Getting Ready To Run: Part II (Updated: Day 4)

Day 4: Wednesday, August 24

Today was the fourth day of Foundation Running Camp. It was Wednesday, so that meant it was a workout day and also the most anticipated event of the week, the COLOR WAR! As far as the workout goes, it was the hardest run of camp. A 3.6-mile tempo run with steep winding hills was what we were planning to conquer. It made Bowdoin Park seem like a flat road race.

In particular, there was a very steep hill about a half a mile in length coming back, (out and back run) which was so hard that I was almost walking up it. However, our group conquered the beast and proceeded to cool down. Special thanks go out to Chris Mammone for riding his bike (he's injured) next to me during my workout and encouraging me the whole time.

At lunch, sitting with Kelsey Margey was quite the show. I was going through the pictures on her phone and I happened to stumble across a picture of her with a blank expression with some sort of wrapping covering the right side of her face. After bursting into laughter for a solid five minutes, she explained to me that this odd contraption on her face was an eye patch. Apparently, during a workout something flew into her right eye and cut her iris (I don't even know...) She went to the doctor and he supplied her with the world's largest eye patch which she sported at the Suffolk County State Qualifiers as well as the SAT. Cool stuff.

The Color War was one of the most intense competitions I've ever been at. Forget about nationals and stuff, this is where it's at. The spirit of this competition was incredible — people were wearing full body suits of their color (or bathed themselves in paint) and people lost their voices. There were four teams — red, orange, blue, and yellow. I was on the blue team, which I was happy with because blue is my favorite color. Last year I was on the green team (who came in last, but that's irrelevant) but this color was left out this year and replaced by the yellow team.

Matt Walsh, captain of last year's green team, retired because during the closing ceremonies we almost dropped him while he was in a giant hamster ball. He was scarred for life and never returned to the color war scene. We miss him dearly. Now he works in the Runner's Edge Shop on campus and in Farmingdale. Anyway, this year's color war was just as crazy.

Decked out in as much blue as I could find in my closet, I competed in three relay races: the DMR (potato sack—wheel barrel—three-legged race. Maybe they'll add that to Nationals next year. I'll ask Mr. Paul Limmer, a close friend of the program), water gun relay and human string relay. We ended up coming in third place, which was a step up from last year's fourth-place finish. At the end, my counselor Laura Cummings and I started a cheer for "pity points." We were that desperate.

Laura and I both found out something that we really have in common. When she was in high school she raced Nicole Blood all the time, when Nicole was the best runner in the country. This year I continually raced Aisling Cuffe, who is also the best runner in the country. Congrats Aisling on your USA Track & Field Athlete of the Year Award. That's awesome!

Off to the bunk skits, see you tomorrow!

Day 3: Tuesday, August 23

Today at camp, we got hopelessly lost on our run. We were supposed to go to the farm to do some loops around it, but we ended up running down the road aimlessly. However, Coach Levy came to the rescue! He found us running "to oshgossh pigosh" (in Levy's words, don't ask me) while driving in his car, supervising the runs, and told us to turn around.

He then guided us to the farm by driving with us until we got there. The farm was a 1.1-mile loop, and by the time we got there, we only had time to do one loop. However, it was a great adventure because I actually like getting lost on my runs, since it's more unpredictable.

After lunch today, I got to drive the golf cart around campus... with a counselor of course! My friends piled into the golf cart and I drove them around camp, with everyone staring at us, not knowing why a camper was allowed to drive the golf cart. I was pressing the gas pedal all the way down, but it wasn't even that fast. Nevertheless, it was so much fun!

For the afternoon activity, my friends and I were looking forward to Zumba dancing. One of my friends begged us to do it with him, and we were curious about it, so we wanted to try it out! It was actually one of the most enjoyable activities that I've ever participated in.

Even though I wasn't the greatest dancer out there, it was still so much fun. The energy across the field was awesome; there were literally at least 100 people dancing. The counselors on stage who instructed us in Zumba — Brianna Cano and Nathalie Miranda — were amazing. We danced to songs like the Party Rock Anthem and Walk it Out (Meringue style).

Tomorrow is color war. The best camp day ever!!