If you start going through my room with all the sports stuff you notice something interesting, helmets. Different sizes, different colours, different weights, but all helmets. Next to the helmets is protective gear for every other body part.
What does this tell you?
Either that I am highly accident prone or a bit of an adrenaline junky. The bad news, at least for me and emergency rooms across the country, is that the answer is both. The part I find highly amusing is that usually the people you find with this stuff are sporty types that are generally good at active skills and have the physique to match!
Not I.
Nope, no natural skill here, no athletic body, little co-ordination, but what I do have in spades is enthusiasm which our local media and the fine people at the COP Bobsleigh track discovered on Monday.
I have been waiting to go down a bobsleigh track since I first saw the sport at an Olympic games. So fast! So shiny! So fun! Bobsleigh has actually played an interesting role in the last couple years of my life! Thanks to the encouragement of a wonderful friend (Sheila Sutton) whom decided to train to try out for a bobsleigh team and brought me along for the ride it opened up a whole new world to me! To try out for a team you must have a fast sprint and be able to have explosive strength. I learned that I have no sprint.
Nada.
Zippo.
No speed off the line.
BUT I did learn that I had strength. Kick butt lift up a car send the boys running out of the gym strength.
It’s cool.
So, while I never even got close to having the requirements needed to try out for a bobsleigh team I did discover powerlifting! (Special thanks to Mr. Ryan Brown)
When the email went out at the station that we would have a media team in the annual COP Media Bobsleigh race I leapt at the chance! Our winner was Troy Hochstein and he brought along his friend Shane Moore our driver was Brian Zarsky, check out his bio:
Brian took the plunge into the sport in the fall of 1995, and after more than his share of crashes, he attended driving school and became a pilot in 1996. He spent the next two years competing in America’s Cup, Europa Cup and World Cup races. He made the jump in 1998 to the national team, where he spent four years competing in World Cup and world championship competition. After retiring from bobsleigh in 2002, Brian worked as a driving coach for developmental bobsleigh pilots for two seasons. Brian, who works as a registered nurse at the Foothills Medical Centre emergency department, has more than 1,000 trips piloting a sled on the Canada Olympic Park bobsleigh Track.
Brian also had a wicked sense of humour and managed to put up with a radio host who was practically levitating with excitement! Our team picture made me laugh, you can even see my smile behind the helmet!
Brian was in front, I was behind him, Troy behind me and Shane was at the back! We had a “pusher” so we didn’t have to worry about that, and off we went! WHAT A RUSH!! You do get banged around a bit and the guys in the back couldn’t even pull up there heads! From what I understand we managed to get up to 120.6KM/hr! I still feel a grin just thinking about it! The 97.7 UP! Team came in 3rd place.. ahead of us was Metro and Sportsnet The Fan. I guess I can say we were the 1st place FM Radio team 
I don’t really care where we placed.. it is truly an experience I will never forget, hopefully I will do it again and maybe just maybe, they will let ME drive next time!
Here’s some more pictures that Shane took from COP:
Does this sound like something you would like to do? You can make it happen! DO IT!! All the info you need is —> HERE
Did you miss the interview with Brian on 97.7 Up! Here it is
Tags: 97.7 UP!, Bob Sleigh, Bobsleigh, Calgary, COP, explosive strength, ryan brown, shane moore, sporty types
