A bumpy, painful, intense 103.8 kph ... but 103.8 kph nonetheless!

Well, I can now take another of the negatives out of my header: at least I have done the sport now!

The consensus? This sport is a freakin' blast!

Today was my second day on the track, for a total of five runs now from the women's luge start. It's hard to explain what it feels like to be shooting down this track at 90 kph, pulling 3 Gs on some of the corners, but surprisingly enough, it isn't scary.

Part I

Skeleton school coach: “To ease you into the feeling of sliding and getting use to the track, you will be starting at the junior luge start today, about halfway up the track.”

Me: “How fast will we go from there?”

Skeleton school coach: “Maybe 50 – 60 kph.”

Part II

I am back in Calgary for the next phase of my new career as a skeleton athlete: the phase where I actually get on the track and do this sport for real!

The days of a 10-second run at top speeds of 40 kph in the warmth and comfort of the Ice House are all but gone ...

Tomorrow evening I will pull on a pair of tights and an old sweatshirt, load myself onto a fancy toboggan and let someone push me down an icy chute to reach an eventual speed of 80 kph.

Well, it's official. I am now everything I never wanted to be. A license-toting, logo-sporting, GST-number boasting small-business owner. It's a good thing I didn't sleep all the way through my accounting and human resources classes in university.