Last night was the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Actually, if you want to get technical it finished at 6 a.m. this morning.
Team Holm Bobsled was invited participate by giving people rides in a bobsled — on wheels! Talk about funny looking. Brad and I fashioned a makeshift bracket for the front and back to attach six-inch wheels on the base. I was pretty impressed with Brad’s design; I was nervous it might not work.
From about 6 p.m. until midnight, yesterday, we pushed quite a few people across the park. Talk about a workout; I’m wasted!
As if all that isn’t random enough, I found out that my cousin Nathan was performing there that evening. He was releasing a new CD of his. During his concert segment, he started singing a song I hadn’t heard in a long time. (Actually, very few people have ever heard it.) He sang “Baby, You’re from BYU.” It’s a parody from Lonestar’s Amazed. So, I ran up there to join in.
Nathan, me and a few other friends rewrote the words to the song back in 2002 — I think. Though a few of the words were different, and it’s been forever since I last heard it, I kinda had to fake it a little. But, I think everyone enjoyed it and had a good laugh.
Anyway, just thought I would give you an update on the event last night.
I’ve been toying with the idea about putting up a Facebook page that lets people know what I’m writing, where those are being posted and what I’m up to (including the bobsledding). I’m not sure what to think of this, yet; but since my last post, I thought I’d give it a try.
Anyway, I wanted my faithful blog readers to be the first to know about the page. Here’s the link…
I plan on keeping this up-to-date on my projects as well as random tidbits. I’m even going to be posting up a couple pictures from time to time – whenever those happen. I also think there will be more opportunity for easier conversation between each other. (The Google Blogger platform isn’t the best for keeping a stream of conversation available.)
This is a work-in-progress, but I have a lot of exciting things I’m working on; I hope to share them with you all on Facebook. Hope to see you there.
Well, there you have it. I hope you like it. And, I promise to keep this updated regularly.
During the off-season, we take a little time to work on projects that get neglected due to a lack of time. (We are up on the mountain multiple hours during a day; three to four days a week.)
Anyway, Jeremy’s been feeling a little creative and drafted up a couple of different logo ideas for the team. Go take a look and feel free to vote on the one you like the most.
A couple weeks ago my team and I were forerunners for World Cup. Unfortunately, we crashed. What’s more, we never got any pictures or video of the crash.
So, I want to see if we can find video/photo footage of our team’s crash during World Cup. I know there’s video or photos somewhere, because when we got out of the sled there were at least 20 people there taking pictures.
I’ve learned a lot during my (near) 30 year on earth, but one lesson has stuck with me since high school: don’t submit to defeat; go back and conquer.
True there are times in our lives when we feel as though we’ve been completely destroyed and there is no hope, but take a second look at what has happened. You gain experience that you would have otherwise never obtained.
About two weeks ago, our bobsled team crashed during World Cup in front of our friends and colleagues. Yeah it was a little embarrassing, but that day we proved to ourselves that we could push harder and run faster. The crash was merely an opportunity for us to prove ourselves.
That was the last time we were at the track… until last night.
After spending two weeks getting the sled fixed – admittedly, I didn’t help with the fixing since I’ve never welded nor replaced fiberglass – we strapped on our helmets and went down the track.
We took it easy last night, but the principle remains the same – go back and conquer!
The season finishes up this week, and I’m so looking forward to the summer. Bring on the sun!
For those of you following my on Twitter, you know are aware that we crashed the bobsled yesterday during World Cup. First, and foremost, we are all ok despite the cuts, bruises and burns. (Nothing that can’t heal in about a week.)
Anyway, this was our first crash as a team; and I’ve gotta give a lot of credit to Jeremy. He did an exceptional job; it could have been worse. The elements that lead to the crash created a recipe for the perfect storm, if you will. The weeks preceding World Cup were spent fine tuning the sled and polishing the runners. Polished runners = Speed! The track was also in pristine condition. The track crew had spent days getting the ice ready and making sure every turn was flawless. Add in the fact that we gave Jeremy our fastest push start ever — 5.2 sec. Put all of those together; you’re going to go fast.
The first 10 of 15 turns were amazing. Jeremy had a perfect entry and exit in every turn. In fact, turn 6 was so nice that we really felt the G’s pushing on us. Everything was awesome! Though no one saw, I was grinning from ear to ear. I just knew we were going to have our fastest time ever.
It wasn’t until turn 11 when I notice Jeremy’s shoulders leaning into the turn a lot harder than ever before. As we exited the turn, the strangest sensation came over me. “We’re going to flip over.” We were on 2 runners by this point and as we entered turn 12, the sled came to rest on its side. It wasn’t a crash or a bang; it was as if it was gently laid on it’s left side. From then on out, we were on our side through turns 12 – 15. We obviously didn’t have enough momentum to finish the track, so we slid back and forth between turns 14 and 15 until the sled came to rest at the low point of the track.
It wasn’t until we all got out that we noticed Brad was missing. Apparently, he kicked out of the sled in turn 13 when he couldn’t find his handles to hold himself in the sled. He was getting badly burned on his shoulder and decided it would be better to kick out. I think he got the brunt of the track with his back burned and cuts on his elbows and ankle. Jeremy hurt his knee pretty bad. I bruised my hand, my knee and got a light burn on my left shoulder. Dan seemed to walk away with not much at all.
During the crash Jeremy was able to get deep into the front of the sled, and with Brad out of the back, Dan was able to duck below the sides of the sled. Unfortunately, my head was sticking out and I was riding the side wall from time to time. The whole time I was thinking, “Oh man! I love this helmet. Now it’s all ruined!” I know, I know; how stupid is that? I’m doing 83 mph on my head, and I’m worried that my helmet is getting ruined.
So, the damage to the sled. Well here I’ll show you. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?
So call me crazy, but I think this crash brought us closer together as a team than before. It’s not going to stop us from sliding — well, at least until we can get the sled fixed.
By the way, we called our friend who was recording times on the track to find out how fast we were going, since those sleds are not equipped with speedometers. 83 mph! I think that’s the fastest we’ve ever gone before. I’m sure we would have beat our fastest time.
Just to give you an idea of what it looked like… No, this is not us. We’re still looking for video of it.
We were supposed to be on the bobsled track tonight, but for reasons being those plans got changed. Instead, I decided to go to the gym and get my work out there.
Hopefully we’ll be back up on the track later this week.
By the way, I wrote a post about our last bobsledding adventure on Jeremy’s team blog. You should go check it out. Here’s the link.
It’s not everyday the National Enquirer writes a 100% factual story. So, when my team captain (Jeremy Holm) got a call from them asking to do an interview to find out more about our team and why I joined Team Holm Bobsled, you can only imagine our trepidation to participate. However after some thought, we decided that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give it a go.
Well to make a long story short, the article ran last week. How’s that for craziness? Does this mean we’re famous?
Craziness aside, I’ve gotta give a shout out to both Jeremy and Brad who are pictured in the article – two great guys! I would be going nowhere with all this bobsledding stuff if it weren’t for those two, as well as Matt and Dan (along all my skele friends). We all have a good time sliding. I wish everyone at the track best of luck with their goals and aspirations; you all inspire me to work harder.
Well in case you haven’t heard, our team got a little recognition in a local publication today. Blogging about this article may be a little shameless in self-promotion, but that hasn’t stopped me before. However, I think it is very important that I recognize a few people that truly helped to make this article come to fruition.
First, and foremost… Jeremy Holm: The man that got me involved in this amazing sport and continues to teach me important techniques to continue to improve on the track.
Brad Welch, Matt Storms, and Dan Bright for keeping the entertainment alive; even if we are freezing our butts off in Speedos.
Mark Weinberg, a very talented man behind the camera lens.
Vaudene Crosley, for driving all the way out in the middle of nowhere Utah to take pictures on “fake snow.”
…and all the friends I’ve made up at the track (of course that means the skeleton athletes!)
There are so many other people I could thank, but then this would end up sounding more like an acceptance speech for some stupid award. And, we all know how obnoxious those can get.
