The Team in Summer: Sundali, the Younger

With summer, and my long year off, finally drawing to a close I seem to have
finally been reunited with my brother, Taylor. Since the end of the 2009 summer, I
haven’t had the good fortune of spending more than a few weeks in a row with him, so
I am ecstatic to get to finally spend a full year together. He always seems to make me
into the person I want to be. In the one week that he has been back, we seem to have
accomplished a lot.
On the Saturday after he arrived, we planned on finally doing the one local
running race that neither of us had competed in during our lives in Sun Valley, The Shop
to the Top. It is a six-mile “running” race that starts at a local sporting goods store and
then ascends Bald Mountain, gaining 3300 vertical feet. Needless to say it is a gruel fest.
The Sunday following the race we planned on peaking Thompson and Williams peak in
the Sawtooth Mountain Range, so to sort of prepare ourselves as best we could the few
days leading up to the weekend, we hiked and ran Baldy (Bald Mountain), went on some
runs, and did pretty light strength work outs. Since Taylor had come up from sea level
and was dealing with an array of ailments, I thought I was going to be the one waiting up
for him during the first week. This was far from the case.
The Thursday before The Shop to the Top we decided it would be good to do
some intervals up the Bald Mountain Trail. We did our first of three by ten minutes
at level three, and I was toast. I was light headed and felt as though my eggs and toast
weren’t going to stay down much longer. I walked up for another fifteen minutes before
throwing in the towel while I watched Taylor run off up the mountain. The next day I
did nothing but sit around on the couch tired and having serious doubts about the race. I
would have decided to not run the race the next morning had it not been for Taylor giving
me the “feel bad” look. He does it whenever I’m about to give up on something that I
shouldn’t and it makes me feel bad about myself, forcing me to grow a pair and get after
it.
The start of the race is a slightly downhill first mile during which I watched
Taylor and a small bearded man run off the front gaining probably 45 seconds on the
rest of the field before they hit Baldy. I just sat in the back of the group of six people
that comprised the third through ninth place positions. Everyone but me and one other
man in the group were trying to run the whole thing. We were power hiking the steepest
sections and conserving energy while still keeping up with the group. Over the next few
miles three of the people had fallen off of the back of the group leaving only me and two
others to try and catch Taylor and the SBM(small bearded man). With a little less than
a mile to go, I saw the SBM and decided that Taylor had broken ahead of him and was
going to win easily. I was feeling good myself and decided to pass the two others I was
running with and try to get at least third place. About two minutes after making my move
I hiked past the SBM who, despite going incredibly slow and obviously bonking, was
still attempting to run. I turned around the last switch back and saw that Taylor was only
fifteen seconds ahead of me, and he appeared to be going quite slowly. I daydreamed of
the glory of finally beating my brother in something, but when I was about twenty meters
from catching him and only a couple hundred from the finish, he decided that he should
finally start trying and he just accelerated away from me. He ended up winning a free pair
of new running shoes for first place, and I was given a white T-shirt that had a penguin
with dreadlocks on it for second. Despite the horrible difference in the prizes, I couldn’t
have been happier to watch him win the race.

That afternoon we headed up North to Pettit Lake so we could camp closer to
the trailhead for Thompson and Williams. After cooking a gigantic meal of beans, rice,
steak, and salad all topped off by some good ole Rufus Teague BBQ sauce, we fell asleep
when the sun was still up. We started the hike the next morning at about seven, and
despite a minor bear encounter and the fact that my legs felt like lead, we were able to
make it up to the top of Thompson peak before eleven. This is a video of the view ,
but unless you are up there yourself its
hard to understand how truly magnificent it is. We didn’t end up peaking Williams Peak
due to how worn down we were, but I don’t doubt that Taylor will come up with some
other adventure that will make me catatonic for another week.
My summer before Taylor came home involved training with the SVSEF and
washing windows for work. I can’t wait to finally get to Middlebury and meet all my new
teammates and coaches. Hope everyone is doing well.