Today dawned sunny and cool and DRY! So the campers finally enjoyed (along with the coaches) a morning run on the dirt roads and trails. We hammered out another 25 Burpees as well. After breakfast it was off to the woods with the younger campers and onto the field & gym for the older campers.
I was belaying the Vertical Playpen and watched some amazing feats of climbing. Jett, who weighs all of 45 pounds pulled the entire group together in awe as he climbed 45 feet up a tree to completely dominate the Vertical Playpen. The others were so motivated that Jett became the catalyst for personal bests all morning long. Molly had a great day as well and pushed it to the limit in every element. She said she could not wait to tell her brother Finn all about it on the way home.
On the field, it was time for the older campers to work the quads and hamstrings to the max. At one point Cody yelled, “It’s pain like I have never known before!” Although tired, the entire group also realized that they all would be stronger the next day because of it.
After lunch it was in the bus and off to the sandpits for the Slalom challenge – 15 gates of vertical intensity and SAND. The course was longer and harder than year’s past with the winning time of 26 seconds. Standing at the top, some of the campers could not believe they were basically throwing themselves down the mountain. I asked one camper if they had sand in their shoes. The reply, “I am a half an inch taller because of it.”
The final night is pure chaos as Coaches Chad and Sara get crazy with the agility relays. The competition is pure and focused on teamwork. Tight and quiet teams were rewarded. Loud and unorganized teams ended up doing a lot of extra Burpees. The Jello drop was intense as always with the competition going four rounds. The last thing we did was give out the ELITEAM 2013 T-shirts to the campers for tomorrow’s Olympics. They start at 10am sharp and we hope to see friends and family there.
Quotes:
Best part of ELITEAM?
Lea – “Making it across the Burma Bridge because it took me three years to finally make it!”
Emma S – “Everything!”
Ellie – “Everything because ELITEAM Rocks!”
What has a coach said to get you motivated?
Lea – “5 minutes to dinner.”
Sabrina – “Doug telling me that I can do it on the World Cup.”
ELITEAM is…
Molly – “Challenging and Fun at the same time.”
Ellie – “Totally AWESOME!”