Power Up ... The Running School Diary

 

August 22

Dear Diary,

OK, so first thing this morning when I woke up I waited to hear that voice from the loud speaker outside. Not because I really wanted to head outside at 7 a.m. for a morning run but because if I could hear the voice outside that meant only one thing: that the power was back on. So I waited. Then waited some more. No voice. No power. Sigh.

After we all waited for a while trying to figure out the best thing to do, we went out on the porch and waited some more. But we saw some cabin start heading toward Whartonville. I figured that since people weren’t sure what to do, they figured they would stick to the routine. I found Sean Rice, he said we’d be running this morning. He hoped that the power would be on by the time we got back. So we headed out. Whartonville (aka the tennis courts) was drenched too so we did a quick standing stretching routine (Jim Wharton will kill me for calling it stretching. I should say we engaged our muscles). Then we took off. I went out with boys Cabin 11, which was better known as Cabin One Twice Over, named by counselor Stefan Richmond (Midwood grad), who practically carried me through 5 miles.

When we got back, the choices were pretty much to hop in the lake to rinse off or to let your sweat dry and put on a clean shirt and go to breakfast. The lake wasn’t really looking to appealing for me at that point so I just changed my clothes and went to eat. I should’ve taken a water-bottle shower like Fogs did yesterday. Hey, have to clean up one way or another.  But more importantly, I was in the dining hall eating waffles and suddenly, THE LIGHTS CAME BACK ON!! And the fans started running and God bless America, I finished eating and took a shower. (plus the toilets flush now) Unfortunately the cabin still smells like a wet dog but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. For the most part after that everything went back to normal, except for some scrambling to re-arrange some class schedules.

But also, we got to hear Peter Hawkins. Now, Peter was supposed to speak last night but that’s when the Armageddon-like storm came through and took the electricity. Sessa and Rice tried to move up the presentation to happen before nightfall but even at six o’clock the Playhouse, where he was going to speak, was pitch black. So that was pretty cool because I had heard a lot about Peter Hawkins.

Here’s the story, Peter was a star football player at Valley Stream Central. On Dec. 13, 1981, he celebrated his friend’s 18^th birthday party at a bar in Long Island. At the time 18 was the legal drinking age. Both of them had their share to drink and when the night was over Peter asked his friend if he was sober enough to drive. His friend said he could handle it and Pete took his word. Then his friend decided to drag race his 1974 Z28 Camero down Sunrise Highway. They hit a bump goes 90mph in a car that didn’t have seat belts. Peter went through the window. Five days later he woke up from a coma with a doctor standing over them delivering the message that he had fractured three vertebrate and dislocated his spine. Peter would never walk again.

Now Peter, 45, competes in about seven marathons a year, he has a black belt in karate, he sky-dives and he’s pretty much one of the cooler people you’ll meet in life.

“What you guys have is a gift,” he kept telling the camp. “Running makes you cool. Don’t forget that.”

He didn’t just give a talk on drinking and driving. He didn’t just try to scare kids into playing it straight or inspire them with his story. He pulled out the catheter he inserts into his penis every morning and lap bag, which is like an external bladder, and held it up for the camp to see. He was driving home the fact that just because he has accomplished all he still lives a difficult life, just in case someone took from his message the idea that it’s “not that bad.”

“It’s terrible. It’s aweful. It sucks,” he said.

But that didn’t mean he wakes up in the morning thinking, “Aw, crap I’m still in a wheelchair.”
 But instead something more like, “I’m still on the planet. Great.”

Being a camper has been different for me because in real life, I’m 28 years old and six years removed from the last night I did anything that could be considered “training.” But just then I felt lucky to be able to make my body feel pain everyday by pulling my much-heavier body over four or five miles. I wasn’t just happy that I could run but I was happy to feel pain – actually feel it. Tomorrow, which is the last day, we run up Woodstock, which is a 7-mile loop with a monster hill halfway through to the actual landmark. I’ve been hearing still I got there that watching Pete climb the hill at Woodstock tomorrow, one of the greatest things I’d see. Now I really can’t wait.

I skipped the water workout today because my body is pretty thrashed. I sat by the pool with Bill, one of my bunk’s counselor, and watched the boys from Cabin 2 that didn’t go for the afternoon run go through their rehab workout.  Then we got ready for the talent show.  The show was great.

About the show

-          I got to be a secret judge.

-          Gina Winant from girls Cabin 7 (which I did half my runs with) popped a few back flips during a pretty impressive dance routine she did with the Farmingdale girls cross country team. They were called Flight of the Woodland Nymphs. (I’m still laughing)

-          Sammy Lazir (Robeson High) from my home Cabin 2, jumped into a boy-boying routine with Rafael Alvarez, who could actually break dance. But while Sammy did the toe-wop, his shoe popped off and fell into the laptop that was playing the music. I held it in but nearly cried laughing on the inside.

-          A young lady named Maddie won playing the piano and singing “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles. There was pretty much no beating that.

-          The Green Men were revealed!!

 

Finally the pranks:

I had been waiting for this all week. We even planned some pranks on each other that never actually happened. (Sammy is so lucky).  But while when we (Cabin 2) came back from out workshop on running form with USATF-Long Island president Alex Cuozzo and Hewlett coach Eammon McHugh. (Alex thinks I have great form by the way) we came back to our bunk to discover that most of our cabin’s bedding and pillows had been stolen. I have to say, I give girls Cabin 1 a lot of credit for venturing into our cabin. They even left a notes. I’m pretty upside that we destroyed the note before I could get a picture. “Fast girls pull better pranks,” it said.  They got most of us but didn’t touch my stuff. I don’t think they knew it was mine. I just got lucky. But I came along for the hunt anyway. Fogs had already seen the cabin but we came back, did his investigation, and found the bedding and pillows in a small storage cabin next to the girls side of camp. John Honerkamp’s pillow was stuck in the mailbox. I just busted out laughing as I wrote that.

Then when we brought our stuff back we went back to the cabin to see our bench was missing. Great. I immediately went into Magnum P.I./Inspector Gadget mode and quickly found out that our bench was with boys Cabin 11. I still can’t believe they betrayed me. We ran together and this is how they treat me? Of course, they denied having our bench until Joe Carlin and Sammy Lazhir, boys after my own heart, stormed the cabin and retrieved the bunch while Cabin 11 shrugged and said “How did that get there?”

Revenge will be had.

But the best prank came during the talent show. Boys Cabin 5 has been running around with a watermelon all week. It’s been stolen twice and they have another one. Sessa kept guard of it during the show. I had a mind to steal it but I restrained myself. But then a team did a skit called The Epic Secret. They were telling a story about the lights going out and what a girls cabin had to do to entertain themselves. They ventured to the boys side of camp while one girl brought a boy named Frosty to the girls cabin where they had a surprise for Frosty. It was Cabin 5’s second watermelon. I nearly died laughing. All of Cabin 5 stood up in the audience and yelled out. Even Frosty, who lived in Cabin 5, didn’t know that they would pull that out during the performance.

I honestly thought they should have won the talent show because of that but instead we decided that they would be best rewarded with Honorable Mention. It sure was honorable.

 

-Chris