Gate 27….

Well where to start. Let’s just say it, I had two races in Landgraaf and I managed to get disqualified in both races in the second run for missing a gate, impressive, right?! Yes made the same mistake twice, didn’t learn, blabla…. And cried… twice…. It sucks.

We arrived in Landgraaf on Monday and trained slalom on Tuesday and Wednesday, I had good runs during these sessions and especially my last run on Wednesday, everything felt right (for the moment) so that was a good way to end my last training before race day.

After skiing we went cycling in the gym and did some core and stretching and off course we did our ski’s. It was fun hanging out with the other teams we even watched soccer the Netherlands against Germany sort of together with the Germans, but the Netherlands lost 3-0.  On Wednesday I put a lot of work in prepping my ski’s for the race and I was happy with the results, my ski’s where fast! After dinner I got my bib, 15 and I felt relax and ready to race.

After a good night of sleep I woke up excited but not nervous, I did the inspection and the first run looked pretty good. I skied the first run and it was a good run I was happy with my time, off course there were still things I could do better, but I was happy. My time was good, I sat in 6^th place 0,5 seconds behind number 5 and 2,5 seconds behind number 1 (the world champion!) my gap with number 7 was 2,5 seconds as well.

After the first run my mom arrived and a friend, it was great that they came to watch me! During inspection I noticed the turns in the second run where sharper. In the first run we didn’t use a start interval and started when the girl before had finished but because it was a big field and they wanted to speed things up they used a start interval for the second run, I didn’t know that. In the start the starter started to count down, but I saw the person in front of me still skiing, and I lost my focus…. Even so I skied the top part pretty good, I was attacking more than in the first run, this was a better run. Until I got pushed back, and in the backseat I got shot out of the slalom, damn. Getting pushed back is a big problem for me because my orthosis pulls me a bit to the back and I have weakness in my foot lifter muscles so I can’t pull myself back to the front that easy.

Well I finished my mom was there so I cried, like a little girl, which helped I got it all out and I knew what the problem was.

The rest of Thursday I spend just chilling and prepping my ski’s for the next race on Friday.

I remember I wrote on twitter, turns out 15 wasn’t my number. After dinner I got my bib, yeah 15… There was a little pink tea cup hanging on the wall in the kids corner and if I finished the next day, Sven, one of the trainers would give it to me as a reward, finishing would have been a big enough reward but I like the tea cup.

Next day, Friday I finished the first run but the disqualification of the day before got to me a little bit, so I held back… My time was still pretty good considering it is my first race, again sitting in 6^th place, only the gap to number 5 was a bit bigger (0,9 second) my gap to number 7 was (2,76 seconds) and the gap to number one was (2,9 seconds). Second run, inspection I had my doubts about the gate before last (27) I even walked back to see how the others did that gate, the rest of the run was fast. I skied and it felt good, I got rid of the feelings I had during the first run, I was almost in the finish, confident I skied right but when I was next to gate 27 I realized my mistake…. I cursed and got really mad with myself. I hadn’t tried to ski that gate because it didn’t look right at the time, the lines where straight to the finish, it wasn’t clear at all! So I missed the gate and got disqualified….. again. Just at that moment my dad arrived, too bad he didn't see me race.

me realizing my mistake....

As it turned out I wasn’t the only one who got disqualified at that gate, in total 8 out of the 11 athletes that got disqualified in the second run got disqualified at gate 27. My roommate Anna got disqualified at gate 27 as well, she also took the straight line and she called it a ‘Sven Kramertje’ after the Dutch speed skater who didn’t switch lanes in the 2010 Olympics, he got disqualified while he would have won gold if it hadn’t happen, I think it’s a good name for what happened.

To top that day off, I slipped while walking in my ski boots and I fell on my head, hard…. 

Later that afternoon we had a little photo shoot for profile pictures and a group picture, curious how those pictures turned out, posing all dizzy and with a bad headache.

We also had a ski session that afternoon but I felt a little foggy in my head so I went inside after a few runs. After a shower and 2 hours in bed I felt better so I went to dinner and the party that night. We had cheese fondue and fun with the Suisse team and 2 balloons. I didn’t stay long at the party my head couldn’t deal with the music, I hang out with a few of the Suisse guys in the hall for a while and went to bed early. I woke up disappointed and foggy in my head the next morning but I had a good time anyway. It’s too bad that I got disqualified in both races because I was skiing good and I would have qualified for the European cup, which is a goal, but I know it's a reachable goal now. Because I didn’t qualify for the European Cup my next races are in January and I have December at home, time to study. My head is getting better, I have a bit of a concussion that’s also why this blog is this late, but it’s a lot better and getting back to normal.