“One of Many”

As a member of the Aspen Ski Club in the late 1960’s and 1970’s I participated in Ski Races all over Colorado.  My team members and I traveled to the most remote ski areas in the state.  Places like Crested Butte, Telluride, Monarch Mountain, Steamboat and even Purgatory.  Our adventures included races in Vail, Breckenridge and Loveland.  Some venues were more inviting than others but each one created a lasting memory of its own.

It seemed like every race ever scheduled in Breckenridge coincided with the coldest day of the year.  We would wake up in our inns and motels at 4:30 in the morning to get our skis ready for the day.  Wax had to be matched to the temperatures predicted for that particular day.  Silver wax, best in the coldest temperatures, was always the order of the day when skiing in Breckenridge.  Coffee was served even to the youngest of kids if they wanted it.  By 7:00 a.m. we would all collect at the base of the ski area where we would get our “bibs” and find out what order we would be making our first run.  By now the cold had already reached the deepest recesses of our bones and our day was only getting started.

I do not know about today but back then we were not allowed to wear our jackets or parkas during our race.  By the grace of a concerned parent, our jackets would be shuttled down to the finish area.  It seemed like forever from the time we took off our jackets until we were reunited with them at the bottom.  I can only assume it made us race faster just to be reunited with our jackets.

40 years later while on a family vacation in Breckenridge my childhood memories came rushing back.  They were holding a race on the very same run where we had run our races so many years ago.  The kids are so small and yet so fast.  I forgot how young we were back then.

I went to the bottom of the racecourse to look at the results, deep down I think I was looking for my name among them but it was not there.