West Fork boys cross country run together during summer

For the first time during the summer the West Fork Warhawks boys cross country ran together in a summer program. Head coach Zachary Ortloff said that they usually give the runners a program to follow during the summer but it was nice to have a voluntary program like this. 

“It was a chance to get them all together and do that,” Ortloff said. “Because I know within their own groups they have people they prefer to run with. But to have some kind of organized group event where they show up and we change our location every once in a while as we go to different towns and run in different locations so we are not doing the same thing.”

Ortloff said it was nice to run as a team and he said he would have liked to see more kids show up but that he understands that they can be busy during the summer. 

“I think we will try to work around that in the future,” Ortloff said. “Try to find better times that suit everybody or to communicate better to get the attendance up a little to get kids active or to get kids that are on the fence a little bit and get them to be there.”

One way the summer running can help the team get ready for the season is preparing them to run in hot weather that they might encounter during the season.

“I remember our first meet last year it was so dang out that I don’t know how a lot of our kids finished that race so props to them,” Ortloff said. “But just kind of preparing them for that kind of heat that we are probably going to get again. We might get the same kind of beginning of the season that we did last year so getting their bodies adjusted and ready for it is something that I think is going to help us going into our season.”

Running in a pack was something that Ortloff said they tried to emphasize last year and that  the summer was used to get the runners used to running in a group again 

“Throughout the end of the season that became a trend and staple of our team, we were a really good pack running team,” Ortloff said. “So trying to get back into that same groove again so that you don’t have to be on your own and if you see one guy kind of pushing it to try to stick with them. If you are the one falling back a little bit it is a little bit of a motivator to see other people around them pushing it and they can push themselves so they are not the ones falling off.”

Ortloff said that he thinks the runners enjoyed being able to run as a team this summer.

“I would say that when we had the bigger attendance days I do think they enjoyed that,” Ortloff said. “Because it wasn’t them just running by themselves when they had the time to get it in. Or the one or two friends they run with in their little groups as they get a workout in together. It was nice to get them all there and get five or six guys together that can run as a group and get used to that team environment again.”