A Little Rain Won't Stop Us

September and October aren't always the most comfortable months of the year to be in Anchorage. The days get shorter and there's usually plenty of rain to keep us hydrated. This September has been no exception. Nevertheless, the training goes on, improvements are made, and new personal bests are achieved.

Strapping on the helmets for a little rollerski interval action at Potter.

Henry

Erling

Murphy

Hermod and Corbin

Again, Hermod and Corbin.

Trond wants to make sure nobody's overdoing it (or underdoing it) so he takes a little blood sample to test its acidity.

Dashe

Marit. At Arctic Valley

The team that plays together stays together. Hedda leading the group.

A coachable moment. Trond and Murphy (Note the snow above.) Sorry about the hazy photos. When you start the workout by leaving the van at the ski area and biking all the way down from Arctic Valley on a muddy road in heavy rain, your camera lens might get a little wet and fogged over.

Talking it out in the AAC parking lot. Note the differences in clothing preferences. We've got everything from shorts and t-shirts to winter parkas in this group.

The Wedding of the Summer

The place was Hope, the setting was the Chugach Mountains, and the event was the wedding of the summer - the union of Alejandra Legate and Sigurd Rønning.

The UAA Ski Team was well-represented in the wedding party.

If you were looking for a big group of cross-country ski racers, concentrated in one location, at the end of June, you needed look no farther than Hope, Alaska. Sigurd skied for UAA, of course, as did half of his groomsmen. And Alejandra skied for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats. Almost half of the attendees flew in from Norway for the occasion, and included lots of family members, aunts and uncles with plenty of elite ski racing in their resumes. 

Sigurd must have been pleased to have the opportunity to spend a little time here in southcentral Alaska; it seems he's spent virtually the entire rest of the summer, before and after his wedding, working in Nightmute, in the southwestern part of the state.

There was no place I'd rather have been on June 26 than in Hope, celebrating with Ale and Sigurd and their families and friends. It was a wonderful day, and I enjoyed catching up with old ski friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Here's wishing Ale and Sigurd the very best for their future together!