December 10th, 2007
I begin to wonder, as I sit down to write this post, just exactly how I got into this situation. You see perched atop my head is none other than an iridescent pink Boston Red Sox baseball cap, shimmering with sparkles (jealous eh?). The very hat many of you may have seen fellow teammate Noah Hoffman wearing in West Yellowstone due to betting against the Red Sox in the World Series. So why exactly am I now wearing it? And how can you get the chance to don this illustrious cap? Well, to answer these questions one must first dive into the reason for my being in Sun Valley in the first place.
The beginning of last school year did not start well for me. Part way through the summer training I developed a sore right shin. A MRI later, I learned that I suffered from a stress reaction which was dangerously close to a fracture. Hanging up the running shoes was extremely difficult and it forced me to reevaluate my upcoming collegiate season. I knew that my goals for a strong junior running season had flown out the window, but I refused to give up. After the disappointing cross season, the rest of the year went surprisingly well. Nothing beats winning a NCAA championship, or breaking the 4-minute mile barrier, but I still could not label the year as a success. I felt I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted and I knew I had so much more to offer.
So, I decided to take the following fall and winter off from Dartmouth and to focus on my athletics and bring about the results I was looking for. The big question was what sport to focus on? And which races? Thinking it over, I decided to split the year in half. The first half would be devoted to skiing, the most amount of time I have ever devoted to skiing before, with the focus on U23 World Championships and U.S. Nationals. The second half of the year I would run with sights set on the Olympic trials and Beijing. Seemed simple enough. I talked to some folks and found myself linked up with Rick Kapala and the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation where I would have former Dartmouth teammate Mikey Sinnott as a training partner. Seemed like a good match. Now I just had to get across the country.
Mikey and I decided the best way to get to Sun Valley would be to drive west after his graduation from college. We loaded up a friend’s car, and took off. Mikey drove the first part solo, picking me up from Indianapolis where I was competing at the U.S. Nationals in track (finishing a disappointing 15th). Two days after my last track race, I was ready to go, and ski training began.
The drive cross-country went extremely well and we hit up all the major hotspots. Roller skiing past miles of cornfields, camping in Daniel Boones Memorial Forest, seeing the worlds largest ball of twine (and adding to it of course), visiting the geographical center of the United States, and driving past Kansas Motor Speedway (where the amazing Kasey Kahne won his third ever Busch series race in 2005 –yeah I took some photos) were just a few of the highlights.
Once out west, I jumped right in. Being new to the whole concept of dry land training, I saw many new firsts. First time moosehoofing, first time really using roller skis, climbed first 14er –and later had first bout of altitude sickness, first time getting lactate tested, first massive forest fire and first time being evacuated from the place I was staying, the list goes on. My eyes were opened up to a new level of training and I was as ready as ever to get after it.
The rest of the summer went well. Great time in Lake Placid with the entire Nordic community, and then on came the racing season with West Yellowstone. Yellowstone proved to be a decent opener. Not having raced in over five months, I was hesitant at the start but was able to redeem myself by the end and there were no grips as first races go. Then it was on to Silver Star.
Now this is where the plot thickens and the true meaning for the cursed pink hat comes into play. Since the entire team got a great chuckle out of watching Noah sport the hat in Yellowstone –mainly because a) Noah hates the Red Sox and b) because Noah hates anything that compromises his masculinity –the team decided to keep the hat alive as a punishment for whomever they saw fit.
Well, Mikey and I, better known as the Bickersons, were minding our own business one night and entertaining ourselves when we happened to invented a new game (henceforth known simply as “The Game”). The rules are basic and the strategy plain. The goal is merely not to lose. How The Game works is everyone playing gets two dice. They roll and cover up the dice without looking at what they rolled. Low score loses, but before you reveal your hand –now here comes the ingenious part –you bet. Betting can be anything and everything and the rule is simple: you can’t fold –only barter the bet up or down. Stakes started small; Mikey quickly won all the trees in Indonesia, followed by all the snow in Mexico, but I made a strong comeback winning a trillion dollars.
Onlookers were amazed and slowly The Game evolved (or one could say devolved) into acts of humiliation. After a few more rolls of the dice, a few shaved eyebrows, dyed hair, and constrains on how one could urinate, I lost my first hand. My punishment? To don the cap of shame for one week, no exceptions, no excuses. Tuesday will mark the end of my tenure, after which I have the privilege to pass the hat along to the next lucky soul and the cycle of the cursed hat will continue.
Man, I can’t wait until Tuesday.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Sounds like I’m going to have to try that game out sometime!