Thursday is always one of my favorite days of the camping trip.  It started with our annual Frisbee Football Tournament.  Several new runners earned the bragging rights of being champs for another year!  Then everyone returned back to camp, gets their run in and get dressed up for our night out in Bemidji.  Our group of 37 quickly filled up our favorite pizza place in Bemidji.  Everyone enjoys the eating out, then driving to see the course around Lake Bemidji where our long run will take place Friday morning.  Next the team headed out to enjoy the air conditioned comfort of watching a movie.  Friday is the final challenge of the camping trip, the run around the lake.  Its a very coordinated effort for everyone to pick up the runners at different locations of 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12 mile markers.  It was a lot of fun to see so many of the runners push themselves to run further than they ever have.  It was another great week of camping and everyone had a blast.

The second day of camping has been flying by with fierce games of kick ball!  Also everyone has been busy with giant jenga, cube, card games, swimming, and playing frisbee. Tuesday at the camp fire everyone discussed someone that has inspired them.  It was great to hear them share stories of how their parents, siblings, and teammates have all pushed them to work harder in their lives.  Everyone has been eating their fill of pancakes, french toast, pineapple, strawberries, and pasta! We are even celebrating a birthday on the trip, Zac turns 13, his grandparents were nice enough to bring cupcakes for everyone to enjoy!!  Later today we will have our second speed workout of the camping trip, our relay race from the campsite to the shore of the lake.  Tonight at the campfire we will be discussing our individual and team goals for the upcoming 2017 Cross Country Season.  GO Knights!!!

The 2017 Annual Cross Country camp has started out well!  We have the youngest group ever with a large number of 8th and 9th graders in our group of 33 runners.  Everyone is finding their way around the camp site, learning the running trails, and learning the ropes of team camp life.  Each of our runners has to help cook meals, clean up, and help out with a lot of different camp activities.  Tuesday morning we have our volleyball tournament down on the shore of Lake Bemidji.  Last night at our camp fire we talked about how we define tradition, commitment, and discipline and afterward of course had S'mores.