Calgary WC-----Arriving in Europe

I am overall mostly pleased with my first world cup of the season. The first race is always the most nerve wrecking for myself because it is the first true test to see if everything you have done in the summer is going to pay off on the sled and in the track. Although my placing wasn't as high as I had hoped, both of my runs and split times definitely showed that my speed is there, and that my training this summer is going to pay off. I had some small problems in the start curve, which is rare for me as generally the start is my strongest part of my sliding and finished the first run in 14th place. My second run although not perfect was significantly better and I moved up three spots and finished 11th. I was hoping for a top 9 finish, but I took a lot away from the competition and am now ready to attack the rest of the season. It is so easy to slide reserved and be complacent with just finishing the run. To be one of the top sliders you have to take risks and really let the sled run and try to work with it, rather than trying to always control it. Every day and every run I am learning more and more of this with my training. I realize this is a lot of luge lingo, so if anyone has any question please feel free to e-mail me. Clukeyluge@googlemail.com. Even if you don't have questions feel free to e-mail me anyways, I enjoy hearing from so many people, especially from back in Maine, it makes me feel close to home.

We have been in Europe since Monday evening. Our first stop in Europe also happens to be my favorite place to visit, slide, and just be in. Igls is a small town nestled right in the middle of the alps. The views are breath taking, and unlike Germany the sun seems to always be shining here. It is by far the most beautiful place in the winter time that we visit. I am a little bit disappointed though that there isn't any snow here. Somehow competing in our sport in the cold, is a little bit easier when there is snow on the ground. I also really like sliding on this track, although it is the slowest track on circuit, it is sometimes difficult to find the time and speed for a fast run. It is very important here to drive precise lines to maximize the push you get from every curve. This is the most attended world cup in the history of our sport, over 180 sleds entered to compete, generally on an average world cup there would be around 110 sleds, sometimes in Olympic years it would rise to 130 max. Because of so many sleds that have entered, our training was limited to just 5 training runs. despite this I have had a good week of training and am ready and excited for the race tomorrow morning.

We had a Thanksgiving dinner yesterday here in Austria. The hotel did a great job preparing all of the American traditional foods. The one thing I missed was Cranberry Sauce from a can WITHOUT real cranberries. It has been years since I have had that processed perfectly canned shape goodness.