Thanksgiving and such...

Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was awesome and full of GREAT food. Mine was both. I was able to get a little break and head down to Mississippi for the week. Paulie's (my boyfriend) family came down, and I was able to enjoy a home cooked meal that I did not have to prepare. IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I was planning on staying for 2 weeks in MS, but I was asked to come up a week early and forerun a race. It's when you slide before the race to test all the timing eyes. But it is great because then I get practice time. Since there is a race this week there is no open sliding times for practice , so if you were up there and not forerunning then you do not get to slide at all. I am excited to get back on the ice!!!!!

About my plans next half. We are still trying to iron out logistics, but we will be up in Park City Jan 4- Feb 26. But we go to Calgary for 2 weeks in the 3rd week in January. I have definitely been praying about how I am going to finance this trip, and God has been so awesome. I just laid it out there to God and asked for his help. and this week I had 2 people out of the blue sponsor me totaling $150. It was really cool how God works, I feel like if I am faithful with my finances, he is faithful with his.(That's the life lesson of today's blog) A

Since I wasn't sliding this last week. I do not have any sliding pictures. Instead I will just load some Paulie's football game. Congrats to him by the way. Southern Miss is going to the Conference Championship WAHOO!

Paulie's sisters. Vanessa and Nicole!!

Vanessa, Mary (Paul's mom) and Nicole

Paulie doin his thang! ( I can never get a good coaching picture)

Skeleton Boo Boo's

Some people think this sport is SUPER dangerous, but I beg to differ. Is it super safe? No, not at all,  ha, 
Yes we do get boo boo's every so often,  yes they can hurt a lot, and YES they are good stories after. So that is what I am deciding to share. These are some photos and video of bumps, bruises, and sometime more that my teammates and I have suffered.

This is Tyler, he actually did this 2 days ago. He flipped and obviously got ice burn but totally tore a bunch of his skin off his shoulder. That's not gunna feel good in the shower.

Austin did his first run on another track and, lets just say the track wasn't that excited to meet him.

                                     This is a video of Corinne and the pics below are the result

the next 3 pics are Corrine and she crashed in the Previous video. These pics do not do ANY justice to how bad she was bruised. She got some good ice burn on her legs

Corrine's Ice burn, but this was taken about 3 days after so it was MUCH worse

This was actually recieved during push Championships. He hit his ankle on the push track sled, and well Lets just say he did not come out victorious

These were his shoes he was wearing on the push track, they were all white, but hey red is a pretty good color for the shoes

This is a bruise/ ice burn I got from fliiping in the previous video.

Rachelle was pushing her sled and realized she left her runner guards on and tried to stop the sled and when she stopped it pulled her arm and dislocated her shoulder, this is her trying to pop her should back in. Shes a BEAST

I don't know why this grosses me out so much but these are Sams wrist and they look like I can see the depths of her soul from the holes.

 This is a painful load I had last year ..Lets just say I might have ruined my chances  for children in the future.

Same Ol' Thang!

Well Hello All!!
Hope everyone is doing GREAT!
Well I have not had much happen since I last updated my blog. I have been practicing everyday and working out. What a life huh! I feel like I am back in college, minus the whole homework thing.
My workouts are much harder now. I am focusing on Next years team trials, so this first block of training is back to higher volume work, but its still heavy.
My roommate and I decided to start a bicep contest. Who can have the biggest percentage gain in size by Dec 9. For those who do not know, isolating your biceps in performance training is completely irrelevant, which makes it funny!  We have luge athletes, bobsled athletes, skeleton athletes, and best of all one of my coaches in the competition. I am pretty PUMPED (no pun intended) for the outcome of this contest, but we have to come up with an AWESOME prize. Stay tuned because I will def let you know the outcome of this important contest. This might determine my future in the sport! haha!

On a different note there is about 8-10 athletes here that are trying to plan our trip in January. Here is what we are thinking. We are going to Park City Utah and sliding that track for 4-5 weeks, then possibly renting an RV and driving it to Calgary, Canada for about 2 weeks and then driving to Vancouver to slide for 1 week. Vancouver is one of the hardest tracks in the world so I am sure 1 week on that track will be enough to take a beating.
This may make us best friends or worst enemies since we would share 1 RV for 3 weeks with 8-10 people. But you gotta do what you gotta do to get better .
These plans would change if we could find inexpensive housing in Calgary and Vancouver. This is where YOU could help. If anyone has ANY contacts in Park City/Salt Lake, Calgary , or Vancouver that would be interested in housing some really cool US Skeleton athletes that would be tremendous. Just e-mail me or call me with the info KristinaKHull@gmail.com or 719-651-3124.

Quick Update! I am going to be back in Mississippi for Thanksgiving. I will be there November 19th for 1 or two weeks, I am excited to see everyone!

I know everyone likes videos much more that reading, so here are a couple videos and pics of sliding the last couple weeks.

This is a video of me sliding Curve 10 (Shady) in Lake Placid. This is the tallest curve on the track. The first time I walked down the track I saw this curve and I said..."Heck NO I am NOT doing this sport." and now its one of my fav curves

 

Here are a few pics from the start the other day.

Team Trial Results and Plans

Hey All!

Team Trials are over... I can finally breath... My first USA Team Trials. Ever... I keep pinching myself thinking I just participated in US Team Trials for a sport. I am living at the Olympic Training Center... I am seriously living out my dreams right now. I forget this sometimes because I get wrapped up in everything else, but I am so blessed right now. As for my results in the races, I did not finish how I had hoped. The Womens' field is pretty close after the first few spots, so since I definatley did not slide the way I wanted to I got beat.  But I am trying to take the right perspective out of it. I am pissed at myself
 for not showing up when it counted, but I am literally just learning this sport so I am going to practice my booty off and work as hard as I can to make sure this DOES NOT happen again. I will be training in Lake Placid through December. I am going back to Mississippi on the 19th for 2 weeks because we will not have mush ice time until December 5.    In January is when the fun begins. A big group of us are going to go to Park City, Utah and slide that track for about a month and hopefully then go up to Calgary, Canada and slide for 2-3 weeks. If I can get enough financing to make this happen I know this will make me a much better slider since all track are completely different.  Park City and Calgary do not have training centers so we have to pay for housing, food, track fees, and transportation. I am going to have to become very creative to raise some Dollar Dollars... If any one has some great ideas for fundraisers let me know !!

Here are some pics of my sled. I was pretty proud of the cover. I designed it and Photoshop and had it printed on a yoga mat. It turned out just how I thought it would. I am a fan .

 

I am happy to say I have not gotten beat up on the track this year like I did EVERYDAY last year. I have only crushed my head once. I am pretty sure I was concussed since I was thinking how bad my next run was going to be, when in actuality that was my  last run. and then I had to plug my ears the truck ride up to the top because it was too loud for me to handle. But oh well Im alive.. I did get a small black eye as well. Don't ask how you get a black eye with a full face mask helmet. I don't know either, but I did.

 On another note

 This is a video of team trials for Bobsled. This is the 2010 Olympic Gold Medalist and his team pushing. THEY ARE BEAST MODE. 

Other than that I do not have much more. I appreciate everyone's kind words and support during team trials. I am excited to continue to learn this sport. Its tough, BUT AWESOME! I just have to keep remembering the goal is 2014.  I just need experience and runs on different tracks. God Bless!