Arrived in Calgary

I'm just going to do a quick post here because we are going out to the track in about 15 min but I wanted to make sure that I gave you guys an update before I write something longer later tonight.

So we are arrived in Calgary.  We left Park City Utah for a 14 hour drive north to the friendly confines of Canadia.  The ride was pretty uneventful, other than the length and the fact that I was in Idaho and Montana, two places I never really had thought I would ever find myself.  They are flat and barren just like you would imagine.  I think in Canada invaded that part of the country we would be hard pressed to even notice, much less do anything about it.

We are staying at the Four Points Sheraton in Calgary right across the street from the track.  It's a pretty nice place for the money and I don't have any complaints.  We took a track walk last night, which was interesting.  This is obviously the first time I have ever been to this track, and I was kinda surprised at the contrast between the tracks in Lake Placid, Park City, and this one.  For starters, if Lake Placid is in the middle of nowhere and Park City is in a mountain resort, this track is "urban."  I know that sounds weird, but it really is the case.

The park where the track is located is pretty much in he city.  It's on the outskirts, but it's in there.  There are several parks literally 20 yards from the track where children can play and watch the sleds go by.  Very Canadian, I know.  Also, there is residential housing 100 yards from the start of the track and the highway is 200 yards from the bottom of the track.  It's very odd to me, since I picture this sport as happening on an isolated mountain, but that is definitely not the case here.  In fact, the topography of the land is very shallow.  Park City is on a mountain; Calgary is most definitely on a hill.  It's odd.  You can feel it when you walk the track that the ground just isn't that steep.  I think the max speed here is somewhere around 65 or so -- a full 13mph slower than in Park City.

As for the track itself, I am going to get the last thing that this sport has to offer thrown at me today -- a full circle turn.  In fact, there are basically two in my opinion, since curve 7 is shaped like an Omega and turn 9 is literally a 300 degree turn.  There are THREE oscillations in Curve 9 to contend with.  Luckily, we are not going to be going as fast as in Park City so it won't be as difficult, but it is still making me nervous.  I just want to get it over with today on our first runs so that I can feel like I have done everything there is to do in this sport.

I'll let you more know about the track tonight after I slide it.