Bloomington High School North, Nikean, 2006, Page 70

Description:	Training OverseasStory by Anam FarukiDefinition of Boys Cross Country: A bunch ofsweaty, panting guys running over a course of upand downhill, paved sidewalks and trampledgrassy grounds;atleast according to some of thenon-athletic students at North. Actually, its a lotmore than just that.Boys Cross Country takes all-year roundtraining and lots of hard work. It is a breathtakingcompetition. Its all about competitive drive andhard trainin, said Nick Farid.Before every practice, Coach (Warthan) sitsdown with the team and talks about what we needto accomplish in order to be a good team,sophomore Michael Hoffman said.Hoffman was the third-best sophomore in thestate this season. He also played a big part inbringing home first place sectional, regional andsemi-state.Teamwork is crucial in boys cross country, andaccording to Coach Warthan thats not a problemfor Norths team.Warthan said Hoffman is one of Norths bestrunners, and although he suffered form a stressfracture last year, due to excessive training withoutrest, he spent his summer in Ireland running atleast 50 miles a week.Running there helped to strengthen my legs,keeping me from getting injured, Hoffman said.Hoffman ran for about 60 minutes everyday;starting with a 15-minute run along the beachfollowed by a 45-minute run on a paved trackalong the beach, through a little nature preserveand on the pier.Im proud of all the work I did because it takesa lot of time and sacrifice over the summer andeven more during the season to stay in thephysical condition necessary to be the numberone runner.I was happy to be number one runner, butonly because I was the number one runner of agood team that is always just getting better,Hoffman said...For next seasonj am setting my goal to be one of thetop five runners by runing under 17 minutes.- Dutin Albert, junior (pictured right)Freshman Jonathan Mealsstretches before he starts therace. Stretching is veryimportant for the boys to dobefore a meet because they riskinjury if not fully stretched outbefore racing.70 Boys Cross Country
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomnorth/id/5874
Collection:	Bloomington High School North

Further information on this record can be found at its source.