a nice, relaxing night of watching TV and just vegging out. I guess you wouldn't be surprised to hear that I woke up many times during my sleep last night. As weird as this sounds, I felt like I got a good night's sleep, but I woke up pretty often since I was so excited to get up here. I woke up at the crack of 7:40 am, with no alarm clock, and prepared for the day ahead.

JoshO and I luckily had an uneventful drive up and we witnessed little to no accidents, unlike our insane drive from Poughkeepsie yesterday. We concluded on the drive that the US decided to have the Olympics in Lake Placid so that no other teams could find their way there and therefore the US would win all the medals. Seriously, it's in the middle of NOWHERE. The last 20 miles of the trip the two-lane roads were barely plowed and this was the middle of April. I can't even imagine it in January/February. We did arrive, though, and I filled out about 79 pages of paperwork effectively signing away my soul and declaring that I've never had herpes. I'm pretty sure that I was completely truthful in the paperwork, unless someone isn't telling me something. (Antoian? Helga? Now's the time to come clean, it could cost me my tryout if you don't) I checked in to my room and found out that there will be six of us competing in skeleton, with about 20 people trying out for bobsled.

The skeleton crew has two triples across the hall from each other, with each room decorated and preserved from 1980. The guys are pretty cool. I have two roommates, Brendan and Nick. Brendan plays soccer at DIII Marywood and has done the skeleton school back in November, so he serves as a sort-of guide for us. Nick played soccer down in Florida and then played in the MLS for a bit. He's 32 and is married with a little boy. The guys across the hall are Dan, who played soccer for the Air Force (he's funny), and Lionel, who is from Alaska, did the pentathlon at Tufts, and is also really tall. 6'5'' last I checked, which would make him the tallest skeleton athlete in history if he makes it to competition. I forget the other guy's name, since he just moved in, but I know he goes to TCU and he seems just as nice as all the others.

Unfortunately, due to this weather, the dream of actually doing a skeleton run will be postponed for the near future. Due to the horrible weather that the Northeast has had, the track was not only closed for today but tomorrow as well for repairs. Since we had nothing else planned for today besides the intro meeting, we essentially had a free day. We checked out the skeleton track (cool), the hockey rink (goosebump-inducing) and the ski jump (purely terrifying). We then went into Lake Placid the town for a bit, and then played HORSE in the gym for a little. We also met some of the other athletes, including some of the bobsled girls. They are JACKED. They've got some serious muscle on them, it's quite impressive.

We have another meeting at 9 am tomorrow and then are free until our 4-Item test at 3 pm. I found out that they are doing away with the 5 hop test, and instead putting in a medicine ball throw test. Umm...jackpot? I've only done that twice a week for the past two months. I really lucked out and if I don't post the best mark on that event I'll be supremely disappointed. I won't judge the other athletes prematurely, but from what I've heard from Brendan, who has done this before, I'm pretty confident.

The down-time is plentiful, but we keep ourselves busy surfing the internet, watching tv, eating and working out. I get along well with the other skeleton guys and I can't wait for the actual racing part on Wednesday. It's frustrating to get up here and be told you can't even race until Wednesday, but that will only make me hungrier to get up there and do it. Here's to hoping that my hamstring holds together tomorrow and I blow the socks off the competition!