We have had a couple great weeks here on campus; I hope you can say the same. The Black vs. Orange dual meet was a great change of pace for all of the men. After racing so many 8k’s we were ecstatic about the idea of only having to run a 5k. For guys like me, this 5k would be the only chance of the year to run an official 5k all year. The race was initially supposed to be run on Tuesday, but due to some nasty weather coming in we moved it up to Monday. The weather was perfect and we were all excited to go race.

As Coach P stepped up and fired the gun, the rest of the practices going on around us snapped their heads around quicker than I’ve ever seen before in my life. My Black team was solid through the first half of the race, but couldn’t hold off the surge of the Orange team during the last mile. So congrats to the Orange team on a great tactical race. A majority of the individuals set new 5k pr’s as compared to their high school times. A lot of people from the community came out and supported us throughout the race which was an amazing feeling to have.

After the emotion of the Dual Meet, we looked forward to getting away for a little bit to Zap Fitness. We all would like to thank Pete Rea and all of the professional athletes there that were so gracious and supportive of us. This was a time for the team to really build each other up and grow closer to each other. All of this while living the lifestyle of a professional runner for a small, but amazing, amount of time. On Saturday morning, we got to run on the Moses Cone Memorial Park in Blowing Rock, NC. The fog made our long run feel like a dream almost. It was an incredible feeling.

One main topic of the conversations on that trip was the upcoming conference race at Montreat College. We are all extremely excited to go out and prove what we are capable of. With this new fire and focus Saturday morning can’t come soon enough.

We hope to see you there at 10:00 am. For now, hear the thunder and fear the herd!

Aaron