Going to Beaver Creek brought out mixed emotions. I did see Cody Marshall for the first time since his accident, which was great. It’s always fun to hang out with Cody; seeing him was definitely the highlight of going to Beaver Creek.

I really wasn’t all that psyched to be forerunning. I wanted to be racing. During inspection, I ran into Warbird, he said he was sorry for taking my spot (which really wasn’t mine), and I congratulated him on his recent speed success. His speed skiing right now is impressively fast. After talking to him for a few minutes, we both came to the conclusion that he really had to be on his game to qualify since he was starting 59th. In the last five years, only one person has qualified from that far back at Beaver Creek. Markus Larsson did it twice in 2005 and 2006 from 67th and 62nd, respectively. Warbird ended up blowing out on the 4th gate so that was unfortunate and painful to watch.

As for the forerunner, first run I skied well up top and then went onto my hip for a second half way down as I was trying to cut off the line. In between the first and second run, I had a chance to chill out and remember that I was going to take another run on a perfect course. When the course is in such good shape it is way more fun to start first than in the 40s. Second run, I had a good run and when I crossed the line I had a big smile on my face.

Then we watched Zamansky score his first World Cup points in North America finishing in 25th place. Leif Haugan ended up finishing 19th, while Ted Ligety took 4th (he really hates finishing 4th). Carlo Janka completely crushed the weekend winning all three World Cups at Beaver Creek (the combined, downhill, and GS).

After the race, I went up to the timing hut to retrieve my times and they told me if I raced I would have finished 7th. However, they were hand times and after looking at them they really didn’t make any sense. The run that Jimmy blew out his time was good and when he skied well his time was 20 seconds off the pace. To me the times really made no sense, but all I know is that I was taking it deep and making some good turns.

I’m in Chicago right now off to Munich and some Europa Cups races.

Hope all is well, w