Donna Haig, right, and Jen Mott give a thumbs up before Haig slides down the skeleton track at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Feb. 23. (Provided photo)

SARANAC LAKE — At 83-years old, Donna Haig of Saranac Lake raced head-first on a skeleton sled down the Mount Van Hoevenberg track Friday, Feb. 23.

Haig is now the oldest person to go down the Mount Van Hoevenberg track on a skeleton sled, according to state Olympic Regional Development Authority Athlete Services Coordinator Jen Mott, who volunteered Haig to slide down the track.

Haig described the experience as fast and rumbly on the ice.

“One thing I did notice is that I had to control my head,” she said. “Your head is going to wobble all over the place, so I bumped it once. It wasn’t a bad bump or a slam, but I bumped my head once and I though, ‘Uh oh,’ so I tucked my chin down and held my head tighter.”

While Haig raised her two kids in Lake Placid, grew up in Tupper Lake and has lived in Saranac Lake for the past 25 years, she has never really gone to Mount Van Hoevenberg. She had certainly never slid down the track and never envisioned herself doing so.

Haig was volunteered by Mott, who she described as a “dear friend,” to slide down the track as part of the Skeleton Experience, which allows people to be able to pay to experience what sliding down an Olympic-level sliding track is like. Mott told Haig she signed her up one evening at the Saranac Lake Moose Lodge.

“She came in and she walked up to me with this big smile on her face and said ‘I volunteered you for the skeleton run,'” Haig said. “I froze — literally — when she said skeleton run.”

Haig didn’t want to cause any embarrassment to Mott’s fellow employees by declining the offer.

“So I went along with it,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid. That was really surprising to me. I did what she told me to do on the sled.”

Haig practiced sliding by laying in bed on her back. She would try to lay as stiff as she possibly could. The problem was, she was practicing for luge instead of skeleton. Haig admitted that she didn’t know what skeleton was, but knew that it was a type of ride that slides down a track.

“When I went to go on the ride … it’s face down. I flipped,” Haig said.

It didn’t help the sled wasn’t as big as she thought it would be either.

“I thought, ‘Am I going to fit on that?'” she said. “I probably would have liked a bobsled.”

Haig had no fear when sliding down. She was too busy concentrating on what to do.

“I didn’t have time to be scared,” she said. “If I had been scared I probably would have fallen off that sled before I took off.”

She started her journey on the Curve 12 of the Mount Van Hoevenberg track, sliding around 30 miles per hour.

“I kind of could tell when the ride was coming to an end,” Haig said. “You go down real fast at first and then you hit this long straight away and you go up this little incline. The sled slows down and these guys jump up on the ice and wrap you right up. They really are a great group out there.”

While Haig said she was in great hands, she probably won’t be sliding again.

“Once was enough for me,” she said.