Exercise RACING ICE 1 was a one-week event Lillehammer, Norway that I will never forget. The winter sliding sport known as ‘Skeleton’ is considered an extreme sport where you race down an ice-covered track on a small sled called a bobsled. The first run felt like I was a passenger riding over 80kph with no pilot. The mixture of adrenaline and fear was intoxicating, and the bruises taught me that form was everything.
As we progressed through the sessions, we were able to learn to control the sled with our movements and form. We were only taught a few movements at first, as too much too early on would merely add to the complexity. Your position and movement must be precise, firm, and steady, else you would kiss the unforgiving wall or worse, could be thrown off the track entirely. An unpleasant prospect travelling at 50mph. With time, we began to memorize every turn and bend, for this sport more than most is a mind game in which you cannot hesitate or lose focus.
On the day’s first race, you must embrace the fear, not fight it. As you reach the finish line you are filled with adrenaline and dopamine, and the fear felt at the top is turned into overwhelming joy at the bottom. With every turn the rush and the desire to improve your next slide increases. With better technique comes more speed, and with more speed comes slicker and cleaner runs. As an instructor told us from the start ‘speed is your friend’ in this sport. Though the meaning of this was not clear to us at the time, with every run the statement became increasingly true.
By the end of the week, we were able to reach speeds of up to 105kph and no longer felt like the passengers, but now in fact the pilots. The speed and drive for perfection becomes addictive and taught us to not only embrace the inevitable crashes but to also conquer our fears.
