Blog Archives

Knights Cross Country Clothing

7/25/2014

Every year we provide members of the Knights Cross Country team to order team apparel. Usually the order form is given out during the parents meeting. After allowing a week to collect orders, the athletes wouldn't receive their clothing until the middle of the season.

This year we are trying an early order period along with the traditional season order time during the season. I have attached the order form below of the clothing that is being offered this year. We are collecting all of the orders and money by Tuesday Aug 4th. Alumni are more welcomed to order clothing also, please included an additional $5 for shipping.

Also if you have ideas of clothing that you would like to see offered in the future please send me an email with your ideas. [email protected]

gfc_xc_clothing_order_form_2014-15.pdf
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Final Day - Run around the Lake

7/25/2014

Thursday night pizza and movie night was a huge success and everyone enjoyed dressing up and going out on the town. Friday was the final day and we finished big running around Bemidji Lake. Several runners ran their longest run ever and several new people achieved the "Ten Mile Club'. Three of our boys even completed the 15.3 miles around the lake, Former Knight Nick Ackley, NDSU freshman Camron Roehl and Knights Junior Leif Larsen. It was another great camping trip this year for the 2014 Knights and everyone was already talking about 2015 trip!

Camping Day 4 - Frisbee Champion Crowned

7/24/2014

Thursday started with French Toast for breakfast and then filling our water bottles and heading into Bemidji for the annual Frisbee Tournament. There was seven teams this year battling for the title but the team In-Tents, won 2-0. Everyone is having fun, and getting dressed up today for our Pizza and movie night in town. The movie choices this year "Earth to Echo" and "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes."

Friday is our last day of the camping trip and will end with our regular long run around Lake Bemidji. Many of the runners have already commented that they can not believe the week is already almost over. It has been a lot of fun so far and everyone is ready for the last challenge of running around the lake.

Camping Day 2 - Volleyball and Sunshine!

7/23/2014

The weather has turned beautiful here at Bemidji State Park! Everyone is working together cooking meals and having fun during our free time. Tuesday we had our Volleyball Tournament, free time to explore the state park, and of course our two daily runs!

Everyone is having fun playing frisbee, bean bag toss, Risk, Monopoly, card games, or going swimming. People also has a better night of sleep being in their tents last night instead of the stuffy hot dining hall. The Tuesday evening ended with our regular campfire talk, in which we talked about the "little things" each of us needs to work on to be a better runner and person.

This Wednesday we already have had our Kickball Tournament, which was blast. Currently everyone is either swimming, napping, or playing board games and getting ready for our Relay Race speed workout, which we have named this year the "noodle run." It is something your son's or daughter's will have to explain when they return home on Friday.

There is already anticipation growing for tomorrow. Thursday morning is the day of the biggest camping trip tournament, the FRISBEE FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT!!!! The runners are waiting for the release of the five person teams, so team names can be chosen, and bragging can begin of who will win the tournament. They of course will earn the bragging right for the next year (or longer if you read the Alumni's memories). After "THE TOURNAMENT" the team will be dressing up for our big night out in Bemidji of Pizza and a movie.

Camping Day 1 - Ballbusters and Thunderstorms

7/22/2014

Our first day of camping has turned out to be an adventure! Starting before we even got out of town one of the school van windows wouldnt roll up, so no air conditioning on a day that hit 88F and humidity of about 90%. But we arrived at Bemidji safely and decided not to set up our tents because of possible thunderstorms later.

The first workout of the camping trip is always a big mental and physical accomplishment, BALLBUSTERS. The high humidity and temperature add to make this one of the toughest ballbuster workouts ever. The workout is intervals alternating between easy and hard 2 minute long runs. The course is on a 1000m wooded course with two large hills in on a grass trail. To earn the tittle of a "ballbuster" you must run over 12 "hard" 2 minute intervals. We had several boys and girls break the twelve barrier. After the workout everyone ran down to the lake and cooled off and completed their post workout routine.

After a dinner of spaghetti, buckets of water, and showers we had our nightly campfire talk and s'mores. Last nights subject was everyone sharing a time when a teammate had helped them through a diffucult run, workout, or race. We just finished when the rain drops started to fall. We had to spend the night in dining hall because Bemidji recieved 1.32 inches of rain and heavy rains.

Today the weather is in the mid 70's, and no more rain in the forcast. Everyone is in great spirits, after putting up their tents and moving into them! For today we have our Volleyball tournmen, our second run of the day, and more campfire talks.

Camping info for Parents/Runners

7/18/2014

The team leaves in one week for our annual camping trip to Bemdiji, MN. It is one of the highlights for the summer running crew. It is a great week to work on team relationships, set goals, and increase our overall individual love of running. There is a lot of information that needs to be passed on to both the parents and the runners to make this a successful trip. I have attached the camping letter that has the trip intinerary below for everyone to download.

Some additonal changes to this years camping trip is I will be collecting all cell phones (please don't bring any other electronic devices) when we arrive in Bemidji. I will give them out each night from approximately 7 pm to 8 pm to allow your son's and daughter's to call home and visit. The over all goal of the trip is for them to spend time TOGETHER, not texting and playing games on their phones. If parents need to get hold of their child for any reason you can call me (218-779-6541) or Betty (218-779-3619) . We both will have our phones with us at all times. We are also making some menu changes to our meals to allow us to feed the runners quicker at dinner time (thank you Betty). If your child has any allergies or is a vegetarian please let me know!

What to do before we leave:
Pay camping fee
Running Watch
Fill out medical release form (also at bottom)
Let Coach Allan know if you have any allergies

What to Pack/Bring:
Pillow & Sleeping Bag
Running clothes for any kind of weather
Dress Clothes for our movie/Pizza night
Water bottle
Swimsuit
Towels and toiletries
Your own Snacks - label them so people know its yours
Board games/card games
Money for Movie and Pizza night (approx $30 depending on your child)
Money for Friday afternoon lunch at Subway/McDonalds/Taco Johns/Grocery store
PLEASE keep a limit of 2 bags per person

Additional parent information about trip
One of the basic team building things we do on this trip is having runners learn to work together. Each camper will have to cook and CLEAN up a meal(s). This is a great chance for them to get to know each other and also work together. We will put them in groups of 4 to 5 per tent. Each tent will have an older team member who is in charge of the tent and is responsible for making sure their "tent" is at each activity on time. I will try to have a range of ages and "friends" in each tent, I want them to get to know each other during this week and build a stronger team. Also if your son or daughter doesn't have a running watch, please purchase one for them before the camping trip. All of our runs during the trip are time based.

Each night we have camp fire talks where the topics can range from their favorite/worse race experiences, goals for season and school year, why they love running, and training philosophy of our progam. We keep your childern busy throughout the day with running twice a day, group activities, and also allow free time for them to explore the Bemidji State Park area. Many will choose to go down and swim at the beach, play cards, board games, or take a nap. The goal is for them spending time together and develop those strong team bonds.

camping_letter.doc
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release_form.doc
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Paul Shafer - Camping Memories

7/17/2014

Paul Shafer, Tom Fisher, Shane Harlow

Thinking back on my experiences with summer running, and the camping trips specifically, I realize that I can attribute much of my adolescent development to the weeks spent at these camps. As a middle schooler I was overly anxious, and often found myself stressed out by school and the unpredictable nature of being in the presence of countless other kids. For this reason I was quite nervous at the start of my first camping trip, as I had not previously spent time away from home like that, and was unsure of how I would handle such social stimuli. As the camp progressed, however, I was quickly immersed in the delight of spending time with my friends doing the activities I loved, and without even realizing it my insecurities had been shed at long last.

There are countless aspects of the camping trip that bring back fond memories, and I’ll touch on some of the main ones that have really stuck. First off, the overall natural atmosphere of the park is incredible. The campsite is nestled within a luscious forest, and is only a short stroll from the immensely beautiful Lake Bemidji. The collection of trees and various other plant life also makes the place smell great. There had never been many other campers present, and it always felt like the Central cross-country team owned the place. As a matter of fact, it sort of felt like I’d temporarily joined a commune of friendly runners out in the beautiful wilderness somewhere, something I may one day pursue again.

This camp worked wonders with the social ties of the team. Spending the week with my teammates in such close proximity allowed me to learn about people I likely would have naturally failed to associate with. It was incredible to watch as previous conceptions of teammates I’d had throughout the summer shattered as I found out about their true nature. This process of social bonding was prompted by activities such as campfire discussions and competitions, but the overwhelming factor came from the simple fact that I was working my ass off with these kids for an entire week, and nothing seems to pull people together quite like a wonderful massive shared effort.

While the training during this trip was tough, I can honestly say that I have only fond memories of the workouts, side cramps and dehydration included. Something about the before mentioned natural atmosphere of the location just makes you want to connect to the natural surroundings, and what better way to do that than running through the woods like a wild animal twice a day? Also, my relationship with my teammates around this time of the summer always began to pick up a slight competitive edge, as we were just getting far enough into training to start to size up each other as to who would be earning the larger portion of the team's glory during the coming season. This emerging competitiveness always resulted in teammates pushing each other, and we would soon find ourselves voluntarily putting in more mileage and striving to maximize our speed workouts. I believe that this spark of energy that emerges during camp each year is an incredibly significant factor of the Knights historically finding success in distance running.

I could go on this beat all day with reasons as to why the camping trip has been enjoyable for me, like how food will never taste as good as it did during two-a-day training, or the excitement of crushing Coach’s team in the frisbee finals (ok actually we only won by 1), but I’ll just go ahead and try to wrap this thing up by saying that these camping trips were massively fun, and managed to slip in some valuable life lessons and best friends along the way.

Paul Shafer
GFC Cross Country and Track & Field
GFC 800m Record Holder

Jason Chaput - Camping top 10

7/16/2014

Here you go, have fun at camp, wish I was there....

Jason Chaput – Camping Memories
EGF Cross Country 1993-1997
Minnesota State 1993-1997

The annual camping trip, as well as the entire summer running program, was always something I looked forward to each year. Even after high school I would come back to run with the younger runners both as a way to help push them to achieve higher goals and to give myself a break from the rigors/stresses of college training while still getting some quality training done. While I will probably show my age by sharing some of my camping memories as I know some of the activities have changed over the years, the absolute best part of camping was getting to know everyone better by kind of isolating and focusing ourselves on each other and running. The teambuilding experience was so strong that even though we don’t all necessarily keep in touch on a regular basis anymore, I felt like everyone was a brother or sister to me and it is a type of bond that I still don’t feel would ever break. I know I would still do anything for those runners that bonded with and I like to believe that they would do the same.

I encourage you all to spend some time talking to some of your teammates that you may not know very well during the camping trip. You might just find that you have a lot in common and I from experience that you will truly appreciate it later in life. Enjoy the week and please feel free to ask Coach or Betty if you want to know more about some of my top memories below as I am sure they can give you some more details, ha ha!!

Top 10 Good, Bad, and Ugly Camp Memories

1. The Frisbee Tournament; still think Coach tried to stack the teams against me each year ;-)

2.       Getting Katie Frushour to eat a frog

3.       Completing the run around the lake the first time

4.       Flashlight tag

5.       Late night tent talking

6.       Getting shot in the neck during paintball

7.       Cooking/eating breakfast at camp

8.       Softball game

9.       Hitting Betty in the face with a frisbee the first day of my first camp (still feel terrible about this every time I think about it, sorry Betty!!!!!)

10.   Chicken fighting in the lake and the sore neck that Lee and I both had for days!

Nate Fiala - Camp Memories

7/15/2014

The first camping trip I went on with the team was the summer of 1998. Coincidentally, it was Coach Allan’s first camping trip as head coach, as he took over the coaching mantle from Coach Ball. Back then, our team was much smaller than it is now, and we invited Red River XC runners along. Then their team started to get a lot better and they weren’t really invited back after that year. One of my fondest memories of that first camping trip was one night staying up way too late with a couple teammates (names withheld to protect the guilty) and eating way too much junk food and laughing so hard my sides hurt. (The morning run the next day was not fun.) The summer of 1998 was the first year of The Finely Tuned Machines, a legendary group who will forever be known as the best Frisbee football team to never win a championship. As I remember it we were up by 6 in the final and lost to Coach’s team. He probably has the scores recorded and framed somewhere. Never winning a Frisbee football title in all my camping trips still haunts to this day (I try not to think about it.) That camping trip was also my introduction to paintball, and I’ll never forget Dafoe sitting in a hornet nest at the start of one of the paintball games and doing the fastest sprint of the week away from it.

The discussions around the campfire during the camping trips, and especially as a rookie that year, will always stick with me. After not running at State my freshman year, my personal goal for that upcoming 1998 season was to contribute to the team and count in scoring at some meets. I ended up being a top 5 runner nearly all year, even at the State Meet. We knew we had a good team going into that season, maybe Coach knew more than we did, but we set some pretty lofty team goals around that fire. Win EDC. Win State. (Still gives me goosebumps.) Those goals may not have started on the camping trip, but they were vocalized around the team for the first time, and really put into practice from then on. I feel like it was a defining moment for our group.

That first camping trip for me was also the first camping trip for my good friend Lee DeKrey, who would go on to win an individual state title as a junior. He has told me the story many times of how he finished his run, walked to the showers, and while walking back to camp he was absolutely astounded to see me and some of the other older runners just finishing up our run. I like to think that in that moment, even as a first time camper, I helped inspire him to become the great runner he turned into (but I’m pretty sure it was mostly his work ethic/talent combination that did that.)

Over the next few trips to Bemidji, I helped pioneer a lot of the things that would carry on in future trips. I was one of the first to do the entire loop around the lake for the final long run of the trip. I was part of a small group that did the first extra ball-buster intervals, something that the top runners have continued to do. At the Griak meet later that year a small group of us surprised everyone by dressing up in shirts and ties to go out for dinner, something that carried over each year after that. Now, as I read Coach’s packing list, it looks like it has maybe influenced the camping trip as well. I feel a bit of “Central Pride” when I read other accounts of campers going all the way around the lake or doing extra ball buster sets, knowing I was a small part of such great traditions.

So, to the rookie (and veteran) campers: Take it in as much as you can. Leave your phone at home (back in my day, we didn’t have that problem!) Look to your older teammates for guidance, but remember, you may just be setting an example for a fellow camper yourself. Know when it’s your turn for meal and dish duty. Super Soakers are most effective (on everyone but Tanner Lundby) first thing in the morning. Don’t make people wait for you to start team morning runs. Double knot your shoes before the ball-buster. And whatever you do...win the Frisbee football tournament.

Finally, to parents of rookie (and veteran) campers: When your son or daughter comes back from the camping trip, and you overhear them talking about fartleks, ball-busters and debating with teammates whether it was better to wear all black or camouflage during late night “activities”, fear not! They have been simply making memories and friendships that will last a lifetime (mine have lasted 16 years, and counting.)

Nate Fiala
Knights XC 1997-2001
UND XC, Track 2001-2005

Lee DeKrey - camping memories

7/14/2014

Lee and Meghan

The Case for the Camping Trip

My fourth day ever of summer running was also the day I left for my first GFC XC camping trip. How I was able to convince my parents that I should go away with a group of strangers that I barely knew for 4-5 days in another state is still a mystery to me.

Besides running, stretching, push up ladders, frisbee, fireside chats, s'mores, pranks, stupid human tricks... I remember being subjected to the litany of nicknames of my new teammates. Krutch, Cheeto, Fishdog, Smokey, and Gumby are a few I remember learning right away, but those monikers seemed to morph and change as often as we would play cards. But it certainly wasn't just Rummy and Speed taking up our free time. We constantly would make up new, random ways to compete with each other. Bat balancing contests, juggling, trick frisbee throws, football launches, chicken fights...all different ways to bond and to make some of the best friends of your life.

A truly lasting memory from my first camping trip was the day of the long run. Again, I had been running for about a week at this point, so my long run was 3-4 miles. Nick Glimsdahl and I finished our run, went and showered, and came back to camp. We were sitting around, probably making our own form of pre-freshman mischief, when Nate Fiala came back from his run. I couldn't believe someone could possibly run for as long as he had. It was at that point that I resolved to be someone who could run long enough that it caused other people to be inspired like I was that day.

Every year after that point, the camping trip was met with increased anticipation. My non-XC friends become obviously jealous as we came back each year with more and more amazing memories. Some would ask if Coach could make an exception and let non-runners come. Some just joined the team so that they COULD come. The experiences I had on those trips are some of the best I've ever had and I hope to someday come back and chaperone the next generation of Knights.

Lee DeKrey - Central 1998-2002, 2000 State Cross Country Champion, 2001 State XC runner up,
2-time UND Cross Country and Track & Field Captain