An Unbearably Beautiful Run

If my experience as a high school athlete has taught me anything, it's that runners tend to have a negative disposition towards hills. Whether it was a hill workout or simply a long incline on a Cross Country course, an aura of dread always seemed to fall over many of my teammates at the thought of hills. I say “many,” because there were a few, including me, who welcomed the notion of hills. I'm not sure if it was the prospect of burning legs or the chance to pass runners on an incline that appealed to us, but appeal to us it did.

My tolerance of running up and down hills led me to pursue the Youth Sky Running World Championships, which will be held next week. The race consists of a 1 vertical kilometer on August 3 and, on August 5, 21 kilometers of steep up and down hill inclines in the Apennines Mountain Range. As a Virginian, I thought there would be no better place to train in my state than Shenandoah National Park. Here is where my story begins.

A dramatic walk towards the sky.

Upon my first training session in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I stayed overnight in a cabin near the trails I planned to run. The day before my run, I scouted out a trail near Milam Gap that was both steep and technical, in one word: perfect. That night, as I was walked to my cabin, I saw movement in the darkness and my intrigue quickly turned to fear: a bear. I rushed to my room. Now, black bears tend to be more cowardly and passive in comparison to their much larger northern cousin, the grizzly, but to me, a bear is a bear is a bear. I went to sleep that night reflecting on how cool yet scary the whole ordeal was. The next morning, I drove across to Milam Gap and prepared for my long run. As I descended into the trail head, the though never passed my mind that it was black bear mating season.

My first two clues stumbled across me only about a half mile into my run. Just as I passed over a stream crossing, I saw a sow and her cub foraging for food about 20 feet in front of me. According to the Boy Scouts (of which I was one), when one sees a bear, one should back away. Cool. But what the handbook doesn’t tell you is that a bear can outrun a horse.  I cannot out run any horse, but I am faster forwards than backwards, so in my mind, my path was chosen. A quick sprint back up to the road, and I was bear free. Time for Plan B-- as in bear avoidance.

Thirty minutes of running later I had arrived at my alternate route, a steep horse trail. The trail was actually connected to my original path and I had planned to climb it later in my run, but in times of struggle one learns to improvise! At this trail head, I was greeted by two friendly rangers. This duo was cutting up a tree and gave me a cheerful grin and nod as I passed by. “This is a safe place!” I naïvely thought. As I scaled down the steep mountainside, the roars of the rangers’ saws became more and more faint. When the noise was all but a memory, a new sound reached my ears. A rustling. I stopped both my watch and my pace.

Making a new friend...

I was already paranoid after seeing the first two bears, and I was not about to have yet another bear sneak up on me. I peered to my right, facing down the mountain. Nothing. I peered to my left facing a wall of boulders. Nothing. Then, I determined that the coast was clear, so I faced forward to continue my run. It did not take more than three steps to see how wrong I was. From behind a thicket of mountain laurel, around three feet in front of me, was yet another bear.

In the strongest second wind I have ever mustered, I sprinted up the horse trail. Exhaustion and lactic acid were not factors in that moment. In fact, I feel like I may have reached a personal best in that mile. Each step I took the whine of the saws grew louder and louder until I reached the two bright eyed rangers. Through pants of breath I managed to sputter the word, “Bear,” as I gestured down the trail. Their reaction was not one that I was hoping for. One said through a wide grin, “Oh yeah. They’re like dogs to us out here”.

As I started up again in confusion, but then something became clear to me. The nonchalant tone of the merry rangers opened my eyes to a new perspective. Bears and mountains are quite similar; most people become uneasy at the thought of encountering either one, but there are a few, a minority, who grin at the prospect of an encounter. As for me, I will take a vertical run over a bear any day. On to Italy!!!!

The End of an Era

A few nervous smiles before one of the biggest races of the
year in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Back when I first decided to get into running, I fostered a love-hate relationship with the sport. Don't get me wrong, I have loved running since Day One, but there were certain aspects I found almost unbearable. First off, I was always a nervous wreck before a race. The adrenaline rush of race day that I am now addicted to used to be quite the deterrent. Secondly, having to practice every day was a whole new part of my life that I was not sure I was ready for. Honestly, it was and still is scary
jumping into the deep end of uncharted waters. But in distance running, we learn to endure. Over the years as my friendships became stronger and my outlook on race day changed, I became obsessed with all of it. Most of my friends are runners.  My coaches are like parents to me.  Even the old high school track that has asphalt exposed at the starting line, which I assume is harder on our legs than any road, I have come to call home. I love everything about my team. Each individual snapshot of a memory I have is precious to me, and each serves as a dagger in my heart.

The Patrick Henry 2k by 5 Relay Team after our surprise win
our first meet of the season. It was the start of something truly
great.

Now, as my final season winds down and the end of high school draws nearer by the second, I cannot help but feel sorrow. What can I say about the team that has given me everything? Of the eleven seasons I ran, I was team captain for six, and before that I was a wide eyed kid amazed at the sheer speed of everyone else. Now, ripe with experience, I can't help but realize how quickly everything has gone by. My first season of track seemed the longest--I remember it having hundreds of meets and with each an adventure where I got to know my friends a little bit better.  Now, it is my final season and I feel as if it just started.  I have the great fortune of attending and running for the University of Richmond next fall, so it's not my sport I feel like I'm losing.  It is my high school team.  Side by side, we sweated, worked, and endured physical pain to surpass our limits on a regular basis, to share our triumphs, and mourn our defeats.

A few Patriots celebrating our victory
over Reddish Knob, a mountain near
Harrisonburg, VA

How many miles did I fit into what seemed a time that would last forever?  How many laps have I run without realizing I was nearing my last lap with my team? How many nights did I spend dreaming about glory? Now that my dreams are coming true, why is it so hard for me to accept the change? This is the way things are supposed to be, but why must it hurt?

After the State Championship meet on June 2, my high school running journey will be over and a new chapter in my life will begin. It brings many tears to my eyes because everything has been perfect. There is not a single thing I would change.

My Varsity team following
 Cross Country 4a Regionals

There is a saying attributed to Dr. Suess:  "Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened."  With all respect to Dr. Suess or whoever wrote this, I am so sad that my high school running career is ending.  But I am overjoyed that it happened.  And I am so excited about the things to come.

I can not emphasise how lucky I was to have such a great team. 

At the Monument Avenue 10k, the Bell Tolls for Me

Ever since I started running, I have loved long distance. The longer, the better.  One of the things that really excites me about college is that I will be shifting from running 5ks to doubling the distance.  

Last weekend, I ran the Monument Avenue 10k and I must say it went very well! According to Running USA, the Monument Avenue 10k is one of the 10 largest road races in the United States. It is far different from the 5k cross country races that I am used to. The most obvious distinction is that it is longer, but the atmosphere and the general vibe of the race are extremely different as well. Despite its scale (it has more than 21,000 runners), one feels a sense of welcoming. Spectators line the streets with funny and supportive signs and volunteers holding water dot the median. Truly, it is a sight to behold. 

Here I am with members of the Patrick Henry Ashland Cross
Country team. I am on the far left, in the incredibly cool
shorty shorts.

Even in the festive and  friendly atmosphere, I could not help feeling slightly overwhelmed on the starting line. Once the gun went off, however, all of my self doubt and nerves vanished.  I was not running alone, but with a "team" of thousands of runners and thousands of cheerful smiles greeting me along the route. Among these faces was my mom, armed with her traditional "Monument Avenue" cowbell that I had discovered in our field when I was very young.

   

With so many spectators, there was not a single second of the race when someone was not cheering me on. Positivity was in the air.

From signs reading, "Smile! You Paid for This!" to one of my coaches high-fiving me at the first mile marker, the race went quickly. Passing through the 2 mile marker, I distinctly remember thirst, a feeling that would remain for the rest of the race. I never stopped for a drink as the two mile sign became the third, then the fourth, then the fifth. There is just something about hundreds of people cheering that keeps a guy moving. Nearing the finish line, a familiar sound rang out, as if it were shouting my name: my mom with her cow bell. Somehow the clanging of that ancient two-pound copper bell pierced the roaring applause of hundreds of bystanders, signaling the end of my race. 

My main goal was to beat my time from last year, 34:04, and as I crossed the finish line, I smiled:  33:54.  I had done it! Alongside setting a new personal record, I was overjoyed to learn that I had successfully defended my title from the previous year as the first place winner in the Men's 15-19 division, finishing 16th overall, an improvement from last year's 23rd overall.

For all the results from the Monument Avenue 10k, click Here! 

Hello World!

Hi!  I’m Noah Campbell, a senior at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Virginia.  I am a distance runner and captain of my school’s cross country and distance teams.  Running is my passion and it has opened many doors for me and given me opportunities I never would have dreamed were possible. I’m not someone who has been racing his entire life.  In fact, I first stepped onto a track in my freshman year of high school. That year I did not start running until indoor track season and then sustained a knee injury that kept me out of the entire Outdoor Track season. This did not stop me from coming back to running and my determination paid off.  I worked my way up to the varsity cross country squad my sophomore year and continued working my way up through all of the seasons for the rest of my high school career.  Some of my highlights were being the conference champion in the indoor and outdoor 3200M my junior year and making it to States in both events.  Senior year I earned all state honors in cross country and the indoor 3200M.  I am hoping my last outdoor season of high school track will be even better.  Additional honors include earning the bronze team medal at the USATF National Junior Olympics Cross Country Championships in 2016 and being selected for the Richmond All-Metro Cross Country First Team in 2017.

Here I am in gray at the 2017 4A Virginia State Cross
Country Meet held at Great Meadows, in The Plains, VA.

Next year, I look forward to attending the University of Richmond where I will be a member of the men’s DI cross country team.  I will also be representing the United States later this summer at the World Junior Skyrunning Championships in L’Aquila, Italy.   I decided to start this blog to record my journey from a high school runner to a college runner and beyond.