By Michael Newman, DyeStat Illinois Editor

Chapter 4:  Camp Olympia Week

August was a month that we wanted to go by quickly. First, because we wanted to get school started. Second, we wanted to get the season started. We had raced each other, so to speak, in our workouts and we wanted to go after someone else. Before that we had to get through the month, which meant going through Camp Olympia week.

Back then, there were no blackout periods in early August. We just chugged along through the month.

In the 1960s and into the early 70’s at the beginning of August, the York cross country team's top runners would head to a camp in Wisconsin where all they would do is run and bond. It changed in the 70’s and stayed near Elmhurst instead. It was an intense bunch of daily workouts that tested us daily. There were a couple of days that were high mileage but not high intensity.

One thing that Mr. Newton did the year before, in 1977, was invite other schools to a few of the workouts. I remember it was on day six during one of the afternoon workouts when these extra kids showed up. They were rested. It was a seven-mile run where the other schools were going full blast. It was their chance to blow York runners out of the water. We were just trying to hold on. Our legs were crying and so tired.

Mr. Newton changed the way the camp operated this year. It was just our team so we did not have to push the envelope in every workout. Camp Olympia Week started on a Sunday and ended 10 days later on a Tuesday. That is a York week for you.  We would run 15 miles at Sunset Knoll in Lombard on that first Sunday. It was not a killer workout but there was a ski hill in the middle of the park that we would run up. There were a few courses in the state that had a hill like that, but none that we raced on. The day before we attended a summer championship race at Glen Ellyn at Newton Park. When I was running, it was one of the premiere places to run in DuPage County. The Glen Ellyn Running Club would hold races at the park every Tuesday night during the summer. The race series would culminate with that Saturday race. Mr. Newton made it optional to run in the race. Boydo, Willie and I ran together and were close to 16:00 on the rolling hills. It really did not matter where we finished. I know I was already looking at the week ahead.

The first little test was Monday evening. In the morning, we ran a continual. It was hard but we were holding back. That night we had a mile time trial at the track. Then we would have a 6-mile run out to Mr. Newton’s house in Oak Brook. The 6-miler was always an adventure as it happened during rush hour.

It was 88 degrees when we started that time trial. We stayed together for the first half mile before Boydo, Dave Garcia, and Willie took off. They came in together at 4:38. Next were Brother Mac and Crazy Horse at 4:42. Wags, Freegs and I came in one second a part starting at 4:44. Heds finished at 4:50. We were given a little time and then we were off on the run to Mr. Newton’s. Who was anyone kidding? … It was a race. I was a competitive SOB but I had nothing in my legs. Boydo and Brother Mac were at Mr. Newton's front yard in 32:40. Then it was a long green line starting at 35 minutes and ending at 39 minutes. We were all exhausted, all a sweaty mess. Thank goodness that Mr. Newton had a swimming pool. Geronimo!

Tuesday was 25x440’s with a minute rest. It was just as warm as the day before. I had nothing. I think that was the sentiment for the entire group. We were clocking off 73-74 second quarters on that damn soft cinder track. All I wanted to do was get the cool down done and get home and take a nap. I actually fell asleep in the shower as the cinders rolled down the drain. That night we had an eight-mile continual. No one wanted to push the pace. We stayed together and there was not that much talking going in the group that night. All we wanted to do was get it done and get home.

Wednesday was the killer of the Camp workouts. All I knew as I walked to the school that morning was I just wanted to survive that workout. The rest of the runs that week would be something that we would be able to handle. The killer was that we had to meet at 6 a.m. The entire workout was 25 miles: Run a continual on the old Fourth of July course in Elmhurst. The loop was close to eight miles. Then it was back to York where we ran two miles in front of the school. Then a short break … about five minutes to use the bathroom and get a drink. Then we were sent off towards Graue Mill in Hinsdale. Then turn around and head back to Mr. Newton’s. The good thing about this workout is that we did not have to do the entire 25 miles in front of the school. We were on the streets.

The first half of the run was a matter of pacing ourselves so that we would get through the second part. When I was older and ran my first marathon, I used those memories to get me through it. The second part of the run was just getting to Graue Mill. The last part to Newton’s would be the easiest. Newton would drive past on York Road in his brown station wagon yelling encouragement to us. The second half of the run I ran with Heds & Henry. We knew we were getting to the end when we got to 31^st street and we just had to get to Graue Mill, the turnaround point.

The light started to turn yellow as we approached. I started to slow down thinking that I was going to get a quick break. Meanwhile, Henry and Heds darted across the street weaving around cars going 30 miles per hour. They made the light. I didn’t. All I could think of was “You SOBs!” They made the turnaround before I did. I knew I would not catch them. As I passed them as they were going the other way, Heds let out a small smile. To this day, he still reminds me of that little move.

Bastard.

The rest of the week was downhill in intensity compared to what we had just gone through. Thursday was the recovery day. It was perhaps the day we could let down our hair. The workout was at Swan-Pond Park in downtown Riverside. It was a small park that was wrapped around the Des Plaines River that Riverside-Brookfield used as their home course. It was 2.75 miles in distance. People outside of Illinois wondered why some of the courses in our state were so distinctive, so unique. This course started with a 300-meter flat, then went up a steep hill, then made a 180-degree turn down a hill, then 100 yards, then back up a steep hill. Then a flat circuit around the park. The course record on that course was set by Ron Craker of York in 1975 and then by Ralph Caron of Marist in 1979 when they ran 13:13. The course was sneaky tough, but it was a true cross country course.

We would run the course working especially on the hills. We were not really going to run on a hilly course during the year. The hill work was simply there to make us stronger. The final 45 minutes of the workout was to run off on our own. I do not know why Mr. Newton did that. Maybe it was a moment of freedom, telling us a little bit that he trusted us. Any case, it was a moment that we were waiting for.

Mr. Newton has a daughter and two sons. Thomas and John ran with us some of the time during the week were part of the Camp Olympia workouts. Thomas was going to be a freshman, John was going into seventh grade. Their personalities were completely different. John was a quiet person. Thomas was the opposite and rubbed some of the upperclassmen the wrong way. I won’t say what his nickname is/was.

On the opposite side of the river there was a huge wooded area that had paths. A good place to get revenge. I stayed away from the carnage but I heard screams, the sounds of war whoops, and the thuds of pulled-up stalks of I-do-not-know whipped around hitting some of the other runners, one of whom I'm pretty sure was Thomas. It was a good way to blow off steam from the last four days that we went through. We returned to drive back to Elmhurst with smiles on our faces.

The rest of the week we had one run that we went after. It was a hill workout that we took at Newton Park. It was just working on small hills but at the same time, he was drilling into different racing tactics without telling us directly. We stayed together up those hills. Through some of the runs during the week, we were all over the place. On that Saturday morning, we were together as one just like we were in front of the school. We were talking to each other during the hard parts of the run, joking with each other. We knew that we were looking at the end of the tunnel and he Camp Olympia workouts were almost over. Our official practices would start on Monday. School would start the next week. We had one more high intensity run on that first day of official practice: A six-mile run to Mr. Newton’s. The same run we took a week before but everyone was pointing to it.

The weather was perfect: 75 degrees and cloudy, 15 degrees cooler than the week before. Pat McCarthy and Heds hammered it right from the start and a pack. As we went south down York Road and crossed the bridge over Roosevelt Road and those two pushed the pace. I started to drop in the last mile as we continued to click off a sizzling pace. Brother Mac ran great running 30:23 for the six miles. Heds was 24 seconds back. Then Boydo followed fourteen seconds back. Henry and another junior classmate of mine, Mike Custer, came in together sixteen seconds back. Then Willie, then Freegs, then me. I was the eighth man on that run, logging 32:15. Newton was extremely happy about what we saw. I was upset at myself because there were guys that I would beat in other workouts were ahead of me. Out of those who were in the top eight that night, five of us would run in the state meet in November. I beat myself up on the drive home thinking to myself, Why did I fall back at the end?

I finally had to admit that it was only a workout. I was only as good as my next run. But I knew if I wanted to be on that state team, I could not use that as an excuse again.