Birkie Fever
We had a great weekend at the cabin this weekend. Birkie weekend is always so much fun, between the anticipation of the race, the MOUNTAINS of food we always eat, and the friends and family that crowd the cabin.
This year was Greta’s first year cheering which also made the weekend special. Plus, she got a lot of grandma, grandpa, and auntie time!
We woke up early Saturday morning to get ready. I was proud of myself. We were supposed to leave at 8:15. I pumped, fed Greta, fed myself, bundled ourselves up, put my cow costume on, fed myself, put the dog away and put Greta in her car seat. Next was hauling everything we’d need for the race to the car.
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| The night before. Making sure the cow suit fit over monkey suit. It did, but it was comical to see a “stuffed animal” on the table then! |
Did all of that and was in the car waiting for everyone else at exactly 8:15. BAM. 🙂
We headed to “OO” (Pronounced Double O – it’s a highway). It’s about 1/2 way into the race and it’s where we always cheer.
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| The ‘OO’ cow cheer crew |
We then hustled Greta out of her car seat, put on her gigantic monkey suit, cow suit over it, and quilt to keep her even warmer. A production!
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| Me and Grandma Karen working to get Greta to cheer! |
I’m Nate’s designated gel-giver (thanks, Boom! nutrition!) at this point in the race. I always get so nervous handing feeds for a ski race. There are flying poles, skis that I could trip up, other skiers to not interfere with. Plus you don’t want your skier to have to slow down to get it (also think grabbing a gel with two ski poles in your palms). Plus Nate is moving at – oh – 15 miles an hour? Yikes.
But I did it!
[Later I asked how I did. His exact response: “You did okay”. Guess I need to work on my skills.]
Then we saw Nate at Mosquito Brook, about 3/4 of the way into the race.
He looked in better spirits at this point and even gave me a high five!
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| High Five! |
Greta was a little fussy at this point – turns out yanking your kid in and out of a car seat, pushing them into a stuffed animal looking outfit and running to the trail FAST – because you don’t want to miss the skiers! – isn’t super fun for an infant.
Once she could see the skiers, though, she perked up. Ohh, mom! Movement! Colors! That looks fun! I’m sure that’s what she was thinking.
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| Mosquito Brook aid station – Greta loved staring at the fast skiers passing |
We then moved to the finish line. Nate was in 48th place! His goal was top 50, which is so impressive since this is basically the NYC Marathon of cross country skiing.
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| 500 meters to go! |
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| Last turn! |
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| Birkie bridge – new this year |
Plus, training has been a little more difficult now that Greta is here and we haven’t had much snow!
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| Ski training this year |
So, to say I was proud was an understatement :).
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| Congrats, Nate! |
Craig cracked the top 50 for the first time, placing 33rd. WOW! All of his training this year really paid off!
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| This is the coolest picture. These are the bags waiting for their finishers. It sort of inspires me to do it next year… I would just need to learn how to ski… |
The rest of the weekend was spent telling fun race day experiences, eating, and hanging out with family. It was so much fun. I can’t wait for it again next year!
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| Hanging out with Tia Jessica! |
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| I distracted Greta with my picture taking, but she LOVES to read now! She found the “buzzzz” sound in this book particularly amusing. |
In the meantime, I’m excited for the days to continue to get longer and warmer and for the upcoming running race season! Yikes!
In terms of that racing season, I am calling to get into see a chiropractor tomorrow. I’m hoping he will allow me to bring Greta with me (since I don’t have a baby sitter network yet and he is only open when Nate is working). My knee hasn’t improved despite two weeks of cutting things back and ellipticalling instead. I think it’s because I’m running every other/every three days, which may have been too often for it to heal.
I think it’s classic runner’s knee now, but I’m not sure.
I also connected with a PT student at the Birkie who had emailed me with a suggestion and a test based on my previous blog. SO NICE! I’m going to email her back with pictures and more info after the chiropractor visit and hopefully she can help more! I need to get over this asap. I can tell I’m losing running fitness by the day.
Anyone else had Runner’s Knee and beaten it? What worked? Didn’t?
Because I couldn’t run, I took this entire weekend off. It was actually kind of nice, but I ate WAAYY to much for not exercising at all 🙂 Oops!
I also have a little nerve pain around my lower tailbone. I am guessing this is just due to hip placement (since post-partum I can tell I move around a whole lot more – yay loose ligaments and lack of strength the last 9 months). *sigh*
Let’s hope tomorrow or Tuesday I’ll have a little more information!
I’ll leave you with two more Greta pictures. Because I can. 🙂
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| So serious! Are her legs really this skinny? |
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| When I was trying to organize all of our tax information. She thought it was hilarious and wouldn’t stop smiling for an hour and a half. Needless to say, I didn’t get much done 🙂 |
