Home is a place I don’t go to very often.  I was joking this spring as I sat in the Minneapolis airport during one of my many layovers as I tried to fly from the west to the east… it was the closest I had been to home in 5  months.  That was…. until I decided to get my wisdom teeth out.

It was getting to the point that shooting was painful.  Smashing my face into the cheek piece of my rifle was uncomfortable.  Added challenge: take shots in-between blinks as your eyes water up and over.  Super fun!

So it was decided.  Those suckers were coming out. One way or another.  Horror story to horror story I was a little nervous to get them pulled.  So as not to offend any dentist out there I’ll keep this short… I don’t like you.  I don’t like your hands in my mouth. I don’t like it not one little bit.  That being said. They knocked me out for the surgery and I woke up hours later curled up in a ball in my bed at home.  Great Success!

Who doesn’t like a diet that consists almost entirely of anti-inflamatoires and gauze???  Who am I kidding, hand me some icecream!

I actually lucked out big time.  Went for a run two days later.  No zombie-esque bleeding from the mouth or anything!  Wisdom teeth. Done. check.

Corrine Works Out With The Ladies.

My mom and her friends have always been pretty active.   They’ve skied the Birkie, they trail run, they love  Ski & Tea.  Most recently they’ve started to go to this kettle bell gym.  I get to hear all about it… mostly how sore it makes them.  And so of course I tease them!  “Oh what’s that?  You can’t get the phone to your ear? awwwwwwww”

That was…. until they brought me to class on Wednesday morning.

Game over.  These ladies are tough….  and I well… don’t want to do box jumps for a while.

It’s been super nice to be back in Hayward.  To see the familiar faces, to run the trails that made me fall in love with running and skiing.  It’s been the break I needed.  It finally feels like I have a fresh start as we head into the next season.  Oh right… I got renominated to the national team…. barely!   Looks like I live to ski another year!   As nice as it has been to be home I’m excited to head back out east for the first national team camp of the year.  I’ve spent alot of time training by myself this past season… Now don’t get me wrong I love a good run in the woods as much as the next person (lie: I love it more!) but I’m looking forward to having someone to train with… besides my over active imagination…

 

One last day home in the Northwoods then it’s the long trek to Lake Placid!  Here’s to mind-willing the weather to be nice by the time I get there!

A Compilation of My Observations: Some More Factual Than Others

• Public transportation; what?!  Seriously though how cool are trains?  Hello country mouse this is awesome!
• Looking lost and ambivalent, totally in!  Finally a place where my face (which is stuck in a constant state of awe and confusion) does not make me stick out.
• People will walk through, on, and NEVER around you.   Hold your ground and smile.
• Super sparkly, glittery eye makeup is not just for women’s relay teams and cross dressers.
•  A lot of people do not know how to run.  Seriously T-rex, what are your arms doing???
• The more sheer your clothing, the trendier you are.
• Food should be organic, BPA-free, kosher, zero-cal, and preferably  french sounding.
• Have no fear a Starbucks is near!  I mean it. You are ALWAYS within a city block of one… and not because NewYorkers need coffee in order to survive (which they do)…. no, Starbucks are actually the only public bathrooms (fun fact!).
• In one day (without trying) you can accidentally  crash a Scottish parade, a photo shoot in Union Square, a 5km charity run, a wedding, and an Asian press  conference.
• I can run in heels.  Who knew!
• You can talk to yourself and it doesn’t matter… everyone just assumes you are on a bluetooth.
• Hunter orange is big this season. Never thought Wisconsin could be so far ahead of a trend!
• You can wear whatever blows your skirt up (figuratively of course) as shock value is nonexistent. Someone will be looking crazier than you, no matter what. Unless that was you in the pink boa feathered hat.
• I have been a hermit for much too long… and should not be allowed around THAT much of the general public.

To catch my breath.  To finally move out of this past season and into the next we need to reset.  The best way I can do that is to gallivant around.  (Oh boy I do love to gallivant)  To go “home-home” back to Wisconsin.  To see my family.  Clear my mind.  This way when we start the first national team camp of the year in May, I’ll be ready… mentally, and physically.

And so Country Mouse went to the big city.  To see the people… I mean sights. To see the sights.  I’ve always  always always lived in pretty small places.  I’ve never lived on the 38th floor “for the view”.  I climb mountains for that.

And so I walk around with big wide eyes and big huge grin.  Hello happily lost and perpetually mesmerized!

The end of the season had rolled its way in  …But I was still stuck waiting for that sigh of relief to really settle itself.  That feeling of absolute done-ness.  What better way to really ring in the  end of the season than Spring Series?  So that was it!  I proclaimed to the sliders… I was going to Vermont.  Going to celebrate with “my own kind”.

Thanks to Elizabeth Simak of F.A.S.T Performance Racing for these awesome pictures!

I was going to cheer, and dance, and dance and cheer… and then when everyone was tired of dancing and cheering we would dance and cheer a little more.  We would light things on fire (oh yes!!! … figuratively and literally)   …and the season would be truely, utterly, and soulfully done.

I made it in time to watch the men race a 50k… on a 1.5km loop.  Yes…. 33 loops!  I struggled to keep track of which lap they were on… how were these boys not getting dizzy?  Or bored?!  (this coming from a biathlete, the kings and queens of skiing in circles) The men put on an incredibly good show.  There was a pretty solid pack for the first half of the race before they started to get dropped off the back.  Cramps, fatigue, crashes… I did my best to cheer and not totally mess up anyone’s feeds. Check!  The best part?  Getting to watch my team mate Russell ski right up there with the “big scary cross country ski dogs”.  He finished 7th, but man was it fun to watch him take pulls at the front and chase down a few early breaks!

The men starting!

Yum?  Coke Feeds!

Packing it up! (That’s Russell rocking the MWSC suit on the left! BAM!)

After the race the Craftsbury Ski Center transformed into a “thee” cross country skiing hangout.  People sipped beverages, pizzas went into the big outdoor pizza oven, barbecue was there for the taking.  A little wiffleball, a little bluegrass, a little dancing… and then an impressively large bonfire!

It was fun.  Fun to see people I haven’t seen in well… two years!  I didn’t realize switching to biathlon has made me something of a recluse…  Getting to see all these athletes I had gotten to know over the years on the cross country circuit was awesome.  Getting to see them all in one place (albeit slightly disorienting) was even better!

Oh what’s that?  The weekend isn’t over?  Nope… the next morning after emerging from my cot in the corner we all donned our outfits of choice (WonderGirl all the way) we headed back over to the Nordic Center to set up for Fast and Female!

This was my second Fast and Female event of the year, and I’m incredibly grateful to get to be an ambassador for such an amazing organization.  We had all the big hitters there including Chandra Crawford and Kikkan Randall.  Watching 120 girls in total awe is pretty incredible.  Heck I was so into the little Q&A sesh that when one of the organizers was handing out posters to all the girls she handed me one before realizing I was in fact not 12… oops!

We were there to celebrate girls in sports, and inspire these young athletes to keep going… because well… skiing is fun!

 

One of my favorite quotes was one of the ambassadors explaining to the girls why they were so lucky… she said, “We didn’t have Fast and Female when I was your age.  You guys get to celebrate my three favorite things… Pink, Skiing, and Dancing!!!! How cool is that!?” I couldn’t agree more!

We shared our own stories about how skiing came into our lives, we got in (effectively) our last ski of the year, and danced and danced some more!  And then… we finally called it a day.  Naps were in our futures, that and journeys to our separate parts of the country.

It was an incredible weekend, and an incredible way to end the season… Thanks to everyone in Vermont for letting me come and close the season off right!   It was an absolute blast!