Why Can't We Be Friends?

I always try to stay out of the pointless skating drama I see all over Facebook, but I think it's time I throw my opinions in on this current situation going on.

I attended and skated in the Eastern Regional Championships this past weekend and I was pretty impressed with the lack of drama I saw while there. I thought everyone competed fairly, the coaches got along, and I saw so many kids out there having an absolute blast.

Apparently what you see isn't always what's true. After I got home from what I considered to be a successful regionals, I took a nap, woke up, and picked up my phone to see yet another fight on a Facebook status.

I'm not going to get into detail about what was fought about since I really don't have an opinion, but I do want to say that fighting over these types of things on social media is not the answer to the problems everyone clearly has with each other. 

Technology is a great thing until it is used the wrong way. When these arguments are posted online, everyone and anyone can see them whether they know what our small sport is or not. Those people could be future speed skaters, but maybe when they see these things they see how crazy we all are and think, "Hmm, this looks like an extremely disorganized sport. Maybe I'll just sign my kid up for football instead." I guarantee that has happened whether anyone realizes it or not. Unless you pull kids out of session, chances are you're not going to get new interest by saying "Check out our team page and the keystone league page (that's full of Facebook fights!)" 

Everyone is talking about how the sport getting smaller every year and the reason behind it. It's not because of there being novice at nationals, and it's not for any other random reason I've seen online the past few days. It's the fact that there are huge egos in a very small sport that doesn't have room for all of them. Everyone seems to have a "my way or no way" attitude and that isn't going to grow the sport. 

As far as the novice at nationals discussion goes, it needs to be there. Period. Not sure how one can say it's putting down the numbers since it's been around since way before I even started skating 15 years ago. My first nationals was in 2004 as a novice juvenile and I didn't get out of novice until 2009. 6 years of novice at nationals. You don't become a champion over night- it takes time and patience. To be brutally honest, I sucked for a long time, and there is nothing wrong with that. 

I worked my way up in the sport just like everyone else did. Almost every current pro skater skated novice at one point because everyone starts as a beginner. I know this statement is getting cliche, but if you just throw a brand new skater against someone who's already winning standard or has been skating for 10+ years, they will get discouraged and they will quit. Even for the young kids who haven't been skating long but have a natural gift.. those kids can fly. Put a new kid who wants to have fun with what they're doing against them and they'll be gone in a few months. Kids don't have the same amount of dedication and discipline as the older ones.. that comes with time and development which is exactly what the novice division is for. 

This picture is the 2009 regional championships for novice freshman- I won and Chrysta Rands placed third. 6 years later, both of us are now considered pros. 2009 was my 6th year of novice, but it was Chrysta's first. I went on to win nationals that year in both novice and standard, which I'm sure will bring up another argument about how long you should be allowed to be in novice.. and yes I believe there should be a limit again. It wasn't fair for Chrysta and the other girls to race a girl who also won standard at the same time, which is exactly the point I'm trying to make with new skaters racing experienced ones. It's even harder for the ones who start at an older age, so shoutout to Chrysta for sticking with it, winning novice 2 years later, and training even harder to place in standard. The development process works, you just have to trust in it and in your athletes. 

Look at pro hockey for example.. Parents sign their kids up at a young age to start playing. They play for fun at first, then if they want to get serious, they do. You move up through the different levels as a kid, then you play junior or college hockey if you want to. Then you get drafted or somehow get signed to a pro organization which have 3 levels of "pro hockey"- first the lowest level (ECHL), then the next (AHL), then finally the big leagues (NHL). That's about 15 years of development on average. Yet we're trying to make people who just put skates on a year ago race the pros.. great plan. Level wise, that's just like having a 10 year old hockey player play against an NHL player. 

As world class skaters, we know we are biggest influence on the younger kids and novice skaters. They want to be where we are, and they need the time to get there, which they will. 

Numbers at nationals will be low this year but everyone has their own reasons. Myself and a few other pro skaters will not be there, but we have other reasons than the fact that they got rid of the pro division. Some of us need to secure a future for ourselves, whether that be going to school, training on the ice, or testing our luck in another sport. I personally will not be there because: 1. All these meets get expensive after a while, 2. I'm going to college full time in the fall- college is expensive, 3. I'm riding in my first nationals for track cycling 2 1/2 weeks later, and 4. This sport just isn't as fun as it used to be for me.

Novice isn't the problem. Novice is the future, and I'm not sure why so many are blind to that. At the end of the day, skating should be about having FUN. If you aren't having fun, why do it? 

Do what you love, have fun with your life. It's too short to worry about other people's opinions. Do you.
Our coaches might not get along, but that doesn't mean we the athletes can't. Speed skaters are a special breed, and if we aren't careful, we might go extinct. 

Ontario Provincial Championships

On April 8, my cycling team and I packed up my car and a team van and headed up to Milton, Ontario, Canada for the Ontario Provincial Championships.
We had around a 7 hour drive ahead of us and we didn't leave PA until around 4, but the group I had in my car decided we still wanted to stop at Niagara falls even though it was dark, rainy, and cold. Not the best conditions, but we made the most out of it and it was definitely worth the stop.

We got to the house we were staying at around 1, got everything situated and rested until it was time to head to the track the next day for practice. We got lost on the way there since the track is still basically brand new and apparently doesn't show up on Google Maps, so we actually had to use a real map to find it. Once we got there, we had a good training session to get ready to go for racing, got a good meal in us and headed back to get some rest.

Racing started on Friday the 10th, but none of us raced until after 6pm, so Mary, Ally and I headed into Toronto Friday morning/afternoon to get some food from Marche, a great restaurant I ate at the last time I was in Toronto. The restaurant is also conveniently located in the same building as the Hockey Hall of Fame, so of course we had to make a stop there. We got to score some goals on "King Henrik" Lundqvist, announce the winning game of last year's Stanley Cup final, and of course see the holy grail of sports, the Stanley Cup.

Once we checked that off of our bucket lists, it was time to get to racing. The sprinters had our 500m time trials Friday night while Mary raced her scratch race. We were at the track until 12:30 that night, but it was definitely worth it with Eva taking home gold, Marcy taking home a bronze, me taking home a silver (my first cycling medal), and Mary also with a win in the scratch race.

It was a great day until my car decided it was going to break down on the way home from the track at 1am... thankfully, Peter Doucet is awesome and let us borrow his car for the rest of the weekend while mine was in the shop.

Over the next two days of racing, we brought home 3 more golds, 5 silvers, and 6 bronze for a grand total of 18 medals across the board for the team. We had a great weekend of racing, not only taking medals home, but also a great amount of experience. The trip was also a good chance for some team bonding, and it definitely brought our team closer together. I couldn't have asked for a better group to share this trip with!

Car update: The rear differential was what ended up being broken, so the shop had to order parts to fix it, meaning my car wouldn't be done until at least Thursday the 18. Since I had to be back in PA for classes, I had to abandon my car and head back home in the team van. I made it back for classes all week, then flew back to Toronto last Friday to get my car back. This somehow also ended up being an eventual 2 day trip. I walked into the Philly airport, got my boarding pass and turned around to see the band We The Kings standing there. I ended up walking up to security behind them and eventually asked for a picture once we got to the terminal. It has always been on my bucket list to meet a celebrity in the airport, so I can finally check that one off! But I did finally get my car back and headed back home on Saturday. It wasn't the best situation, but I definitely made the best out of it! Oh, and after 3 trips to Canada I finally got a stamp on my passport. :)

Thanks to Peter Doucet for all your help through the stressful weekend, Simmons Racing for providing me with the best cycling shoe out there, Andrew Harris for being the best coach, the parents for all of their help and support, and my Sprinter's Edge teammates for making this a great weekend!!

Battle in Seattle Twenty Fifteen

Last weekend, I traveled out to Seattle to compete in the Battle in Seattle. Overall, I had a great time at the meet. For the pro women's division, we only had seven girls so every race went straight to a final.
We had three current world team members (Chesca, Chelsi, and myself), one former team member (Lani), and three girls who skated pro for the first time (Alli, Bethany, and Stacia). This lineup made for some great racing throughout the weekend. Chesca, my Simmons Racing teammate, won all three races giving her the overall win.
I didn't skate as well as I would have liked to, but as they say, "you win some, you lose some." I won every start though, so that's gotta count for something, right?

We may all be competitors on the track, but when we aren't skating.. well we still hang out and do competitive things. After racing ended on Saturday, we got a group together and decided to go bowling.
There were nine of us, so we took up two lanes next to each other and put five on one side and four on the other and treated this as the heats. We played two games and combined our two scores for an overall total and took the top five overall into the Final. Those in the Final were moved to the left lane, while those who didn't quite make the cut played on the right lane in the B Final.
The Final consisted of the following bowlers: Isaiah Oliver, Jarrett Paul, Zac Sagiao, McKenzie Browne, and Franchesca Bell. It came down to the tenth frame, but in the end, I came out with the win with my teammate Chesca in second and Jarrett in third. Let's just say the boys weren't too happy they got beat by two girls..

If you thought racing all weekend and bowling was enough for us, well then you better think again. Sunday after racing we got the same group together and headed out for a game of Laser Tag.
We had nine people again, so the teams were uneven. The computer's split us up into the two teams randomly, which at first seemed extremely unfair.
Team Bravo (five guys) against Team Alpha (three girls and Jarrett)? Yeah, totally fair right?
Well, it actually was because we kicked their butts.
During the game, we had to compete in four different missions. Two were a death-match (get the most kills) and two were territory (keep the four lights in your teams color).
Team Alpha won three of the four missions, giving us the overall win in laser tag! Yet again, the boys weren't too happy about losing to a bunch of girls (and Jarrett) but that's what they get when they put the two overall pro champs from the Battle on the same team.

I also got a little competitive with a group of elementary school kids during their recess when we visited Niko, a local skater who I stayed with at the race in Vegas, at his school. I played a little bit of wall ball with Niko and his friends- I couldn't resist since wall ball was one of my favorite games when I was his age. I gave up pretty quickly after I realized they were "restarting" any time one of them got out. But we still had a great time visiting him and reliving our childhoods a little bit!

I can't wait to be back in Seattle in May for the first Season 6 NSC event at the Armory!

The Truth Behind Travel

For most people, traveling is a pretty exciting experience. But for me, it's getting pretty old.
Now don't take this post the wrong way-- getting to go places is not the problem here. Literally traveling is the problem.

I live the jet life. I travel so much for competitions that I find myself flying to races somewhere around 8 times a year on average. Not to mention the races that are in driving distance.. Point is, I travel a lot. I'm currently on a flight from Philly to Seattle- the flight is a whopping 6 hours and I have a little over 2 hours left. I've been on flights way longer than this but flying alone can get pretty boring after like 15 minutes.

So far since sitting down in my seat, I finished "Insurgent" (I had around 200 pages left), bought the in-flight wifi, went on social media, made 2 March Madness brackets, and now I'm writing this blog post. (2 hours to go) Oh and my laptop battery is now at 27% so once it dies, I guess I can sleep?

Anyway, this is a typical flight for me. I've come to the conclusion that my days of enjoying the experience of flying are way over. However, it's nice to see that there are still people out there who are experiencing flying and enjoying it.

A few weeks ago I was scrolling through my Twitter feed as usual when my friend Dalton tweeted "First time in an airport" and "Gonna live tweet my first flight experience until I can't tweet anymore but idk when that will be because I've never flown."
I read both tweets a few times because I honestly couldn't believe that he had never flown before. I've been flying since I was 2 years old, so I guess I never thought about the fact that people haven't been on a plane.

He spent the next hour or so live tweeting his airport experience:

"About to "check bags" (they don't check what's inside here apparently)

"Went on one of those flat escalators!"

"I wanna meet the pilot"

"I saw a cowboy with a bouquet of flowers so that was cool."

"Finally someone stopped at the rewards guy's booth and he stopped yelling"

"People watching - all denim, pink crocs. #canadiantuxedo"

"Boarding is gonna be like walking through the tunnel at the rose bowl with a lot less action at the end of it"

"I want a window seat SO BAD"

"I'm on board window seat over the wing"

"I feel like cheering"

I loved seeing his tweets because it highlighted the events of the typical airport experience. From his perspective, each event was new and exciting. From my perspective, they're just events that are a hassle to go through (just get me to where I'm going-ugh). 

Checking bags= Waiting in a long line and freaking out because you think your bag is over 50lbs and the people will make you pay like $100 if it's 51lbs
Flat escalators= These are here to speed up walking speed- WHY ARE YOU STANDING ON THEM? Oh right, you just don't want to walk. #Lazy
Meeting the pilot= Saying thanks when you walk by as you're finally get off the stupid plane
Boarding= Stressing about who you will be sitting next to, and why is this gate so hot/cold?!
Window seat= Yay I can take more pictures of the sky I'll probably delete. Also the best seat possible (unless it's an exit row) 
Cheering= You're more likely to die in a car crash. Do you cheer when you park your car? #Stop

And there you have it, a word from a grumpy traveler.

On the bright side, I got randomly selected for TSA Pre Check today. But I think it was only because I was at risk of missing my flight if I had to wait in the line.
That's another issue I've been having lately.. I know I can cut it close because I'm at the point where I know how much time everything takes. Until you hit traffic on the way to the airport because Philly sucks and it throws everything off schedule...

Side note: I got a window seat for this flight with the middle seat open and a guy from Puerto Rico who's been sleeping ever since he ordered 2 red wines from the flight attendant. I was okay with this until I needed to use the bathroom- I hate waking people up so I just waited until he left his seat and I snuck out behind him. He's also wearing a fanny pack.

One hour left until I land. I'll be racing the Battle in Seattle this weekend, so stay tuned for updates!

There is one good thing about airports, though...

#ReunitedAtLast

Behind the Scenes of the Hockey World

During my sophomore year of high school, I job shadowed Jim McCrossin, who is the Philadelphia Flyers athletic trainer. It was an incredible experience as I was not only able to attend a Flyers practice, but I got to be in the trainer's room, the locker room, and sit on the bench during their practice. I even got to eat 5 Guys with the team after (very important fun fact). However, I eventually decided that athletic training wasn't for me, so I quickly came up with another way to stay involved athletic teams: sports reporting.

Last Friday, I had the great opportunity to job shadow Gary Blockus, a reporter for the Morning Call who covers the Lehigh Valley Phantoms games. If you know anything about me, you know that I am a diehard hockey fan for both the Flyers and the Phantoms (the Flyer's AHL affiliate), so being able to do another job shadow based around hockey was amazing. It let me see the behind the scenes action of the sports reporting world, the profession I would ultimately like to end up in.

Being able to sit in the press box was a very cool experience that most people never get to have. During the night, I was introduced to other reporters, photographers, the tv crew, and other members of the Phantoms organization. I was also able to meet hall of fame member Mark Howe (son of Gordie Howe) and talk to him for a bit.

Once the game ended, we headed down to the locker room for the post game interviews with the players after a 2-1 overtime win. The media is usually allowed three players to interview, so during that game the players interviewed were Brett Hextall (scored the first goal), Rob Zepp (26 saves on 27 shots), and Jason Akeson (scored overtime winning goal). I usually get to see these interviews on tv or on the radio, so being a part of the media staff interviewing the players gave me a new view on the process.

Overall, the night was basically everything I expected it would be, and being a sports reporter is definitely something I see myself doing in the future. It will be a great way to stay involved in the sports that I love when I'm no longer competing in them anymore, which I found out is a big reason for a lot of those already in the field.

Until I'm finished with school and finally have my communications degree, it's back to these beautiful seats at every game to watch the best sport in the world.

2014-2015 Update

It's been about a year and a half since I last posted a blog entry, so I thought it was time to get back at it with an update on how the 2014-2015 season is going so far.

2014

Worlds

To end the 2014 season, I competed at the World Championships in Rosario, Argentina. I raced the 200m time trial where I placed 12th in the heat, and then went on to improve my time and placement to end up in 7th place, a personal best finish at worlds.

NSC

After worlds, I flew home for 4 days then got right back on a plane to head out to Seattle for NSC trials. This year (season 6) will be the first year that the NSC will feature a women's league, which I proudly qualified for with seven other great ladies that I can't wait to race with this season!

2015

Cycling

Back in January, I competed in my first big track cycling race up at the new Pan Am Velodrome in Milton, Ontario, Canada and got some great racing experience against an international field.

Since then it's been a long hard winter of training. I do most of my training with my cycling team (Sprinters Edge) at our gym here in PA. We've had a rough winter yet again as far as winter weather goes, so doing any training outside has been next to impossible since November. I'm getting very excited to be able to get back outside on the track!

Hagerstown/Roanoke

After NSC trials in November, I took a little bit of time off my skates. I eased back into racing again in January at the Old School Invitational in Hagerstown, Maryland, where I brought home a few medals. In the second week of February, I raced my second competition of the year at the Blue Ridge Challenge in Roanoke, Virginia. I didn't skate as well as I had hoped to there, but overall it was a fun weekend of racing. Plus we got our new uniforms for Simmons Racing and I must say we're looking great in the blue!

Las Vegas

Just four days after Roanoke ended, I got on a plane and flew out to Las Vegas for the outdoor portion of the Las Vegas Inline World Cup. The race was set up just like the road portion of worlds/outdoor nationals with a 200m time trial, 500m, 10k points, and 20k elimination. This was my first outdoor race in Senior World Class Women, and of course, it was a tough international field. Most of the girls racing are either world champions or at least have a medal at worlds, neither of which I have yet accomplished, so it was a little intimidating going into it.
The 200m was the first race of the weekend, and I got on the line and skated the best that I could to the finish, not really expecting much. As I crossed the line, I heard Ross Creveling (announcer) yell that I had a time of 18.85, which was a new personal best by .3 of a second. I was the second person to go, so I wasn't really sure what times to expect from the rest of the skaters. I was bumped to second place by Ingrid Factos pretty quickly and hung on to that for a while until my USA teammate Erin Jackson skated a time .056 faster than mine. I ended up in 3rd place in my first international race as a senior, and I could not have been happier with the outcome of that race.
I also finished top 8 in the 500, 16th in the elimination, and got a point in the points race after going on a flyer.

Now it's back to training to prepare for the rest of this year's races. I will be heading out to Seattle in the middle of March for the Battle in Seattle. I've never been to this race, so I'm very excited for it.

Flanders Day 3

     We started out the day with a cancelled morning training session because of some rain, which none of us minded since we were supposed to be leaving at 7:30am. We got to go back to sleep and instead left at 10:30 for practice. When we got there, the road race of Flanders was going on, so we had to have the bus drop us off a good 10 minutes (walking) away from the track. Some of us decided to put on our skates and roll there, which got us there much faster. Once we got to the track, we got ready only to find out that we couldn't even get on the track until 11:45, so we had to wait even longer. When we finally got on the track, we put in a good training session before we had to get off the track for the races to start again.
     Today was the last day of races for the Grand Prix, and we had more people skate today than we have the past 2 days. Daniel and Isaiah both skated their heats for Cadet and made the final, but both made a wise decision to not take part in it. During that final, 3/4 of the pack went down in a huge crash. Kelsey skated her 15 lap straight race final and ended up finishing in second, and Brianna finished in fourth in the same race. Hailey, Erin, Chelsi, and Lani all skated the senior women's race and all skated very good. Donavon, Stelly, Jarrett,  and Wesley all skated the senior men's race and did great as well. All said it was a great warm up race for worlds.
     Tomorrow the crazy schedule is over and we are back to the worlds only skaters on the track with official practices. We will all be in our USA uniforms only from this point on!