Kelly Grimes  Kelly Grimes is a
third-year physiological sciences student. Grimes is from San Diego
and is a potential scorer on the 2000 women’s cross-country
team. Â
Monday, Sept. 4
A knock at the door awakens me, and as Eric shouts out his
wake-up call, I groggily roll out of bed. It is 6:30 a.m., and I
still don’t think I’m used to the early morning.
The men’s and women’s cross country teams have
traveled here to the Ponderosa Lodge in Mammoth for two weeks of
intense, high altitude training. This camp is a very important part
of our season, a time for pushing our bodies, focusing on training,
and coming together as a team.
We gather in the common room of the lodge for a team meeting
before the morning workout. Our coaches, Eric Peterson and Helen
Lehman-Winters, review our race at Fullerton, our first of the
season. They are very proud of our performance. We won the race as
a team, and everyone had a positive experience. I am really
excited!
I feel like I ran one of the best races of my life, and yet I
still feel as though there is much to improve on.
The mood of the meeting is optimistic and everyone is ready to
get to work.
We drive down to the creek for a morning run of 30 minutes.
Though the sun is shining brightly, the air is crisp and chilly, so
we are anxious to get started. The run is downhill at first, so I
am feeling good. However, we are at 8000 feet elevation, so
everyone is struggling with the breathing.
One of the keys to our success as a team will be our ability to
minimize the separation between our first and fifth runner in a
race. Great teams often run in packs, a tactic that in races not
only makes it easier to stay on pace, but also serves to intimidate
the competition. Therefore, we put a lot of focus on working
together in practice.
The veterans of the team, captain Tina Bowen, Katie Nuanes and
Elaine Canchola, are really vocal in making sure we don’t
fall back in workouts.
The last half of this particular run is all uphill, and whenever
I start to lose ground, the girls run right next to me, encouraging
me and forcing me to keep up. The support among our team is amazing
as each girl does her part to motivate and inspire her
teammates.
With the morning workout over, we have the rest of the morning
free to do what we please. Since most of my teammates are
shop-a-holics, many decide to go to the outlet stores in town. We
also use this time to prepare dinner.
At the start of camp, Eric and Helen divide us into groups and
we are each responsible for two dinners.
The groups are coed and chosen randomly so we get a chance to
interact closely with teammates we may not know as well. We get a
certain amount of money and each group goes to the store together
to buy the food. Our group is making barbecued chicken tonight.
Yum!
As the afternoon workout approaches, the girls return from the
outlets, arms full of bags, exclaiming about the amazing sales. We
all pile into the vans again and head out to run. This time we are
divided into groups. The middle distance runners go down to the
track to run repeat 150s. The rest of us go to Shady Rest for a
40-minute run. Our coaches instruct us to run the first half
comfortably and the last half steady. Helen runs with us, which is
very helpful because she gives us pointers about our form and also
shouts encouragement.
Our team does an excellent job of executing the workout because
we are able to run controlled and comfortably for the first part,
and we pick it up while still maintaining our pack during the
second part of the run.
The focus we maintain during the workout is a good sign because
each workout brings us closer to our team goal of qualifying for
the NCAA Championships in November.
After running is over for the day, we head back to the lodge and
do sit-ups and push-ups as a group. The dinner crew prepares the
food and we all eat together and play cards and watch movies. It is
really nice to have this time together before school starts to
become comfortable with each other and form strong relationships
with our teammates. We are looking forward to a successful and fun
season!