Sail remained only in the photo. A barge sailed nearby, clinging to it. We stopped on the shore, from which the pipes of a small town were visible. Here we lived for eight or ten days. An elderly man lived on the same bank of the river, he had a house, a cow, goats. Skiers mowed the grass, the man gave for this to yogurt. There was no rain, the tents did not save. One night they slept in the house of this man on the floor.
We swam in the river, but not from the fairway, but in the channel. The duct was treacherous, with funnels. The water in them was spinning at a decent speed. When swimming, the main thing was not to get into the funnels, but it dragged in them very much. We looked at each other and helped to swim. The journey back was simple: they hooked up two yala to a passing barge and sailed to the city.
Once again Katerina glanced at the TV screen and put sneakers in her gym bag. She had to go to the gym. She hung a blue bag with the inscription “Aeroflot” on her shoulder and left the cardboard hut. Passing by a low picket fence, I turned into the street. The road lay past the one-story buildings to the bus stop.
Half an hour the roads pass sometimes quickly, sometimes very slowly. Soon she got off the bus, walked between wooden houses and found herself on a steep bank of the river. She rolled off a steep clay bank and stopped at an upturned boat. Coach Feofan Afanasyevich walked beside the boat and pitch it on its sides. He was preparing the boat for the new season. In a row with a small wooden house lay another five overturned boats.
In the cottage, skis in cross-pieces stood by one wall, but the main place was occupied by boats, which they carried out to be tar for prevention, and the skis again stood in struts until the next winter. Spring changed sports in one breath of warm wind, leaving the smell of tar.
Kirill came with shaggy light eyebrows, from nothing to do suggested that Katerina study the main methods of fighting – sweeps. They had a little fight in front of the coach, who pitched the boat and did not trust anyone with such an important matter. Lyudmila, descending from a smooth slope, caught Cyril’s interest. Her figure is excellent, and in itself she is a beautiful girl, what can we say…
Katerina went to the coach. Coach Feofan Afanasyevich looked at her and said:
– Katerina, where is the hair doing? You were alone with long braids, and the girls are short and without you full!
The girl shook her head with two tails in reply and was silent – how to explain to the coach that she wanted to be beautiful, as leading on the TV screen? A group of skiers gradually gathered for training. Training was coming power.
Young people climbed onto a lying iron structure designed to transmit electricity to the left bank of the river. They hooked the legs to the metal crossbar, took the cobblestones in their hands and began to swing the press. From such workouts, the press remained with Catherine for the rest of her life. Why precisely cobblestones used skiers, and not dumbbells and barbells? Feofan Afanasyevich believed that natural stone has additional strength in the training process of the city’s cross-country skiing team.
The coach forced the athletes to squat on one leg, then on the other. He believed that the earth gives energy to his hands. The legs and arms were filled with muscles.
One day a group of skiers in full composition went to the opening of the football season. A zealous crowd of football fans strongly pressed Katerina to the iron gates before the opening of the stadium. After such a crowd press, she no longer went to football.
The skiers themselves played football on a rammed ground without a fence, located next to the old wooden church. I must say that we trained where it was possible, where Feofan Afanasyevich found a place. The site among the old trees, located by the church of blackened wood, was very beautiful. But even more beautiful were the young and young football players and football players.
A black-haired, curly Tamara appeared in the team. It was a girl of short stature, possessing good speed, resourcefulness, agility. The soccer ball obeyed her better than Katerina. Is it difficult to play football from the point of view of a girl? It is difficult, even though Katerina played him in those unforgettable years when she could play football, and not just decorate a football field with herself. She never allowed herself to speak badly about football players, no matter how they play. Football – Copper and difficult male sport.
In addition to football, skiers played rugby at a stadium located about five hundred meters from the church. And Tamara played rugby well. Ludmila has always been a leader in the team, but now her obvious rival has come. Tamara quickly joined the team, but Lyudmila remained an unsurpassed leader. Katerina bypassed Lyudmila in cross-country skiing once, and then at the expense of a ski ointment – silverfish. Skis glided perfectly over the granular snow.
The feeling of speed, ease of movement, great weather, beautiful ski track created a great mood that did not overshadow Ludmila’s anger!
Yes, ski cream – the great mystery of victory, which created Feofan Afanasyevich. When he drove a blowtorch over the surface of the ski, Katerina removed the old ointment with a rag from the surface of the ski.
The coach did not let out the blowtorch, he was warming up the ointment, and she crawled off the skis like snow in spring from the slopes of the hills. Sometimes skis warmed over dry alcohol or over a hot plate with a spiral. Be sure to put the resin on the new wooden skis. The best skis were always adorned on Ludmila’s feet, the best ointment was applied by the trainer on her skis, the best sports suits decorated her figure.
The speed training took place near the boat station on the high bank. Skiers ran in sneakers on the asphalt at speed several times in a row. Katerina was at a worse pace than other girls, but on the whole her diligence was successful and she ran hard. After running on the asphalt, the periosteum fell ill on her legs so that she could not walk. She came to a sports doctor. The doctor checked her lungs, they could hold three liters of air. And about the legs the doctor said:
– Lie down in the bath or sit in warm water.
Katerina replied:
– I do not have a bath at home.
The doctor looked at the beautiful girl in surprise and shrugged her shoulders:
“I can’t help you anymore, then don’t run a lot.”
Katerina lived at that time in the barrack with the convenience of a courtyard. In the morning, instead of jogging, she did exercises – was pulled up at the gate next to the house. The old picket fence fenced a small plot of land under the windows of the house where she lived with her parents. Where the gate was located in the fence, she made a right angle with her legs and pulled herself up on her arms.
She had one trick about her waist: a stern soldier’s belt remained in her house, so she walked at home, tightening the soldier’s wide belt with a buckle. The waist from the belt was remarkably preserved.
In the mountains were the next competition of skiers. “Here you are not plain, here the climate is different…” How beautiful it is in the mountains! Pines. The mountains. Lake. With great pleasure, skiers conquered hilly terrain. Competitions in the mountains with snow-covered trees are beautiful!
“Katerina’s nose glitters after a bath,” Feofan Afanasyevich told everyone on the bus.
All skiers, not spoiled by home baths, went to the bath-house. In a wooden one-story hotel there was a strange convenience: from the first floor skis were served on the street and a ski cream was applied to them under the windows before the ski race. In the bus skiers sang songs. They sang with inspiration in all their young throats! Skiers have never sung anywhere else. Katerina and Lyudmila sang well, their voices sounded beautifully in the choir