camp, cycling, and running

i guess it's not a good sign that within a few days of starting a blog i disappear for about a week and a half. in my defense, we just moved, and then i took off for amherst, ma for an ultimate camp, then when i got back i went to maine for a 50-mile bike race the next day, so i've been busy to say the least. since i've been gone so long, this post will be appropriately sized. i've included convenient headings so the topics are easy to distinguish from each other.

ULTIMATE

anyway, the week in amherst at NUTC was one of the most fun things i've done recently. spending a week playing ultimate with some of the best high school players in the country was an opportunity that i was incredibly lucky to have. unfortunately i had to play the whole time with a bum ankle, thanks to bursitis i picked up while backpacking, but i was able to gut it out and at least hold my own. for anyone who is interested in ultimate, i would absolutely suggest NUTC. tiina booth and the rest of the staff there are second to none. for example, this year one of the counselors was sarah 'surge' griffith, who is one of the captains of seattle riot, one of the best defenders in the game, and who recently returned from prague where she was playing with riot in the WUCC tournament.

CYCLING

right after returning from NUTC, i took off for maine to ride in a 50-mile bike race with a friend from school. she's on the cycling team and has ridden this ride before, and somehow she managed to drag me into riding it with her. just so you know, the furthest i've ever ridden on a bike before this is ten miles. because my road bike (which i salvaged from a trash heap) is broken right now, i had to borrow my mom's bike, which is about as old as i am (still younger than my own bike). it has old-school shifters on the bottom tube, and baskets instead of clips for pedals, so i wasn't expecting much. put simply, at the end of the race, my friend comes up to me and says, "why the hell didn't you try out for the varsity cycling team at school?"

RUNNING

i recently finished Born To Run. it was sitting on my bedside table for a while, and i meant to read it, but never got around to it. then at NUTC, darden, one of the counselors said, "put it at the top of your list. period. i'm not big on organized religion or religion by the book, but if i had to choose a gospel, it would be this book." darden is a pretty cool guy, so i took his word for it and started reading it. a day later, i was done. it's that good. put simply, it will change the way you look at not only running, but how you live your life. thoreau went to walden pond to 'live deliberately'. i think he would find a similar spirit in Born To Run. it's not so much a book about running as it is a book about becoming a runner, not simply a person who runs.

and with that, i'm done. take it easy.