Stawell Gift runner Sarah Blizzard takes on the bobsled tracks in the Europe Cup | Photos, video

The sprint runner has spent the past few months training and competing in the Europe Cup in preparations for the upcoming World Cup.

On January four, Blizzard's team will hit the track, representing Australia in the Winterburg leg of the competition.

Blizzard said she felt a massive adrenaline rush the first time she headed down the track in October.

"By the time I got to the bottom I remember thinking; what just happened?" she said.

"It gets pretty quick. The first track I went down I was travelling at about 120-130 kilometres per hour.

"Once you get to the bottom you have to get back on the track and sit there and think about what happened."

The team's pilot Bree Walker prepared both Blizzard and the other brakewoman, Stefanie Fernandez.

"There is a lot of travel," Blizzard said.

"On Sunday after we raced we had to go pack the truck which has all of our weights for our gym sessions, all of our bags and the sled.

"Then we had to travel for eight and a half hours back. There is a lot of travel but I guess that is the same for a lot of sports anyway."

Blizzard said the team were performing well in the Europe Cup leading into the World Cup season and the World Championships that will begin in February.

"I first completed in Altenberg, Germany after sitting out in our first competition," she said. "We crashed in our first run. We got up and did a second run which was good.

"We placed eighth and ninth in the next competition out of about 17.

"At our most recent event, we placed seventh out of 22."

Blizzard experienced a crash in training but she said the crash on the fast track in Altenburg "felt like it went forever".

"It happened on a corner a lot of people have trouble with," she said.

"We were the first off the top for the women and the second team also crashed on the same corner too.

"The track was a lot faster. We kept sliding to the bottom of the track. It was fine. You are protected by the sled. I banged my knee which was swollen for a bit and a bit stiff.

"We wear a burns vest so if our shoulders were to go on the ice it can feel like it's burning it's actually not, it just is red and bruised."

Blizzard anticipates she will return to Australia in March to start training for the 2020 Stawell Gift.

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday morning from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Northern Grampians shire, sign up here.