First Snow of "Winter"

We woke up to white scenery this morning.

I'm not mentally prepared for this, but we're making the best of it.

Cross Country at Lamoille

Cole had another Cross Country meet today. This one was not so crazy big. It was drizzly and freezing cold. A sharp change from the pleasant and gentle autumn we have gotten used to.

Note that Harwood, front and center, had a very strong showing at the race. They had a lot of very fast runners. Bittersweet proof that life marches on, even after the tragic death of 5 teenagers. 

 The high school coach did describe it as one of the more challenging courses.  It was an even 2 mile course, rather than the normal 1.7 mile. There were a lot of steep hills, and it had rained so some of the hills were slippery and muddy.

 Here is Cole coming down the homestretch, looking strong. 

Cole came in 18th out of 78 runners with a time of 14.07, according to 802timing.com .

As far as we know, this is the last cross country meet for the middle school runners, but Cole and some friends are running the Kingdom Challenge 5k nest weekend in St. Johnsbury,

No Complaints

While some people are in the midst of a drought, we can't complain about the mild fall temperatures and the brilliant tree colors.

 Heather, Spike, and I went for a walk yesterday, to collect leaves.

 We used the leaves to make crayon leaf rubbings and watercolor painted over the crayon.

 Today, Heather decided to rake some leaves into a pile for leaf jumping.

Meanwhile, the chickadees are making a good meal of the sunflowers in the garden.

Thetford Woods Trail Run

Cole and friends banded together once again to form a make-shift Lake Region Middle School XC team for the 26th Annual Thetford Woods Trail Run invitational meet.

Alicia, from Albany, and Erica, Caleb's sister and Cole's classmate, warm up before their race.

Below, Cole waits in line for the bathroom.

From the Thetford Academy website:

 "The 26th annual Woods Trail Run will take place on Saturday, Oct. 1, from approximately 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. We expect more than 2,000 middle and high school runners to join us from 100 schools in eight states, for an event that practically triples the population of the Town of Thetford." 

 I do believe that there were thousands of people present for the meet. We never even found the Lake Region High School team or their tent. The quote above mentions the 2000 runners, but then add in the parents, friends, and other family members. This was a big, big event.

 Cole was in the junior high boys race with a time of  11:12.62
I really liked their bib design. The picture was also on t-shirts that they were selling, but the price was a little too high for us.

 On the back of the bib is a timing/tracking chip. The announcer was constantly telling runners to NOT use their watches at the finish to check their time bcause the watches interfere with the tracking chip! Cole thinks they might still be tracking our whereabouts. You never know.

He came in 52 out of 180 runners. Not too bad for not really having a team or practices. He does a lot of running in soccer and those Craftsbury races all summer were good training.