Day 33 - 2/21/10 - Virginia's Last Name?

"Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out." ~ Frank A. Clark

Today is Sunday February 21st 2010. It's the final day(4) of the Jim Drew Memorial FIS Colorado Ski Cup. I do not mean to take away from the racers, but today I will let you know of a different story. There will be no pictures and videos. From my Day 30 post (i.e. Day 1 of this race) I wrote this:

"Unfortunately I cannot tell you who Jim Drew was. This is a memorial race in his name so I am sure he was a special person in the Telluride community. He likely helped to make many races like today's an opportunity to succeed for many young racers. I am happy to be volunteering for a cause under his name."

Also from my Day 30 post I mentioned a very nice woman named Virginia. Virginia worked the start gate with us for the first few days. Today she would be at the finishing gate. She told me when I first arrived at the TSSC headquarters, where every volunteer meets before the races, "Nick, I will not be at start gate today, but we can ride up the gondola together if you want to walk to it with me" Without hesitation I said yes. I ate some banana bread, left the building with Virginia and started a 10-15 minute walk to the gondola. During our walk Virginia explained how she's been doing the races for a long time. She talked about her family, her grandchildren and how her son Patrick was 33 years old. She said "I'm guessing he is your age." Very close Virginia as I am 34. She mentioned her husband periodically. "Jim" she had said a few times. Like time stood still for a brief moment, I stopped cold in my tracks as I was walking down a creek side path in front of her. I turned to Virginia and asked a question. She answered "Yes, he is." After four days of showing up to volunteer for this memorial race, it all came to me. Virginia was the widow of Jim Drew, the fine man who this race is named for. I felt bad and a little naive for not realizing this the previous three days I was with her in the start gate, but she is too humble to say anything and others at the start gate probably already knew and just went along knowing. Because I was new in town she respected I did not know these facts. For me, upon realizing this, I could not have been more honored to walk with her, listen to her and just realize that she was one of the kindest women I have ever met. And in terms of my words from Day 30 above, meeting Virginia ensured me that this race was indeed named for a special man.

My quote of the day is for Virginia. On our walk today she also told me that she was the one who baked and brought the banana and cranberry breads each and every morning for the race volunteers. Did I know this? Not until our walk. Did everyone else know this? I am not sure, but both breads was devoured and gone each day. She baked each night and brought the breads in the next mornings. I had eaten plenty and even though it was after-the-fact, I gave her a big thank you on our walk. The quote of the day is near perfect for great women like Virginia. My grandmothers' (Lucy and Louise) and great grandmother (Assunta) were the same. They do what is in their heart cause they know no different. They never ask for anything in return. And they are so humble that their generosity goes unknown. Virginia, thank you for your great perspective and I am beyond honored that I was able to volunteer in a race for your husbands name.

There is no picture that belongs more in this post than a picture of Virginia Drew. And because I do not have one, the best I can do is to leave it picture less. Certainly if I meet Virginia again, I will ask her if she is ok with me having a picture with her for this blog. Of course she will say yes. She is too kind and generous not to.

Good evening from Telluride. Hope everyone is well.

Day 32 - 2/20/10 - Telluride Mountain

"I'm from Georgia. I've moved out to Colorado to be a cowboy" - Lanier from Georgia who now lives in Telluride.

Today is Saturday February 20th 2010. It is the 3rd day of the 4-day Jim Drew Memorial FIS Colorado Ski Cup. In previous posts I have explained my work as a volunteer for the races, both as a gatekeeper and on the start gate crew. Our video today gives some visual action to working in the start gate. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNz-6uqhoBY

I want to step away from the race itself and focus on the photo and the quote for a minute. You might ask why I selected this quote. First of all let me say that I had lunch with Lanier today. I snowboarded off the mountain, from the race, and I went inside TSSC headquarters to have lunch. They make sandwiches and bag them with chips, snacks and a bottle of water. It is very generous of them and I certainly appreciate the level of work that goes into doing this for a team of 25+ people involved with volunteering for the race. Back to Lanier. I was sitting down and Lanier came over and said "I played soccer with you two nights ago. I forget your name." I answered and told him to grab a seat for lunch. He sat down and to keep conversation going, I said "Where are you from and what brought you to Telluride?" His response everyone.....was the quote of the day.

Honestly, I can't really explain why I find his words so intriguing, but I do. I even phoned a couple people back in the east and told them about it. My main thought is that it is simply a response that 1) I have never heard before in my life, and 2) is just a cool thing to say. Imagine if I started off my blog back in January saying "Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know I left Boston to be a cowboy" Minus the fact that my bow-legged attribute would support it, all of you would fall off your chair laughing. It's just a not-so-typical thing we all hear in the Northeast. That is my intrigue and last time I checked Georgia is not know for Cowboys either. Lanier confirmed that adding that there are so few Cowboys left in the country; guys that truly do ALL their work on horseback and heard cattle for 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week. I respected what he said. So much that my picture of the day (above) is of Lanier. He is the tall dude on the left with orange pinnie and red shorts. Lanier is 28 years old (I think) and in a strange twist I had this picture of him playing soccer from 2 days before when we played. Random huh? Also pictured (and a nice random find) is Zach...in the orange pinnie and black shorts. Zach was the good man who filmed my soccer video from my Day 30 post.

Here's a test for everyone. What is the origin and meaning of the name Lanier?

Answer - Lanier is of Old French origin and its meaning is "woolworker"

Cowboys herd sheep too right? Lanier, just by name you were destined to be a Cowboy. Great quote and even if it does not work out, I admire your courage for pursuing something of significant legend in our country. Good to meet you and good night from Telluride.

Day 31 - 2/19/10 - Let It Snow

"There's one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor's." ~Clyde Moore

Today is Friday February 19th 2010. I chose my quote of the day because it made me laugh, but after this write up I think you will see there is plenty of good with snow here in Telluride. This is Day 2 of the 4 day Jim Drew Memorial FIS Colorado Ski Cup. Not to take anything away from this honorable race, it is also the first day of a supposed three day snowfall. How excited am I for this? Wait until you see the video from today! And don't cheat an go right to the video links. I'll build it up well enough so that watching it after you read makes you appreciate the video more.

Today is the second day of the Giant Slalom (GS) for the racers. I've been asked to return to starting gate duty. Does that mean they like my level of volunteer effort? Sort of. They liked the collective start gate group and since we all returned today, they like to keep us together i.e. we know how to work together. The start gate can be hectic. Note the picture attached to this blog post. For example, say either the men's or women's race starts at 9:30am. Here is a timeline on how order is kept:

1. Racers can show up to the start gate (top of the race course) 45 minutes prior to start, or 8:45am, for inspection. Inspection is their very slow descend through the course. They can "slide" down on the edges of their skis, flatten out uneven terrain and get a fee for what the course will be like.
2. Five minutes prior to the race, at 9:25am, we start seeing the racers. Each racer has a bib number that they wear over their race attire so we can identify them. Also during this five minutes we send "pre-runners". They are exactly what they sound like; there are 3-5 of them and they run the course (as if they are racing for official time) as a test.
3. When the clock strikes 9:30am the race starts. The first racer (bib #1) goes. For the first heat, if there are 45 racers, 1 starts, 2 is second, 3 is third and so on. The order changes in the second heat....depending on the first heat finish results.
4. It gets hectic here because Donna (oversees start gate team) is constantly getting the right racers/bib numbers in line so that we go in order and go within 30-40 seconds of each racer leaving the gate. The picture shows the racers coming into the start gate area. Keep in mind, these are high school level kids and although they can race with the best of them, the boys joke around, the girls are chatty, and in general, you have to yell at them to get organization and order. Donna is very good at this!
5. So again, racers leave every 30-40 seconds after each other. If a racer misses a gate, he/she can climb back uphill and re-run that gate. Some racers take bad falls on the course and do not finish. Some racers never show up at the start gate (known as a "Do Not Start" or "DNS"). All three of these scenarios effect the 30-40 second in between racer time, but Donna, Greg (gate timer) and the entire crew make sure the course is clear before letting the next racer go. Safety is always most important.

It a well run operation and I have learned a lot. Now, I told you I would build up the video section of this blog. Part of building it up is to say that as the race day went on, into the second women and men's heats, the snow kept falling. Here is a video of a lift ride up (near the race course). Note that the powder on the ground is just from snowfall today! This will keep the build up going:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyoQpvdXBi8

So that is a nice set up video. To finish on the race side of things, we went through the first and second women's and men's heats. The snowfall picked up as the day carried on (I'm building up the videos again) and the racers certainly felt the impact of this during their second heat runs. There were more falls than morning, but due to some efficient race crew work we were done with the races by 1:30pm. What does this mean for me? Two hours of time on the mountain! This was my first taste of this life out here where people can work and, in the same day, be on the mountain for 2-3 runs. Some do it in the morning, some on a break and some at the end of the day. It's certainly a unique way of breaking up your work day. Even though my work is volunteer I certainly appreciated this time at the end of my day. Here we go:

Video 1 - This video is crazy. This storm made for pretty intense winds and snowfall. To be honest, there is not much to see in this video (literally), but I'm showing it to you in the hopes you can imagine what I went through here. Picture a complete loss of your sense of balance. In this video, it's a white out. I have no sense of depth perception and equilibrium. Reasons are because I am in a bowl area of the mountain and there are no trees, or anything to give you a sense of depth, for hundreds of feet. Even with sunlight, "bowl" skiing areas are huge wide open areas of white (snow). So I introduce you to Revelation Bowl....it is white out Friday and I have no idea where I am going after I pass the sign. It was a strange feeling....like learning to walk again. You may not notice this, but I fall 3 or 4 times in this short video. Zero balance on my part! You also get to see the art of strapping boots into binders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_A8Vu0f2Gk

Video 2 - Video 2 is a testament to Video 1. In this video I'm somewhat coming out of the white out. I begin to see a lift, a tree and ultimately I get my balance from seeing those things. There is also a thing called "flat sunlight" in skiing and that effects vision/balance as well. I'll explain that some other time. Also keep in mind that there is over a foot of new snow on the ground. That is hard enough to navigate through on a snowboard! Here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ6hVqkGYzE

Video 3 - Here is Apex Glade. This has become one of my favorite trails on all of Telluride mountain. On this day it was even better than previous days. Apex is a black diamond (just one) trail so it has steep areas and quite a few trees. It eventually dumps into a wider open area, but that area is more bumpier and it did not make this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U20gV4xQdo

Video 4 - And finally, here is my last run of the day. I even throw in a little trickery with a 180...somewhere toward the middle of the video. A goal of my adventure is to become a little more aerial on the snowboard. I will hit terrain parks momentarily and there I will train myself to go off jumps and do 180's, 360's....and maybe more, but that will be a good start. Not sure if the video camera will be safe for that, but it's a future date and we'll see. Also, toward the end of the video the snow has let up a little from earlier and you can see the town of Telluride. Nice view, even on a snowy day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyqiPAXPzsU

So good races and a VERY good day on the mountain. If this storm has done this much on the first day of what they say is 3 straight days of snowfall, then imagine what it will be like by Monday! Wow. And you can imagine it since these videos have dragged you into my journey. Good night from Telluride and hope you are well.

Day 30 - 2/18/10 - Race Day

"It's good to ski for fun, but I still want to win races as often as possible."
Hermann Maier

Today is Thursday February 18, 2010. Today is the start of the 4 day Jim Drew Memorial FIS Colorado Ski Cup.

If you recall from my Days 25 & 26 (2/13 & 2/14) blog I had volunteered through Justin Chandler and his Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club (TSSC). Justin is the executive director and he has asked me to volunteer again for this weekends four day memorial race. When I arrived at the TSSC headquarters they asked me to work the start gate team. Also upon my arrival at TTSC I met a very nice woman. Her name was Virginia. Virginia volunteers for the race as well. Virginia and I will work together with 2-3 others. Collectively we will form the start gate team. No surprise here, but the start gate is where all the racers convene, joke around, then step up to the start and switch to an intense focus. I said this in my Day 25 & 26 blog, but I continue to appreciate what these athletes bring to the table for these Alpine race events. For the four days they do 2 days Giant Slalom (GS) and 2 days Slalom (SL). A quick explanation is that GS is faster speed, a longer run and gates more spread out; SL is quicker/tighter turns, a shorter run length and gates closer to each other.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you who Jim Drew was. This is a memorial race in his name so I am sure he was a special person in the Telluride community. He likely helped to make many races like today's an opportunity to succeed for many young racers. I am happy to be volunteering for a cause under his name. FIS (in the title of the race) stands for Federation Internationale de Ski. American version would be the International Ski Federation. FIS is headquartered in Switzerland and they sanction events like this weekend's. The reason is because even though it is a memorial race, the racers times go toward qualifying times. They get FIS points based on results and I am sure those points qualify them for Junior Nationals and more. I was told that this weekends racers are "the best of the west" A coach told me that. Pretty impressive to see up close.

I met Donna who oversees the start gate. From the picture above, Donna has the blue hat in the background. She keeps order. Greg is the official start timer. He informs the racers the 10 second countdown mark and then the 5-4-3-2-1 final count where they must leave the gate. They can leave at any point in the 5 count. In the picture, Greg is on the left with the headset. He is in constant communication with the finishing gate official, John Jett. I told everyone John Jett is one of the coolest names I had ever heard. They laughed. Then there is Hannah, Donna's daughter. She is in the forefront of the picture. Hannah herself is alpine skier, but she was not racing this weekend. Right after the start of each racer Hannah and I manually take the unofficial start times. We both hold a sport timer and each time the skier goes through the start gate (they cross through a thin wand) we press the start/stop time and report it to Virginia. Virginia manually writes those times down. Unfortunately Virginia did not make this picture, but I hope to get a picture of her to you soon. She was a very kind woman. The purpose of the manual recording is to have a back up plan if Greg's automated system fails. So that was my job for the day. BTW, Hannah's cousin Cole is the other person in the forefront of the picture. Good guy and he and I snowboarded down the mountain during the lunch break and at a break between women's and men's races. He is young so I showed him how to carve up the mountain on a snowboard! Just kidding. He was good on his own already. Just like everyone seems to be in this town. The phrase "carve up the mountain" is snowboarding terminology by the way. It basically refers to digging the snowboard edges into the turns you take. The more you turn and the deeper your edge gets into the snow....the more you are carving.

So tonight, Thursday night, is soccer night. I played and with the help of yet another good person, Zach, I bring to you this video to let you all know that I am finding ways to stay in shape. Actually, I think I almost collapsed again (like last week) while trying to play in this altitude. It is an eye opening difference. And here I was thinking I was fit. The great people at Cambridge Athletic Club (where my gym has been for the past 9 years) would be ashamed of me. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0_CkjuVfUM

Please note we did win the game (teams play 5 minutes or first team to 2 goals) 2-1. Mick Hill, who I have mentioned before, played well. Mick is English and he runs the Steaming Bean coffee shop in Telluride. He had the assist on the first goal with that great pass. Even Zach could not hold his praise back....you can hear him on the video. I should also mention that Mick was recently appointed as Coaching Director of Telluride Youth Soccer (TYS). He and I spent some time talking shop, over a beer, after indoor play. I have worked with great coaching directors in my past 10 years with the soccer club FC Greater Boston so I hope some of the things I mentioned to him will be helpful in continuing to make TYS a premier soccer club.

It was a busy day. I hope everyone is doing well and good night from Telluride.

Day 29 - 2/17/10 - Day Off

"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." - Jules Renard

Today is Wednesday February 17, 2010. I have opted to rest (or be lazy) after yesterdays time on the mountain. The combination of hiking and then tiring snowboarding runs did some work to my body. It was a great day. Hope you enjoyed yesterday's video. Truth is I am not really being lazy as I am in fact writing/typing to you. I may have neglected to share this with all of you, but typically when I write/type (and edit videos) I come to the Telluride Public Library. It is named the Wilkinson Public Library. Here is the "about us" piece of info from their website:

The present day 20,000 square foot library located at the corner of Pine & Pacific streets nearly wasn’t built. In 1997 every vote on the referendum to build the new building was essential. After a recount the referendum passed by a margin of only two votes. The new building opened in August 2000.

The front entrance of the library building is pictured above. If you can't tell I am building this library up. Prior to my time here at Wilkinson, I fully admit I have not been keen on library visits in general. As a matter of fact I have vivid memories of my last visits to a library. That would be the Babson College library (named Horn) approximately 13 years ago! I was a procrastinator and typically ended up with long nights studying for exams and writing papers. Anyway, the Wilkinson library is great. I'm not just saying that to make me look good either. Here's why it is great. I sit in a conference room (free), get on their wifi network (free) and can print (free). All things that allow me to type you this blog. And get this. At the end of my library day I walk downstairs and go to their DVD collection. They have lots of documentaries and regular box office type movies. And guess what? You check those out for a one week period...FREE of charge! To date I have watched about 10 documentaries and 4 movies. I've gone old school with the movies. I've watched A Street Car Named Desire, From Here to Eternity and just recently finished Casablanca. Next week I may watch some old westerns with Clint Eastwood and then branch off into some newer ones in following weeks. For the documentaries, the ones I have recently watched are Everest, An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore global warming one) and Bowling for Columbine. I will not bore you with my opinions, but I have "appreciated" all of them. I am about to start watching a series on America's wars. Each DVD covers one war i.e. Civil, Revolutionary, WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm....pretty much every major one. I like history because it defines who, what and where we are today.

On a whim I ended up emailing Justin Chandler at the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club (TSSC) today. It was a good thing I did so. He asked me if I was interested in working for the Alpine races this weekend. It was a four day event beginning tomorrow (Thursday) so again my timing of reaching out to him was impeccable. Remember, for each day of race I volunteer I get two tickets, one to work the race and one to use whenever I want. Volunteering for the races has nice little perks.

So there is my day today. Nothing burning and not too much excitement. But at least you have met my home base from where I bring you this blog. I enjoy writing to it (and you). I hope you enjoy reading it. Good evening from Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library....they are about to kick me out as it closes at 8pm!

Day 28 - 2/16/10 - Telluride Mountain

"Assume nothing, pursue everything." - Kevin Riper

Today is Tuesday February 16th 2010. I have been in Telluride for 11 days and this will be my first full day on the mountain. I have spent my first week and a half looking for jobs, meeting people and getting used to what Telluride has to offer. As far as the mountain, I've been on it a few days working for the ski races and therefore have only been able to get a few runs in. Until today.

Some of my days I spend writing and editing video. Other days, I feel I'm establishing a routine in a new town. Today, I felt like I was on top of the world. The music is this video is "Open Your Eyes" by the band Snow Patrol. I apologize about the low volume level of my voice. You may have to turn it up a little when I speak and then readjust with the music. Some of the runs I took required me to hike up in order to get down. It was exhausting...mostly due to the thin air. It was a great day on Telluride Mountain. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D2u5i4Lw2k

The quote of the day seems to sum up a better piece of my day and this video. When you are going up a lift and see an area off in the distance that you can only get to by hiking, you assume the experience of getting to it is hard, but rewarding. There is something gratifying about hiking up to places where a lift or some piece of machinery cannot get you to. You hike, you sweat and you work to get to where many others do not go. I came to Telluride to experience all that I can and pursue the ultimate rush. I came closer today.

Day 27 - 2/15/10 - Simple Yet Powerful

"So remember to look in the sky at the birds in flight, smell the grass in the air after it's been mowed, look for the Big Dipper in the evening sky, skim flat rocks across the pond and when you see an enormous tree, think to yourself, wow,imagine all the life and history that tree has seen"

- Coleen McGeachey

I've recently received a blog comment and several emails regarding my Day 19 (2/7/10) tribute to Bob McGeachey. The things that have been said in the comment and emails have struck a cord with me. I leave it for you to determine if they do with you.

A piece of Coleen McGeachey's comment to the blog is quoted above. In another email, Jeff Thoreck, sent a story from a recent day of his. Jeff is the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. McGeachey. Jeff wrote to me that he was in his yard with his wife and daughter when he looked up to see a hawk flying over head. He thought of what his fathers response would be to a hawk flying over head. He said his father would stop everyone from what they are doing and make sure everyone else was viewing and appreciating what he was.

I left Boston 26 days ago. In that time, I have dealt with new experiences and new emotions. It's easy to have all of that when you leave a routine and do something that you have never done before. With Coleen and Jeff''s reflections and at this stage of my journey/adventure, something has developed into a significant and provoking thought:

• Take time to enjoy the simple things in life. They can sometimes be the most powerful.

Coleen's words in the quote of the day are a reflection of how her husband lived his life. He appreciated the simple things. Jeff's encounter with the hawk flying over head and his thought process was powerful. I have enclosed a picture above that I had taken a few days before my exchanges with Coleen and Jeff. It was a picture of an elk, roadside, that I did a dangerous uturn for just to snap that picture. To some it is just a picture of an animal. To me, it was a simple shot of something (wildlife) I appreciate and rarely get to see. It was simple in nature and powerful in imagery.

Read the quote a few times over. You have all done bits and pieces of it. I think the question is, have you (and I) done it enough? Or is life too busy and chaotic to stop and take time to look at the stars? I'll never forget being young and on the back porch of the McGeachey home. We looked, looked and looked...until we final saw one. A shooting star. My mind ran a million different ways after it happened. That was powerful. I suppose being young was simple in general. But it does not mean we cannot tap into that simplicity and remember (or learn) to appreciate the simple things. Like Bob McGeachey did.

From a place closer to the stars....good night from Telluride.