TeamPikusPace

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

St. Moritz Skeleton Race

Next Race - St. Moritz, Switzerland

When: This Saturday - January 11, 2014 (Late Friday night MST)
Where:   St. Moritz, Switzerland
Time:   12:34 a.m. & 2:49 a.m. MST, Heat Start Times
Start #:   Noelle is 1st off.
Watch Online: Heat 1 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekPyqYNmdE
Heat 2 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWAsdqqpZlc

Insider Info

Noelle Pikus-Pace is feeling good this week except for a minor training injury in Horseshoe. I will post video and pics below. This is one of her favorite tracks. It is the only natural track in the world, meaning it is self refrigerated by the outside temperature and it is hand built each year. Noelle has been training well and is hoping for a top 3 finish. That will make her happy and almost seal her Olympic birth.

Olympic Qualification:

Noelle is in a good spot right now ranked 2nd in the World, with missing a race and is still 1st in the US. The Olympic team is not officially named until after the Igls, Austria race on January 18th, but it would take some real opposition to keep her out right now.

Here are Noelle's past results here in St. Moritz and the competitors to look out for in the race:

2003: Noelle Pikus-Pace 11th Place
2004: Noelle Pikus-Pace 9th Place
2005: Noelle Pikus-Pace 2nd Place
2006: Noelle Pikus-Pace 11th Place
2007: Noelle Pikus-Pace 1st Place
2009: Noelle Pikus-Pace 5th Place
2010: Noelle Pikus-Pace 8th Place
2013: Noelle Pikus-Pace 2nd Place

Competitors to look out for:

Shelley Rudman -GBR (1st place last year)
Anja Huber - GER
Elena Nikitina - RUS
Lizzy Yarnold - GBR

In case you are wondering, her elbow is behind that bump. Watch the video below to see how it happened.

A closer look!

That was caught from the video below just after exiting the curve.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Winterberg Race Results

Wonderful Winterberg Wonderland!

We had a great day today at the race. We had a group of friends (senior missionary couples) drive up from Friedrichsdorf to support and cheer on Noelle!

The impatient kids sneaking on the stage to steal the trophy and the stuffed animal!

Noelle was tied for 1st place with Lizzy Yarnold from Great Britain (FYI, she was also tied with Lizzy for 4th place last year in this race after the 1st run). Noelle moved in front of Lizzy last year to claim Bronze and this year Lizzy moved in front of Noelle leaving her with the Silver medal. She accomplished what she came out to do and that was her PR push of 5.51 seconds and making it into the top 3.
Great race and in the morning we are off to Switzerland for the next race on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Germany time.

Monday, December 30, 2013

NEXT RACE: Winterberg World Cup #5

Next Race - Winterberg Germany

When: This Saturday - January 4, 2014
Where: Winterberg, Germany
Time: 5:45 a.m. & 7:15 a.m. MST, Heat Start Times
Start #: Noelle starts 7th off
Watch Online: Heat 1 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf28N7m5Pok
Heat 2 on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIMG8-QDC_Y

Insider Info

Noelle Pikus-Pace is feeling good this week. Her back has been healthy so far, she has a tender hamstring but is working through it carefully. Annie O'Shea - USA flew in for this race because Katie is trying to recover from her head injury from sliding preseason.

Olympic Qualification:

Noelle is in a good spot right now ranked 4th in the World and 1st in the US. The Olympic team is not officially named until after the Igls, Austria race on January 18th, but it would take some real opposition to keep her out right now.

Here are Noelle's past results here on the Winterberg track and the competitors to look out for in the race:

2004: Noelle Pikus-Pace 1st Place
2007: Noelle Pikus-Pace 3rd Place
2012: Noelle Pikus-Pace 3rd Place

Competitors to look out for:

Shelley Rudman -GBR
Anja Huber - GER
Melissa Hollingsworth - CAN
Lizzy Yarnold - GBR

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas in Germany!!

Christmas Break in Frankfurt!!

If you remember our story last year about meeting the missionaries in the grocery store, then you might understand why we decided to spend Christmas here near Frankfurt, near the missionaries and the Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We planned a location near Elder and Sister Eyre (pronounced air) of Wyoming and have enjoyed every minute of it!

We were welcomed quickly by accompanying them and Elder and Sister Gubler to our first Christmas market of the year. We met them in Friedrichsdorf and hopped on a train down to Wiesbaden where there was a pretty awesome Christmas market!

The next morning, while adjusting to our new time zone, we woke up early and went with the Eyre's to the Christmas market in Bad Homburg. This small town has a beautiful castle and a small market around it during Christmas. Inside they had more vendors and a little, yet very powerful authentic steam engine that was actually giving kids and adults rides around the tower.

We spent Christmas morning in the presence of about 40 senior missionaries who are serving mostly in 2 different offices here in Germany. We had a great time and a wonderful breakfast. French toast, parfaits, hot chocolate, breakfast casserole and plenty more to bring home the memories and aroma of great tasting food. We will be on our way up north to Winterberg on Friday for the race to take place the following Saturday on January 4th.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The Pace Family with Elder & Sister Eyre and Elder and Sister Gubler in Wiesbaden.

Bad Homburg Christmas market

Elder & Sister Eyre and the AWESOME CHRISTMAS DINNER Sunday after church.

My family traded me for a nutcracker!

Noelle & Lacee on our Christmas Eve talent show.

Our humble little Christmas tree! We were excited we even had one!

In front of our apartment in Usingen.

Frankfurt lunch in the courtyard.

Steam engine in Bad Homburg!

Lake Placid Skeleton Race Results!!!

Lake Placid Skeleton World Cup Results

About the Lake Placid Track:

Length to finish: 1455 m

Length to end of track: 1680 m

Curves: 19

Maximum G Forces: 5.1

Maximum Speed: 130 km/h

Average Grade: 8.6%

The first track was built in 1930 for the 1932 Olympics and remained there in use until about 1980 when they built a new track for the 1980 Olympics. In the late 90's parts of both of those tracks were torn apart to make way for the new track to be complete by 2000 for the Goodwill games. The old track still remains but is not in use. Lake Placid is the location of the Olympic Training Center and houses hundreds of athletes.

Friday - Women's Skeleton Race #1

Noelle Pikus-Pace finished the race with the 2 fastest runs and claimed the Gold Medal!! Anja Huber of Germany finished 2nd and Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain finished 3rd.

Sunday - Women's Skeleton Race #2

With a small delay on the bobsled/skeleton track (the groove was sending sleds crooked from the start, they sent down about 20 forerunners (practice sleds) and still couldn't fix the problem). So the race was shortened down to a 1 heat race. Noelle was having fun and just enjoying her last run down the Lake Placid track. She finished with the 3rd fastest run and claimed the Bronze Medal for that race. Janine Flock of Austria took 2nd (Congratulations to Janine, that was her first podium finish!) and Lizzy Yarnold of Great Britain finished 1st.

Pictures of Our Lake Placid World Cup Week

Happy Birthday Noelle! 31 years old on Dec 8, there's no turning back now!!!

Traycen getting a little Luge training in the OTC (Olympic Training Center) gym.

Our AMAZING hosts (Bob & Karen Peters) and adopted parents let us help cut down and decorate their Christmas tree.

Lacee holding the Gold Medal flowers after the skeleton race on Friday.

Traycen wanted the helmet on after the race and wouldn't let me take it off for quite a while.

The kids found some fresh snow and started eating and playing. All during the race, I couldn't get them to come watch, they were busy turning into snowkids!!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Lake Placid Race WC #3 & #4

Lake Placid Skeleton World Cup Race #3 & #4

IF THERE IS NO VIDEO????? Watch the times post from the link below:
http://www.fibt.com/races-results/results/live-results.html (this will not show up until race time)

Lake Placid World Cup Race 1

When: Friday December 13, 2013

Start #: Noelle will go off 15th on her first run.

Heat #1: 10:04 a.m. MST - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rPnEuD8YRs
Heat #2: 12:19 p.m. MST - http://www.youtube.com/user/bobskeletv/featured

Lake Placid World Cup Race 2

When: Sunday December 15, 2013

Heat #1: 7:00 a.m. MST - http://www.YouTube.com/user/bobskeletv/featured
Heat #2: 8:30 a.m. MST - Universal Sports TV

And the Last Shall be First!! :)

Park City & Track Records

12 Years of nothing even close to the record. I don't think anyone got within a half a second since then.

Starting #24 (Dead Last) Noelle Pikus-Pace blasted down the track with her supersonic, cold fusion, hybrid tape and set a TRACK RECORD!!! 49.80 from the previous 49.91.

Now starting #20 (Dead Last Again, this time a good thing) Noelle Pikus-Pace blasted down the track with her injection turbo, NASA confounding, self generating TAPE and set another track record of 49.74! Finishing in first place and claiming the Gold Medal!

If you couldn't watch it, IT WAS AWESOME!!! If you weren't there, IT WAS EVEN AWESOMER!!! My voice still hasn't fully recovered. if you completely missed it, SHAME ON YOU!!! :)

Thank you everyone for your support, we had a great time and were ready to keep it going this week in Lake Placid. Check out some of the awesome pictures from the race below.

Lake Placid Races will be on Friday and Sunday this week. I'll update that shortly.