Track and Field Blogs - Nate Jenkins

It has long been said that state cross country championships are won in the summer and it’s as true now as it was 30 years ago. In high school I was lucky enough to be a part of two state champion cross country teams and honestly we didn’t train any smarter or harder then the other schools in our state and I very much doubt that we had more talent then the other schools just because we had less then 370 kids in our entire high school. What we did do was meet up every night at 6pm in back of the school gym and go for a run all summer long. Both men and women, heck we even had a field hockey girl who used to show up all the time and for one summer the quarter back on the football team. We didn’t run hard, at least not very often, and on Fridays we played a marathon game of ultimate Frisbee. It was low key, we decided what run and how far we were going to go when we got there. But all summer long we were there. Year in year out across the board the same thing happened again and again come the first meet nearly every one of us who had been running all summer would run faster in the first home meet of the year then we had in any meet the previous year. Often much faster.

Most of you have finished school in the last few weeks, your league, district and state champs have faded to memory, maybe you have started running already, maybe your lagging behind, enjoying the lazy days of summer or working hard at your summer job. Well I’m here to tell you today is the day. Go out and run, and do it again tomorrow. You don’t need to go crazy, you don’t need to do workouts, in fact I recommend against it. What you need is miles, as many as you can get. Get your friends and teammates out find a time after everyone is out of work and meet near some trails every day. Just run. Whether you want to be state champion this fall, top man on your team, sneak onto varsity, or just enjoy the season a little more, now is the moment. Don’t let it pass you by.

My moment comes next Monday. I run the last of my “spring” races on Sunday and then I begin my base phase for a fall marathon. Much like cross country my big race will be in November but the real work is to be done in July and August. Sure the impressive workouts and killer long runs will be in September and October. But the time for the real blood and guts work the laying of the foundation of success will be done in the heat and humidity of the summer. It will be slow and painful often frustrating. But it will also be fun, bringing me back to the root of my life in this sport. Back to biking six miles each way to meet my teammates for a talkative 6 on the trails on those hot summer nights. Back to only picking up the pace when the horse fly’s were so bad you couldn’t take anymore, back to running just how you feel and running just for the simple joy of it.

Monday I’ll begin building the foundation of a great fall I hope you join me and do the same because I swear to you state championships are one during hot summer runs.