| Gold!
25 January 2004
So I finally got a gold!
We had a race this weekend at the Winter Sports Center in Ignalina.
One article in Lithuanian Heritage Mag called it the closest place
to Switzerland. Well that may be, but it's still a long ways away!
There are main two slopes, one on each side of a frozen lake and
also a beginner/sledding hill which just means trouble!
On the one side where we had the GS yesterday there is a modern
poma lift. On the other side where we had SL today there is a sort
of carrot ride, you know, a handle tow, but each one has a small
poma attached so you have your choice of how you ride, although
there's not always a choice since grabbing the thing is a pretty
advanced skill on it's own!
I am convinced that even though our GS was 18 seconds long and our
SL 16 seconds long, skiing here will make me a better skier. The
"grooming" if you can even call it that, is ridiculous.
The whole hill is death cookies with weird random moguls all over.
Running SL today was unbelievable. But safer than in Vilnius!
As I said this is the Winter Sports training center. There is 40k
of cross county trails which look to be really good. There is also
ice skating, snowmobiling, and the most dangerous ski jump I've
ever seen. The Holmenkollen it is NOT! Actually I'd rather jump
the 120 Olympic hill than this. It's right in the middle of the
trees, the run out is only about 4 meters wide, and 10 meters long
and goes right out on to the lake.
The best thing about this place is that there is a big wonderful
sauna! And we stayed 2.5 hours there last night! There is the sauna,
a pool and a cold room so you just go back and forth drinking and
talking and having a great time!
Ok, so to get to the good part! Yes I won GS yesterday! I beat Angelica
by .4 the first run but then struggled on my second run. Still,
I only lost .2 to her so I got the gold! Yea! Most important this
is a team competition and Vilnius and Kaunas were going head to
head. Angelica is from Kaunas, and so is the other best guy in Lithuania,
Mindaugas. However, Paulius won GS for Vilnius! Celebration all
around! Today in SL Paulius won first run, but almost skied out
second. Still he was fourth. I was third today, Angelica was first,
Diana, my teammate was second. My dad asked me if I did anything
different yesterday to win... I said, "YES! I drank almost
4 glasses of wine before even going outside!" Now, you might
say, this isn't safe, but it's the Lithuanian way. And, I'll tell
you. It was MAYBE 10f..... SO COLD! We were drinking whisky, vodka,
tea all day just to keep warm! I seriously thought my toes were
frostbit. I was wearing my GS suit. UGH! Thank God the hill is short!
Now, the most important thing is that as I said this was a team
competition, today Vilnius was 2,3 and 4 for men and women and yesterday
1 and 3 so clearly we won! A nice big trophy. And the medals they
gave were extra nice because this year is the 60th anniversary of
this center. It was a great weekend!
On the way home the girls and I stopped at a small restaurant in
the country where for less than 5 lt we had soup, giant fried dumplings
with meat inside and tea. This place was like something straight
out of a fairy tale. A small wooden house with one little bar and
a small room with tables. And of course, an out house... in the
back, about 100 ft from the building with a little light on it.
So cool.
Now I am SO tired as you can of course imagine and since tomorrow
is my first FULL day of real work, I'm going to bed immediately!
|
