2008 TD Banknorth Craftsbury 27th Annual Race and Tour

February 2, 2008

I remember five years back I signed my husband up for the 25k cross-country Nordic Ski Marathon at The Craftsbury Nordic Center. I was helping him make good on a New Years resolution to start racing again after a twenty-five year hiatus. A 25k marathon was not exactly what he had in mind at the time of verbalizing his New Year's resolution several weeks earlier, but I had complete faith that he could handle it!!!

That is how it began. Not only did Dan handle the 25k marathon but placed a respectable ninth in his age group. He has been participating every year since. And this year, yours truly is entering the tour portion of the race!!! The date for this years event is February 2, 2008

The Banknorth Craftsbury Annual Race and Tour is
"a point to point cross-country ski adventure traversing Vermont's Northeast kingdom presented by the Craftsbury Outdoor Center."

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Although the race is in its 27th year, It has just been in the last seven years that the tour segment of the race has been added to combine skiing with gourmet food. And for the first time, this year the food stations will be competing with one another to be the most creative.

"Seven years ago John Brodhead, the Craftsbury Outdoor Center's Director of Skiing, proposed a partnership among several Craftsbury and Greensboro inns to produce a marathon with special food stations along a linear course stretching 25 kilometers from Greensboro to Craftsbury, Vermont. To his surprise they eagerly agreed and participation has since increased almost 700% to 1000 participants including racers and tourers."
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If you are interested in joining me or participating in this event, please go to The Craftsbury Nordic Center site and register. Below is a list of the food station participants and a map of the course and food stations.

Note, You can see the location of the stations on a course map and a course profile at http://www.craftsbury.com/skiing/marathon/course_map.htm

Food Stations:

Highland Lodge Willie Smith, highlandlodge@verizon.net, 802-533-2647 (1^st station before start).
Craftsbury Inn, Bill Maire, cburyinn@together.net 802-586-2848 (5^th station in Craftsbury Village).
Craftsbury General Store, Dave Stember, dstember@aol.com, 802-596-2893 (2^nd-4^th stations, Skunk Hollow, Rocking Rock, and Craftsbury Road Stations between
Highland Lodge and Craftsbury Village).
Craftsbury Outdoor Center, John Brodhead, johnbrod@craftsbury.com 802-586-7767x26, (6^th-8^th stations for the last 25 kilometers).

Look for complete coverage of this event in February. Let's pray for nice weather! I hope to see you on February 2nd!!!

Air Travel in 2008

Just read this interesting post on air Travel in 2008 on the blog site Gadling...go there.

The news is not rosy for air travel in the U.S. for 2008. An article by Jeff Bailey in today's New York Times covers the predictions that make air travel sound like something people are REALLY going to be miffed about. If we thought there were hassles in 2007, watch out. We haven't seen anything yet.

The changes make me think we ought to rethink how we see air travel woes in order to trick ourselves into feeling better about them. Here are some psychological strategies I've thought of that work in other areas of life. Let's see if the same strategies can work in this air travel situation.

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We all may need a bit of this twisted thought process to acclimate too the unsavory air travel environment

Medelise

Howard Frank Mosher

Years ago, long before I even knew of the existence of a place called the Northeast Kingdom, my book group introduced a short novel called Northern Borders by Howard Frank Mosher. I fell in love with it. Little did I know that Mosher's piece of heaven would become mine. I have recommended this book to many friends over the years, but it was just recently that my brother Geoff reminded me of the book again. He found it on our shelf in Vermont on a recent visit and I told him, "take it... you'll love it". We talked the other day and he said "by the way that book was great", so great in fact, his daughter is now reading it and he has moved onto another one of Mosher's books....and there are plenty to choose from. Last count, I believe he was up to ten books written. Many of his books are set in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with the most strikingly unique set of characters you could possible image. In Northern Borders, Mosher's storytelling about the life of a small boy sent to live with his grandparents in the wilds of Northern Vermont are so incredibly fascinating and twisted you can't help but to hope that they are actually based in some truth from Mosher's own experience. Each chapter reads like a short story as a collaboration to recount one grand tale.

You will not be disappointed by Northern Borders or any of Mosher's books for that matter.