It was a good news, bad news weekend for Elle Purrier, a cross-country runner from the far northern reaches of Vermont.
On Saturday, Purrier, a Richford High senior, won her second straight Nike Cross Nationals (NXN) Northeast Regional championship in 18:09 with a wire-to-wire victory on the extremely tough Bowdoin Park course in Wappingers Falls, New York.
On Sunday, Purrier failed to bag a deer on the last day of white tail hunting season in Vermont. (Depending on your point of view, that might be good news.)
Purrier, 17, is not your typical female distance star. She lives on a working farm in a remote area bordering Canada. In a live-off-the-land culture, she learned to hunt at age 11. Purrier has never actually shot a deer but she has bagged some turkey. She’s as comfortable with a rifle in her hands as on a hilly cross-country course. For Purrier, the hillier the better.
Her farm, in the town of Montgomery Center (pop: about 1,000) on the road to the Jay Peak ski area, has been in her family for more than a century. The Purriers have 60 head of cattle, both beef and dairy, along with alfalfa and grass crops. Every morning around 5:00, Elle (she was named Elinor and pronounces Elle as Ellie) milks the cows before going to school. If Elle runs before school, she milks at 4:00 or 4:30. Before traveling to Saturday meets, she does her chores….Read More