Yes I know it’s time for the Olympic hopefuls of gold medalsJ, but I’m referring to
Gold Medal Cross Country Camp that comes around this time of the year at Cal PA
(California University of PA). For those
of you confused, yes we have camps for running in the woods, LOTS of running! J I’ve been thinking of this camp since my last
blog post in reference to me being an over-packer and prepared.
One
year in high school a group of us were heading off to camp and I was riding up
with Vearl and Diane Summers (saving my parents a trip to Pennsylvania as group
of us went together), I’m assuming I had 2 or 3 bags all packed full of the what if’s. Upon arrival of camp and the process of
checking in, I no longer had the key to my dorm room for the week and here
comes dad driving up the street and parked (I’m sure he had just missed me
already). Apparently of all my ‘bags’ I
had packed the one I forgot at home in the pile of things was the bag full of
my running clothes and shoes; you know, the important stuff. J I actually don’t even
know if I remember dad being mad, I think he just wasn’t even surprised. I hate to admit this story as well because it’s
obvious we didn’t have cell phones like today to just call and say turn around J Hopefully dad enjoyed the scenery of the
trip because it was a long one for a single bag J
There
are so many sore memories of Gold Medal Camp J I can remember sliding down
hand rails as opposed to actually stepping down the steps so that is wasn’t as
painful There wasn’t a mile we didn’t
run at that camp (running 70-80 miles or so).
I remember being overwhelmed at the understanding of training at that
level because at that age, we just hopped on the rails to trails and got our
run in, all these other details and specifics were completely new to us. It
consisted of morning runs, afternoon trainings, evening runs..a half marathon
midway through the week….at that age a half marathon almost seemed like a trip
around the world! It was after that camp
we realized just how limitless the opportunities of running could be and what
it took to be good, self discipline was a whole new level at that point.
I can remember another year, dad
coming to pick Holli and I up at camp, we were talking non-stop about all the
stories etc for 10 minutes straight ….dad always said at 10 minutes we must
have hit a brick wall. We crashed into a
sleep that I’m almost certain lasted for 48 straight hours J They always had a 5K race at the end of the
week that was an “Open Race” and dad always jumped right in. Even though he was my dad, I know from others, having a coach that did what he
preached and participated within the sport as well made his involvement and
ability to get the most out of his athletes so much more.
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| Dad Running the Open Race at the end of Gold Medal Camp |
I suppose in regards to the training updates. On Friday we were suppose to take the day off
(schedules orders). The excitement of the weekend was I got to go to Glade
Springs for a work event for Brock…so while he was in a meeting I got to allow
myself to get lost for 1 hour 45 minutes J It was such a beautiful day for a long run,
temperature, and scenery.
Yesterday I ran the typical route (about 45 minutes), and to my surprise upon my little stop to catch up with my neighbor I got a bag of tomatoes J Perfect timing on my part! J
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| Stop By and Show your Support for Team Spangler at the Ritchie County Fair! |
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