Ida Sargent: Springtime!

Rabbit Rabbit, it's June 1st! While summer may not officially begin until the summer solstice later this month, it's sunny and warm, everything is lush and green (even in Park City), training has ramped back up to big levels, and I'm feeling the excitement which comes with the start of a new season. But first here's a look back at my spring.

This was the first year which I wasn't in school for the spring so after a week in Hawaii, a settled into the routine at home in Craftsbury. There were lots of projects going on so even as I was just building into training, I felt busier than ever and loved it. We had a beautiful stretch of perfect weather and rushed to get the gardens planted during the burst of blooming. Alex Howe taught Emily Dreissigacker and I how to drive the tractor so we could rototil the gardens at Elinor's.

Clare Egan and I planted carrots, beets, zukes, summer squash, kale, and chard under a torrent of black flies. We covered some of the plants with row covers to protect against nibbling pests.

Rhubarb! And rhubarb pie!

We planted garlic last fall and it was looking good this spring!

New this year at Craftsbury is a small farm. We have 36 laying hens, a rooster, 10 pigs, and some turkeys. Fresh eggs for breakfast!

Meanwhile as we were busy working in the gardens, there was still a pile of snow on the upper field at Craftsbury, leftover from the winter snowmaking. On May 11th, it was rolled out for the first annual Slush Cup sprints, a 150meter out and back head to head sprint race. A surprising number of people came out for the event in all kinds of costumes.

Clare Egan was the women's champion and also probably won the best dressed award!

Sprinting against Mamma Gina

The Channel 3 News team somehow heard about the Slush Cup and came out to do a piece on the event. Here's the story that they put together from the day. http://www.wcax.com/story/22239938/fun-in-the-slush

I also had the opportunity this spring to help out with Girls on the Run at Newport Elementary School. In this program, girls in grades 3rd through 6th get together twice a week to run working towards a goal of running a 5km by the end of the program. It inspires them to live healthy, active lifestyles and incorporates self-esteem building exercises into the curriculum. The teamwork and excitement which the girls displayed was awesome and I had lots of fun running with them every week. Unfortunately I missed their big 5km event but I was there for the practice "race" of a 10km relay.

The 10km took place at the Dandelion Run in Derby, VT which as you can see was named appropriately!

The girls were giving it their all and a couple actually ran the entire 10km rather than stopping at the exchange zones!

Since the girls were pushing themselves, I decided to challenge myself and ran the half marathon. It was a hilly course around the dirt roads of VT's north country. I set a course record by a big margin which was fun and my tired legs were rewarded with an ice bath in the lake and maple syrup for a prize. I also made it bac to Craftsbury in time for the first firing of the spring of our pizza oven. Yum!

The next day I flew to Bend Oregon for the first USST camp of the year. It’s a great time of the year to be in Bend. We ski in the mornings at Mt. Bachelor and then dryland train in town in the afternoon. The first and last days of our camps were perfect sunny weather but we had some tough conditions mixed in. One of the mornings when we were up there, the local newspaper published that there were 140 mph winds on Mt. Bachelor! Luckily we were a bit protected in the trees but it was still sideways snow and rain and strong winds!

It is very fun to be back with the team and we hit the ground running. The secret to our success? We work hard every day and love what we do! Positive team energy goes a long way!