Runner 4 Life

Today in the world of running in Coon Rapids, MN is a rather infamous one...at least if you were ever on the high school's cross country team. Today was the first day of official cross country practice for the fall season and has become the tradition over the last few years, the first day of practice consisted of everyone going on a two-hour run! I was never on the team when we did this, it actually began the season after I graduated but I was an assistant coach that first year and came back to run it the following year, just because I had so much fun. The run always takes place at the Coon Rapids Dam and since I'm on a week of recovery training, a two-hour run doesn't exactly work for me but I decided to run over at the Dam just to see how everyone was surviving.

I was able to tell who the newcomers were pretty easily because they were definitely struggling. I myself ran for an hour and 12 minutes, just a little over 10 miles today. Some may think, why would you run two hours on the first day? Wouldn't that be bad for the new runners who aren't sure of what to expect? In a way, this is right but at the same time, if they have to run two hours on the first day, they now know exactly what to expect. It's a workout that can set the tone for an entire season. It will test everyone from freshmen to seniors and captains. If you ever hear of a football player complaining about two-a-days the first week of practice, tell them you ran for two hours straight the first day of practice. I guarantee there won't be a football player complaining to a cross country runner about two-a-days if they had to go through a two-hour run (by the way, the Coon Rapids team also does a second workout later on in the day as well).