Sometimes...

Sometimes things are meant to be. It often seems that the when worst thing in the world occurs to me, I'm thankful weeks later. This may be one of those times. Scott's illness was a huge disappointment for both of us. Huge scoring opportunities in his favorite events, on a great hill... all lost.

However, there will be other opportunities like these in the years to come. We mustn't lose sight of Scott's season goals. The major event of the year for athletes his age is the J2 National Championships, being hosted by Sugarloaf, ME this coming week. Everything we've done since last April is focused on succeeding next week. I can already see where a full week of competition in Aspen, followed by driving across country in 48 hours, might not have postured Scott for success at J2s.

Scott spent 10 of the past 11 days resting. He stayed indoors, took his meds, slept long nights, caught up on school and visited with his mother. All good things. He also worked out hard for 2+ hours each day at the local gym. Provided his VO2 is recovered, he's probably in his best best shape since October. Nothing like rebuilding mid-season! We're hoping that the rest and drugs, plus the fact that we caught the pneumonia in its early stages, will reduce the lung damage. Coming from 10,000 feet down to sea level doesn't hurt either!

Meanwhile, I took advantage of this break to add two days to the travel plan and leave early for the East coast. I'm in Boston now waiting for Scott's flight to arrive -- more rest for him. In retrospect, there's no way we could have safely made the drive in two days; I'm glad we didn't try!

So we go to the big Championships with lots of questions that will be answered when Scott hits the snow on Tuesday. Fortunately, he'll have three days on snow before competition begins. We're cautiously optomistic.