2014 Nebelhorn Blog: Days 2 & 3!
WednesdayAfter plenty of sleep, we began with a very European-style breakfast of cereal: bread rolls and different types of meat and cheese plus Nutella, which is always a bonus! Our first duty of the day was our initial practice on the main rink, where we shared the ice with two Canadian teams. We agreed that the whole event was going to be a huge experience boost for us. The field level was very high, and this practice gave us the opportunity to rise to the occasion. After our practice, we stayed to watch the other practices to observe the other more experienced teams. Next, we had the draw at 3:15!
At the draw, we were picked to choose first and out of all the numbers between 1 and 11; Richard managed to draw a 3 which put us last to skate in the first group. Afterwards, we had enough time for a quick snack before it was time to begin warming up for our next practice on the practice rink. We enjoyed two good practices today, so we decided to treat ourselves to an early dinner. We walked into town, found a local restaurant and sat down. Now one of the big issues with foreign countries is their menus are in their native language, so it literally became a game of close your eyes and point. We ended up picking a pretty good meal for each of us then after this we turned in for an early start the next day.
Thursday
Waking up at 5:30 is never an easy thing to do, especially at competitions, but we had a lot to prepare as this was our last practice before competing the short dance later on in the day. We were on the ice at 8am had a very strong 35 minute practice then quickly got off the ice to make sure we made it back to our hotel in time for breakfast. Our time in between breakfast and competing was just enough to allow Carter to eat and re-do her hair and make-up before we were making our way back to the rink ready to do the short dance! We had a decent skate and we were satisfied with the performance. Unfortunately, the marks did not reflect how we felt about the programme. However, it is very early in the season and we are still new to the international scene, so we put it down to gaining experience and watched the rest of the event. After the rest of the competitors had skated we had the free dance draw. This time we did not have much of a choice as “1” was the only one left in the bag. So that’s what we got! At this point in our careers, we are no strangers to skating first for the free dance.
Waking up at 5:30 is never an easy thing to do, especially at competitions, but we had a lot to prepare as this was our last practice before competing the short dance later on in the day. We were on the ice at 8am had a very strong 35 minute practice then quickly got off the ice to make sure we made it back to our hotel in time for breakfast. Our time in between breakfast and competing was just enough to allow Carter to eat and re-do her hair and make-up before we were making our way back to the rink ready to do the short dance! We had a decent skate and we were satisfied with the performance. Unfortunately, the marks did not reflect how we felt about the programme. However, it is very early in the season and we are still new to the international scene, so we put it down to gaining experience and watched the rest of the event. After the rest of the competitors had skated we had the free dance draw. This time we did not have much of a choice as “1” was the only one left in the bag. So that’s what we got! At this point in our careers, we are no strangers to skating first for the free dance.
After the emotions of the day, we found that no matter how old you get a pep-talk from mom always helps. Thanks mom!
The rest of the day was spent watching the other events (men and pairs) and eating at another restaurant where we had no idea what we ordering! Luckily, it ended up tasting good and satisfying our nutritional needs for the evening. We closed the day by playing a nice American game of heads-up on Carter’s iPhone. Then it was lights out and bedtime!
~ Carter & Rich