Dear . . .

Dear Bode Miller,

I can not explain how much I aspire to be as good at alpine skiing as you. You literally have no fear hurling down a course like Birds of Prey. It is honestly incredible.

Watching you ski is probably one of the most motivating things you can do. It helps me to get aggressive during training and the night before a race. I especially like to watch the run from 2003 when you finish a downhill race on one ski. It reminds me to never give up in a course no matter how big the mistake I've made is.

image courtesy of www.skinet.com

This run also reminds me that no one is perfect. One of the main reasons you're my favorite world cup racer is because you make mistakes and still make it on the podium. If I were to watch Mikaela Shiffrin ski slalom as my motivation it wouldn't work because I know I can't ski slalom that cleanly yet. It just puts me down. However, when I watch you ski I feel like we have a similar style of skiing and the mistakes I make somewhat resemble yours (your mistakes of course being on much more difficult course and hill).

I also admire how you stood up to the US Ski Team. Haha I have to be careful here because I eventually want to be part of that team but I thought it was pretty cool. As I get older I realize just how political ski racing is and I think it was a bold move for you to train on your own.

You also have some pretty gnarly crashes and surprisingly got out of most of them alright. For example, that race when you cut a gash into your calf. I mean, that's pretty f****** awesome. Like I don't know how you managed to cut yourself with your ski and recover so quickly but it was pretty bad a**. Like, I've been injured once before and it's so hard to motivate yourself after that. I think it's pretty awesome how you kept going through all your years of ski racing.

I'm sad to see you retiring from the sport though. I mean, I can understand why. It's hard to constantly be getting beat up by ruts and steep pitches. Falling only gets harder on your body. But, although not possible I wish you would never retire. That way I'll have endless motivational video for me to watch :)

I hope my blog reminds you of a younger you. Although I'm a girl I hope that this blog takes you back to your U16 (J4/J3 back then) years. I hope you'll come back to read my blog and see as I progress through the world of ski racing as you did.

Thanks for reading my blog,
Max

Snowbasin

Hey guys! The Park City U16 Alpine Ski Team went to Snowbasin for our first qualifier of the 2015-16 season. It was pretty exciting.

the Snowbasin trail map
image courtesy of liftopia

I'm super excited to tell you that I it was my first race since acl reconstructive surgery. I tore my acl last season in February and it was the worst experience of my short life. If you don't know what goes down in acl reconstructive surgery they basically take a "new ligament" and replace the old one with screws and plates and stuff. It never feels normal again and that's why is was so great getting back to races.

So anyway, we usually travel as a team to races but this time we traveled with our parents since Snowbasin is only about an hour away. We got to the mountain and went into the lodge with the sign marked "event parking only" and it already felt like it was going to be a good day. It's also pretty great remembering that you're out doing what you love and other kids are in school haha. I was a little late on the first day because we had to stop for windshield wiper fluid along the way. I quickly got ready in the lodge, grabbed my bib and my pass and head out for course inspection.

The first race was giant slalom and the run looked really nice. As my first race I was pretty excited, yeah I know it seems like I get excited easily, when the course was set nice and straight. For those of you that are not ski racers a straight course basically means that the turns are not as across the hill. Makes sense right?

The next thing that helped me feel pretty confident was the fact that the race hill wasn't all that steep. Being from Pennsylvania I find it hard to get used to the pitches of the Intermountain Division.

The one thing that definitely didn't boost my confidence was my start number. I ran eighty second on my first run and that was awful. Because my start number was so far back the ruts, chunks and lines in the course, were really bad. I suffered a pretty bad mistake at the top of the course and it cost me. I came in thirty seventh. Honestly, it wasn't too bad for my first run back but I wanted to do better.

On my second run I ran thirty seventh since that was where I finished. To my pleasant surprise I came in twenty sixth that run and finished in the same position. Overall Friday was a pretty good day.

Unfortunately Saturday and Sunday weren't as great but there's still a long season ahead of us. I hope you enjoyed my little post on my first race back. I'm confident this'll be a good season. See you soon!