Day 2 of the CA State Games:

 

GS

 

Giant Slalom is supposed to be a more spread out - and therefore faster - course than Slalom.  Well, the course was definitely longer than the SL course, but it really didn't seem any faster.  Plus the surface was just so so icy.  I mean, I guess that's just how the alpine courses are - icy.  But wow, who really likes ice?  Anyway, time for the 1st run down the course.  I start out at what I think is a quick speed, and start bombing down the course.  I'm really trying to initiate the turns early so that I just barely come around the gates.  Anyway, I'm about 1/3 of the way down the course, making a turn, and then I realize that I'm heading straight at the gate - not in a tight arc around it.

 

Oh, no...

 

No time to change my angle and I just slam right through the gate (it's only a triangular flag, so there's no damage or anything).  I slide on my butt past 2 more gates until I can finally stop.  Now, if you miss a gate in SL or GS you get DQ'ed.  Usually the races are the combined times of 2 runs, but at the Cal Games it was the best time from the 2 runs that was your final score.  So, normally I would have had to have hiked back up and gone around the gates to keep from being DQ'ed, but since it was best of 2 I could simply miss the gates, go down the rest of the course, and have that score thrown out.  Of course, that meant that I had to nail the 2nd run correctly.  Yeah, no pressure there, especially after I crashed from being just a little aggressive.

 

2nd run, and I do what I think is a conservative run, but the entire time, I'm still skidding on the ice after every turn, and that's just so no good.  I still took some turns where I almost nailed the gate stake, but I made it down ok.  I ended up winning my age category, as I was the only competitor, but it was certainly no record time.  Mine was around 53 seconds - plenty of other people were around 50 seconds - and the guys tricked out in actual alpine race gear were around 42 seconds.  Yeah, lots to work on, to be sure.