We ski UP hill

"After today, we'll be able to do half a biathlon."

That's the kind of thinking my mom regularly engages in. Or at least, the kind of thinking she regularly talks about. It's the ultimate "glass half full" way of looking at things and she's only ever half kidding (or half serious, depending on whether you think kidding is positive or negative).

It was 6:30 am and we were on the way to Kirkwood to try cross country skiing for the first time. It's something she's been talking about trying for years, and it's something I haven't ever done before. When it came up somehow, I egged her on until she committed to going late Saturday night.

"Are we really going to go, or are you just saying we're going to go?" I asked her. The ball was in her court (she was paying, after all) and after seeing my excitement for free winter sports her eyes got big and she got that wide grin she gets when she's about to doing something exciting.

Our lesson began at 10:30 with a man I would have guessed was 55 but who was actually 73. It seems that the fountain of youth is on two skinny planks of fiberglass.

The surprisingly old instructor remembered my name throughout the hour-and-a-half lesson and I fought hard to not fulfill his prediction that I would try and fly across the training course as fast as possible. Because I was youngish and didn't live up to his old-man expectations of being hyper-competitive and impatient, toward the end of the lesson when no one would volunteer to be the first to try stopping, he of course called on me and I of course fell on my face. Stopping is not as easy as starting, it turns out.

The meadow across the highway from the lodge was gorgeous and the 5k trail went by in a blink. Mom fell a few times, but only because I was harassing her about going faster. Turns out I am hyper-competitive and impatient.

On the way home, Mom said, "All we need to do now is learn how to shoot." Mom, I tell her, after years of shooting zombies, criminals, cops and digital ducks, I already can shoot. I am a biathlete now. Or at least, I'm curious about it.