Friday

Things turned out much better than expected today and we had a full on race from start to finish... 55k I think it was. As usual, I learned a ton this week and had another tough lesson to get under my belt today. Being in 2nd place going into task 5, I was really not sure how to fly and kind of psyched myself out by thinking I should be careful and hang back a bit. Problem was, that's exactly what happened..... I hung back a bit and let other gliders get ahead of me.... not recognizing the fact that the day was full on racing and that if I'm behind I'll never catch up! Mads Syndergard, prpobably the most experienced comp pilot here, afterwards came up to me and gave me some great advice.... "when your in 2nd place, you should push as hard as you can because your not in first place!" Wow what words or wisdom. Here I was seeking advice from others and the general consensus was to hold back and be a little conservative. I'm so thankful that I had this experience and now have some really good knowledge to go along with a good week of flying. All the top US pilots are here as well as many excellent pilots from around the world. Many pilots were flying stronger and smarter each day so that really made it a challenge for me to keep the edge and stay in the top 3. I've never been in that position before so I guess now I have to make a whole different series of mistakes before I can make it to the podium!

I came in barely in the top 20 today and moved down to 4th place overall. Still a great finish for me if we don't fly tomorrow the last day, which at this point looks very very sketchy looking at the satelite models and forecast, etc....

Already looking forward to the start of the 2010 World Cup Season which will be in Brazil in April. Pics are coming in to goal today at the lake LZ in Valle de Bravo