I raced in my third America's Cup race this past Saturday, in Calgary. Because there are 10 women on the development team, our coaches gave everyone the chance to race in Calgary by splitting us up over the two days of racing; so I only raced on the first day.

I'll just preface the report by putting my sigh right here:

Sigh.

It was a really hard race.

First, a lot of the sliders that were racing on the Intercontinental Cup circuit the day before, also raced in the American's Cup race on Saturday, making it a very competitive field.

Second, because of the accident on my second training day, I had only had two training runs that week, and they had been three days before the race.

And finally, the weather sure wasn't cooperating.

For the record, this is the view from the top of the track on a good day:

I thought the weather had been bad in Park City. I am pretty sure it snowed two feet in Calgary on race day. They called breaks after every five sliders so that the track crew could sweep the track. After every slider there were at least five people sweeping the grooves and the start. When you put your sled down at the start line, it just stuck there.

I didn't have really bad runs. Just slow. Which is sometimes more frustrating than having bad runs, because you don't know where to make corrections.

But what are you gonna do? I learned a few more things to add to my tool bag, including the knowledge that in the snow you have to push five times as hard to have a decent start time.

If anything, over the past three weeks of racing, I have learned to deal with the unexpected, and I think that is tool that will serve me well in the coming years.