Afton Photos

Starting out... wondering which parts of the riddle would hold true...

OJ, fruit and bagels in the woods... can you believe John & Pierre hauled this food out along the deer trails for us?! Thank you!

Girls... joined by some boys

And then some more girls and boys...

Yes, those are bottles of bubbly... we were truly spoiled!

Watching Maynard cross with caution. In case he got wet. Time enough for that later.

Ha ha. Seriously? No. Surely he doesn't mean we have to get in the water?

Oh yes. He did. And a few of us idiots actually thought it was worth a few race entries... resulting in frozen fingers. So, no more photos...

BUT, there are lots more from along the trail at this link. Enjoy!

More photos on Julie's blog!

Thanksgiving at Afton

I'll post photos from today a little later.

As I sat in the Central Lutheran Church Thursday morning at the annual downtown inter-faith Thanksgiving service I naturally thought about what I was thankful for. The words came easy: family, friends, good health (despite a few post-IM aches and pains!), a job I love, and one that affords me the opportunity to travel, and above all, a sense of place. I don't think I'll ever be content just being content. I'll always want something more. That's just who I am. But, sitting beside my Mum, a few hours before sharing dinner with a good friend and her welcoming and generous family, and looking forward to Saturday morning at Afton, I felt content. Happy to just be.

And this morning, running the ridiculously gnarly deer trails at Afton with as good a group of people as you could ask to share a few hours with, I knew this Thanksgiving weekend was a holiday to remember. There's a lot of crap in this world and I won't pretend to understand the half of it. But I figure you do what you can each day to make your tiny space within it a better place. Maybe it's making one person smile, maybe it's letting someone know you're thinking of them, reminding someone they are needed. Or maybe it's something as simple as recycling your trash (imagine, you don't even have to be nice to someone but still be a good person). Whatever it is, it's time well spent. You might not get an appearance on CNN Heroes of the Year (tuned to channel 3 as I write), but you'll have made a difference in someone's life.

Trail running and more specifically the people I've met on the trails, have made a difference in my life. So having the chance to celebrate that today was pretty special. To remember a great year of training, racing and simply hanging out. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful community. And I was thrilled to have the chance to share it with my Mum.

I know I sound like I'm smoking something. Perhaps it's the Bangladesh stew (just finished it off with a nice cold beer - though not quite as tasty as Matt's homebrew), or the insane swim earlier... or just too much fresh air. No matter. Life continues to be good and I continue to appreciate it and the people who make it so.

Happy Thanksgiving.

p.s. anyone know how I can edit the HTML to replace the time on the link below with 'comment'?