Hey All, here is the pic of the hole burned in my ski boot from my fall… not a problem… my boots now have more ventilation for rollerskiing during hot summer days!

This Saturday I have my first running race of the summer (besides 3000m time-trials).  I know, summer is almost over, but I have been spending a lot more time on the bike and rollerskis this summer than pounding the pavement.  The race is the Osseo High School Cross Country Alumni race… 4k I believe… all on the ski trails in Elm Creek park.  It should be a good time, seeing all my old running and skiing teammates and meeting the new high school runners.  It is usually a tall order trying to not get beat by any highschoolers.

Well, I came back a few days early from the CXC teams annual UP training camp at the Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Mi.  The reason was two-fold.  One… my teammate and roommate Andre Watt needed a root canal (I can’t believe he lasted as long as he did with the hard training we were doing) and two… I turned into a human crayon during a 3 hr skate ski.  My roller ski jammed from a rock while I was traveling down hill in a tuck going +25mph.  Luckily I am only missing some skin and Ben, one of the CXC juniors, was able to jump over me avoiding a complete team pile-up.  The rest of the week wrapped up very well with a 4 hour run at Pictured Rocks.  After the run Andre and I left because his tooth needed fixing and I couldn’t roller ski from all the skin missing on my hand.  Here is a pic courtesy of Brian Gregg from our 4 hour run.  If I get a chance I’ll post a pic of the hole in my ski boot from using it as a break pad during my crash.

Picture Rocks, Marquette, MI - Aug CXC Camp