Burlington Marathon

Yesterday was the 22nd Vermont City Marathon! It's a really big event and is so much fun! I always see so many people I know, especially from the nordic skiing community. It's become one of the biggest marathons in the country, which is really cool. Not to mention the food tent is AMAZING. Free Ben & Jerry's? Yes, please.

I've gone to the marathon every year for as long as I can remember. At first it was just with my dad when I was little to watch my mom run and then eventually I started running the 5-person relay with some of the other Martell family members. I've run the 5 mile beltline a couple of times and the 6 or so mile section that goes down Church Street, through the half-way mark for the marathon, and up Battery Hill. This year I decided to really go for it and run the half. My mom had gotten an injury earlier this year and decided not to run the whole thing like she usually does, so she and I decided to do the two-person half marathon relay. (SIDENOTE: Did I mention that my fam is crazy? I talked about my dad and my brother, but I may not have mentioned the madre. She gets up at like 4:30 every morning to run with her group of crazy runner friends. She's run too many marathons for me to count, including a streak of 4 or 5 Boston's.)

It went pretty well, though I ran the first 4/5 miles with one of our family friends that was doing the whole thing and we went WAY too fast. After I dropped off I felt better, but thought that the 8 mile mark at the top of the beltline was going to be the 9 mile mark. Realizing I had another 5 miles to go rather than 4 was a little depressing. About mile 10 was when my legs decided they were pretty done. I hadn't quite done enough long runs, which I knew going into the day. Needless to say, I made it through the next 3.1 miles, but was more than happy to hand off the relay bracelet to my mom and send her on her way. I definitely had fun and am glad I did it, though I'm a little beat up today. I'll survive. I'm taking today off and starting running again tomorrow.

I have some pictures from the day, though as I was lying on the ground watching runners on the bike path head for the finish I completely missed my mom running by. I did get a lovely pic of the sky instead...oops!

A view of the mountains in the morning

And we're off! (Auntie Becky is in the blue. She did the half too.)

Batwoman makes her way to the finish

So many people! It's fun to have such a big crowd.

Summer Summer Summer

As usual, it's been pretty busy. I've been getting a lot of 9/10 mile runs in lately. This coming Sunday is the Burlington Marathon and I'm doing the half relay with my mom. Wish me luck. I haven't been doing a very good job with the training thing, so it could be iffy. We'll see how it goes. I was smart and took the first leg. This way I can't stop because if I do my mom will never get to run. Smart, no? I'm forcing myself to finish the thing. Ha.

Last weekend I went down to southern VT to watch Evan run the GMR. The Green Mountain Run is a Burke Mountain Academy tradition. The entire school runs the length of Route 100 from bottom to top. Each student, whether alpine or nordic, gets a leg and runs individually for about 4 or 5 miles. Each little section has its own record, so a lot of the runs are not just leisurely strolls to the finish. They all paint the vans the day before (Evan's was painted Ben and Jerry's style). The vans arrive at the bottom of VT early in the morning and the run lasts until about 3 am the next day. No wonder it takes so long...100 miles is a long way to run! It makes my 13.1 look like nothing! It's cool to see the whole school so involved. All the kids cheer like crazy for each of their classmates and everyone runs along for little section of other runs just for support. Not to mention all of the parents that come from all over the U.S. just to watch the run! It would be awesome to get something like that going at SMC.

Nordic and alpine team up to run the length of Route 15? Hmmm...

Evan had promised that there would be pictures up on facebook to steal for this bloggy blog, but apparently the kids at Burke have better things to do than get on facebook. Like mountain bike and run and train and stuff, so obviously they're too lazy to get the pickies on fb. Ugh, those Burkies. I did take these two lovely pictures of southern VT on my dad's phone.

How could you possibly not love VT??

The past few days have been all about Tyler Place. Orientation was busy busy busy. Being a counselor has so much more involved than life guarding. There's the boat dock, the pool, the playhouse, the club house, the inn, the children's garden, mountain biking, countless games and songs to learn, and God knows what else. I'm glad to be done orientation and starting work. I'm with the Junior Midgets this week, which is the youngest group, around 2 1/2 to 4 years old. I've literally never changed a diaper. Potential problem? Ehhh. We shall see.

My camera is dead and I've lost the charger, so while I'd like to promise pics of TP soon, there might be a bit of a wait. For now, I've got the next few days off and some brownies in the oven. Nom nom nom.

Time to Get Moving

Since I've been home I've had to get my butt moving as far as training goes. While I was at school I always just went with the "when summer actually starts and I'm out of school I'll start training" line. Well, this is the line I wish SOMEONE had given me: "Sam, here's the thing you don't realize...when you get home you will not be training at your own discretion. Your dad lives with you, remember?" Simple meaning: I forgot that I could not just ease my way into this like I do at school. No, no.

I'm sure you're wondering...is my dad some crazy dictator-like training machine? Kind of. Minus "dictator-like" part. I'd hate to make him sound mean. My dad, Lary (I call him by his first name far too often) has pretty much been my coach since I started high school. This year at SMC he actually became my coach for real. He's now the assistant nordic ski coach at St. Mike's.

The reaction I get from a lot of people when they find out is "Oh my God. I'm sorry, that must be awful." People assume that he's worked his way into my school-life, making the leap from my separate home-life. False. When he was first asked to coach pretty much everyone involved in the decision-making process checked in with me. First my dad himself, later on, my coach, Joe, and then finally, the AD Zaf. (SIDENOTE: If you're at SMC and you ever wander into Ross you should do your very best to meet Zaf. I promise you, he'll have at least 3 jokes so awful that they're great ready and waiting for any topic you might talk about. You don't have a choice but to love it.) Anyway, everyone thought I'd be hesitant for my dad to coach me, but I was all for it. The man's crazy in shape at all times and I trust him more than anyone with my skis and training.

He's been a crazy athlete pretty much forever. Back in the day he raced XC and nordic at Johnson State as well as road biking on his own. He's got the most ridiculous will-power. I seriously don't think he feels pain. He's the only person I know that's so insanely competitive Other than my brother (seen in the pic), who quite obviously gets it from Lar-Bear.

So, since I've been home I've been training much more than I would have started out training at school. For the first few days I kind of ran on my own, went to a weight class at Duke's, my fave local gym, and ran with my aunt, Becky. All of a sudden it got kind of intense when dad started throwing out workout ideas.

Friday I went to get my brother from Burke to bring him home for prom at our old high school. While there I hiked the mountain, showing myself just how out of shape I am.

Sunday I ran the Run for Jim, a 5k for cancer patients in honor of Jim Bashaw, who passed away about a decade ago. As if throwing myself into a 5k wasn't hard enough, I ran 8 miles with Becky back to her house after awards.

Yesterday was a much needed day off.

Today I'm planning on doing intervals and core with my dad in a little bit. It will hurt. I promise.

It feels good to get back into shape. I'm pretty motivated at the moment, so I'm hoping I can keep things moving. We'll see how it goes when I start at TP. Hopefully, I can find a happy balance between my training and my TP social life. For now, it's back putting Ke$ha on repeat and cleaning this room of mine.

Meet the Tyler Place

I've made very little progress in the last few days...my room still looks like a bomb shelter. On the plus side I've kept occupied enough for it to be Wednesday already. I'm just counting down the days until I start working! Am I a crazy person to have said that? Most people absolutely love the time off. As it happens I actually have obtained THE best summer job on the face of this planet. I am SO excited to go back for my second summer! So not crazy. Not for that reason anyway.

I work at the Tyler Place (TP) in Highgate, Vermont. It's a family resort that families come to for a week (Saturday night - Saturday morning). Each family gets a small cabin for the week. Every morning the kids go to "group" where lovely counselors (myself included this year...last year I lifeguarded) lead them in swimming at the pool and in the lake, rock climbing, fishing, banana boating, making arts and crafts, hiking, and countless other activities. Parents have this time to relax and do just about whatever they'd like...or nothing at all. In the afternoon the parents get to spend time with their kids as a family and, again, do anything. In the evening the counselors take the kids to "group" for a second time where the kids have a pool party, movie night, carnival, etc. It's something different every night. After the second group sesh of the day parents have the option of hiring a babysitter and going to the event for parents, which is usually at the inn. These events include Karaoke Night, Game Night, and Dance Party with a DJ. As staff we are welcome at and encouraged to go to the events and socialize with the guests.

Basically I just play. ALL. DAY. LONG.

Almost all of the staff is college aged, sometimes a little older. One of the really cool parts of TP is that a good percentage of the staff is international. This means that there are kids from Canada, Australia, South Africa, the UK, Russia, Columbia, etc. that all work and live at the TP for the summer. I met so many great people and spent the summer hanging out in the woods of Northern Vermont getting to know them all.

I honestly can't explain TP well enough for anyone who hasn't been there to fully understand it. It's a whole other world. A lot of people relate it to Dirty Dancing (you know..."Nobody puts Baby in the corner."), which is funny because it's fairly accurate. And of course, one of the fave songs at Dance Party (DP) is "Time of my Life", which is the big song from the movie. Figures.

In my excitement for the start of TP (MAY 26 AHHH!!) I looked through all of my pictures from last year. THEN, due to my new obsession with slide.com I made a slide show.

Welcome to the extremely short version of TP '09! Check in soon...I'll be writing all about TP '10! (And my adventures with training for skiing!)

How is it Summer Already?!

Well obviously I have been MIA for the last week-ish. I've been busier than I really would have liked to be. The lib and I have recently developed a very strong love/hate relationship. I wish I could count the hours that I've been there lately. Such things come with the end of a semester.

Finals week is really hit or miss. Last semester I had one final and just kind of chilled all week watching movies and loving life while everyone studied. I had a great time. This week not so much. If you've got a lot going on it's oh so crazy. Three exams, two papers, one week, go.

I do have some good news. If you do it right finals week can still be fun. How does this work? How can this POSSIBLY happen?

Study Breaks.

- Trips to Cumberland Farms. Mmmm...Chill Zone...icy sugar filled drinks

- Playing Snood...and getting way too good at it

- Ordering Dom's pizza, pasta bowls, and Chinese food

- Free cookie and coffee breaks in the lib snack room

- The xc ski team pint off (how fast can you eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's? Colin Delaney can do it in 3 minutes, 55 seconds.)

I mean my favorite parts of the week may have been based on food, but that's the great thing about finals. You can have three Mountain Dews in one day, eat a creemee at dinner and then a pint of B&J at night, and order pizza and Chinese food for the same meal and (here's the great part) NOT FEEL BAD ABOUT IT.

As hard as they can be, finals do eventually come to an end, but at that point it's almost sad. Finishing your work at the end of spring semester means packing up, moving out, and leaving all of your friends. It's amazing how close you can come to so many people in the time you spend at school. After my exam this morning I made my rounds to all of the dorms looking into my friends empty rooms and saying goodbye. I know I'll be back in just a few months and I'm so so so excited to see my friends from home and start working at the best job anyone could possibly have, but I've got so many amazing friends that it's still hard to leave them. The whole time we were packing up we were talking about where we were living next year and making plans for the fall.

I've been home for 6 hours. I can't wait to go back.

As my dear friend Caroline might say, "Isn't it great to go somewhere you absolutely love?" I say yes.