Fall Break Trip: October 10-14, Hayward, WI

            Merry Christmas a few days late! I trust that your stomachs are full after a delicious Christmas meal, probably of chicken fajitas, and your dreams have been filled with visions of sugar plums and a man in a red suit with a stomach like a bowl full of jelly. You might say that Christmas is a long way off, and I'd tell you that you're wrong; we celebrated the year's greatest holiday over fall break. Allow me to explain...

            Thanks to Siri McCord, a runner on the St. Olaf women's cross-country team, for joining us on the trip and letting us invade her cabin, beautifully nested amid the birch hills of Seeley, WI, for four days! The first night on the trip, Siri played the greatest music her cabin had to offer- Frank Sinatra's Christmas music. Soon, the weekend became a Christmas weekend filled with tidings of great joy.

            Part of any Christmas getaway is, of course, cross-country ski training, and we did plenty of it. A fun rollerski with double-pole pickups at Hyland hills on the drive north started the trip off on the right note. Saturday we began our Hayward training with bounding intervals and "spenst" on the Birkie trail plus some running on winding mountain bike trails afterward- I learned that "No smell" Dan "not the trainer" Hagen is a natural-born specialist at leafy single track running. He was pushing the pace! Thanks to Dan and his generous parents Joy and John Hagen for taking the team out to The Rivers Eatery on Saturday night- where a great atmosphere of community and scrumptious pizza welcomed us and fueled us for the continued training.

            A couple of beautiful fall rollerskis graced our Saturday evening and Sunday mornings, Sunday being a long classic OD which Evan Kendall claimed to be "the hardest workout of my life" and "I was in L4 at the end. Didn't you hear my breathing?!?!?"

            Graham "Strong man" or "Little girl" Glennon (nicknames pronounced with Russian accent) truly impressed with his napping abilities each afternoon. Post OD I believe he may have broke the 5-hour barrier. More impressive, he was still the first to bed later that night (but not much later).

            Christmas Gift! Gotcha. Monday morning was Christmas morning, and what better way to spend it than with a long run on the Birkie trail with pushups every kilometer (1 pushup at 1km, 15 at 15km and so on). The footing was a bit rustic for the power lines, but nevertheless, the moment we hit drummers' hill, the FEVER seeped into our souls. Just 4 months early.  Beautiful fall colors adorned the birch forest through which we ran, and Evan Kendall made the most of it by Tweeting the entire OD run (I encourage those of you twitter users to begin following with great vigor @stolafnordicod as soon as possible).  By OO many of us were ready to call it a good day at 14-16 miles, but Evan "tempoed" back to the Christmas cabin for a total of over 20. The whole time with phone in hand!

            A flawless nativity re-enactment Sunday night (Christmas eve) was going to be tough to top on Christmas day, but boy did Christmas deliver. Immediately upon finishing the OD, we returned to find our "stockings" (think: Piper's Socks) filled with acorns and an orange from Santa. Santa had also taken a bite out of his cookie (I guess he's on a diet), left by Mitchell, and downed his milk. Accordingly, it was our turn to down some milk. And so, the Milk Gallon Challenge began with high hopes....

..... And no survivors. Allison took the victory, but it was still a fruitless one- her projectile vomit at 56 minutes completed a vomit-sweep of all competitors.

            Christmas festivities continued with an Allison-inspired meal- fajitas! Allison, a Chipotle employee alumni, taught us the trade of burrito-creation. We also learned that as an employee she wasn't allowed to talk on the phone.

            And then the best part, presents! The only rule was that no money could be spent on these presents, and we had quite an impressive show of variety and creativity: Graham fittingly received a cardboard eye-shade from Evan, Mitchell constructed a duck-tape car for Evan (who has always wanted a car), Amy wrote and illustrated and specialized a children's book for Allison, who gave me an uprooted Charlie Brown-looking pine tree. Classic. Skate.

            Tuesday morning was a sad morning, as the day after Christmas always is. But, work still needed to be done, and so we seized the opportunity and rollerskied the famous OO-time trial. Evan and Dan provided fantastic awards from our "sponsors" at the "awards ceremony." For example, I won an ice-scraper from my car, and Graham won a half-drunk bottle of Aquafina (motto: "We bottle it... you buy it"). Thank you boys.

            And thanks to everyone for a fantastic fall break experience. It was truly one of a kind and full of Christmas magic.

The fall break rollerskiing crew and a member of Team America (far left) on the perfect pavement of OO. Bradelboro tights present in full splendor.

Our Monday OD run quickly led us to the famed Powerlines, which ignited Birkie FEVER four months early. Dan Hagen couldn't quite control himself.

Fall foliage graces the Birkie trail in mid October.

Hagen displays his guns and Piper her pipes as Evan gets an important Tweeting shot for @stolafnordicod. Mitchell gets the credit for fearlessly leading us to this gorgeous overlook just off-trail.

Siri and Evan prepare a scrumptious lasagna dinner on "Christmas" Eve. Thumbs up for that!

Excited faces and thirsty bodies as the gallon challenge commences. Oh how fast things can change...

Allison's "present" has found a warm, accepting home: my dorm room.