Summer Traning Blog Week 2: Abby Riordan
Running the Dunnies
Monday: All 160 campers attending Run Across Texas assembled at 6:00 this morning in the Monahan's Sandhill's State Park to do a quick logbook before we began to warm up for the "dunnies". The dunnies are about a 400 meter run up a 30-foot sand hill. You run up, across, then down, and finish up after another small sand hill, which I did 10 times. For me, this was the hardest run of the week because it challenged me physically and mentally. I started off strong on the first few and pushed through the rest to finish them without quitting or giving up. I was super proud of my team today because everyone finished the given amount they had. After this run, we ate breakfast and packed all of our stuff up to head to Fort Davis, where we did a second run of 2 miles and then a few logbooks. Before dinner, we set up our tents and did a few more logbooks followed by a third run of 2 miles. Something that stuck out to me was that we do things others won't, can't, or don't do, regardless of circumstances. Tonight we ate grilled chicken and pasta and went to bed to rest up before day three of RATX.
Tuesday: Today, all campers assembled
at 5:30 am to load up for our long run. For my long run, I had 7 miles and we took the vans out 7 miles from the Balmoreah state park and ran back, where we could swim, shower and eat breakfast. I ran with Allie Taylor from Prosper and we went about
7:38 pace. When we got back to the Balmoreah State Park, Madi Turner and I jumped off the high dive into the fish-filled pool to cool us of after our long run. Today, none of the Hebron girls had any second runs, which was nice. Once we ate breakfast, we headed back to our campsite with a logbook and restful filled day.
Mountain Run Crew
Wednesday: We woke at 6 am to complete the mountain run this morning, which is one of my favorite runs this week at Run Across. The mountain run is a 5k up a mountain road right next to our campsite where you run up the switchbacks and then run down the other side, turn around, and run back up the mountain. In my opinion, going up the backside is the hardest part of the run. Our team goal for everyone was to not walk and we achieved that goal. I was super proud of our Hebron girls for that. I took it out and led the first mile in 8 minutes, which was all uphill. Going down the backside, I raced Ashton Endsley and Ali White from Southlake. Once we got down the backside, I dropped off and finished in 3rd. Many people on my team ran a lot faster than last year including Hannah Pettigrew, who ran 1:43 faster than the year before. Today was a key experience for all of the Hebron girls because when we go to any meet that has hills, we can get through it because we finished the mountain run. Later that day, we had a second run of 2 miles, lunch, and a logbook session. Also, later we had the flashlight relay where you run two miles and then hand your flashlight to your partner as a baton and then they run two miles. It ended up being a sunset relay because it was still light outside. We then went to sleep to rest for another hard run in the morning.
Post dinner ice cream groupThursday: Today is another race day, which consists of 6 miles as hard as you can. We were dropped off about 5 miles away from our campsite and ran a mile warm up. We all stretched and did strides, getting ready for the big run ahead of us, knowing it would be long and challenging. The most the girls ran was 6 miles and the most the guys ran was 8. Today, Ashton Endsley won, Gillian Mortimer from Southlake got second, Ali White also from Southlake got third and I came in fourth with a time of 37:30, which is 6:15 pace and a 30 second P.R. For breakfast today, we got to have hot chocolate, which was nice for the chilly day. Also, we got to got into Alpine TX to pick wherever we wanted to eat so the Hebron girls and Luling boys all headed to Pizza Hut for a big dinner and some of us bought some ice cream afterward. Once we got back to our campsite, Coach Carter from Colleyville Heritage made a joke about having another 3-hour logbook but was kidding and sent us off to bed to get a good night's sleep before our recovery run tomorrow.
Hebron Group Friday: Every runner woke up looking forward to the recovery run we had ahead of us to repair our bodies for the most important run tomorrow. Tomorrow's run is kind of like the "state meet" of the camp. We went in town to do our recovery run and I ran with Gillian from Southlake because we had a similar pace for four miles and we went about a 7:05 pace. After we were done, we got to go into the supermarket and buy anything we liked. I think most people ended up buying chocolate milk. We only had 2 miles extra in the middle of the day too. This might be my favorite day of camp because we got our camp shirts, heard all of the coaches' favorite one-liners, got awards, and watched the end of camp video. We packed everything we could so we had less to do in the morning and then went to bed. Most people just slept outside on their cots so they didn't have to take their tent down in the morning.
Saturday: Today is the ultimate race and the state meet of the camp because it's the last day and we race 4 miles as hard as we can. We do this race the same place as our long run and finish at the state park to swim and shower before we leave camp to go home. We warm up a mile, stretch and stride to get prepared for the biggest race of the week. I was looking forward to this race for a whole year because I didn't do the way I wanted last year and I wanted to redeem myself. As we start the race, I took it out as hard as I could making the mile in 5:10, which is the fastest any girl has ever gone out in the history of the whole camp. The rest of the race was just about holding on as long as you could since we went out so hard. I made it to the two mile in 5:45 where I began to separate from Gillian and Ashton as they changed speeds. My third mile was 6:01 and the last mile I tried to focus as much as I could because I was alone and ran a 6:08. My overall time was a 23:06 which was 54 seconds faster than my goal time and I got third. The top three also beat the number one record from all the years before. Also, I PR'ed by 57 seconds and so did many people on my team, which made us realize that we can reach our goals this season and overcome all the obstacles that are thrown in our way. We are motivated to work harder than we have ever worked before. This was the best way to end camp and I am so proud of my team for everything we accomplished this week #INGBU. I would also like to thank all the coaches who put on this camp and helped make this camp possible because it makes the whole team better mentally and physically.
Sunday: Today I only had 2 miles because we got in a bunch of extra miles at camp this week. Then, straight to my cozy bed.
