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Hey all,

Peggy Shinn wrote a pretty entertaining blog about me after nationals and I thought I'd send the direct link along. We have been running into her at races for nearly a decade as a writer/reporter for countless publications and now she does a blog for the USOC.

Here's a direct link http://www.teamusa.org/blogs/behind-the-podium/posts/1787-dreaming-the-life to the article.

Hope you're all doing well. I've been in the water trying to fix a dock the last few days and just so you know 43 degree water is painfully cold.

Cheers, w

Hello all,

So the end of Jon’s coined “no worries tour” is officially over for every member of DTL (Dreamin the Life) + 1. Yesterday was the last day of ski racing for the season. I might do the sugar slalom, but that’s more of a blow out than a ski race from what I’ve gathered (I’ve never experienced it so I don’t really know).

The end of this season was good to me – similar to last year – I felt like I could win pretty much every race I started and was on the podium in 9 of my last 10 FIS starts (I was 8th in the slalom at Nationals and won MJ’s Race a USSA race at Waterville). And even went to all the awards (sometime that’s a challenge). Anyway, the last couple weeks were great and I really appreciate all the help from Sam Damon, the Fogartys, RB Klinkenberg, the Marshalls, Thomas Erhard, Lindsey Mann, the LaFoleys, among many others. I can’t forget Dane Spencer and Jon Olsson for making the trip a lot more fun and entertaining.

And of course, my personal coach Cody Marshall at Killington.

After the first run at Killington, I was in 14th over 2 seconds off Chowder who blew away the field. Cody watched in the rain/fog, which is impressive for Cody who doesn’t really enjoy skiing in the rain. He came off the hill after first run, sat next to me, and began ripping my slalom apart. He started with something like, “You sucked – that was terrible. Every single one of you guys skied so badly. Your pressure was all in the wrong spot. You were on your edges for ages. Get off those things. I can’t believe how painful that was to watch. You never straightened it out, ever.” After initially feeling like a pile of feces after listen to his rant, I realized he was right. He ended it by mentioning, I could do a lot better and I should win the second run. Second run, I got pretty fired up, did some jumping around at the start in the rain, straightened out my line, tried to get off my edges as quickly as I could and won the second run. My coach was psyched and so was I. It’s kinda hilarious because back in 2007 when Cody and I were traveling together in Europe. It was just the two of us racing because everyone else wanted to go home. I was in the finish giving him a course report after he won the first run at San Candido, Italy before he came down to crush the field and win his first European FIS race. So as always, it’s great to spend some time with Cody.

Cody fell two stories onto his head last summer and has come a long way. The two days I was with him he brought me to his workouts. He’s been doing a ton of lifting and he’s made huge strides. His legs are stronger than mine.

Anyway, thanks to all of you that help me on this journey. I’m really not sure what is to come, but I’m off to Cochran’s light fundraiser. They’re trying to get lights for night skiing up there.

Cheers, w

A shout out to Carolyn Beckendorff who just won the women’s field in the Master’s Nationals Super G at Sun Valley. She beat out Jessie McAleer and Erika Hogan. And Carolyn wasn’t even sure if you wanted to race SG anymore. Good on ya.

On our drive to the hill Terrance Fogarty, one of our hosts in Saranac Lake and course worker, sent me a text, “they are fire hosing and salting.” I read it to Dane and Jon and Dane responded with, “Man, that’s old school.” By the way, it was around 38 degrees out. Since I drew bib 1, I couldn’t have been happier. The worse the course, the better my advantage was so I was pumped. When we went up for inspection, the snow was terrible. It was absolutely bottomless. And they were getting ready to water the top.



After pushing the start back a few times and then lowering the start it still didn’t look promising. Frankly, I still can’t believe that we actually raced today. At 12:00 we were back up at the start, the organizers called for the forerunners, and just like that it was on. Before I knew it, I was in the gate and just couldn’t get my rhythm up top. I skied well in the middle of the course and took a pretty conservative line at the bottom not sure how the snow was going to hold up, but it was fine. The snow was surprisingly good. It was watered and salted and it kept raining on it so it became quite dense. David Donaldson came down after me into the lead and then Tommy Ford moved into the lead by 8 tenths. I was angry. I had an epic opportunity starting 1st and completely sucked. The snow was good, but starting 1 was definitely a huge advantage. I quickly had flashbacks of the last two times I raced GS on this hill. Two years in a row, I lost the Nor-Am title on this hill and I could not think of a single thing nice to say about it.

I stewed for a few hours. Talked to my personal coach, Cody Marshall, who told me to chill out, take a nap, and race for the money (there is prize money for the top 3). I took a nap. This is now day 6 in a row of racing so mentally and physically I was pretty cooked. I really didn’t think we’d have a second run. It took over two hours to get through the 87 starters. I was mid nap – at 2:20 – when I heard inspection was between 2:25 and 2:45 with a 3:00 start. So I throw on my wet clothing and hammered outside into the rain. I went up the lift alone each time stewing the entire lift ride. I inspected quickly; it was basically the same course moved to skiers right 3-5 feet, but had a bit more swing.

I then put some additive on my race skis because I knew I needed every possible advantage. As the race organizers continued to push back the start time, I just stood at the bottom of the hill under covered TV scaffolding staring down at my poles. A number of people came by and said hi, but I had nothing to say to them. I didn’t care who they were and I certainly didn’t want to talk to a single person. After I saw a couple forerunners ski the bottom section, I went up the lift to get some retribution. Up top I didn’t want to talk to anyone so I didn’t. I knew I didn’t have anything nice to say so I kept my distance. All I wanted was to annihilate this hill and course.

It was finally my turn to go, it was pouring rain, I pushed out of the gate, and immediately became a bit late on the upper section. Then I just pinned it all the way to the bottom. On the flats, I was going as far as a few feet inside the line and occasionally T-boning the rut, but kept it going. I crossed the line and won the run. I ended up finishing 2nd behind Tommy Ford and ahead of Chris Frank. They’re both great guys and it was fun to be on the podium with them. Dane finished 5th and Jon finished 6th. I was pretty impressed with how I was able to harness my anger and disappointment. It’s certainly not the most fun way to ski, but occasionally it’s the best or only option. The only other time I was remotely fast on this hill I felt and skied it the exact same way.


Now it’s time to get some rest and go to the best ski race of the season, the Cochran’s “Thank God for Snowmaking Race.” It’s way past my bedtime.

Before I go, I have to thank the organizers and the course workers for all of their diligent work today. There determination pulled off a miracle today.

Good night. w