Trip report from Houghton

I spent the past five days up in Houghton on a little family ski
vacation. Sadly, I had to leave to be back at work just as things
were getting lively.

The snow is fabulous in advance of the Nationals. When I left this
morning after one last ski, the sky was bright blue. The air was
crisp and cold. The base was firm and fast. And you could not wipe
the grin off of Luke Bodensteiner's face. I spoke to him briefly and
the final tally for this weeks events is 471 athletes. They are
really looking forward to a great event. As bad as it was with the
weather last year, this year its as good as it can possibly be.

Kikkan Randall was holding court for a good sized group of admirers
when I got there this morning. She was quite gracious with her time
and autographed a pair of skis for the son of a good friend of mine.

I spent quite a lot of time following around some really superb skiers
and one thing struck me that I suppose I've known for awhile but
becomes obvious when you're with someone who's really good. That is,
the really good skiers are very good at going easy. They go easy
uphill, they go easy on the flats. My normal workout is the middle
aged mans workout. That is, go pretty hard all the time. It's one of
those things you hear all the time but doesn't become obvious until
you see someone else do it really well. In any case, I need to work
harder at going easier.

The whole experience made me wish I'd have given my vacation plans
more thought. In retrospect, I should have gone up a few days later
and stayed for the first couple of events.

Andy

I saw some of the races last year Andy and wish i could be there this year
to enjoy real snow!!

wrote in message
...
I spent the past five days up in Houghton on a little family ski
vacation. Sadly, I had to leave to be back at work just as things
were getting lively.

The snow is fabulous in advance of the Nationals. When I left this
morning after one last ski, the sky was bright blue. The air was
crisp and cold. The base was firm and fast. And you could not wipe
the grin off of Luke Bodensteiner's face. I spoke to him briefly and
the final tally for this weeks events is 471 athletes. They are
really looking forward to a great event. As bad as it was with the
weather last year, this year its as good as it can possibly be.

Kikkan Randall was holding court for a good sized group of admirers
when I got there this morning. She was quite gracious with her time
and autographed a pair of skis for the son of a good friend of mine.

I spent quite a lot of time following around some really superb skiers
and one thing struck me that I suppose I've known for awhile but
becomes obvious when you're with someone who's really good. That is,
the really good skiers are very good at going easy. They go easy
uphill, they go easy on the flats. My normal workout is the middle
aged mans workout. That is, go pretty hard all the time. It's one of
those things you hear all the time but doesn't become obvious until
you see someone else do it really well. In any case, I need to work
harder at going easier.

The whole experience made me wish I'd have given my vacation plans
more thought. In retrospect, I should have gone up a few days later
and stayed for the first couple of events.

Andy