Rodelnd Racing

I have this habit of saying yes to things without actually listening to what I am saying yes to.   When we were asked if we wanted to participate in drinking and sledding I said ABSOLUTELY and then my ADD kicked in and I didnt hear the rest of the details.   All I knew was to dress warm and we were meeting at 8 am at Gina's mom's restuarant in downtown Innsbruck.      We had a quick breakfast  and some coffee and jumped on the bus and headed to...

I had no idea...I actually thought we were headed to Italy for the longest time, but I am pretty sure we were dropped off by the Stubai Glacier.   Still a little unclear as to where exactly we were.  So, we all pile off the bus and start to hike up this snow covered road, and were hiking, and hiking, and I am thinking to myself wow we are going to have to hike all the way up this every time we sled down.

And then about half way up  I get filled in that we are actually hiking up this path for 90 minutes and then we are going to all race down the same path we hiked up one time. And I am thinking in my head...

                             
                                                     

But was also excited since I hadnt done it yet!  The walk up was beautiful too so it made it go by a little quicker.


                     

We found these large animal tracks...

hehehe...meg pointed these out

Finally made it to the top!!!

I was a little nervous once we actually got up there registered and received our bibs. Brought back the ol nightmares, I mean memories of ski racing.  Gina even said I was being quite...so Meg and I decided we should join in on the fun!  

 Next thing I know Meg's chatting it up with the locals, and they offered her a shot of their homemade Schnapps...and I am sitting next to her egging her on so she did...

 

 and because of my loud mouth I was next.  I have a new appreciation for real schnapps drinkers.  With that one shot I am pretty sure I grew a patch of chest hair.

The beers were flowing, and the music was awesome.  I haven't YMCA'ed that hard since middle school.  

one of the challenges was to ride this thing

                   We decided that it would be best if  I rode with Mel and Meg with Gina.

Team 360

 And then all of a sudden it was game time and they were calling our numbers.  It was surprisingly really offical, they had real hand timers, refs, and challenges set up along the course.  Our first challenge was the hammer hitting game I previously blogged about.  Since I knew what to do I did this challege and I actually completed it in good time too.  So we were off.  The first 100 meters of the course is up hill so you have to sprint and carry your sled.  We started off so strong for being half in the bag.  And then as most of you women know...uggs and hills dont really mix and I laid myself out about 50 times in a 10 feet span.  But Mel picked me up and we continued.


For some reason we both thought it was a good idea for me to drive....last lasted about 1 minute when I did a sharp right turn and dumped both of us.    I looked down the hill and there is Mel sprawled out and we both are dying laughing...and then who comes flying by....GINA AND MEG (Meg and I were both athletes in college so we were just a tad competitive).

So we make it to the first challenge which was hitting a hockey puck with a crocquet club through the wickets. We won that challenge hands down thanks to my old school Field Hockey Skills.

And then we got back on the sled and things litterally went downhill from there...we just could not get the sled to go straight, I mean people were passing us hauling ass and we would almost kill them because we were constantly veering right.


The second station challenge was cook an egg with ham and eat it while chugging some red wine.  Mel aced this challenge.

On our way to the last station (you were given a fishing rod and had to catch fish out of the powder), we finally started to get a hold of the sled and then we hit an embankment and did a complete 360 which flung both of us off and we were instantly paralyzed with laughter...I knew it was game over for us but OH MAN did I laugh.

That's where we got our name Team 360...

We were greeting with a shot of Schnapps at the finish line!

 We also found out that only ONE of you needed to complete the challenges ...thats of course why we didnt win!

 But someone did!!!

 There was a huge ceremony with drinks, great food, and a live one man band Happy Willi!!! About an hour into dinner Willi asked if there were any Americans there and of course I put my hand up and he walked over and made Meg and I sing  Karaoke infront of a packed room,  we dragged up Mel and Gina too.  So we up there with the Mics bright red with embarrassment waiting for him to play a US song like Born in the USA....oh no he decides to play songs that none of us have ever heard so we basically just stood up there and waved our hands in the air!

Congrats to the winners Meg and Gina!

Team 360

AHHHH I am going to miss you guys so much.  My stomach really does still hurt from laughing so hard.  I never thought sledding could be that fun!!!!!   Thank you Gina and Mel for once again being great hosts and showing us why Austria is so amazing!



I am off to cheer on Craig for the last time this season!  Usually I would be really excited about the season being over but this year I definitely have mixed emotions.  I am so proud of him for the season he has had, and really grateful to this entire organization for giving us this opportunity!

We are going to be here for at least two more weeks traveling around and enjoying Europe before we head back to the States...so even though the season is over Ill probably post a couple more entries.



GO HAIE!!!!!!!!!!