Running The Tower

August 31

The tower run is another one of our team’s traditions. It’s a grueling six miles from the base of the mountain to the tower, with over 1,000 feet of elevation covered. The key to the tower run is to not start too fast, because you’ll pay for it a few miles in. Today I attempted to do this run faster than I ever had, and I paid for it about four miles in. Even as I struggled up the mountain, I couldn’t help but marvel at the unobstructed views of the Hudson Valley. I met up with my teammates who had beaten me to the summit, and then waited for the remainder of the team to crest the final hill. Our coach met us on the tower which sits on the mountain, and told us that the team had been climbing this tower since he was a Vassar XC runner ten years ago, and that every year since the team has ran to this tower, climbed up with a small rock, and thrown it into the pond below. While some of the significance of this event definitely went over my head, it was nice to have a little recovery from that brutal climb, since I knew people were going to push the pace on the way back down.

When I got back to the house, 14 miles and just over 90 minutes later, I was just exhausted enough to appreciate a couple of Associate head coach Ron Stonitisch’s stories, which I no doubt have heard before, and will hear again. While they involve ex-team members which I’ve never met, he’s so much of a character that hearing about some prank or meet gone wrong five years ago is still entertaining.

This is what keeps me coming back.