Tuesday, August, 17, 2010
There are so many things that are different about coming to camp this year. First, I didn’t feel like the new guy the minute I stepped onto the campus at Camp Chipinaw for my second stay at The Running School. Second, I can’t run.
I wish I could explain how much this hurts my heart. Mostly, because last year at camp, everyday I felt like my body would ask me why I was so cruel and why I chose to punish myself this way. But this time I showed up to camp 20 pounds lighter and mentally ready to run. Except for the fact that I was on crutches last week with a busted calf. I was scheduled travel to Vermont last week for the Green Mountain Running Camp, but my twin steel walking buddies didn’t think it was such a good idea so I stayed in New York. Now I’m walking just fine but somewhat afraid to run.
With that said, I did carry my running sneakers up here to the Catskill Mountains. By the way, it's the 40th running of The Running School (that's founder Al Berkowsky on the homepage) I knew it would be dreadful for me to watch hundreds of kids running every day without being able to hit the pavement myself. So when I got here, just after the camp’s first run of the week, I decided to test my leg out. Don’t judge me. This was not a test fueled by testosterone. I didn’t attempt a superhuman effort to prove my unconquerable toughness. I just wanted to see if my calf hurt since I’ve been walking around for almost a week with virtually no pain.
I ran for six minutes. That’s it. No pain at all. I’ll probably test it again. Please don’t try to dissuade me.
This year I’m in boys Cabin 1. I’m bunking with the heavy hitters. Don’t be alarmed. I won’t try to run with them. Even if I was healthy, I’m not sure how far the hospital is from here and I’d be mortified to leave this place in an ambulance after my heart exploded 3 miles into a run.
The counselor in charge is Sean Brosnan, a 1995 graduate of Wantagh who starred at Adam State in Colorado and ironically has the exact same name as Pierce Brosnan’s son. Now the 800/miler just came back from racing in Belgium where he said he dropped two 4-flat miles and a 1:48 half-mile. So it only took me about an hour of being here to feel both fat and slow in conjunction with being disabled. Aaron Ghobrial, a half-miler out of Pine Bush, who’s headed into his sophomore year at Binghamton is one of Cabin 1’s junior counselors.
Already there’s been some reminiscing about last year when girls Cabin 1 stole some sheets and pillows from Cabin 2 (I was in Cabin 2) and stole the bench from the front porch. They even left a note using letters cut out from magazines. Oh, how I can’t wait for the pranks to start. Pranks are being planned I’ve been told already. More on that as things develop.
We had our cabin meeting. We each went around and introduced ourselves. James Walker of Curtis, a sprinter, said he had no idea how he landed in Cabin 1. “But I never back down from a challenge,” he said.
The best thing about the cabin lifestyle is that the counselors become so accessible. While some kids are talking about their high school races, Sean and Aaron talked about racing in college; how they reacted to their first week of training and how to balance schoolwork, traveling for competition and racing. It’s like having a live-in guest speaker.
Most amazing part of the night was that everyone was in bed and half-sleeping by 11:30 p.m.
Quick starts
- “We hope to get pictures of all your pretty faces, and some of your ugly faces. Well, we won’t get the ugly ones.” – co-director Bart Sessa addressing the entire camp at the orientation meeting.
- Apparently Sean saw a snake last night and thinks he saw a Black Widow spider on the porch on the cabin. I’m either not walking around at night or not walking around with Sean at night.
- There was a kid doing back flips and break-dancing while a small party broke out at the pavilion.