As I write this, I’m slumped on the floor of my bedroom, with my teammates in various states of consciousness sprawled throughout the house, though most made it to their beds. We just got back from our annual 100km ski, and after 6 hours out in the hot sun skiing up and down the beautiful hills of New York it’s about time for a nap! But first, an update on the past week. For me, it’s been all about the details. The little things we do for each other that make interesting circumstances much better, and turn a day around.
A chilly early morning start for our 100km ski
For example, the 100km ski, which took us about 6 hours, could have been insanely monotonous and tiring. Instead, skiing in beautiful weather with my teammates was fun, and the scenery was great thanks to some scouting by Gus (and Andy last year). We did a “secret skier”, a surprise gift for a teammate, spaced throughout the day. Annie Hart had me, and every 25km she gave me an adorable wrapped gift – nail polish, chapstick, hand lotion and at the end a book on bread baking! Some of the gifts were really funny, like the “Congrats! You made it to about 55km!” plaque Gus had made for Annie Pokorny at the “about 55km marker”. Most gifts involved food in some way, because that many kilometers takes a ton of fuel!
Minnesota girls! Showing off the secret skier presents I got from Annie
Packer had his GPS going on his watch, so in the final km the boys got a little excited and started sprinting it out. It was so funny to watch – they were hammering, with Packer yelling “99.6….99.7….99.8….” and Ben yelling pretty much the exact commentary from the 1972 Olympic race with Prefontaine as he and Packer squared off; “and he rounds the 200 meter corner….” I didn’t end up seeing who won because I was laughing!
Maybe one of the best parts was that we had so many cheerleaders come bike with us! And I can’t forget the Daly family is our SMST2 “official cookie sponsor”, and showed up with a gallon tub of cookies! I don’t think anything tastes better after so many hours of skiing.
That’s a whole lot of cookies
I suppose some of the little details didn’t go exactly as planned…we skied by a bunch of dead possums, which was really sad, and had to do some speedy skiing to get round a dead skunk. But on the whole I think it went very well.
Will and Annie P after the ski
Ben, tired and happy to be done!
Annie Hart had her 21st birthday last Tuesday, and we had a great time making her a gourmet dark chocolate and raspberry cake before celebrating her day at the Caldwell’s house. The Caldwell family has been so good to our team, having us over many times during the summer to eat good food, hang out on the porch in the sun and have a great time in general. In fact, I’m flatly refusing to believe that the summer is coming to an end, and a large part of this denial is because I won’t get to see my team or Stratton all winter. So I’m soaking up as many good memories as I can!
Natalie Flowers getting her fancy frosting skills on
Another small-ish not-as-awesome detail that actually really mattered this week was the septic pump at our house. It broke last Friday, and because it’s such a specialized pump we’ve had to wait for a new one to come in, and at the moment I don’t really know when it’ll be fixed, but I’m hoping soon! I never thought much before about how much water goes down the drain, but now that we are driving to the school for showers and collecting the dishwater in pans then pouring it through the grate in the driveway I have a pretty good idea. It’s a lot! Everyone has been really positive though; “we’re camping….INDOORS!! In a house 20 million times better than a tent! Whoot whoot!” and Skyler was super nice in letting us cook/crash at his house. But hey, it’s another memory that will make me laugh this winter!
Then there’s the small moments, like when we were all curled up on the couch drinking tea and watching Gilmore Girls, that I will definitely remember this winter when I get homesick. Or when Erika and I got super lost on a recovery run (it was embarrassing) and got back to the house at 7 to find Annie plating the most delicious hot sandwiches I’ve ever tasted. Life sure is awesome with a team that takes care of each other!
