Lewis ‘15
It feels great to be back at the ‘Bash. I was dreading it all summer with leaving friends and family and all, but once I got back I realized I missed it. I was surprised honestly, but I have a feeling this will be a great year. The Red Pack is looking strong as usual. With such a large and strong class of seniors leaving last year that included the indoor mile national champ K-Mac, I knew that it would be hard to get back to the level of team we were last year. Luckily we have a group of guys that put in HUGE amounts of mileage this summer reaching almost 100 miles a week! That takes more time and commitment than probably 99% of the world is willing to put out. Led by my fellow class-of-2015-mates (a.k.a. the Class of Destiny), there is a strong lead group with National 800m champ Jake Waterman and others right there as well. I am looking forward to seeing what this team can accomplish as the season continues and I will be here to give you a personal viewpoint of the whole thing.
With being a new year, there are a number of things that are unique to this season.
- First are the freshmen who have all promised to work hard and plan on mixing it up with the team and maybe even the top guys. I hope they continue this work ethic and continue the C.O.D example of a low quitting rate.
- Another new idea is called “Meat Mondays,” no this is not just a sausage fest at an all-male school. Instead it is when our “Team Mom” Seton Goddard grills steaks for us every Monday as well as vegetables and today he even made us a salad. He definitely gets the award for the best manager ever because the food is always great. I also wonder how the football team likes it when he grills right beside the field as they practice.
-The third unique part of this season is a new method of running. Today we tried something we never have before to try and bring the team closer as a whole while we run. We often have guys that like to run recovery runs at different paces, some think they are too slow and others think they are too fast. To prevent any more petty arguments over that we ran our easy 5 miles today as a huge Indian relay. Everyone grabbed a partner and formed a double line as we ran down the road. Whoever was in the back ran up to the front and set the pace when they reached it until the next pair took over. This way we ran as a team and the pace varied to please all. I think it was a very successful attempt and made the run more fun and less boring.
The first 8k is in 2 weeks, we’re getting hungry.