More to life, part 3
I have an enormous pile of clippings, too many dog-eared pages in brilliant books and a gazillion bookmarks tagged ‘to blog about’ … so perhaps after a several month hiatus, loyal readers may find more substantial fare geared to the core theme of this blog which is the future of financial services.
But that will have to wait a few more days! Ski season is almost over but rather than settling down after the Challenge des Entreprises as I had planned, I was given the opportunity to forerun the 2007 British Land National Ski Championships.
Forerunners are racers that are sent down ahead of the competitors to set a track and to report any problems or anomalies to the race organisers (ie guinea pigs.) It was alot of fun and great training, although I did get off to a bit of a rough start. On the first run of the first day of Downhill (same hill as the Challenge des Entreprises but a longer course and faster) training, I crashed in the finish area. Slight concussion, bruised tailbone and wrenched back. In a daze went back up and opened the second training run as well - although more slowly…was out for a day so missed the second day of downhill training but feeling better (and needing to ‘get back on the horse that threw me’) I was back for the race day. Also opened the SuperG and the GS. I was pretty slow until the last GS run - I’d be lying if I said the crash didn’t knock my confidence - but it was a great experience to ski alongside some really and truly excellent and world class skiers. Yes, the UK has some very very good racers. Chemmy Alcott who swept the board in the women’s events is one of the best in the world and is still improving. Finlay Mickel is a consistent Top 30 performer in World Cup speed events. And lesser known, but exciting young racers like Dougie Crawford and Louise Thomas and others are coming up the rankings.
Like anything, being with people that are better than you (at something) is the best way to learn, be inspired and improve. And so prepared, I had my best results of the season in a couple of GS races in Courchevel last weekend, coming 4th and 5th respectively, and getting a result of 121 points a lifetime best (!) for GS (I think I got them down to c. 140 when I was a kid, although my Downhill points were sub-100.)
All in all a good way to feel 10 or 20 years younger!
