The Old Man and the Loppet

t all started sometime the summer before last, when my son Nathan suggested he would come back East and we would both ski the Loppet. Held at the Nordic Center at Mount Van Hoevenberg, the Lake Placid Loppet is said to be one of the hardest distance cross-country-ski races in the country. I said something like, “Sure, good idea,” and thought nothing of it. Until, while in Colorado over Christmas, he told me the date of the race and reminded me that I said I would do it. One of those