I rocked up to the event in Meiringen hobbling with bandages in my boots and anti-inflammatories. They moved the course at Meiringen which I was happy about. The course looked good. It was very busy but I knew with the pain that I was in this was going to be difficult. I took four painkillers and started training.

The course was so busy that first run I got a little lost and missed one section. I could feel the pain in my lower legs. The second run was an improvement and the third was going even better until I headed into the fastest section of the course where there was a jump into a long compression with an up jump.
As I was heading into the up-jump at full speed and approaching the take off, the gate keeper suddenly raised a yellow flag and I couldn’t do anything! I started to panic. I straightened my leg as a natural reaction, knowing that there was another competitor lying on the other side off the jump but I had no idea where.

This caused me to launch off the jump and whilst in mid-air I saw Sanna Luedi (SUI) lying in the fence. I knew that I wasn’t going to hit her but I was heading straight for the fence lower down. I landed with a fence fast approaching and only had one thought in my head “Broken legs for sure.” Then a split second later BANG! I was at full speed with flat skis straight into a fence.

Isi the Spanish coach and one of the Canadian coaches came running over to help. I was in pain but was OK considering. Now my tibia and fibula joint was really hurting me! My shin, well I had just gone straight over the top of them into a fence, so they were killing me and somehow I managed to pull my groin quite badly, and was unable to lift my leg.

Any normal person would say: “OK stop now!” But no, I got to the top, in a decent amount of pain, to find out that training had been extended by five minutes because of my crash and of course the only person who didn’t get another run because of it was me! It didn’t make a lot of sense. I took four more pain killers (taking the total to eight) and decided I wanted to do my qualification run so as not to finish the season with a full speed crash into the fence to dwell on over summer.

Struggling to move at the top, with tears streaming down my face and the people closest to me on the circuit saying: “Sar maybe you should just stop now”, I started my qualification run. I produced a terrible time and knew that my next stop was home.

Ken was shocked I managed to finish granted my physical condition. I left Meiringen limping, knowing I was already finished mentally and emotionally but now I was finished physically as well. Just to top it off, I had broken my race skis as well. Brilliant!

A huge thanks to you Ken. Your help was very much appreciated. I spent the next 24 hours hobbling around stiff with whip lash, trying to book myself back to Australia as soon as possible.

A few minor things I need to achieve in the next 48 hours or so:

1. Getting to France to pick up my car after the back suspension broke off on the highway and we left it near a garage on the side of the road a month and a half earlier.
2. Driving the Vectra 12 hours back to the UK knowing that it probably won’t make it further than Dijon
3. Changing my flight from Heathrow to Melbourne ASAP
4. Cancelling my flight to Spain (where the last World Cup was)
5. Making it in time to catch my ferry to the UK after missing two buses and two trains to go and get my car, and what should have taken four and half hours taking 12.
6. Leaving the Vectra in Fareham with family and getting to Heathrow with my entire luggage then venturing into London to pick up yet another bag of kit I had left there.
7. A short 32 hour journey home London to Melbourne via Honk Kong and Auckland.
8. Catch up on three weeks of university that I have missed

A busy time, but I am looking forward to getting home, and spending the next month resting and catching up on University.

“On the road again…like a band of gypsies we go down the highway…”