My first day there, I went for a run and just took off running on the lush, soft, and leaf covered trails in Putney, VT. I felt amazing running with so little impact and not having to worry about bears, moose, or bums. It was incredible! At one point, a few white tailed deer came leaping through the woods and I thought they were dogs because they were so small compared the AK moose I am accustomed to worrying about. That afternoon I headed up to Dartmouth to do some intervals with the team and it was a classic rainy and humid New England day. It was the first time I have worked out in shorts in months. I was just relishing the sweat pouring off me and the splash from the giant puddles we had to ski through.
Next, I headed north to Craftsbury, VT where Patrick lives and trains most of the year. It is incredibly isolated there, not even a chance of cell service, but I was content to spend time with my friends and do some fun, new training. After Patrick got a trip full of rain when traveling to AK, he must have ordered up some equally wonderful weather for me to experience during my trip. It was dreary New England weather the whole time, so my hopes of grabbing some Vitamin D were quickly foiled. I got to see all the work Patrick has been doing on the trails there all summer. He has worked to widen them all to 9 meters, which is huge. They looked really nice and I hope they get some good snow so I can experience them this winter as well.
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| Class of 2011 XC Women |
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| Catching up with former teammates |
We moved on to my friend Hannah's farm house just north of Hanover for an alumni get together and got to catch up with all my former teammates!
Then it was HOMECOMING! Homecoming is my 2nd favorite event at Dartmouth after Winter Carnival, of course. We started they off having breakfast with our former coach which is always a treat. We then participated in the Time Trial with the team. It was great, we had about 30 of us out rollerskiing in florescent shirts. Homecoming is marked my a enormous bonfire on the Green in which the freshman are supposed to run the same number of laps as their class year. So this year's freshman had to run 115 laps as the class of 2015.
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| The top of the fire burning bright |
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| The class of 2015 and their captains preparing for their laps! |
I then spent one last night in Putney visiting Patrick's parents and then drove to Boston with a friend who is now living there. She graciously put me up for the night so I could catch an early and LONG flight back to AK. It is about 2 hours longer traveling west against the jet stream. I had my fair share of homework to keep me occupied after neglecting it for the duration of my journey.
There is no snow in Anchorage, but quite a bit up in the mountains so there might be some skiing to be had......
