I managed to persuade Liz to stay after practice to participate in the Ski For Women event at Birch Hill this afternoon. The Ski For Women is a participatory fun event that raises money for the local Center for Non-Violent Living. Liz and I went upstairs in the chalet (by the way, Birch Hill has one of the nicest chalets I've ever seen at a Nordic venue) and registered, got our bibs and some raffle tickets and meandered out to the start area. We signed up for the 1k race, the other option was a 3k, and thought that it might be a little tough for us to finish the whole course without some encouragement. So we introduced ourselves to Vivi who was with her dad and asked if she would mind leaving her dad and showing us how to race. Vivi is 5, very talkative and energetic so she kept us going and entertained. It looked like it was going to be a tight sprint finish between the three of us but Vivi put on a stupendous burst of speed at the end and beat us both! I can't remember the last time I wore my racing bib over my jacket so this was a nice change of scene. Not to mention that there were some pretty sweet costumes out on the race course-- Liz & I wished that WE had some sweet costumes but the best we could muster was to dress up like US Ski Team members.