My good-friend, Al, invited me to come along w/ a contingent of great people heading to Vermont to stay with a friend's family to run this 1/2 Marathon. The ultimate hosts was the Tibbits family: Mr. & Mrs. Tibbits, Alison - the leader of this 1/2M running contingent, her brother - Jesse, and her sister - Brittany. They set the stage for a fantastic weekend despite our arriving at ALL hours of the night, actually Saturday morning.
McQueen, Colleen, Michelle, and i arrived about 1:30A.M. after my flight came in from Cincinnati, Dayton actually...well Detroit technically, about an hour and a half after their flight came in from Midway. (Thanks, again, ladies for waiting.) Midway was clearly the airport of choice coming out of Chicago as the second crew flew out of O'Hare and arrived in Manchester, N.H., about 4A.M. putting them at the Tibbits Household about 5:30A.M. This crew included Alison, Al, Berna, and Chris; who were all, well, how should we say it..."lit" having out-waited the five hour delay at an airport bar.
So that is how the weekend started w/ four of us arriving at 1:3oA.M. taking a quiet tour of the house led by M&M who had been there multiple times. A key word describing our tour being "quiet" after which we settled into our sleeping locations downstairs. As we looked at some of the family photos in the downstairs living room, though, i felt as if i were a thief in the night looking in on a family that i had never known as this was the case. The awesome Tibbits family included me on this adventure despite the fact that i had never met even Alison at the time they extend the invitation. i was fortunate enough to meet Alison, McQueen, and Michelle and later Colleen over the Shamrock Shuffle weekend, also known as Alison's 30th Birthday party weekend.
After our tour we settled in, the ladies in a back room and me on the downstairs couch...w/ one of the family cats, Nilly who took a liking to me and slept...well let's not discuss the details, besides it was apparently just a one night stand. (Nilly, i am still expecting at least a phone call!)
The second group arrived just before the sun came up and took a 'more lively' tour of the Tibbits household at 5:30A.M. Their tour involved barely muted giggling and attempts at a quiet discussion of getting a glass of warm water to be used for nefarious reasons. After their tour came to close all settled in for a couple hours of sleep; though i was visited shortly after the 'giggling' tour ended by the Tibbits family puppy which is a 50+ pound golden retriever named Cabot.
Our morning started with an excellent breakfast including fantastic French Toast made by Kevin (Mr. Tibbits aka Popa Tibbits). We then took a quintessential tour of Vermont stopping at Suger Bush Farms where we tasted cheeses, sauces, and jellies galore. Then we purchased our favorite cheeses and maple syrups (i have had waffles w/ Vermont maple syrup almost every day since being back; it's almost time to go back to get more maple syrup!). We then went 'downtown' to the Simon Pearce glass-blowing shop-restaurant-artisan center where they actually blow-glass, make pottery, and weave blankets all on-site; all very cool and very high quality pieces.
That night we had a pasta/carb-loaded dinner back at the Tibbits household. Mr. and Mrs. Tibbits were even kind (or foolish?) enough to allow me to make a traditional Italian sauce that eventually included nearly everything in the fridge sans peppers including 1/2 a large bottle of Olive Oil. It ended up even better in the Monday morning in omellettes.
The organization of the race day festivities, specifically the line(s) for the buses, left a little to be desired but the scenery was incredible. We crossed one Covered Bridge and ran past two more. We also ran what seemed like 1/3rd of the course along what i thought was the wide, gently flowing Ottauquechee river that seemed to help us (or me, at least) along the course when my legs wanted to just give up and jump in the river. (BTW...It turns out that what i thought was river was a long, wide Pond called Dewey's Pond.)
Everyone finished the race, some twice. It helped a ton having Mrs. Tibbits and Brittany's boyfriend, Chris, yelling for us at three different locations along the race path and then again at the finish line.
While waiting for our carriages to come carry us home we met a few ladies that were looking for the path back to where the cars were parked. Unfortunately, none of us that were waiting new where to point them; in fact we pointed them in the opposite direction that they needed to go. After Alison and M&M picked us up, we saw them walking...trudging up the hill toward their car. They had a ways to go yet and after a 1/2M that would have been a looooonnnngggg walk. At the top of the hill, i jumped out of our car that M&M was driving to explain their predicament to Alison who, of course, agreed we should go back and get them; so we did.
While i was chatting w/ Alison, the car-suv b/n our two cars starting honking at me/us despite the fact that they had plenty of time before the stop sign as we were four or five cars back. On the way back to M&M's car, the driver that was honking at me tried to explain that they were following the car in front of Alison to which my immediate response was, "Relax. You'll get there." Not sure why i said that but here we were trying to do a very nice thing and this yahoo was honking at us as if his world was going to end if they fell 100 yards behind their lead car. Of course, this was the same SUV that Alison nearly cut-off after picking us up.
Anyhow, we went back and picked the three very appreciative ladies up and drove them to their car. Having accomplished our good samaritan task for the day, we headed back to base-camp for some R&R, and later, a fantastic steak dinner and 20+ different flavors of Ben&Jerry's Ice Cream to celebrate. After grilling our steaks, Mr. Tibbits started a fire in their fire-pit by the pond, Cabot tried to run away w/ all the Smores' sticks, we eventually did roast smores, and talked well into the night while Chris and Al played w/ their cameras. What a picture perfect day!
On Monday, minus Colleen who flew out on Sunday night after dinner - Thanks again, Colleen, for your steak!; we went to the Quechee Gorge. Everyone agreed we could have spent an entire afternoon just hanging out on the rocks enjoying the flow of the creek-river, maybe occassionally dabbling our feet in the cool water. But, the rest of the ladies had to fly back while the boys remained to venture on to Ascutney State Park (see the post "Adventures @ ASP" for more).
Another heart-felt and huge "Thank You!" to the Tibbits Family particularly Alison for inviting me/us and Mr. and Mrs. Tibbits for being such great hosts (be on the look out, Mr. & Mrs. T., something is on its way via the mail as more tangible "thank you"!)
Thank you Al for inviting me. Thank you Alison for extending the invitation to someone that, at that point, you had never even met. Thank you Colleen, McQueen, and M&M for waiting for me on Friday night. Thank you all for a fantastic and very memorable weekend!!!
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