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.