Marianne's Blog

Before Christmas I finished a block of world cups. One at Telluride in Colorado and two at Carezza in Italy.

The world cups in Italy were originally at the beginning of December but there was absolutely no snow. I debated not going because the change fee was pricey and I was taking the chance of having to change it again if it didn't snow, but it was important for me and what I wanted to accomplish to go. I booked my flight and crossed my fingers.

The World cup at Telluride was a flat course with a small pitch at the bottom. After the first run I was 12^th which felt ok but not great. The second run felt a lot better, more smooth and aggressive. I finished the day 19^th overall. My best world cup result so far.

I headed to Europe the next day and after 15 hours of flying and some much needed sleeping pills I felt pretty out of it. We waited an hour to figure out rentals and bags and were en route for the 4 hours to Carezza Italy . I tried hard to stay awake. I don't do well with jet lag, but I was out within a half hour. I surprisingly slept fine until the 3^rd night in Europe. Which was the night before the first world cup. Not easy to get up but my energy was good until the race was over and then I hit a wall. Definitely made it easy to sleep that night.

Michael and Matt after our flight. Just a little tired!!

Our first day of training, did not start off well for me. The top of the hill has a great pitch, a pitch you need to be aggressive on. I took an aggressive line but on the 4^th gate I got very twisted in my body caught an edge and went flying into the fence. That hurt, but I was lucky with just a massive bruise on my thigh and nothing more. I had to rest for 10 minutes and debated calling it quits for the day but I knew that would have played with my head, not training the race slope before the race. I took 4 more training runs and realized it hurt less being on the board then off.

There is so much room for girls to do well at the world cups. The difference in not making it in the finals versus making the finals is tenths and 2 out of the three world cups I was only a few tenths from taking that next step in my athletic goals.

So far this year has been my best by far. I've always been told I have potential and the coaches have stuck by me supporting me because they believed I could do well. I feel like I'm finally moving from potential to performance, and it feels good that they're support is not being wasted.

The first world cup in Italy was a parallel Giant slalom. The race didn't go as well as I hoped and I was actually a little confused by it all. My teammate Caro and both my coaches Mark Fawcett and Paul said I looked fast but when I came across the finish line I was 16^th in my course which is the last position to get a second run. The clock didn’t agree that I was fast. But I did get a second run so I decided to go all out. Nothing to lose at this point. Things felt good, and up until the 3^rd last gate I thought I could pull off a decent result. Not a result I would have hoped for at the beginning of the day but something I could be happy with, with not such a great first run. Then I got to the bottom of the course only a few gates to go and I crashed. I cant remember how it happened. It was all really fast and that was the end of the day for me. I finished in 32^nd with a disqualification. I was disappointed but I had to focus on the next day.

Congratulations to my teammate Caroline Calve who won that day. First win for Caro at a world cup and she rode so well. We were all super stoked for her.

I competed in the Parallel Slalom world cup the next day and the end result was better, but it was a rodeo in there. Athletes were getting chucked left, right and centre, and generally with slalom it gets worse by the finals, but the day started off that way. There was a bank formed very quickly and I needed to change my plan. Its all about being smart now. How can I stay on my feet and get the fastest turns in these conditions.

In the first run I couldn't get my rhythm until the 6^th gate or so. I was lucky to have even stayed on my feet with the way I was riding through those gates. I got my self together and made the turns I needed to make. Second run I felt was better but looking at video, I looked sloppy. But then again, so did most people. I finished in 20^th with an overall time of 115.94 and to get into finals was 115.48. I know I can make it happen this season, and once I lace 2 solid runs I'll get in those finals. From there its a whole new game.

Thanks to all the staff on that trip Mark Ballard, Rob, Mark Fawcett, Sylvain, Cliff, Paul, Chris, and Luca.