Still in SLC

I've been in Salt Lake City for a little over 2 weeks now.  PROGRESS.  I really couldn't have gotten worse, but I've gotten a lot better.  By no means am I off to a new career in ice skating, but I've for sure improved.  It's really fun to get better, and everyone has been so helpful... I even fell one time doing short track.  I wasn't going super fast, but I was happy to find the pads are very soft.  Kinda sucked that you get soaked(I never really thought about getting wet when you fell, but looking back I should have realized that would happen).
Overall ice skating has been fun, but I really don't think I could ever have packed up and just decided to be an ice skater.  I don't know how everyone could get through all of the frustration of having to learn all over again, but maybe the transition was easier for some.

The best thing for me about this whole trip has been the people.  It's great to see so many of the people I've skated with on inlines all in one place.  There's over 20 former US world team members here, several members of the New Zealand team, and a ton of other people I've met in inlines.  Everyone's training schedules are so different, but I've gotten a chance to hang out with a lot of different people.  This weekend are the World Sprint Championships and I'm really excited to get to watch.  Everyone cross your fingers, and maybe we can get an inliner to win both the girls and guys events this weekend.

One last note.. Can't help to think what it must have been like when KC Boutiette first stepped on the ice.  His name isn't brought up as much anymore but he's one of the main reasons a lot of people are here today.  For those of you that don't know he was the first inliner(as far as I know) to make the jump to ice and qualify for the Olympics, and he did it in a matter of months.  Now when inliners come to skate ice they're accepted pretty easily, but for KC they must have looked at him like a crazy person.  But knowing KC he probably didn't care and just kept working hard, and because of that he opened up the door for a lot of inliners.

That's pretty much life so far in SLC.  Training and trying to find things to do to kill time.  Oh yeah, it's cold here.. Like really cold.... Like coldest I've ever been for this long a period of time.  I'm ready to get home just so I can remember what it feels like to be warm again.  I'm gonna go get some hot chocolate or something, and catch up with everyone later..