Loppet-ing

This family undertook a good deal of loppet-ing this past weekend.  If you're not familiar with a loppet- it's apparently a swedish word for race.  And here in Minneapolis (Ok.  I'm a st. paulite and only claim Minneapolis when they do something cool like the loppet) there's a great weekend long party called the City of Lakes Loppet.  There are events all day Saturday and Sunday, but the real showstopper is the Luminary on Saturday night.  This year I heard there were close to 10,000 people out on Lake of the Isles, following the trail around the edge on skies, on foot, on snowshoes, that is marked with hundreds of luminaries (ice sculptures with candles inside) and some fire-dancers, and cocoa stops, and trees hung with candle lanterns, and the gosh darn Candian embassy giving out maple cookies.  Go Canada.  It's downright magical.  Until you lose your kids in the crowds and realize you may never see them again.  But then they buzz by you with a pack of friends and you have them in your sites for just long enough to quell the panic, and then they're gone, out of sight... but you know it's a friendly crew out on the lake in the dark, and people would help kids find their way back to parents if needed.  I think.  I guess I'd rather not test it.  This year we attached a blinking bike light to the back of them, which was such a great idea that about 3000 other people did the same thing, which somewhat diminished the effectiveness.   Despite my nerves about losing kids and the fact that I have to work to control the urge to yell out, "It's cracking!  I hear the ice cracking!" just because I think it would be interesting to see what would happen to a crowd of 10000 thrown into a panic and because I wonder why the ice doesn't crack with all of us out there...despite all that, it is truly a magical experience. 

But the loppet wasn't over for us with the luminary.  Jon signed up for the 33K freestyle race the next morning and I got talked into a last minute 10k tour with the daughter of good friend MaryBeth, who got called out of town to help an aging parent.  I love the idea of this race- the 'short cut' from Theo Wirth back to Lake of the Isles, but 10k is still quite a distance. I did some sandbagging, saying, "Sure, I'll ski with Siena MaryBeth, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with her...hoho...haha..."  Thinking secretly to myself, yeah right, she's 11.  She may not be able to keep up with me.  What happens if I get cold from having to slow down to wait for her?  I suppose it's my duty to sacrifice and wait, however.  Ha.  Turns out Siena is one of those real fast skater girls who was apparently born with a pair of skies attached to her feet.  She showed no signs of effort and I was all out dying just trying to keep her in my sites.  I couldn't talk.  Couldn't stop at the rest stops.  Just had to keep thrashing forward, trying to keep that light blue jacket on the horizon.  Luckily we were skiing on a narrow trail with about 1000 of our best friends, so every now and then Siena would get boxed in and I'd be able to make up some ground.  In the end I could still see her at the finish, but barely.  She was nice enough to wait for me on the other side of the finish line and then show me where our car was parked.  I was too tired to be able to get my bearings and figure out just where we were in uptown.  Boy.  An 11 year old.  Despite the blows to my confidence it was a lovely event.  Great weather, fabulous snow, and a challenging, fun course.  And for the record, I went back out that afternoon and did another 10k with a friend while my boys had their ski lessons.  While old Siena went home to do her homework. Likely story. I will mention to noone that I was tucking myself into bed that night before 9.

Jon reports that his ski was lovely.  I just love that there are 33 kilometers of uninterrupted ski trails in the city.  And the trails are through woods, up and down serious hills, over a bog, through a tunnel, and around the lakes, then right up a street and into Uptown.  Lovely.