Snow to Surf

This past weekend was the Snow to Surf relay - something I've been doing with a fabulous group of girls (women? - we were all pretty much girls when we started) for over a decade.  Every year when I get the email about registering, I think: should I do it this year? Am I too busy? Do I want to head up there again for a whole weekend, for a race leg that lasts less than an hour?  And I'm always glad I say yes in the end.

The team before the start.  With mascot Lucy.

It's a 9-person team, and we've had a core group with a few substitutions along the way.  The only one of us who hasn't missed a single year is Janet!  When we were talking late into the night Saturday (early Sunday, really), we realized we'd been here through master's degrees, marriages, divorces, children, new careers... I really don't have many things in my life that have been as consistent for so long.  It made me happy to think I have this wonderful group that has my back.

The order of the legs are:
- downhill ski (the catch is you have to run UP the mountain first - gawd): Erin
- xc ski: Malaika
- run 1: Kursti
- run 2: Jess
- mountain bike: Janet
- kayak: Catherine
- road bike: me
- canoe: Winnie & Sarah

We've switched around the legs a bit over the years.  This year we were missing Wendy (who was in AZ racing the Whiskey50), and Steph who was out with an injury (but came up for team support.)  This year was the first time we were all old enough to qualify for the master's category, which is what got us reflecting on how long we've been doing this and how we're all aging so gracefully.  We've placed as high as second and now figure we should crack the top spot of the podium now that we're in the masters category.  We have one rule: no training for Snow to Surf.  Of course, we're all always training for something; we're just not allowed to train for that.  We also stay up too late the night before every year, and drink too much wine.  But so far it's worked out and is probably the secret to our success.  We don't take ourselves too seriously until the start line of our legs, and then it's "puke out your nose" time.

The die-hards who lasted through the beer garden until the awards ceremony.

This year we placed 3rd... so we have some work to do (that doesn't involve training for S2S of course) to  win.  I'll let you know how next year goes!