“Running isn’t a sport for pretty boys. It’s about the sweat in your hair and the blisters on your feet. It’s the frozen spit on your chin and the nausea in your gut. It’s about throbbing calves and cramps at midnight that are strong enough to wake the dead. It’s about getting out the door and running when the rest of the world is only dreaming about having the passion that you live each and every day with. It’s about being on a lonely road and running like a champion even when there’s not a single soul in sight to cheer you on. Running is all about having the desire to train and persevere until every fiber in your legs, mind, and heart is turned to steel. When you’ve finally forged hard enough, you will have become the best runner you can be. And that’s all that you can ask for.”
~Paul Maurer, The Gift – A Runner’s Story
This Friday, MVXC is going to try something we have never tried: Our first Dawn Patrol. We are going to sleep overnight in the gym, get up early, and start running up Fire Trail with the goal of being at Hunters’ Point and doing our drills as the sun comes up!
With several practices cancelled, and Monday having an in-service day, we did not get to talk and plan as much as we might have done. That’s OK, this is meant to be a fun and casual evening. On Friday, after our normal practice ends, everyone will go home, shower, and have dinner. Anytime between 7:30pm and 9:00pm, come back to school and meet in the gym. Bring a pillow, sleeping bag, something to sleep in, something to run in, toothpaste and toothbrush and you will be pretty set! We will have a movie going upstairs, athletes can bring games, you can always knock out some homework with friends. We have lights out at a compromise time–late enough to be fun, early enough so that we can be up early.
Sunrise is 7:22am, but it is light enough to run well before that; I’m going to make a final call after my own 6am track workout on Thursday but right now I’m thinking we start running around 6:50am. (With this early start, you probably want something warmish for the start of the run but you also want layers so you can take some outerwear off as you warm up. When the sun comes up you will warm up fast and we planned a hard workout. After a very solid workout (we plan an MVXC classic; but don’t be scared, anyone can run this!) we will come back and have breakfast…you should be home by 10am.
There is a form attached we would like you and your parents to sign and return…we want to be able to contact your parents that evening if there is any issue. Aravind Meyyappan and some of the other captains have also been working to put together a list of people who want to join the Dawn Patrol.
This is going to be GREAT! We hope the MVXC Dawn Patrol will be a great memory for you and the start of an MVXC tradition!
