Why All The Cowbells?

 

Love this! Like a Norman Rockwell painting, the kid holding the sign, as they await Jessie's finish of the 10km, and in the midst of all this: the girl catching a snowflake on her tongue. 

So much joy in that single moment!

It's the night before the night before we're driving to Lake Placid, the week ahead of the World Cup cross-country ski events at Lake Placid, and I’m unable to sleep for some reason, since I've been gripped by some Field of Dreams like urge to see the cross-country skiing, since it's in our backyard. It's not exactly in our backyard, it's five hours away. Yes, but it's way closer than Milano Cortina, I say. Besides, a five-hour drive to Lake Placid might be less stressful than a one-hour drive around Boston most days.

Back to the cowbells.

I ask Susan, “do you think there will be cowbells?”

Yes.

“Do you think they'll be standing right behind us, clanging them?”

Probably.

Why all the cowbells, I wonder. Then it dawns on me. Stands full of people clapping with their mittens on, is going to sound something like this: pat pat-pat-pat-pat. It's just a whisper louder than one hand clapping. No wonder. That's why the cowbells.

We walked around Mirror Lake that morning and it seemed pretty nice out, and they were predicting just a coating to an inch of snow, and so we went with lined pants instead of snow pants.

 

We park and get in line for the shuttle, as the first snowflakes start to gently fall. We stand there for an hour, waiting for the shuttle bus, all while the snow continues to come down, and the line has doubled, now snaking around the parking lot. 

Once we get dropped off at Mt. Van Hoevenberg, we have to walk a mile across snow-slicked ice surfaces, and then some weird artificial quicksand-like snow beads, and the snow is really coming down. We get to the grandstand seats, and our butts instantly freeze to the surface. Snow is accumulating on Susan's hood. Flakes melt on contact soaking our mittens. Our pants and boots are soaked. The boots are waterproof-ish, but not when you’ve been thrown into a pool, which is how it feels.

We try to clap. It goes splat-splat-splat.

We have everything we need, just not with us:

Yak Trax in the garage
Bag of handwarmers in our laundry room
Snow pants in car

Here are a few pics from Friday’s 10km race, and Saturday’s 1.5km sprint.

We are lucky enough to get there to see the start of the Women’s 10km. It’s just like watching it from our couch, it’s up on the big screen, except a lot colder. The photos are like impressionist paintings because of the snow, kind of cool in a fun artsy way.

 

Just like being on our couch! Jessie takes the course!

Jessie just 75m from the 10km finish line

Note that I tried taking more pics in between these two, but my finger was so cold, it wasn’t being detected by my phone screen. I’m not surprised that the camera screen can’t feel my finger; neither can I.

We go to EMS that night to get waterproof mittens. They’re having a half-price sale!

It’s hard to make out bib numbers because of the snow.

I think this is Katey Houser

And pretty sure this is Ava Thurston

We would've liked to stay for the men's 10km race, but even more so though, we would like not to have to get medevac'd off the mountain, or lose some toes, so we head back to get on a shuttle back in town.

 

Once in our seats, the mountain of snow on top of the woman’s hat in front of us threatens to avalanche off onto us; all it would take is a quick tilt.

 

After EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports, not Emergency Medical Services), we go back to Smoke Signals for dinner, where there are plenty of tables, even though it’s almost six o’clock. Where is everybody? Hmmm. If it took all day for people to get shuttled up the mountain, it will take all night to bring them back. They’re stuck up on the mountain. We get the BBQ nachos and they’re delicious. We’d also gone there the previous night, and so we were recognized by the servers. We are not embarrassed.

Five stars: the first thing you see is the view, looking out at Mirror Lake, and then the people, they were so nice, and gave us such good food recommendations, and last, the food was amazing: BBQ tacos & BBQ nachos.

In town, the Palace Theater is showing Jessie Diggins’ movie, Threshold, all weekend and the marquee is lit up. See my last post for the movie review:

https://www.gainline.com/2026/03/threshold-movie-review.html

 

The Hampton Inn is the nicest Hampton Inn, and in fact maybe even the nicest hotel in general that I’ve ever stayed at. Breakfast and coffee can be had in the main lodge like room overlooking Mirror Lake. They even had a good dark roast coffee and real half and half! And the people were so nice! Rooms quiet and comfortable. I left a couple of Easter eggs, a couple of signed copies of my books in their little library. Go check it out, they’re yours for the having if they’re still there.

 

Speaking of books, we also enjoyed our stop in at The Bookstore Plus, right on Main Street.

We went back to Mt. Van Hoevenberg Saturday morning for the Sprint Qualification runs.

 

We arrive just in time to cheer for Jessie as she slices on by, too fast for my camera! We cheer for all the racers.

This is (probably) Julia Kern, from Waltham!

With 3 to 6 inches more snow mixing with frozen precipitation predicted for Sunday, we decided to “double pole” it out of there, and head home. We picked up some new lingo along the way. If “a coating to an inch” turns out to be 6 inches, who knows what "3 to 6 inches" might translate into? A foot or three? Lake Placid seems to be in its very own meteorological province.

Finally: Congrats to Jessie on wrapping up her amazing career, on home snow, and wishing her all the best as she double poles into whatever her next chapter might look like. Guaranteed, she’ll bring her same joy to whatever comes next. And she has inspired the next generation of cross-country skiers who will follow in her tracks.

Upcoming:

The 20km Coop FIS Cross-Country World Cup race in Lake Placid Sunday March 22, 2026 can be livestreamed on Outside TV. Women’s race starts at 2:20 PM today.

https://watch.outsideonline.com/live-events/usss?utm_medium=referral&utm_source%E2%80%A6=

It will also be re-played 3/29 at 1PM on NBC!

 

RESULTS:

 

10km Classic Women’s results:

1 Linn Svahn (bib #10) Sweden 29:04.4

2 Frida Karlsson (32) Sweden 29:05.8

3 Heidi Weng (54) Norway 29:26.5

4 Astrid Slind (50) Norway 29:33.4

5 Jessie Diggins (58) US 29:36.9

Other US Finishers:

19 Rosie Brennan (15) 31:08.9

25 Kendall Kramer (5) 31:35.5

28 Novie McCabe (59) 31:41.9

33 Ava Thurston (45) 32:07.2

34 Hailey Swirbul (57) 32:09.4

35 Alayna Sonnesyn (7) 32:10.9

47 Samantha Smith (47) 33:11.5

48 Emma Albrecht (41) 33:12.5

50 Renae Anderson (39) 33:19.3

53 Emma Reeder (33) 33:47.7

58 Katey Houser (37) 34:44.7

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?raceid=49524&sectorcode=CC&competitorid=184205&use_local_time=0

 

Sprint (1.5km) results:

Women:

1 Linn Svahn SWE

2 Jonna Sundling SWE

3 Maja Dahlquist SWE

4 Nadine Faehndrich SUI

5 Johanna Hagstroem SWE

For full results:

https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/results.html?raceid=49528&sectorcode=CC&competitorid=184205&use_local_time=0

 

Men:

1 Federico Pellegrino ITA

2 Lars Heggen NOR

3 Anton Grahn SWE

4 Lucas Chanavat ITA

5 Harald Oestberg Amundsen NOR

Books:

If anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

 https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

 

References:

The pics of Federico Pellegrino are from the TV, taken from our couch.

© 2026 Rosemary A. Schmidt

Rose Schmidt is the author of The Happy Clam (© 2020), and Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life (© 2004), both published by Gainline Press. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other agency or organization. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and attribution, within the limits of fair use, is permitted. To request permission to re-use or reprint any of the content on the site, please contact me.

 

THRESHOLD: A Movie Review

 

«««««

What if?

I know the word “movie” originated at the inception of moving pictures, followed shortly thereafter by “talkies.”

But, what if we call them movies because of their power to move us?

Because that’s what this one does. This is my first foray into movie reviews, though I’ve done a few other reviews of books and concerts in the past (Bleachers, Florence + The Machine), so I’m branching out.

 

To Jessie: Thank you. You know you didn’t have to do this, you could’ve just kept this private, and not put yourself under this spotlight. It must be a bit scary now, knowing the film is out there and people are watching some of your most vulnerable moments. But the telling is so genuine, that anyone watching will only walk away with tremendous respect and compassion for you, and a new appreciation for the struggles faced by those with an eating disorder. The film evokes compassion, pure compassion.

It was eye-opening to see that this could happen to someone who is at the top of their game, as the movie follows Jessie through the 2023 – 2024 season. Just coming off her impressive showing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, she’s the most decorated cross-country skier for the US. You can be highly successful – and still struggling. And maybe the two are intertwined. She has indicated that she will be retiring after this season, and so her last races will be at the World Cup events coming up at Lake Placid March 19-22. 

 

Thank you to Jessie, because by taking this risk, and putting this movie out there, and sharing your story, there will be people who seek help, because you’ve shown that help is possible. And you fully understand just how difficult the struggle is.

 

To Jessie: You are enough.

You were always enough.

You will be remembered.

You will be remembered for the joy you brought to the sport and the love you brought for your teammates. You’ll be remembered as a fierce competitor who left it all on the field.

 

The film is streaming now on Peacock and available on Apple TV.

Here’s the trailer: https://youtu.be/zqbeo8ruAUg

 

To read a little more about it:

https://www.usskiandsnowboard.org/news/threshold-untold-story-jessie-diggins-premieres-nbcs-peacock

 

Directed and Produced by: Lars Brinkema & Torsten Brinkema

Executive Producer: Torsten Brinkema, Patrick Dempsey

Written by: Lars Brinkema

Producer: Mark Steele, Samantha Taylor

Editor: Yaniv Elani, JD Marlow

Music by: Julianna Barwick & Mary Lattimore

Director of Photography: Torsten Brinkema & Lars Brinkema.

 

Olympics Post-Scripts:

I’d planned to do a post-script to my previous post in February, and there were a couple of directions I could’ve gone. To be honest, this is the first year I’ve even really watched much of the Olympics. I missed the past 30 or 40 years because I was working, and would catch only a headline or highlight here or there on the news. I’ve been living under a rock – literally, figuratively, and metaphorically! More on that later.

 

US Hockey Gold: Yay Women, Tsk-Tsk-Tsk Men

There was the amazing bookend mirror gold medals won by the US Women’s Hockey Team followed by the US Men’s Hockey team, and we got to celebrate that for like one millisecond, until the President’s call to the men’s locker room, saying he’d “probably have to invite the women’s team too,” as if. My reaction: Tsk tsk tsk. This took me right back to sophomore year of high school English class (and that was a LONG TIME AGO), when the teacher would invariably say some stupid sexist thing multiple times every class, and the girls, we would tsk. At first it was just a natural reaction, one or two of us, but then it became a thing, every girl in the room tsk-ing for like 5 minutes, so loud he couldn’t talk over us. It would’ve been nice if some of the guys had joined in. And it would’ve been nice if the men’s team had called out the President in that moment: “Bro, those chicks are awesome, and way more deserving, they’ve medaled so many more times than we have. Didn’t you watch their game?” Total respect and admiration for the US Women’s Hockey team, especially Captain Hilary Knight, goalie Aerin Frankel, and winning shot-maker Megan Keller. I thought Hilary put it best, when she said it wasn’t her job to explain someone else’s bad behavior. Bravo!

 

Paralympics

Just when I thought I could start prying my fingernails from the ceiling, here come the Paralympics, athletes hurtling down mountainsides again. Wow, just wow, so inspiring. Especially the story of cross-country skier Oksana Masters. Cheering you guys on!

 

Pain

And then I thought about digging a little more into the topic of pain, as I’d heard the announcers repeatedly say how Jessie Diggins faced and embraced pain to get past it, and maximize her performance. Because I’m like way on the other end of this spectrum now. Sure, in my rugby-playing days, we all said, “no pain, no gain,” and we worked our asses off to be in the best shape possible so we could play on game day, and not get mopped up on the field by the other team, which was a real concern for a 110-pound hooker. But now, this is Retired Rose speaking, and I literally say in my most recent book, when talking about exercise: If you experience pain, stop. In fact, if you could stop a little just before feeling any pain, that would be even better. First, I don’t want to get sued by anyone for doing something mentioned in my book. That would be painful. But also, at this stage in my life, one missed rep is better than a month of physical therapy!

 

And so, at first, I thought Jessie and I are pretty far apart on this topic. I’m a big weenie when it comes to pain. But then I thought about it. I just retired from my career as a Geologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers last May after 33 years, the last twenty as a first-line supervisor, and I realized that maybe we weren’t so different. Type A, driven to excel, and always do our best. Need someone to review the Feasibility Study report for the New York New Jersey Harbor Deepening Channel Improvement project? Sure, I can fit that in, on top of everything else. I put myself through repeated periods of burnout and exhaustion throughout my career, landing in the ER a couple of times with migraines and dehydration. None of my supervisors ever knew about it (I think). And for what? Medals? Well, yeah, actually, the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal. The Timothy Skeen Geotechnics Professional of the Year. The NY NJ project was the team of the year. It was good work, important work, with good people.

But at what cost? And why? At what point did the work stop feeding me, and start feeding on me, at my own expense? At the expense of my own health and relationships. I’d forget to eat lunch some days. I was too busy. I’d come home late every night. The demands of the job only grew over time, as both the size of the section grew and the span of missions expanded. Geology covers a lot of ground. Looking back now, I ask: Why did I do it? Why did it have to be so hard? Yet, I couldn’t stop myself either. Was this also a repetitive behavior that caused self-harm? I only stopped – retired – when I literally couldn’t do it anymore. This thing, you could call it workaholism maybe. Maybe we’re not so different.

 

On some level, it must have been what I wanted to do, because I kept doing it, right? And maybe it’s a case of the old saying, everywhere you go, you bring the weather.

 

But I hope the next generation figures out a better way to do things.

 

Yet it wasn’t all bad. I had some amazing opportunities. I liked the work and I liked the people. And I was able to take the month of February off in 2020 to finish my book.

 

And then I thought I might pivot to a post about retirement. About getting back on the other path, after taking that sharp turn at the fork where two roads diverged, changing majors for the umpteenth time, from English to Geology, because I knew two things: I needed a job when I graduated, and I had never seen “novelist wanted” in the classified section ever, and I had spent a lot of time scouring want ads  back in the day. But Robert Frost had it wrong. There aren’t just two roads, but hundreds, and some are big changes in course, but most are the micro-decisions made every day, that add up over time to shape our lives.

 

If all is either Olympics or training, as Maxim’s parents told him, then in the writing world, there is writing and not-writing. Aside from writing, everything else is planning, preparation, and gathering material. And I’ve had a lot of years to gather material since changing majors sophomore year in college. I want to write a beautiful story that moves people. Despite all the ills and horrors of the world: ICE, Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, and now Iran. Such sad times.

 

A song for the day:

“Love’s Divine” by Seal because we all need love and love’s divine:

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/iczaDcixBj4?si=N9u_p0Bp6uEplsRT

 

Books & Upcoming:

If anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

References:

The movie review photos are just screenshots from the trailer.

© 2026 Rosemary A. Schmidt

Rose Schmidt is the author of The Happy Clam (© 2020), and Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life (© 2004), both published by Gainline Press. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other agency or organization. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and attribution, within the limits of fair use, is permitted. To request permission to re-use or reprint any of the content on the site, please contact me.

 

Always For Love

 

Jessie Diggins crossing the 10k finish line

After a week of binge watching the Olympics and fruitlessly attempting to get Noah Kahan tickets, we headed out to the slopes. Actually the flats of the Weston Ski Track. Plenty of snow, and temperatures finally above zero, it was perfect, plus we’d been inspired by the skiers, from Lindsey Vonn’s return and fall and Breezy Johnson’s win in the downhill on Sunday, to Jessie Diggins’ gritty bronze finish in the 10k cross country race on Thursday despite bruised ribs, to Federica  “the tiger” Brignone’s miraculous comeback in the Super G for Italy, it was all spectacular.

 

The thing about Lindsey Vonn is that she not only believed she could do it, she made us believe too. I believed. Getting her right arm hooked on a gate? Ninety nine times out of a hundred, that doesn’t happen. But it’s just a testament to how aggressively she was attacking the course. If you watched the men’s downhill, they’re all scraping by the gates, cutting those turns just that sharp.

 

It reminded me of the 1994 winter Olympics when Diann Roffe-Steinrotter won gold in the Super G. When writing my first book (Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life), I was fortunate to have the chance to talk to Diann about just the all-out nature of the sport. In newspapers, she had been quoted as saying:

 

“The Olympics is just one day, one hill, 1 ½ minutes in your life – whoever shakes and bakes the best out there is going to win it.”

 

She brought considerable experience to the race, having skied and inspected numerous courses over her 11-year career, and also had plenty of reasons to consider not skiing, such as knee surgery in 1986. And the death of her close friend Ulrike Maier from Austria in a skiing accident just three weeks before the Olympics.

 

“Ulrike and I were very close friends. Every time I step into my skis, I think about her. Her accident was just a matter of fate, but I think if she were up there today watching, she was saying to all the racers, ‘Just point them downhill and go for it.”

 

I think Ulrike must be looking down on the competitors this year and just smiling and cheering them all on.

 

Watching the 10k cross country race, the first time I saw Jessie Diggins skiing, what did I say? “She’s not wearing a hat?” Oh my God, I am turning into my mother. My poor dear Mom who would drive me to the sledding hill at the golf course when I was a kid. In Illinois. And she let me buy one of those early-version Skifer snowboards, with just a rope to hang onto, and staples on the board for friction (since there were no boot clips or bindings) to keep your feet on. They did not. I did not stay on the Skifer.

This is EXACTLY what mine looked like!

I went on a class ski trip to the mountains of Wisconsin (or was it Michigan), and got some very bad advice: just snowplow down a black diamond slope. I remember going directly to the ski house right afterwards, my skis dragging behind me as I walked. The very best part of that trip was meeting my friend, T, who would become a life-long friend, as we traced our steps from Springfield, Illinois to Boston, New Jersey, and Vermont.

 

Skiing is nuts. Rugby at least is played on a level, flat grassy field. I had tried cross country skiing in college, but never had the benefit of nice neat tracks already made in the snow. So, it was a lot of work. May as well have been jogging. The skis now – so slippery!

 

We go to start down one of the trails, and there’s a very slight decline, and I’m sliding down, down, down, just staying upright, until I come to rest at the far end of the wide expanse I’d just crossed. “I think I’ll ski this track over here!” I yell to Susan, who has wisely put on snowshoes. Like I meant to do this.

 

Somehow we make our way around the course, and we’re almost back to the ski house, and now there is another hill ahead of me, maybe a six-foot drop over one hundred feet of run. I put my skis in the tracks, beat my chest a few times (I saw one of the snowboarders do that, I think) and try to relax, bend my knees, and focus on the line ahead and keeping my balance. And I do it! Whoosh! But all the time thinking, there’s like 50-50 odds I wind up on a stretcher.

 

Okay, this is the hill, and I know it doesn't look like much, but it was terrifying!

So, the Olympics have provided a lot of inspiration – to take irresponsible risks. How do you stop when you’re going down a slope on cross-country skis? Guess that would’ve been a good thing to Google ahead of time. Or maybe we could sign up for lessons next week. Who knows.

 

But the other inspiration the Olympics have offered is the spirit of Olympism – see Hailey Swirbul’s Substack post for more on that topic.

 

Link: https://haileyswirbul.substack.com/p/the-olympic-spirit

 

 

And the team spirit of camaraderie, just wanting everyone to do their best. One of the most touching moments to me, was when Jessie’s teammate, Hailey, goes to help her after the 10k race, so gently undoing her skis and poles, helping her up and holding her in a hug. It is such a tender moment. Race done, all left out on the course, having given it all, all for the love of the sport, and believing in each other. This, to me, is the winningest moment of the games.

 

Jessie Diggins on left, Hailey Swirbul on right

There are so many stories of inspiration.

 

Figure skater Maxim Naumov somehow going on, despite the loss of both his parents, Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, as well as many other members of the Boston skating community in the tragic plane crash over the Potomac River last January, a needless tragedy. And yet Maxim is going on. Vadim and Evgenia are surely with him too.

 

Something his parents told him: “Everything is practice until the Olympics.”

 

In a similar way, for writers, everything is gathering material, practice and preparation, until the writing begins.

 

This is a post for everyone, to play for the love of the game. The very definition of the word, amateur, derives from the Latin, amare, meaning “to love.”

 

Love, and love well, and believe in each other.

 

Happy Valentines Day!

 

A couple of songs for the day:

“Naïve Melody (This Must Be The Place)” by Talking Heads:

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/Fb2q141rMNE?si=5bPReD9MbetnRIhw

 

Shawn Colvin (live acoustic version)

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/9FZI5EWiME4?si=0_p5Mwr_mxXAKwJS

 

“Love’s Divine” by Seal, just because:

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/iczaDcixBj4?si=N9u_p0Bp6uEplsRT

  

Post-Script:

Okay, I have to address the elephant in the room: the Super Bowl. As they say in sports, no one wins second place. It always feels like losing. But the Patriots, in my opinion, did well just making it to the Super Bowl this year, and kudos to Coach Vrabel, on creating such an esprit d’ corps within the team in his first year.

On our way out of the Weston Ski Track, we see a flyer, and highlighted is Julia Kern’s name – she’s from Waltham! How cool, we were skiing where maybe Julia trained or learned to ski. Who knows where we’ll be in four years if we start training now.

Wishing Lindsey Vonn a smooth and speedy recovery. If you need any books to read, just give a shout.

Actually, if anyone wants copies of my books, they’re both on Amazon, but for the rugby book, just reach out in a comment, and I’ll send you a copy. It will be simpler.

The Happy Clam is available to bookstores via Ingram, and online also via Bookshop.org.

 https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-happy-clam-rosemary-a-schmidt/baa4885a79b7f90d?ean=9780970852823&next=t

References:

Chamberlain, Tony. 1994. More US gold in them hills – Super(ior) performance helps Roffe strike it rich. The Boston Globe, February 16, 1994: p 29.

The photos are all mine, except:

The photo of the Skifer is a screenshot from the VintageWinter website, here’s the link for the curious reader:

https://www.vintagewinter.com/products/vintage-skifer-snowboard-by-nash-1

The ones taken of the Olympics, I’m obviously not in Milano or Cortina, and so those were just taken from my couch, but almost like being there. Thank you to NBC, USA Network, CNBC, and Peacock for the streaming – the next best thing to being there! 

© 2026 Rosemary A. Schmidt

Rose Schmidt is the author of The Happy Clam (© 2020), and Go Forward, Support! The Rugby of Life (© 2004), both published by Gainline Press. The views expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other agency or organization. Use of individual quotes with proper citation and attribution, within the limits of fair use, is permitted. If you would like to request permission to use or reprint any of the content on the site, please contact me.