VST Reader Athletes - January 2003

Kate Carter

Chip Winner and Gail Breslauer

Chip Winner

Age: 53
Residence: Middlebury
Family: Wife, Marie; daughters Connie, 18, and Katharine, 12
Occupation: Computer Services Coordinator, Middlebury College
Primary Sport: Running

VST: What got you started in sports?
CW: Physical therapy got me started. I have a family background of health problems, particularly arthritis. At 35, I started to display signs of it. I was working with a local contractor. I would be working on my knees and would need something to support my weight when I stood back up. Then I developed carpal tunnel problems. I tried physical therapy as a solution, and I really started getting into the exercise aspect. I guess I took it a few levels beyond where the therapist wanted me to go, but I got my bike back out and I got back into skiing.

VST: Were you able to just jump into it?
CW: Yes. I knew that if blood pressure didn’t get me, it would be the arthritis. I had to do something. I turned 40. I wasn’t going to take it in a sitting position. I started biking every night after work, 10-15 miles. I started to build strength and to feel pretty good.

VST: When did you get into racing?
CW: When I was 42, my father-in-law had bypass surgery. He was home recovering, and was feeling pretty good. He decided he was going to run the Falmouth Road Race he was feeling so good. I figured if he could do it, I should be able to, too.

VST: How did you prepare?
CW: I started working out on the treadmill to build strength. The Falmouth road race is a 7.1-mile race with 9000 runners in Massachusetts. The course goes from Woods Hole to Falmouth Heights. I thought that I’d start with something shorter to work up to it. The first race I ever ran was the four-mile Apple Blossom Derby in Shoreham. I ran, I finished, and it wasn’t too bad. Then my father-in-law died from an aneurism. So I decided to run Falmouth in his memory. When I told my wife, she looked at me like I was nuts. But I got tips from friends who are runners. By the time I finished the Falmouth race, I was hooked.

VST: How much do you race now?
CW: I run about 42-45 races a year. I got into marathons, and I’ve done a couple of sprint triathlons, but I had to back off the swimming because of my shoulders.

VST: Many athletes in your position would hang up their shoes.
CW: I have degenerative arthritis in my back, but running is really keeping me going. Now, I run with a back brace, but running keeps me loose and limber. I’m not going to let the arthritis beat me. I have had two surgeries on my left big toe, four surgeries on my right shoulder, two on my left shoulder, surgery on my elbow and carpal tunnel surgery. I’m on the verge of back surgery: I have two discs that are totally compressed, and one that is herniated. One of them gave me problems last year when I was running a marathon.

VST: Do you still run marathons?
CW: Absolutely. I did four this year and four last year. I’ve done 15 or 16 total, including two Boston Marathons.

VST: You mentioned that you backed off the swimming, but you haven’t backed off the running. How do you determine when your body has had enough?
CW: I try to let my body do the talking, and I work closely with the doctors who have helped me over the years. If pain is interfering with my stride, I back off. With the swimming, after the third surgery, I developed a staph infection. The doctor who did the surgery basically said that if he had to go back in there he’d need to start borrowing from other parts. So, now I strengthen my shoulders with weight training and swim recreationally, but I don’t want to push myself too hard. It is all trial and error.

VST: Are there races you still want to run?
CW: I’d love to run the New York Marathon. I was going to try and do Disney this year, but I didn’t register in time.

VST: Do your daughters share your passion for running?
CW: My oldest daughter is athletic, but she is more into team sports. Katharine is like her dad. She can’t sit still for five minutes. She’s run some races. She and I are usually on the slopes every weekend, and often we’ll go for a snowshoe run for a little cross-training when we’re done. Katharine has run some snowshoe races as well, and has been involved with the Vermont City Marathon Mini Milers since they started. I’m not pushing her, I want her to appreciate and love the sport.

VST: How has your training changed as your body has presented you with more challenges?
CW: I have definitely had to cut back on my training. I’m doing more abdominal work and a lot more stretching. I am trying to build the muscular support to help my back out. I am doing a lot of strength training for my knees and generally staying as active as I possibly can. In some of my races I have to break stride and walk if I’m in a lot of pain, but it’s okay. I just want to have fun and finish.

VST: Have you always had that attitude towards racing?
CW: Yes. When I first started running races, my kids would ask me, “Daddy, did you win?” I’d tell them I started, I finished, I had a great time and I met good people. Fun is, and always has been, my goal. If I finish at the back of the pack, that’s where I finish. If I win my age group, and I have a few times, it’s icing on the cake.

VST: We’ve heard you have quite a collection of race bibs in your office, and in fact they seem to be the wallpaper. How did that tradition start?
CW: It’s just one of those things. I started hanging up my bibs with my time and place written on them on a bulletin board. They kind of spilled over to the wall. I started to run in 1992, and I’ve done the Falmouth race every year. It looks kind of neat to see all those bibs next to each other. And there’s a bunch of races I’ve done multiple times. I’ve done the Mt. Washington road race three times, the Whiteface Hill Climb four times, the Adirondack Marathon twice, four Cape Cod Marathons, seven Vermont City Marathons (and I’m registered again this year), and other assorted marathons like the Ocean State Marathon in Rhode Island, and the Adirondack Distance Run in Lake George. I’ve also done a couple of summer biathlons. Instead of skis, you wear running shoes.

VST: What do you do in your spare time?
CW: Putter around the house, help out my mom who now lives in Burlington. We do a lot of family outings, and I always try to find a race wherever we’re going. I’m also an avid snowshoe racer, skier and golfer. I like to go out early in the morning, maybe 5:30 or 6, and try and sneak in nine holes before work. I am also a licensed radio amateur and have been for the past 40 years.
When I’m not racing because I’m incapacitated from a surgery, I volunteer at races. I work the registration table, and sometimes even when I do run a race I’ll help break down when the event is over. I like to try and put something back in to the sport that I’ve gained so much from.

VST: Does your wife still look at you like you’re nuts?
CW: No. She knows how important it is to me to keep going as best I can. My resting pulse used to be 95-100. Now it’s in the low 60s! I could stop running, and maybe I’d have less pain, but the mental aspect of it is too important to me. The positives outweigh the negatives.

VST: Any final thoughts on running you want to share?
CW: I always appreciate seeing people out there doing it, no matter what their size, shape or age. All the time in races I see people giving it their all. I’ll be the first one to come up behind someone and tell them they’re doing a great job and keep it up. It’s great to see people get hooked. Getting out there will always make you feel better, mentally and physically.

Gail Breslauer

Residence: Mad River Valley
Family: Partner, Red Goodman, seven dogs, one cat
Occupation: Independent Freelance Educational Consultant
Primary Sport: Dogsledding, or dog mushing

VST: Did you grow up mushing dogs?
GB: No, but I’ve always been outdoorsy and athletic. I’ve played sports since I was a kid. But it wasn’t until 1984, when I was an Alpine and Nordic skier, that I got my first Siberian Husky and got involved with mushing. Siberian Huskies should never be let off leash where they can run. They’re smart, inquisitive, independent and stubborn, and despite knowing commands, once they’re free, they’ll run and wander until they’re ready to come home. I learned that the hard way. So I started taking Kiska out with me Nordic skiing. That is how I found skijoring, and eventually dogsledding.

VST: Were you able to locate the proper gear to create a skijoring setup, or did you jury-rig a harness and tow line?
GB: We did our best with what we had until I located the proper gear, which was a much better solution. We skijored until Kiska died from liver cancer at age ten. It was then that I decided I’d never have only one dog again. So I got two dogs and went skijoring with two huskies. At that time I was a full-time classroom teacher in Fayston. I was fascinated with Inuit culture, history and lifestyle, but that lifestyle didn’t fit with my own.

VST: How did you make the transition to mushing?
GB: I got lucky and a dog sled came into my life. Another musher had left it at a local vet who passed it on to me. Chip Litchfield, a local musher, who was getting out of the sport, was incredibly supportive. He gave me the sled, a training rig, and dog box. I discovered the joy of running dogs with the sled. It was so much fun with two dogs, it made me want more dogs. More dogs meant more power. It grew from there.

VST: Did the dogs cause a shift in your professional life?
GB: The dogs didn’t cause a shift in my professional life, my professional life took a shift on its own. I got involved with the NASA Teacher in Space Program. I was one of two finalists selected from Vermont. After the Challenger accident, local teachers asked me to talk about the accident with their students. The shift in my professional life occurred because I felt that until the shuttle started flying again I should try and use the resources I had available to me through NASA to help other people deal with the tragedy. People have car accidents every day, but that doesn’t meant we stop driving cars. I was able to help teachers integrate math, science and technology using space education as the hook. I was doing professional development workshops for teachers, traveling to schools throughout Vermont and outside of Vermont.

VST: How have you integrated the dogs into your teachings?
GB: First, I was the space lady. Then, a couple of the teachers who I worked with knew I had dogs, and invited me into their schools and into their classrooms with the dogs. I started to develop programs incorporating sled dogs. I had gone to the Yukon in 1990-91 as part of the space education program, so I had slides of me snowshoeing and traveling alone inside the Arctic Circle that I incorporated into a visual presentation that I tie into my experience with the dogs.

VST: Was racing your dogs a natural next step from recreational mushing and skijoring?
GB: I was curious to try racing, to learn more about it and see if I was interested. I had participated in some competitive sports growing up, like softball and basketball, and there is certainly a part of me that is competitive. I’ve always liked the camaraderie of team sports, and I also like winning. Still, most of my time and energy has been spent enjoying nature, exercise, and the challenge of solo adventuring. Of course, I was also curious to see how the dogs would do. I had been reading a lot about sled dogging in New England. The New England Sled Dog Association was founded in 1924, so sled dog racing is part of this area’s history. People had also been trying to draft me to help organize the Waitsfield Sled Dog Race. So I was interested to know what racing is all about.

VST: How did your first race go?
GB: It didn’t go well. We have four dogs. Red was running one in a race, and my team was the other three. My lead dog came down with a stomach virus, so I couldn’t run her. Instead I had to run a younger dog who hadn’t fully developed her leadership skills. At one point during the race I had to stop and untangle the dogs, juggle them around and then start up again. We finished, and I figured there had to be a way to do better. I learned a lot talking to other mushers. And we have done better, though a team of purebred Siberian Huskies will never be the fastest. Mushers who are out there to win in shorter races run faster mixed breeds.

VST: Do you think racing will become a bigger part of your mushing experience as time goes on?
GB: I’m really a recreational musher. I like going out and going for distances more than racing. Plus, to follow the racing circuit can get really expensive.

VST: How have you changed since becoming a dog musher? How has spending so much time focused on your dogs changed you?
GB: Well, life has gone to the dogs. Mushing is a lifestyle. Even with our small kennel of seven dogs, it’s time consuming. I plan my day around training runs, trying to get the dogs out in the coldest temperatures. I learn from my dogs. They are so much fun, and have been a great inspiration for me to read and to learn. And, I’ve met lots of great people through the dogs.
I’ve always had the philosophy that life is too short, and that things happen for a reason. After the Challenger accident, that feeling kicked in stronger. It was part of the impetus for me to look at my mental list of what I want to do, where I want to go, etc. Dog mushing was certainly on that list. I wasn’t sure if it would be something I could do. And it changed my life. It is really and truly a dream come true.
I think it’s important to mention that I couldn’t have done this alone. Some of the dogs are mine, others belong to a generous benefactor, mentor and breeder of Siberian Huskies, Andrea McMahan. There’s no way I could have done this without her. She’s helped me immensely.

VST: Is sled dogging a personal passion or is it a part of your business?
GB: It’s a little of both. We do offer skijoring lessons, and we sell dog skijoring gear and horse skijoring gear. We are working with Vermont Adaptive Snow Sports (VASS) to put together a program using the dogs. We’ve been working hard on it for the past year, and it’s very close to coming together. Also, Red and I are co-coordinators of the Waitsfield Sled Dog Race. We organize 100 volunteers, purses and prizes for the two-day event, and a mushers dinner. It’s a lot of logistics and a fun February event.