Tag: Idaho

“Coming Together Gives Us All A Lift.” The Power And Purpose Of Bob Rosso

TR factor.

It’s facing all of us. It is just that not all of us factor in time remaining in our day-to-day lives.

For Bob Rosso, the TR factor has been a constant and longtime motivator in how he lives his life. And since receiving a diagnosis of dementia three years ago, Rosso leans hard into this formula, endeavoring to live, love, and enjoy life. We could say even more than he did before, but it is impossible. If enthusiasm has a poster boy, it is Bob Rosso – in full color.

Now 75, Bob’s energy and zest for life remain at a full boil for a myriad of friends and interests. Or, in the phraseology and philosophy of Spinal Tap, “These go to 11.”

Born and raised in Southern California, Bob grew up on Lido Island in Newport Beach.

He recounts, “At that time, it was a classic little beach community. We, my older brother and younger sister were outside swimming and surfing day in and out. I did a little school on the side. I was an average high school student. I think I was playing so hard and doing so many sports in high school that I did not do as well as when I went to college. I really took off then.”

Drawn to Long Beach State to compete for famed coach Don Gambrill, Bob became an All-American swimmer. Now in the Hall of Fame, Gambrill’s stable of swimmers is a veritable Calumet, with nine-time Olympic champion Mark Spitz, Matt Biondi, and Sharon Stouder-Clark, among others.

Bob’s maternal grandfather founded Meeks Bay Resort at Lake Tahoe, and the family would spend every summer there. In the 50s and 60s, California’s wide-open lands offered glorious opportunities for skiing, climbing, hiking, surfing, and biking, and Bob embraced all of them, including rock climbing in Yosemite in the 60s. He funded his forays as a lifeguard on the Pacific Ocean for ten years during high school and college and working in a ski shop.

“To this day, I cannot go someplace where I am not watching the water. It’s an instinctive thing. You never lose that sense of watching the ocean. I have had quite a few rescues when I have been somewhere else because people aren’t aware of what causes the currents and pushes you out,” Bob says.

Bob was lured away from Southern California by the promise of an uncrowded winter nirvana replete with powder skiing and babes – in that order.

“A lifeguard I worked with took the winter off and came back raving about Sun Valley. The powder skiing and lack of crowds appealed to me because I am a non-crowd type of guy,” Bob recounts.

“I came up in the fall of 1971 and found a house for three other guys who would join me. I walked into the Country Kitchen, which was owned by Bob Doan and was kind of a hippie health food restaurant and started off as a dishwasher and ended up as a cook. Rob Kiesel and Bob Gorton of Boise started Snug Mountaineering, so I got a job with them, too.”

In the early seventies, alpine ski racer turned nordic skier Rob Kiesel of Ogden was in lockstep with the famed Leif Odmark in changing the alpine-centric ski culture of Sun Valley to include cross-country skiing. Odmark founded the Sun Valley Cross Country Ski Center, and Kiesel approached the nascent Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation about expanding their junior ski program to include a cross-country ski program. He tapped his young climbing buddy, Bob, as his assistant coach.

“I didn’t know anything about cross-country skiing at the time, including how to ski, but it was a whole lot of fun. A lot of the kids we had then still live in the community. That was 1972. Bridget (Sewell) Kapala nicknamed me Hummingbird Man because I was all over the place. I could never sit still,” Bob says with a laugh.

You could say Bob hit the love lottery when he met Kate Karges, a student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, who was camping with a friend in Adams Gulch when she and Bob met in the summer of 1972. They began dating, eventually marrying in 1977, and went on to have one son, Stephen, who is now a lineman for Lower Valley Power in Jackson Hole.

Kate and Bob Rosso participating in the 2021 Virtually Amazing Zions Bank Boulder Mountain Tour. Photos by Nils Ribi.

Another endeavor Kiesel talked Bob into being part of was helping organize a race that turned out to be the Boulder Mountain Tour.

“We set a classic ski course with a snowmobile along the berm on the highway. It was a complete blizzard the first year. You had to cross the highway five or six times, and it took three or four hours to complete the race,” he recounts.

As with any labor of love, Bob has served in every possible role and worked every aspect of the race from Chief of Course, to board member, to construction of the finish area, to storing tents, equipment and water jugs at The Perch. There is not an facet of the race – then or now – that do not have Bob’s fingerprints on it. He even won the race in 1974.

Once, while enjoying a post-event beer at El Torito Restaurant in Elkhorn, where Kate worked, Bob’s life took another fortuitous turn.

“I was drinking a few post-race beers with Jim Bombard, the K2 rep at the time, and he said, ‘you have to open your own business.’ That planted the seed. That was early winter of 1975. We put together some money in two or three months and opened The Elephant’s Perch on April 1, 1976.”

The pair drove to The North Face in San Francisco (they were friends of the men that started the company), loaded up $20,000 worth of climbing and mountaineering gear in the back of their truck, and never looked back. Well, maybe a bit, as the winter of 1977 was so dry the Boulder Mountain Tour wasn’t held, and 1978 wasn’t much snowier. But conditions – both weather-and-business wise – improved throughout the years, and in the 46 years the Rossos owned The Perch, it evolved into an iconic and valued fixture in the Ketchum community.

Personally, Bob was and is a pillar of the community. A member of the Blaine County Recreation District’s board of directors for 20 years, he can count among his accomplishments permitting and building the bike path that spans 20 miles, Harriman Trail (in partnership with the US Forest Service), and the purchase and saving of historic Galena Lodge.

Over the years, the Perch played host to upward of 20 events a year fueled largely by Bob’s interests. These include the Adams Gulch Fun Run, Backcountry Run, Shop to the Top, 10-Mile Run, Pin Binding Downhill, Classic Backwards Boulder Mountain Tour, Prairie Creek Snowmaker, Chamber Pot Relays, Baldy Snowshoe Challenge, Tri-Elephant-A-Thon Triathlon, Nappy’s Wednesday Night Rides, Town to Summit Road Race, South Valley Century Ride, Stanley to Lowman Overnight Tour, Ronde Von Ketchum 120k Bike Tour, Wagon Days Criterium, and sponsorship of the Boulder Mt. Tour, Galena Grinder and Snowball Special Fat Bike Race.

Bob (right) and pal Kris Thoreson on the homestretch of the 2022 Zions Bank BMT.

About six or seven years ago, Bob, Kate, and a few staff members began noticing differences in Bob. He needed help on the cash registers to ring up customers, or he would forget the steps to open the email. Trying to organize the events The Perch sponsored annually, such as the Adam’s Gulch Fun Run or Backcountry Run, became unwieldy.

“There was a little bit of a dropoff,” Kate says. “His memory wasn’t quite as sharp. It took him longer to do things.”

As with other highly-intelligent people who are able to compensate in other areas to deflect their cognitive decline, it wasn’t immediately apparent to Bob and Kate that he was in the early stages of dementia. In July of 2019, the pair attended a lecture on Alzheimer’s disease at St. Luke’s. They crossed paths with Randy Vawdrey, a certified nurse practitioner and researcher from Pocatello, who would be a key player in Bob’s efforts to stave off his memory decline.

“He said that since Bob has both APO genes for dementia and Alzheimer’s, something could have triggered this,” Kate said. “Bob had two shoulder surgeries and general anesthesias before this…Randy said it could be a possibility.”

They began working with Vawdrey and credited him and Dr. Amy Drumm in the Wood River Valley with – all things considered – the very good shape Bob is in now.

“Some of the people diagnosed at the same time as Bob are not speaking right now. With Bob, there has been some decline, but it has leveled off. He takes a million supplements and tries to follow a Keto diet. Physically he is good,” Kate says. “I would say he can do more than 90 percent of what he could do. He is able to travel, and he is pretty happy, which isn’t always the case for people with dementia.

Bob is succinct. “Hopefully, I am more in the moment. I am not upset about it – ever. This is how life is. This is what you sign up for.”

Always a willing participant around the house with cooking, cleaning, and doing his own laundry, Bob endeavors to still try and help as much as possible. The pair recount when Bob recently filled up their fancy coffee grinder, and Kate made herself a cup of coffee.

“It was really crappy coffee, and I took a closer look and realized the grinder was full of dog food. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, you can’t help but laugh,” Kate says.

They both say socialization is essential and seek out the company of friends regularly.

“We were just in Boise with good friends from Southern California who have been friends for 50 years. We laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe. Those are the kinds of things that plug you in,” Bob says.

As one of the founders and first organizer of the Boulder Mountain Tour, we felt it more than fitting to honor Bob at the event’s 50th anniversary on February 4, 2023. The fact that we are still skiing down the Harriman Trail on the first Saturday in February is primarily due to the efforts and inspiration of Bob Rosso.

“What I love about the Boulder is the power of the race,” Bob says. “You have racers from the area, from Boise, from all over the United States, and they come together and have this unified experience, and the energy grows and grows into this very powerful thing.

“Coming together gives us all a lift.”

October 21, 2022
McCall Winter Sports Club Seeks Head Coach

The McCall Winter Sports Club (MWSC is a member club in the Intermountain Division) is looking to fill a Head Nordic coaching position. The MWSC is a combined Nordic, Alpine, and Big Mountain program that is based in the mountains of McCall, Idaho. Currently, the Nordic Program has approximately 70 participants that are supported by a core group of assistant coaches and parent volunteers.

McCall boasts a great variety of Nordic ski areas that offer skiing from late November through mid-March. The three primary Nordic ski areas (Bear Basin, Ponderosa State Park, and Jug Mountain Ranch) have extensive trail offerings that provide a wide range of terrain for skiing.

McCall, ID (population ~3,000) is a small mountain resort town located on the shores of Payette Lake. It is located 100 miles north of Boise, Idaho (state capital with an area population ~ 350,000+). There are three local alpine ski areas that serve your lift serve needs (The Little Ski Hill, Brundage Mountain and Tamarack Resort) and excellent access to backcountry skiing. McCall is also situated in the heart of some of the best river running (kayak/raft) in the U.S. There are ample mountain lakes and bike trails to explore.

Check us out at www.mccallwintersportsclub.org

For more info regarding the position, contact John Gebhards at gebhardsj@gmail.com, 208-630-4093.

May 12, 2016
Chris Hall: Getting Bold for the Boulder
With the 2016 Boulder Mountain Tour just weeks away, it is not too early to start getting race skis ready for their final layer of race wax before the big day. Doing a little work on your skis now makes a big difference in time spent waxing the night before the race. Below are some tips to save time, energy and stress the night before the BMT.
1. Clean and brush your skis well. Brushing your skis after every ski does a good job of removing dirt and old wax from the ski base structure. However, it does not completely clean the base. It is the dirt and other foreign contaminates that cannot be seen which the brush misses. Using a Glide Wax remover, like the I84 Glide Wax remover will completely clean the ski base. And, it is more efficient and effective than hot scraping. Make sure to use a separate nylon brush for your Glide Wax Cleaner.
1. Saturate the ski base with the 6 line. Looking at the long-term weather forecast, the temperatures and snow conditions should be ideal for the 6 line. So, after ski training, it will help to rewax your skis with either CH6X or LF6X. The race day recommendation will probably be HF6X. By waxing with the 6 line prior to the race, the ski bases will have the correct hardness of wax saturated into the pores. This eliminates the need for under layers like graphite.
1. Clean brushes and sharp scrapers. The basic tools like brushes and scrapers need to be in good working order. Make sure to have clean brushes that do not have bent bristles or are filled with wax. If the bristles are bent, it might be time to invest in a new brush. Keep your wax scrapers sharp. Use fine grit sandpaper to sharpen them or purchase a scraper sharpener (T0408 or T410).
January 28, 2016
Rorabaugh Strides to Sun Valley Sprint Win, Holds Off Craftsbury’s Miller and Patterson

Racers power onto the course at the start of the women’s SuperTour classic sprint final on Saturday in Sun Valley, Idaho. From left to right: Hannah Halvorsen, Veronika Mayerhofer, Becca Rorabaugh, Chelsea Holmes, Caitlin Patterson, and Kaitlynn Miller.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho — The opening day of the second SuperTour on the season brought a welcome change from last weekend: warmer weather. After enduring start delays and colder temperatures in West Yellowstone, Mont., racers enjoyed relative warmth and sunshine while sprinting in an open field at the Trail Creek venue in Sun Valley.

The 1.3-kilometer course set up for the classic sprint was ready to go thanks to the work of many coaches and volunteers throughout the week. Though the course started and finished in a flat stadium, it featured two climbs, a small one out of the start, and a larger one that reached the high point before dropping into the stadium. Both climbs represented an opportunity for the athletes to show off their striding ability.

This was something that the women’s race winner, Becca Rorabaugh of Alaska Pacific University (APU), was able to take full advantage of.

“I just love big striding and I knew that was going to be a sweet spot for me,” she said in a post-race interview. “I was really looking forward to that second hill.”

After placing sixth in the qualifier, Rorabaugh skied to a win in her quarterfinal before being narrowly bested by Kaitlynn Miller of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in their semifinal. However, Rorabaugh, 26, was able to carry more energy into the final, where she won in 3:38.46, almost exactly one second ahead of Miller and 1.3 seconds ahead of Caitlin Patterson, also of the CGRP.

“I was slowly getting my motor going throughout the day and it turned out that I was able to last perfectly through the final,” Rorabaugh said. “It was just taking me a while to get going. I felt like I was really on it in time for the last heat, so it just worked out.”

Caitlin Patterson (in green) racing head-to-head with CU’s Christina Rolandsen (l) and Petra Hyncicova (center, in white) in their SuperTour classic-sprint quarterfinal in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Miller, meanwhile, skied strong throughout the day, but was unable to stay with Rorabaugh in the final. The 24-year-old CGRP skier won the qualifier in 3:35.73 before dominating her quarterfinal, winning it by over six seconds.

Her strategy of setting a fast pace from the start worked well in her semifinal, too, as she was able to edge Rorabaugh to the line. While Miller didn’t have quite enough energy in the final to stay ahead of the day’s winner, she had just enough to claim the second spot on the podium.

“[It felt] really good. The conditions are great, our skis were working really well, and it’s just a beautiful day,” Miller said after the final.

Miller’s teammate, Patterson was also pleased with how the day went, both for her and her teammates. It started with Craftsbury biathlete Clare Egan notching a career-best 16th in the IBU World Cup sprint in Östersund, Sweden, and Patterson said their team built upon that. She finished second in the qualifier and kept that speed throughout the rounds, winning her quarterfinal and semifinal before placing third in the final.

The women’s Sun Valley Super Tour 1.3 k classic sprint podium: (from l to r) Junior Hannah Halvorsen in sixth, Chelsea Holmes in fifth, Caitlin Patterson in third, Becca Rorabaugh in first, Kaitlynn Miller in second, and Veronika Mayerhofer in fourth.

“We just went for it, especially Kait. I don’t know if you saw her quarterfinal and semifinal, she just took off with it!” Patterson explained. “I felt like I had to fight a little more, but I think all around, a good day for both of us.”

Interestingly, none of the top three women in Saturday’s sprint placed in the top 10 in the skate sprint a week ago in West Yellowstone. Having another week to acclimate certainly helped the women from lower elevations, but the simple fact that this week’s sprint was classic made a big difference, too. Rorabaugh said she enjoys the striding while Miller feels classic skiing at altitude is just a bit easier than skating at some 5,750 feet above sea level.

The trio hopes to build upon their success in the sprint during Sunday’s 10 k classic. For Rorabaugh, a 10 k might just be the perfect race for where she is at right now.

“I’m looking forward to it because I feel like I have pretty good distance fitness. If it took me a whole day to get going today, odds are a 10 k could go alright,” she said.

As for the second- and third-place finishers, they said they were both feeling confident heading into Sunday.

“Watch out for us,” Patterson said of her team in Sun Valley. “All four, in green, watch out. We will be there.”

In fourth, Veronika Mayerhofer of the University of Utah, who won her quarterfinal and placed third in the semi, finished 3.76 seconds after Rorabaugh and 2.46 seconds off the podium. Just 0.25 seconds back, Chelsea Holmes (APU) placed fifth in the final, 4 seconds after Rorabaugh. Last week in West Yellowstone, Holmes placed fourth in the skate sprint, and last weekend’s sprint runner-up 17-year-old Hannah Halvorsen (Sugar Bowl Academy) reached the final again and placed sixth (+19.19).

***

Olivia Ekblad of Montana State University crests the second hill before dropping back into the stadium.

In the junior women’s heats, meanwhile, a pair of Montana State University (MSU) skiers took first and second. Freshman Olivia Ekblad from Winthrop, Wash., won with sophomore Gretchen Burkholder from Steamboat Springs, Colo., following close behind in second. Rounding out the podium in the junior heats was Sun Valley’s own Annika Landis.

These spots were good enough for ninth, 10th and 11th junior women overall, as eight others qualified for the open heats. Halvorsen led those top juniors, finishing sixth in the overall standings. Still, the duo from MSU feels the sprint was a great way to start off their season.

“We have a really good group of girls at MSU to train with so its fun,” Ekblad explained. “Awesome coaches too. We’re definitely going to throw down this year, it’s going to be fun.”

Results

December 6, 2015
Love and Marriage for Several U.S., Canadian Skiers

(Courtesy photo)

(Courtesy photo)

(Courtesy photo)

(Courtesy photo)

Skiers have been wearing a lot of white lately — or variations thereof. This past weekend, Canadian World Cup Team member Devon Kershaw and his Norwegian girlfriend, three-time Olympian Kristin Størmer Steira, tied the knot in Lofoten, Norway, where Steira has family ties.

Kristin Størmer Steira, of Norway, and Devon Kershaw, of Canada, were married last weekend in Lofoten, Norway. (Photo: CCC/Facebook)

Steira’s teammates, including Marit Bjørgen, Therese Johaug and Ingrid Flugstad Østberg, made the trip to the northern islands for the wedding, along with Canadian skiers Alex Harvey, Jess Cockney, Graham Nishikawa, Drew Goldsack, and Phil Widmer.

On July 11, US Biathlon’s Lowell Bailey wed Erika Edgley at Connery Pond (photos above) in North Elba, N.Y., then held a reception in front of the house where Bailey grew up in Lake Placid. Edgley is also from Lake Placid. They celebrated with about 120 guests from “all over the world,” Bailey explained in an email. “Americans, Brits, Germans!”

Bailey recently arrived in Stavanger, Norway, for the Blink Summer Ski Festival — a three-day series of rollerski races, starting this Thursday and ending Saturday. His teammates Leif Nordgren and Susan Dunklee also plan to participate.

Sara Studebaker (second from l) married Zach Hall in mid July and celebrated with friends and former US Biathlon teammates Susan Dunklee (l), Hannah Dreissigacker (second from r), and Annelies Cook (r) in Stanley, Idaho. (Photo: Sara Studebaker/Facebook)

Also this month, former U.S. biathlete Sara Studebaker married another retired biathlete and current ski coach, Zach Hall, with her 2014 Olympic relay teammates Dunklee, Hannah Dreissigacker and Annelies Cook by her side in Stanley, Idaho.

And on July 18 near Canmore, Alberta, Canadian biathlete and Olympian Scott Perras married Jodi Etcheverry, a former biathlete, at a lakeside ceremony.

Longtime sweethearts, former U.S. skiers and now development coaches, Maria Stuber and Bryan Cook recently wed in their native Wisconsin.

July 27, 2015
Two Decades and 20+ World Cup Starts Later, Sinnott Retires from Skiing

Mikey Sinnott on the World Cup last December in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Facebook/MWSC)

A freshman skier in Sun Valley, Idaho, Mikey Sinnott was literally a foot shorter than the rest of the guys on his team, or so his longtime coach Rick Kapala says. Small but mighty, Sinnott came up through the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) junior ranks, making it to the Idaho youth championships and eventually winning two Junior National titles, and reaching Junior World Championships in 2004 and 2005 and U23 World Championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

But before he was a globetrotter, Sinnott was a fighter — holding his own in a wrestling brawl with two dozen kids and a handful of coaches, an annual lighthearted tradition at the SVSEF. According to Kapala, who was always at the bottom of the pile, Sinnott was forever the last man standing. Everyone else would eventually give up, but not Mikey.

Mikey Sinnott at the 2011 U.S. nationals classic sprint, where he place second for a career best. He repeated the feat in 2012 with another silver in the classic sprint in Rumford, Maine. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad/flyingpointroad.com)

“You could never pin Mikey,” the SVSEF head coach and nordic program director said. “He was the definition of scrappy.”

As Kapala spoke those words on the phone Tuesday, he almost immediately retracted them. Sinnott would not want to be called scrappy, but that’s what he was. He didn’t tap out, Kapala said, he never quit.

Looking back, he was glad Sinnott didn’t get overlooked like some U16s that haven’t reached physical maturity do. While Sinnott’s results and performances were promising, an outside coach observing him at a glance might not have picked him to achieve what he later would.

But Sinnott understood the importance of grit, and paired with an academic gift that led him to study psychology and neuroscience at Dartmouth College, he had punched his ticket to success early on, Kapala said.

His timing was also ideal. By the time he finished up at Dartmouth, where he was an NCAA All-American and named to the association’s Division I Skiing Championships Team all four years, Sinnott was ready for the big leagues, and his choice to return to Sun Valley was simple.

They had started an Olympic development team (now the Gold Team) a few years earlier — an attractive option for a hometown skier looking to go pro.

“At that point, I wasn’t going to go to northern Maine, I wasn’t going to go to the Midwest, I wasn’t going to go to Alaska — there weren’t really any other teams,” Sinnott reflected on the phone two weeks ago. “When I went off to college, that was one of Rick’s goals … to make the Sun Valley Ski Education program one of the cradle-to-the-grave programs like in Europe.

“I think it’s been a very, very wonderful program,” he added after seven years on the team. “It’s been a model for how we need to start developing more in the U.S. Sun Valley was the model for what’s made the U.S. Ski Team [in the 1960s] … I think we continue to be that model and impress and improve.”

In five seasons, Sinnott, now 29, amassed more than 20 World Cup starts. He claimed the overall SuperTour title in 2013 to start last season in Europe, where he raced seven of those World Cups.

But last winter, starting in November, Sinnott didn’t feel anywhere close to on top of the world. He was fatigued and had been feeling that way since late October, yet he couldn’t pinpoint why. His legs lacked power, but he figured he could compensate with mental toughness, which some call ‘grit.’

“I just kept telling myself that I had to make it work,” he said. “I never really had a lot of explosive energy in my legs for whatever reason, but I kind of knew that was the year, if I was going to fight through any stupidity, that was the year I had to do it … It was an Olympic year.”

The Continental Cup leader who kicked his season off with the U.S. Ski Team (USST) in Kuusamo, Finland, Sinnott placed 74th in his first race (a classic sprint) and 113th in the 10 k classic the next day. By the end of the three-day series, he was 92nd overall.

A few weeks later in mid-December, he spoke openly about not being in top form. But he still wanted to perform well at U.S. nationals and give his best shot at making the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

At the same time, Sinnott, widely respected as a master of calculating points in the U.S., knew his domestic ranking wasn’t competitive enough to put him in the running for the Olympic team. If he wanted to make it to Sochi, his first Olympics in two Olympic cycles he’d been training through, he knew he needed a top 30 on the World Cup.

The closest he’d come after Kuusamo was 78th in the classic sprint at Asiago World Cup in Italy. In late December, he returned to the U.S. for nationals in Utah, where he placed fourth in the 30 k freestyle mass start and fifth in the classic sprint. Even if he’d won all of nationals, Sinnott didn’t expect to make the Olympics. At the same time, he said anyone’s best chance was to ski faster than lone USST male there: Erik Bjornsen.

“I knew how fast I was skiing and I knew I wasn’t going to beat him,” Sinnott said.

“The U.S. Ski Team wants to do everything they can to not take any non-U.S. Ski Team members to the Olympics,” he added. “So I knew the only opportunity I had was to get a top 30 on the World Cup … That’s why I stayed [in Europe].”

Mikey Sinnott (l), of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), climbs up and over a hill in the 30 k freestyle mass start at 2014 U.S. nationals. (Photo: Bert Boyer/All proceeds from photo sales donated to NNF)

Olympic selections came and went, Sinnott wasn’t picked, and by the time February rolled around, he was back on the SuperTour circuit and feeling drained. He recalled one race in St. Paul, Minn., where he was skiing in the top three with four kilometers to go, and he was bored.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know, maybe I should just drop out because I don’t even care,’ and that was kind of pathetic,” he reflected.

He ended up third on the day, and later that month, placed 24th in the American Birkebeiner — an event, like nationals, he said he felt horrible in.

“I’ve never just been so sluggish through an entire season like that,” Sinnott said. “It wasn’t an overtraining thing, but I just never felt that I had the spark.”

He ended up eighth in the 2013/2014 SuperTour overall. Because he wasn’t among the closest contenders for an Olympic spot, he wasn’t crushed when he didn’t make the team. But his season did leave him with untied ends he would later have to reconcile.

“There was no sudden crash or hope lingering on that some people were affected with because I had a better understanding [of the criteria],” Sinnott said. “When I was younger I thought, race your hardest and things will turn out well, and I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. You have to make your own luck and work your hardest because nothing’s going to be given to you … you have to force your way onto a team or force your way into a start race because you earned your way.”

Change of Seasons, Change of Pace

A couple Fridays ago, Sinnott was hanging up a piñata midday in his Sun Valley home. He wasn’t recovering from the morning’s training session with the Gold Team, and he wasn’t gearing up for an afternoon workout, either.

Since last spring, he had been a working man in a different sense: marketing and writing for the Sun Valley Harvest Festival, one of the top 10 fall festivals in the country. And with the September festival in the rearview, he was prepping for a party at his place.

Mikey Sinnott (lower r, facing camera in green) at Sun Valley’s annual Baldy Hill Climb, while Darlene Young (with poles, in blue) pushes on. (Photo: Facebook/Jon Engan)

He’d certainly been working out — just not in the traditional sense that he’d been accustomed to for the last seven years. He’d done the unofficial Ultimate Man.Ultimate Woman series, the brainchild of former Sun Valley coach Chris Mallory and a compilation of four local offroad endurance events: the Boulder Mountain Tour (30-kilometer ski race), Backcountry Run (16-mile trail run), Double Galena Grinder (45-mile mountain-bike race), and the Cheeso Double Baldy Hill Climb.

The series ended Sept. 27 at the top of the 9,020-foot Bald Mountain, where Sinnott placed eighth on the day and fourth overall.

Rather than run more than 3,000 meters to the summit, the ultimate men and women had to ascend it twice: biking up Baldy, riding the gondola down and running/hiking back up. Twenty-five people started the series, four finished, and among them, Sinnott skied the fastest time in the Boulder Mountain Tour (BMT) and notched the second-fastest time in another event. He lost an hour in the mountain-bike race and was down to fourth — last — by the end of the series.

“Running after you bike is awful,” he said. “Eleven months ago, I signed up for [this] race series … I know I’m not going to do it again.”

Meanwhile, after the BMT in February and before the Backcountry Run in July, Sinnott decided whether to continue ski racing through 2014/2015. Still unsure exactly what went wrong last winter — he tried to rest more; he tried to train more — he reasoned it was worth stepping back and trying to put everything back together, and started training again in May.

Sinnott and Miles Havlick during an August 2013 training run through the sagebrush in the Upper Salmon River Valley, Idaho. (Photo: Facebook/Miles Havlick)

It didn’t take long until he realized he wasn’t having fun anymore.

“I just wasn’t enjoying getting out the door anymore,” he said. “If there wasn’t someone waiting for me, then I wasn’t motivated to go exercise on my own.”

Reasoning he was “fighting an uphill battle in an uphill sport,” Sinnott said it wasn’t worth wasting his time or his coaches’. Kapala said they sat down and talked about it.

“We sort of sensed it was coming,” Kapala explained. “There’s a natural lifespan to cross-country careers. Mike was certainly of the caliber that he could’ve chosen to ski another year or two years — I don’t think we would’ve seen any drop off in his production … but I think he looked at it like he was trying to make this Olympic squad …

“I said, ‘You’ve had an exceptional career in ski racing,’ ” he added. “ ‘You really think the experiences in total that you’ve had in ski racing would be that much enhanced by slugging it out for another four years?’ He was already like, yeah, I think it’s time for some new challenges.”

Sinnott said conversations with Gold Team head coach Colin Rodgers also helped open his eyes to where he stood mentally.

Last season’s Gold Team, with former skiers Mikey Sinnott (retired, third from r) Chelsea Holmes (now at APU, second from r), and Rose Kemp (retired, second from l). (Photo: Facebook/SVSEF Gold Team)

“He’s been saying for the last year I just didn’t have the same personality with skiing,” Sinnott said. “And I saw him recently and he thought I’d recovered into my old self. Rick’s super supportive … and they all just care so much. All my coaches just want what’s best for me.”

Sinnott’s Favorite Moments:

(as written in an email)

“A few highlights for myself were the Dartmouth College National Championship, winning the Boulder Mountain Tour, my first European World Cup in Milan, and racing the Holmenkollen. Lots of memories, but those were special for a variety of reasons:I loved collegiate racing. It is the best domestic race series we have. Such comaraderie, and racing for something bigger than yourself. I loved how much of a team we were, and how meaningful it was to so many people to bring home the National Championship. Our school, our alums, the East Coast. I even remember heading straight to U23s while they were still tabulating the scores, and upon arrival getting a hearty cheer from Pat Casey. He was so proud to see a group of Americans, all under 23, be the top team. It showed US skiing was on the rise, and we didn’t have to look up to the Euros anymore. It was a pretty cool feat, and an incredible group of people to be a part of. I think there were three or four future Olympians, and two future World Championship runners.

Winning the Boulder Mountain Tour was special because it was my first real professional title, and it was in my home town, in front of family and friends. Wow. Such a special moment to represent them. My home town is beyond supportive, and it feels great to show them what they are supporting.

Of course skiing in Milan was all together unreal, and a wonderful new persepective on what could be achieved through skiing. I remember seeing Kikkan on the podium, and seeing her mobbed for autographs. I remember seeing lots of the U.S. team being mobbed for autographs. Riding the bus with all the world elites, joking with them (okay, Simi joked with them, I gawked a little), being in such a world center and to have it lined with fans of nordic skiing. Wow. I thought it couldnt get any better… But oh did it.

Finally, racing the Holmenkollen. I had a terrible race that day, and was well out the back from the get go. It was slushy and slow. I loved every minute of that suffer slog. The course was lined by thousands of fans who had camped out for days. They were chanting my name around every corner, before I was even in sight. There was such energy and appreciation and excitement, it was beyond contagious. They willed me onwards no matter how tired I became. I cannot express what that felt like, to be among the worst in the race, and still have this wall of humanity urging you and screaming for you. Wow. Those Norwegians do it right.

A lot of my best memories come from the people I met, and the people I shared my career with. I could list a multitude more stories, but they mostly center around the people and how their interactions left an imprint on me. I stayed and raced for a week with a Norwegian racing team — so generous, so kind. Erik Stange took me for a ski tour outside Lillehammer that ended at a waffle house, only available via skiing. Last season, a friend came to watch me race in Davos and brought a huge poster that had personal remarks from a dozen or so close college friends encouraging, and cajoling me. It was great.”

Looking back, Sinnott had a long list of career highlights: Dartmouth’s national championship, winning the 2008 BMT, his first European World Cup in Milan in 2012, and racing at Holmenkollen that same season.

“I loved collegiate racing,” he explained. “It is the best domestic race series we have. Such camaraderie, and racing for something bigger than yourself. I loved how much of a team we were, and how meaningful it was to so many people to bring home the National Championship.

“Winning the Boulder Mountain Tour was special because it was my first real professional title, and it was in my home town, in front of family and friends,” he added. “Such a special moment to represent them. My hometown is beyond supportive, and it feels great to show them what they are supporting.”

And that’s why he planned to stick around town and help out while he plans his next move. Throughout the offseason, Sinnott has been working with U18 skiers and younger on the SVSEF Comp Team, shadowing them during workouts to push and motivate them a few times a week.

“He’s getting ready to transition to the next phase of his life … [and] he’s taking this year to give back to our program,” Kapala said. “We’ve got this group of ten kick-ass U18 guys — think of that workout when they’re going out for this hour-and-a-half roll and Mike is embedded in that workout with them. … That’s huge.”

Kapala said his program reserves some money for guest coaching, and while it’s not much, he knew Sinnott would do it for free.

“I’ve been blessed with the coaching that I’ve had over the years … [with Kapala, Ruff Patterson in college, Travis Jones and Rodgers on the Gold Team],” Sinnott said. “I know that I don’t have some of those characteristics especially at a youth level … I don’t have the consistency day in and out required of a quality coach.”

So he doesn’t necessarily envision himself as a full-time coach one day, but he’s happy to jump in as needed.

In the meantime, he said he’ll be taking the next year to figure out his new career path and will continue to work with the Sun Valley Harvest Festival through the winter. He started the job in May as a means of keeping him mentally stimulated while training. When he stepped away from skiing in late May/early June, he began to call it his career.

Sinnott spent the next several months focusing on the leadup to the festival and coaching on the side. He create a life plan beyond that, but he has a few ideas.

“I thought I was going to map [it] out this summer — that never happened,” he said. “I want to know exactly what I want to do before I start looking into grad school. Since I graduated, neuroscience has become a more popular field among the smarty pants of the world, and my brain has atrophied…”

He has yet to find out what that field holds for him, but above all, Sinnott remembers enjoying school, the curriculum, “the knowledge, and the horizon they presented with some of the unknown,” he said.

He has a Sun Valley mountain pass this winter, so he figured he’d take some downhill runs on powder days to sort it out. This month, he headed east for 10 days for a wedding in New Hampshire.

“I’ll bring running shoes, but I don’t have to bring rollerskis, so that’s a plus,” he noted.

And while he might travel a bit, and give races like the Birkie another try (at a more leisurely pace), he’ll continue to call Sun Valley his home.

“I’ve traveled around and looked at various places and there’s nothing compared to here,” he said. “The Norwegian national team, they [came] here before the Olympics in Salt Lake and Vancouver, and they say this is the perfect training place.”

And the team has been an integral part of his experiences.

“It’s always been, the team I want to hang out with on the [domestic] circuit is Sun Valley,” he said. “They’re good people that I have fun with.”

Leaving the Gold Team, which includes Miles Havlick, Matt Gelso, Ben Lustgarten, Mary Rose, Makayla Cappel, and Paige Schember, Sinnott said it’s in a good place.

“[That’s] the best team in the country this year. They’re unbelievable,” he said. “There’s definitely times where I’ll see time trials and I’ll say, ‘Oh man, I wish I could be out there.’ If I wanted to be out there, I would be. It’s not like anyone told me no, I just don’t want to be out there anymore. It’s been really good to be more social and adventure with friends. I haven’t really second-guessed it.”

Kapala said Sinnott could be the poster child of how to have a great life ski racing, which is why it’s so valuable having him around.

“I’ve learned way more as a coach from Mike than Mike has learned from me,” he said. “I never got the sense that Mikey was just in it for results. Because of that, you get the kind of guy who’s perspective on the sport is really helpful and powerful and now he’s out there training with our juniors. … That’s another piece of us really getting somewhere.”

October 16, 2014
Teton Valley Ski Education Foundation Seeking Junior Head Coach

Teton Valley Ski Education Foundation (TVSEF) based out of Driggs, Idaho, wishes to retain a head coach who will have primary responsibility of coaching our middle school and high school aged team members.

The head coach will also have the responsibility of the day to day planning, administration, and oversight of all our Junior Nordic Programs. The job will be salaried and seasonal from approximately October – March.

Contact Dan Streubel at dan@streubelphysicaltherapy.com for further information and to obtain a detailed job description of our head coach position. www.tvsef.org

May 29, 2014
4th Annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival Promises Outstanding Winter Fun

SUN VALLEY, Idaho – 2013 brings another stellar lineup of events for the 4th Annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival running from January 26 – February 3 in NordicTown USA, Sun Valley, Idaho. Again this year, Sun Valley has had the best early winter in the country. With feet of snow on the ground, world-class grooming, 250+ days of sunshine each year and an incredible trail network featuring over 200 km of groomed nordic trails, Nordic Town USA is the place to be this winter.

For 9 days in January and February, join skiers and families from around the world for the country’s most exciting nordic gathering. This year’s Festival features the best events yet! Start out the week with Ski the Rails, a skate or classic ski down the former railway turned bike path, followed by the always festive Galena and the Trails Benefit, an Alpine Touring Race up and down Dollar Mountain, Twilight Ski and Dinner at magical Galena Lodge, AXCS National Masters Racing at Sun Valley Nordic to crown the best Masters in the country, Nordic Hall of Fame Inductions, Panel discussion by Nordic Industry bigwigs, the remixed Downtown Jam/NordicTown USA Sprints and Snowbike Competition featuring food, music and party vibe into the night, the always amazing Banff Film Festival, Marley and the Mountains with headliner Pato Banton, then finish it all up with the longest running cross-country race in North America, the renowned Swix Boulder and Half Boulder Mountain Tour.

Racers, non-racers and families will find excitement all throughout the 4th annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival—join us for the sunshine, skiing and nordic spirit in NordicTown USA! For a complete listing and descriptions of the incredible events visit svnordicfestival.com.

Photos from the 2012 SVNF are courtesy of Nils Ribi:

Sun Valley Nordic Festival Events at a Glance:

Saturday, January 26:

– BCRD Ski the Rails/Hailey Downtown Party

– Galena & the Trails Benefit and Auction

Sunday, January 27:

– Skin it to Win It Ski & Snowboard Race to benefit the Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center

– Alturas Ski and Après Ski

Tuesday, January 29:

– Twilight Ski & Dinner at Galena Lodge

Wednesday, January 30:

– 2013 AXCX National Masters Freestyle Prologue at Sun Valley Nordic

– Sun Valley Alpine & Nordic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

– Perspectives on Nordic Skiing at the Community Library

Thursday, January 31:

– 2013 AXCS National masters 10km Classic at Sun Valley Nordic

– Downtown Jam/NordicTown USA Sprints (Nordic and Snowbike Races)

Friday, February 1:

– Swix Boulder Mountain Tour Expo

– Banff Film Festival

Saturday, February 2:

– 38th Annual Swix Boulder Mountain Tour

– Swix Half Boulder Mountain Tour

– Swix Boulder Mountain Tour Awards Ceremony

– Marley in the Mountains

– Banff Film Festival

Sunday, February 3:

– Swix Boulder Mountain Tour Demo at Sun Valley Nordic

For event specifics visit svnordicfestival.com

Photos from the 2012 SVNF are courtesy of Nils Ribi:

Boulder Mountain Tour

Downtown Jam/NordicTown USA Sprints

Skin it to Win It Ski and Snowboard Race to benefit Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center

Amazing Food

Sit Ski Competitors

Ski the Rails

January 5, 2013

2011 National J2 Talent ID Camp – NCCSEF Facebook Competition

The 2^nd annual National J2 Talent ID camp supported by NCCSEF is set to take place August 1-8^th in Sun Valley, ID. The top 22 J2 boys and top 22 J2 girls in the country (14-15 year olds) have qualified to attend this camp through selection from their best two races from the 2011 USSA Junior Olympics last March.

Athletes will post “vote for me” to the Facebook/NCCSEF wall (and if possible post a picture of the camp) then ask their friends and team back home to “like” them. Top 3 Liked vote getters by the end of Camp will be awarded USST BD jacket or race suit and Toko HF wax. You must Like NCCSEF to nominate yourself and to vote.

Olivia	Amber
Noah	Andersen
Louisa	Austin
Nichole	Bathe
Ian	Boucher
Cate	Brams
Cully	Brown
Gretchen	Burkholder
Raylene	Chew
Callan	Deline
Evelyn	Delong
Laurel	Fiddler
Tyler	Foulkes
Heidi	Halvorsen
Hannah	Hardenbergh
Ben	Hegman
Gavin	Hess
Erich	Hoefler
Karsten	Hokanson
Emily	Hyde
Marc	Jackson
Pete	Karinen
Madison	Keefe
Sarrissa	Lammers
Katrin	Larusson
Alex	Loan
Sophie	McDonald
Hamish	McEwen
Dori	McNeill
Sam	Merrens
Anika	Miller
Max	Millslagle
Brooke	Mooney
Hadley	Moreau
Bria	Riggs
Maile	Sapp
Haakon	Sigurslid
Zoe	Snow
Keegan	Swirbul
Evan	Weinman
Logan	Wiginton
Riis	Wilbrecht
Maggie	Williams
Marion	Woods

Visit www.facebook.com/Nccsef during the camp to like (vote for) your athletes.

August 2, 2011

2011 National J2 Talent ID Camp, Supported by NCCSEF, Comes to Sun Valley

Sun Valley, ID: The 2^nd annual National J2 Talent ID camp is set to take place August 1-8^th in Sun Valley, ID. The top 22 J2 boys and top 22 J2 girls in the country (14-15 year olds) have qualified to attend this camp through selection from their best two races from the 2011 USSA Junior Olympics last March.

This camp is the first national step up the U.S.S.A. development pipeline and is designated a Level 1 Project within the NCCSEF’s funded/fundraising Pillar Projects. Originally the brainchild of Rick Kapala, SVSEF, the collaboration from regional coaches and continued support from NCCSEF (National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation) and USSA (United States Ski and Snowboard Association), have enabled this camp to continue on after a very successful inaugural camp in 2010 hosted by Michigan Tech. This year’s site at Sun Valley offers a spectacular setting for athletes with great roller skiing, hiking, training facilities, lodging and other fun adventures nearby!

Participating athletes will be provided with an excellent week of dryland training alongside their J2 peers. The camp will have 2 to 3 athletic training sessions per day and will also provide participants with up-to-date information on nutrition and health management, current international ski technique, goal setting, and training planning and execution. All sessions have 3 goals: 1) Help athletes understand various physical and technical skills need to succeed in the sport 2) Provide the athletes with appropriate training stimuli 3) Afford the staff an opportunity to assess the abilities of the athletes.

The camp is staffed by an array of Coaches including Bryan Fish-USST, Rick Kapala – Camp Director and Head Coach of the SVSEF Program, Janice Sibilia – NENSA Director of Competition Programming, Ali Deines- Head Coach Jackson Hole Ski, Josh Smullin & Eric Pepper-Head Club Coaches from RMD, Nancy Fiddler – 2 Time Olympian, Multiple US National Champion and now Mammoth Team Coach, Dan Simoneau – 2 Time Olympian, Multiple US National Champion and Nordic Director of MBSEF. This staff is supplemented with 5 collegiate coaching interns from across the U.S.

NCCSEF will invest $3,000 in funding this year to help offset the camp costs, while USSA is donating coaching staff time, all of which help to ensure some of the top coaches in the country will be guiding these young athletes. The NCCSEF exists to raise money to support key Pillar Projects in the Nordic skiing disciplines of Cross-Country and Nordic Combined. These Pillar Projects, such as the National J2 Talent ID camp, are specifically chosen to facilitate consistent long term athlete progression up the USSA Development Pipeline from local to international stardom.

The biggest developmental hurdle facing young American Nordic racers is gaining consistent access to quality coaching, training, and racing experiences. Unlike their European counterparts, America’s top athletes are spread throughout our vast country and live an ocean away from the center of Nordic racing in Europe. Providing the next generations of U.S. Nordic athletes affordable and straightforward access to a progression of international quality experiences, such as this National J2 Talent ID camp, represents our nation’s greatest development opportunity and funding need.

Follow all the National J2 Talent ID Camp action at www.NCCSEF.org or at NCCSEF on Facebook

Starting August 1^st join the National J2 Camp Facebook contest by liking your local J2 Camp participants to help them podium and win USSA/USST Swag.

For more information on NCCSEF, and to make your charitable contribution to the Pillar Projects visit NCCSEF.org

July 29, 2011
USSA Coaches Certification L100 Technique Clinic
Thursday, August 4^th 1:00 to 3:00 PM White Clouds Golf Course. Sun Valley, ID

White Clouds is just off Sun Valley (Trail Creek) Road across the street from Sun Valley Golf Clubhouse/Nordic Center, Sun Valley, ID

The L100 Coaches Certification clinic is free to all USSA licensed coach. The clinics include dryland technique drills as well as drill progressions on classic and skate rollerskis. All ages and levels of coaches are welcome. The clinic is outdoors and active participation is encouraged, but coaches are welcome to observe if not comfortable on rollerskis.

The L100 Coaches Certification technique clinic is one part of a four-part comprehensive Coaches Certification.

Participants should bring the follow to the clinic:
- Active apparel
- Running shoes
- Water Bottle
- Bike Helmet
- Bright shirt for rollerskiing
- Classic Rollerski equipment
- Skate Rollerski equipment
Further questions on the clinic contact Bryan Fish – bfish@ussa.org

L100 Certification Checklist:
- Participate in a US Ski Team- approved technique clinic.
- Purchase the USSA Cross Country Level 100 ski-specific course manual ($110) and take the free on-line test (http//:educationshop.ussa.org then click on “Online Exams”).
- Complete Basic Coaching Principles certification from American Sport Education Program (www.ASEP.com).
- Furnish current proof of first aid/ CPR certification to USSA Sport Education (www.redcross.org)
Further questions on the USSA Coaches Certification process contact:

Chelsea Steinbach – USSA Sport Education Coordinator – csteinbach@ussa.org

Bryan Fish – US Ski Team Cross Country Development Coach – bfish@ussa.org
July 29, 2011
U.S. Ski Team Ups the Intensity in Sun Valley

U.S. Ski Team member Andy Newell leads Ida Sargent (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in a skate speed. Photo, National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation, NCCSEF.org

Evidence of autumn abounds at the U.S. Ski Team’s camp in Sun Valley. Temperatures on Thursday struggled to break 50 degrees, there’s snow in the mountains outside town, and with three time trials over the next week and a half, the team’s training focus has shifted from volume to intensity.

But despite the signs of the inexorable creep towards winter, nobody’s getting ahead of themselves.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, still,” said coach Matt Whitcomb. “[The] coaches are patient, and athletes are patient.”

The Sun Valley camp kicked off Wednesday, with members of the U.S. Ski Team (USST) joining athletes from the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) for freestyle rollerski speeds. Five of the USST’s seven members are in attendance, with Kris Freeman and Kikkan Randall opting out.

Right to left: Sargent, Morgan Arritola (USST), Jessie Diggins (CXC), and Liz Stephen (USST) in a training session. Photo, National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation, NCCSEF.org

After a distance workout on Thursday, the camp really heats up on Friday with a sprint race simulation—with a twist. Instead of a running a qualification round followed by six-man heats, each athlete will race four times individually.

USST member Simi Hamilton said that starting athletes one-by-one would allow the teams to access more challenging terrain. But Whitcomb added that the unique format would also keep the strongest sprinters from coasting through the heats to the finals.

“The individual start is going to drive very high effort level all day,” he said. “It’s going to be really interesting [to see] who’s skiing fast at what point in the race—who can endure, essentially, a qualifying round effort every heat.”

In addition to butting heads with the SVSEF athletes, Hamilton and his teammates will also be tested by three promising young skiers—Tad Elliott, Jessie Diggins, and Ida Sargent—who are also attending the camp at the invitation of the USST. Torin Koos and Sam Naney of the Methow Olympic Development team arrived in Idaho on Thursday as well, and Swedish U-23 skier Lisa Larsen—29^th at last year’s Tour de Ski—is in town, too, staying with her aunt.

The crowd of visitors is much appreciated by Hamilton, who trains with the SVSEF Olympic Development Team and lives in nearby Ketchum. Hamilton said that the intensity of his workouts had leapt up a notch with the start of September, and any time that happens, “it’s super-nice to have other people there, to be able to get through the suffer together.”

Over the next ten days, two more time trials—a 3.75 k/2.5 k prologue and a 10 k classic—will follow the sprint race.

The scenery in Sun Valley. Photo, National Cross-Country Ski Education Foundation, NCCSEF.org

While there have been few prologue-length races held in the U.S. and Canada, the event is being raced more and more on the other side of the Atlantic—especially with the increasing popularity of tour-style racing. According to Whitcomb, the USST is making an effort to adapt to the format, first with the time trial in Sun Valley, then with another scheduled for the team’s next camp in October in Lake Placid.

“I think we’ve got to nail this prologue distance,” Whitcomb said. “We just feel like this event is showing up on more and more calendars.”

There aren’t quite as many opportunities for sightseeing and adventuring in Sun Valley as there were during the USST’s last camp in New Zealand. But according to Whitcomb, there’s still plenty of time for bonding over team dinners. And the team’s sports psychologist, Jon Hammermeister, arrived Thursday night—he’ll hold sessions with team members both individually, and as a group.

The camp wraps up Sunday, at which point the athletes go their separate ways until the USST’s fourth and final dryland camp of the year, in Lake Placid in October. From there, it’s just three weeks until the team takes off for Europe in early November, for the start of the race season.

September 10, 2010
T-SHIRTS & 5Ks!

Hailey, ID – Girls on the run had their final 5k race today. They endured the wind and the cold with sporadic precipitation that ranged from sleet and snow to rain, interspersed with blasts of sun! Great job to all who participated – way to complete a great goal!

In other news, I continue to work with the 5th graders in Brad Stansberry’s class at Hemingway Elementary. Last week brought ITA shirts to the entire gang. Always taking the opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera, proceed below for images from the past week.

A bit of logo posing

Pretty girls…

…and tough boys.

Hands in the air for “happy hair”

There always has to be a silly picture!

Adorned with “happy hair” from Goodie

Girls get beads for every kilometer they complete!

Although it is actually snowing outside, they say that spring is here (or was). Regardless, I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this year so stay tuned. A potential weekly 5k, adventure races and training groups. Stay tuned and stay warm, burrrrr!

May 22, 2010
T-SHIRTS & 5Ks!

Hailey, ID – Girls on the run had their final 5k race today. They endured the wind and the cold with sporadic precipitation that ranged from sleet and snow to rain, interspersed with blasts of sun! Great job to all who participated – way to complete a great goal!

In other news, I continue to work with the 5th graders in Brad Stansberry’s class at Hemingway Elementary. Last week brought ITA shirts to the entire gang. Always taking the opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera, proceed below for images from the past week.

A bit of logo posing

Pretty girls…

…and tough boys.

Hands in the air for “happy hair”

There always has to be a silly picture!

Adorned with “happy hair” from Goodie

Girls get beads for every kilometer they complete!

Although it is actually snowing outside, they say that spring is here (or was). Regardless, I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this year so stay tuned. A potential weekly 5k, adventure races and training groups. Stay tuned and stay warm, burrrrr!

May 22, 2010
T-SHIRTS & 5Ks!

Hailey, ID – Girls on the run had their final 5k race today. They endured the wind and the cold with sporadic precipitation that ranged from sleet and snow to rain, interspersed with blasts of sun! Great job to all who participated – way to complete a great goal!

In other news, I continue to work with the 5th graders in Brad Stansberry’s class at Hemingway Elementary. Last week brought ITA shirts to the entire gang. Always taking the opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera, proceed below for images from the past week.

A bit of logo posing

Pretty girls…

…and tough boys.

Hands in the air for “happy hair”

There always has to be a silly picture!

Adorned with “happy hair” from Goodie

Girls get beads for every kilometer they complete!

Although it is actually snowing outside, they say that spring is here (or was). Regardless, I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this year so stay tuned. A potential weekly 5k, adventure races and training groups. Stay tuned and stay warm, burrrrr!

May 22, 2010
T-SHIRTS & 5Ks!

Hailey, ID – Girls on the run had their final 5k race today. They endured the wind and the cold with sporadic precipitation that ranged from sleet and snow to rain, interspersed with blasts of sun! Great job to all who participated – way to complete a great goal!

In other news, I continue to work with the 5th graders in Brad Stansberry’s class at Hemingway Elementary. Last week brought ITA shirts to the entire gang. Always taking the opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera, proceed below for images from the past week.

A bit of logo posing

Pretty girls…

…and tough boys.

Hands in the air for “happy hair”

There always has to be a silly picture!

Adorned with “happy hair” from Goodie

Girls get beads for every kilometer they complete!

Although it is actually snowing outside, they say that spring is here (or was). Regardless, I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this year so stay tuned. A potential weekly 5k, adventure races and training groups. Stay tuned and stay warm, burrrrr!

May 22, 2010
T-SHIRTS & 5Ks!

Hailey, ID – Girls on the run had their final 5k race today. They endured the wind and the cold with sporadic precipitation that ranged from sleet and snow to rain, interspersed with blasts of sun! Great job to all who participated – way to complete a great goal!

In other news, I continue to work with the 5th graders in Brad Stansberry’s class at Hemingway Elementary. Last week brought ITA shirts to the entire gang. Always taking the opportunity to ham it up in front of the camera, proceed below for images from the past week.

A bit of logo posing

Pretty girls…

…and tough boys.

Hands in the air for “happy hair”

There always has to be a silly picture!

Adorned with “happy hair” from Goodie

Girls get beads for every kilometer they complete!

Although it is actually snowing outside, they say that spring is here (or was). Regardless, I have a bunch of fun stuff planned for this year so stay tuned. A potential weekly 5k, adventure races and training groups. Stay tuned and stay warm, burrrrr!

May 22, 2010
OPENING DAY

Brie & me with Galena at our back

Spring has always been a time for change and a time for play. My flowers (now 4 inches tall) are somehow weathering the frost and snow each night and my legs (miraculously) are still supporting me after 6 days of skiing powder. I love life and I am living it up, happily!

Kate U’s birthday cruise, Alturas Lake, ID

I still have the residue of sickness in my chest but my heart is happy and healthy! My car is still having trouble and I am flirting with sending Justy to car heaven (appropriate on this Easter Sunday). I am studying for my personal trainers certificate and look forward to regular scheduled training again soon. People in the Wood River Valley are already on their road bikes but I am sticking to the snow for now. That time will come and I can wait for it (translation: fair-weather biker).

This is Idaho. Yes please.

More regular updates to come. Happy Birthday little brother (yesterday), mom (Tuesday) and of course Go Sox!

April 4, 2010
OPENING DAY

Brie & me with Galena at our back

Spring has always been a time for change and a time for play. My flowers (now 4 inches tall) are somehow weathering the frost and snow each night and my legs (miraculously) are still supporting me after 6 days of skiing powder. I love life and I am living it up, happily!

Kate U’s birthday cruise, Alturas Lake, ID

I still have the residue of sickness in my chest but my heart is happy and healthy! My car is still having trouble and I am flirting with sending Justy to car heaven (appropriate on this Easter Sunday). I am studying for my personal trainers certificate and look forward to regular scheduled training again soon. People in the Wood River Valley are already on their road bikes but I am sticking to the snow for now. That time will come and I can wait for it (translation: fair-weather biker).

This is Idaho. Yes please.

More regular updates to come. Happy Birthday little brother (yesterday), mom (Tuesday) and of course Go Sox!

April 4, 2010
OPENING DAY

Brie & me with Galena at our back

Spring has always been a time for change and a time for play. My flowers (now 4 inches tall) are somehow weathering the frost and snow each night and my legs (miraculously) are still supporting me after 6 days of skiing powder. I love life and I am living it up, happily!

Kate U’s birthday cruise, Alturas Lake, ID

I still have the residue of sickness in my chest but my heart is happy and healthy! My car is still having trouble and I am flirting with sending Justy to car heaven (appropriate on this Easter Sunday). I am studying for my personal trainers certificate and look forward to regular scheduled training again soon. People in the Wood River Valley are already on their road bikes but I am sticking to the snow for now. That time will come and I can wait for it (translation: fair-weather biker).

This is Idaho. Yes please.

More regular updates to come. Happy Birthday little brother (yesterday), mom (Tuesday) and of course Go Sox!

April 4, 2010