Coach Spencer Runs in the Woods

Coach Spencer Runs in the Woods

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Brevard Running Camp

Had fun week with 22 of my runners at Brevard Distance Runners Camp. Ran 77 miles for the week (including a longer one Saturday morning) & the runs were much prettier than last year. All of the runs are in DuPont State Forest & Pisgah National Forest. The ones in DuPont are mostly wider double track & rough fire roads, while the Pisgah ones are single track.

The run up Art Loeb & down through North Slope Trail was the longest & hardest. Only about 10% of the girls in the camp attempt it & some have to cut it short. I'm happy to say 8 of ours did it & were strong doing it. This run was about :50 up & :35 down for me. As much as the camp makes this run out to sound suicidal, it's actually one of the more moderate sections of the Art Loeb Trail, which goes over 30 miles & from an elevation of just over 2000' to over 6000'. We were on the low end.

We do an early morning run the last full day of the camp up to John Rock, which has the best view of the week, over to Looking Glass Rock. The fog was rolling through when we were there, so you had really beautiful views one second & it was completely white the next.

One of my favorite runs of the week was Cedar Rock in DuPont Forest, where you're out running on the rock face for a mile or so.

I had to struggle to keep up with my top girls this week, but that's not a bad thing, as long as it's them getting faster & not me getting slower. I actually ran the runs a little faster than 2 years ago (We didn't run many of these last year.). This was a great experience for our team & a way to build momentum for the coming Cross Country season.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great pictures!

Anonymous said...

i was there! i wish the team camp were a month long instead of a week. great camp!

Coach Spencer said...

Yeah? What team? If not for being away from the family, I'd love to do a month too. Great runs this year. Much better than last year.