This was our third set of races and they took place in Park City, UTAH. I have raced there numerous times and therefore knew the hill well.

Day 1: Giant Slalom

This was the first time that I had skied in over a week. Because I had been sick it was decided between me and my coaches that I would rest before the races rather than tire myself out and therefore have a tired body for the race days.

The day before this race, we had spent the whole day travelling. I felt well on this day, and although I still had a tickly cough, I felt good all things considered. However, on this giant slalom race day, I felt awful once again. Whilst inspecting the course the was very low on energy and felt sick. The coaches left it up to me whether I felt well enough to race or not. I was desperate to race, I like the hill at Park City, and I generally get good results there.

Therefore, I decided that I would race. Needless to say I did not do that well, not only was I sick, but I had not been in gates for over a week and this really affected my performance. As one of my coaches put it ' you look like you were skiing like you did last year'! I have been training so well but today was not the day that this was going to be shown in the race!

I ended up with 5th.

Day 2: Slalom

Luckliy I was feeling a lot better today, still not 100%, but tons better than the day before.

Again, I had not been in slalom gates in a week or so, and unforunatley they had not set up a training course due to the amount of snow that had fallen the night before. Normally, on slalom days, practice/training courses are set up on a near by slope to enable the racers to 'get the feel' of the gates before the actual race. Without this, I felt like I was going into the race 'blind'.

The first run was ok....not amazing, but not terrible either. However, on the second run, I had a blinding race!!!

After the first run, I was place 7th, however, I managed to make up an great deal of time on the second run giving me a finishing result of 4th. Although, I was pleased with this, it left me feeling annoyed that I did not race in the first run like I had in the second, but I guess that is the way that ski racing works!

Day 3: Slalom

I was pretty much feeling back to normal now, and was full of energy. I was feeling great about my second run the day before and was focussed on skiing that well in both runs in this race.

My first run certainly felt better than my first run that I had had the day before, however still it was not as good as I knew I could be. The second run was far better, but not as good as my second run yesterday.

However, I did end up with a 3rd place result

As much as I LOVE ski racing it can be so frustrating sometimes! Training goes so so well, but then putting it into the race can be so hard! I really feel that I am now battling with the psycological game of sports now, rather than the technicquie. Obviulsy technique also needs improving but, for me right now, I need to put my training in the races.

If anyone has any ideas about how I am going to do this, please let me know!

The official results are not on the International Paralympic Committee webstie yet, but once they are I shall post a link here.

These were our second set of races of the season which comprised of 1 GS race and 2 SG races. They were on my 'home hill' so I was feeling confident about the races.

Giant Slalom

Monday was the first race and was GS. I love GS!

The first run went well. Athough it did not leave me in the position that I wanted to be in going into the second run. I did ski it well, although as my coaches pointed out, I can ski far more aggressively than I did. So this was my main aim on the second run.

I actually preferred the second run set, and if felt far better. I certainly skied better and my coaches were very happier with the was I skied - I was far more agressive.

Click here to see the official results.

Super G (Day 1)

Tuesday was the first SG race. The conditions were perfect and the sun was shining! I felt prepared for the race despite the fact that we had not had much training. Unfortunately there had not been much snow at the beginning of the season in Colorado so we did not have much oppourtunity to train for speed events.

The race went well mostley. Stupidly I had a bad start and flicked the wand before I left the start. It was on my artificial leg side that it happened and hence I did not feel it. This probably lost me about a second. I felt I skied well, there was one point when the gates caught up with me and I got a little late, however I made this back up.

However, the time was not quite good enough to qualify for the World Cup. In order to race speed in the World Cup I need 120 or lower. I am currently at about 140 points so I just needed one good race in order to qualify. But today was not the day for that.

Click here to see the official results.

Super G (Day 2)

Today, was not a good day! I had major problems with my diabetes. I had been running high (high blood sugars) the night before and took a large shot of insulin before bed. However, this did not work and after a bad nights sleep I was still running incredibly high the next morning. This makes me feel very very ill and the heart beat increases significantly. I took another large shot of insulin with no luck. I changed my injection site of the pump, took more insulin still to no avail.

Having been running high for such a large amount of time I felt incredibly ill and my electrolytes were completely out of sinc. When this happens and my heart race is increased, I get a heart murmur. Therefore because of all this it really was not safe for me to race.

I was gutted, and very upset, basically because today was my last chance to qualify for the speed races in the World Cup.

I managed to get my bloods under control (by standard injections and not the pump)   by the afternoon but by then it was too late, the race was over.

Slalom

Slalom was our first race of the season. Training had been going really well. However, I was rather disappointed with myself for not putting this successful training into my race.

It had snowed an unbelievable amount the night before, which put a hold on the race. However, we did manage to race despite the new snow and horrible weather that day! My first run, I was rather disappointed with. For me this is one of my battles, the second run always goes well, however I seem to suffer on the first run.

The second run felt far better, and placed me 6th after the 2 races were over. Unfortunately though the result was not good enough to improve my points. However, this was the first race of the season and the fact that I finished made me happy!

Click here to see the official results.

Giant Slalom

I far prefer Giant Slalom to Slalom! Again my training had been going well, but getting back into the racing season I found it difficult to put the training into the races. Again there had been a lot of new snow the night before, however the weather and visibility was better today.

The first race run of the day felt good, and left 5 of us all within less than half a second between each other! After the first run, I was placed 9th. I skied far better in the second run (once again!) and managed to climb 3 places and ended up in 6th place. Although it felt good, especially being the first GS of the season, I know I can do better! Again, unfortunately I was not able to improve my points, I was pleased with how the race went. It just gives me that little drive to do better!

Click here to see the official results.