Saturday - Race Day

The morning started pretty early. I ran out to grab some pictures at 6am of the full moon shining on the mountains and the lake outside my window. Yesterday people were skating on the lake all the way to the end. Apparently the ice is so clear that you can see to the bottom in some places. In the picture to the left, the peak towers above the lake about 300m away. However, the wide angle lens on the camera seems to flatten it. It is truly breathtaking.

As for the race, again, it is up the hill to get the equipment in place and running pretty early. We are often on the lift around 8am or earlier. Pretty cold in the valley, and a little warmer as we went up the lift. About an hour later, the sun disappeared and the wind came up. It was about -13C most of the day, but where I was standing near the first interval eye, it was blowing about 20~25kph.

The amazing news of the day is that Canada won the race today. Jan Hudec pulled off a great run. Of course, since I work on the hill it takes a text message from Austria to let me know this. During the race, I don't wear a headset to the timing building, so I'm not connected to the real world.

Coming back to the hotel, I took a look at the window to see a Canadian tradition. The entire lake is covered with people ice skating. Of course, there is the customary set of hockey nets and a bunch playing hockey as well. You can click on the image to get a larger view.