My professors lectured, drew things on projectors, and I tried I tried so hard to retrain my mind to absorb anything they were spewing towards me. My bum grew numb from sitting my hand cramped from trying to keep up scribbling down semi-legible notes. In the end I have successfully survived my first week of the school year, and so far so good I'd have to say.
I've been in Bozeman since the 20th of August and I've settled into my house by the park with two of my team mates, Tyler and Eileen. We've successfully made edible, sometimes even healthy, meals. Our house is in one piece, it appears clean, this might be partially due to the fact that our carpet can best be described as the color of sandy dirty shag...
This past week we had our first team meetings and holy hannah is our team large this year. If I haven't forgotten anyone we have 9 new boys and 5 new girls... alot of new names and new faces for all of us to learn. Camaraderie is high, we all got together friday evening up the hill from campus at Bernhard, Gunnar, Ryan, and Casey's house for supper. The boys and casey perpared quite the meal for everyone and the freshmen came through with dessert bringing only the finest of rice-crispy bars from the dinning hall. We also got to meet our new coaching staff! Our assistant coach from last season Dan Campbell is busy training for biathlon so we've managed to scoop up the assistant coach from the University of Reno Nevada, Andrew. In addition to Andrew, one of our team mates from last year, Gunnar, will be helping us out, and Andrew's girlfriend Calisa, Whitman's old head coach, will be around to give us a hand as well.
On saturday most of the team raced the annual John Colter run. The race is held over the most grueling 7 mile course I have ever ran in my life! The entire course is open to the elements, most notably this year... the sun. When they blow the horn for the start we barreled down a paved road for approximately a mile and a half before the scrambling began. Aside from the top men that is where the march to the top of the ridge begins and where the field quickly separates out. The first half of the race there are two climbs like this, I patiently put one foot in front of the other and waited until later in the race to start to really crank it out. Partnering with the climbs on the course there are also incredible descents, the trail would quickly become loose and rocky and in those moments the race hinged on how recklessly you could carry your body over the course. With approximately two miles to go my legs felt good and I started to pull back the other women in front of me. Finally I caught back up to my team mate Mellie Park. I threw myself down the next down hill section and surged towards the river. All in all our ski team cleaned up nicely.
I won the women's race with Mellie placing second around 30 seconds back. Mellie isn't in the official but she ran incredibly well. Former team member Claire also placed in the top ten with Sylvana and Bernie placing 12th and 13th. You can find the official results at http://perfect-timing.org/results/2009/johncolter/index.html.
We get to start practicing as a team tomorrow and I can't wait! Time to go enjoy the rest of the afternoon lounging in the Big Sky Country sun.
Below is our boys that finished in the top ten, what a way to represent!
Our Boys in the Top Ten Men:
1 | Ryan Scott | Bozeman MT | 272 | 20 | 1 M 20-29 | 43:51.8 | 6:16/M |
2 | Bernhard Ronning | Bozeman MT | 259 | 24 | 2 M 20-29 | 44:28.4 | 6:21/M |
4 | Drew Scott | Boulder CO | 271 | 18 | 1 M 15-19 | 45:21.8 | 6:29/M |
5 | Luke Bromley | Lander WY | 32 | 18 | 2 M 15-19 | 46:41.3 | 6:40/M |
6 | Tyler Reinking | Bozeman MT | 247 | 19 | 3 M 15-19 | 47:22.6 | 6:46/M |
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