X-Treme Running Camp

2016 X-Treme Running Camp

Monday, August 1st through Friday, August 5th

9 am to Noon

LODESTAR PARK, Route 94, Newton, NJ  

For information, call/text 973-271-6624

If you are serious about our sport and want to get as much out of a Running Camp as possible,

X-Treme Running Camp is for you.

 

Awesome speakers will again be at X-Treme Running Camp. For 2016, we have running phenoms, Olympian Marcus O'Sullivan and multiple NYC Marathon Winner and Coach Extroadinaire, Tom Flemming. We also welcome back outstanding coach and author, Mark Will-Weber, form expert, Janice Morra, high school stand out coach Sean Robinson, super-star motivator, Cornell Thomas, colegiate running phenom Sarah Disanza, and the legendary former 10-mile national champion Mike Mykytok.   

Our guarantee is that you will leave X-Treme Running Camp in better shape, more motivated and with a higher love of our sport than when you arrived. If you are a competitive youth runner, the X-Treme Running Camp will bring your running experience to a higher level. Our philosophy is that if you do something, do it right. Get as much out of running as you can and go into your season in shape…both physically and mentally. Challenge yourself, come to X-Treme Running Camp and reach your full potential in all aspects of our sport. In its 16th year, X-Treme Running Camp has gained the reputation as one of the most prestigious running camps in the Northeast.

 

LINK TO ON-LINE REGISTRATION: https://raceroster.com/events/2016/7204/xtremerunningcamp

 

X-TREME RUNNING CAMP TESTIMONIALS:

"The X-Treme Running camp gets me really motivated for Cross Country. The Guest Speakers are very inspirational and even though Camp is demanding, it's also a lot of fun."

Dylan Capwell, Hopatcong High School Junior, X-Treme 5K Winner, 1:55 800 meter runner 

 

"I owe a lot of my success to the X-Treme Running Camp. It gets me in great shape physically as well as mentally for the cross country season."

                                      Kristen Landry, Mountain Lakes Senior, 3 time Sectionals Champion

"I like regular people out there who are doing amazing things. They're my idols because all of you can start as regular runners and push to do amazing things." 

                                        Michael Mykytok, X-Treme Speaker & National Champion

 

"There are things that make a good runner: you must have the interest, the attitude and the discipline. Sussex County is one of the best places I would train myself. The terrain around here is absolutely wonderful."

                                         Peter Rono, X-Treme Speaker, Olympic Gold Medalist

 

"Somewhere in the world, someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win."

                                          Tom Fleming, X-Treme Speaker, NY Marathon Champion

 

"The X-Treme Running Camp was a great bonding experience for our team. It helped set us up for a record breaking season.

                                           Kathy Binder, Girls Head Coach, King George High School, King George, Virginia

 

"X-Treme Running Camp is awesome. I've learned so much from the speakers as well as the staff there, and it has really inspired me to think big."

                                          Michael Galonski, Newton High School Graduate, SCIL 3,200 Meter Champion

 

"Remember that no matter how nervous you get about the race, it's also something you should enjoy. I think that's the one thing in my career I regret ... not enjoying the competition enough."

                                            Marcus O'Sullivan, X-Treme Speaker, Olympian and World Famous Miler

           
 The X-Treme Running Camp experience is something fantastic and unique and takes full advantage of Lodestar Park's superb training venues. The camp caters to middle and high school runners and welcomes runners of all abilities as well as athletes involved in other sports looking to improve their endurance and speed.

Camp runs from 9 am to Noon, and each day includes an endurance session, a speed session (both tailored to each individual's ability) plus a highly-acclaimed guest speaker. Our camp is directed by elite distance running husband and wife team Guy and Laurie Gordon, and all counselors are seasoned adult runners. Specials during the week include: The X-Treme Relay, The X-Treme 5K, The Impromptu Relay and our patented "X-Treme Run Around" drill.

Please Note:Should you have to cancel after you have sent in your registration form, you cn either choose to be reimbursed 50 percent of the fee or apply it to the 2016 Camp. 

ACCOMODATIONS:
Though we are a day camp, many opt to stay in the area for the week at a local campground. There is a Holiday Inn Express located in the main town of Newton about 5 miles from Camp. Swartswood State park offers tent camping and Aldersgate has a large facility with bunk-bed housing and a big common room for games and movies. Stokes State Forest has cabins. The number for Holiday Inn Express is 973-940-8888. The phone number for Swartswood State Park is: 973-383-5230, the number for Aldersgate is 973-383-5978, and the number for Stokes State Forest is 973-948-3820

My husband, Guy Gordon, was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. A 54-year-old distance runner who still holds several masters course records in the marathon across the country, we would never have thought he could have Diabetes.

In mid April, Guy started to not feel well. He had to urinate all the time, and after a few days, checked his weight to discover he had lost 9 pounds in four days. He had some other odd symptoms too. The culmination was a visit to the doctor who said his sugar was high and gave him a glucose monitor to check his levels. That was Tuesday, April 24th. Guy owns a business called Back on Track through which he counsels kids and teens who are dealing with all sorts of adversities in the context of fitness, guidance and motivation. Though he mostly goes to the kids' homes, some of the kids come to our house to work with him in our home gym. That was the case that Thursday, April 26th. Guy arrived home a few minutes before the client and his father were to arrive. He looked terribly thin, appeared gray and said he felt horrible. I insisted he take his sugar.

 Rather than registering a number, the monitor read "Hi." As Guy insisted on proceeding with the session, I scrambled to get him one of the Metformin tablets the doctor had given him on Tuesday. He took it as he headed downstiars with the client, and I raced for the computer. My Google search for "HI on a glucose monitor" gave me multiple answers all of which either said "Go immediately to the Emergency Room," or "Medical Emergency." Some were even in red. I grabbed things for him and put them in a bag as I tried my best to calmly explain to our six-year-old daughter that we were going to the Emergency Room. When his session was done, it was a fight, but he got in the car and we headed to Newton Memorial Hospital. Good thing, because had we not, we learned later that if he had made it through dinner -- which would have raised the number yet higher -- he most likely would have gone into a comma in his sleep. I would have assumed he was sleeping and he could easily have died.

Four days later, Guy was released from the hospital a Diabetic. His love of fast food was to be turned in for an exceptionally healthy and regulated diet and I was to become a carb-counting personal chef in charge of every morsel that enters his mouth. Guy is now dependent on insulin to live. He has to test his blood sugar multiple times a day and react accordingly if it's too high or, in most cases, too low due to the insulin. He must always carry glucose tablets and his test kit, and instead of driving through Dunkin' Doughnuts or McDonalds, brings his trusty lunch box with his food I've prepared for the day. The running he so loves has changed dramatically too. Running generally quickly causes his sugar to plummet, and because his carbs are restricted, his energy fades much faster.

Our lives are very much changed because of the Diabetes, and at first Guy was pretty bummed out. Then, after a few weeks, his true character broke through, and he's now using his Diabetes as a way of showing the kids with whom he works how he handles adversity in the form of his disease every single day. We are involving our daughter in his illness too, and Guy even plays "Guess Dad's Sugar Number" with her every evening as she watches him test his blood.

On October 14th, I am going to run the Shades of Death Half Marathon, in Allamuchy, NJ, in honor of my husband and how he's dealing with his Type 1 Diabetes. I once was a nationally ranked marathon runner and won marathons, half marathons and distance races all over the US plus Aruba and Puerto Rico. I qualified for the US Olympic Trials in the marathon and my personal best is a 2:49 with a PB in the half of 1:17. Though those are admirable accomplishments and ones of which I am very proud, I am a much better and well-rounded person now. I'm a bit scared to run this half marathon because I haven't raced in quite some time.  I am doing it as a fund raiser for Type 1 Diabetes research (otherwise known as Juvenile Diabetes as it generally appears in children). I hope you will help me in this quest. Very truly, Laurie Gordon. If you want to donate, please e-mail me at LaurieGordonRun@aol.com and I will send you the information or call me at 973-271-6624. 

About the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation: JDRF is the worldwide leader in funding research to find better treatments and a cure for type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that strikes children and adults suddenly and lasts a lifetime.

It sets the global agenda for type 1 diabetes research, and is the largest charitable funder of and advocate for diabetes science worldwide.

To date, JDRF has funded more than $1.5 billion in diabetes research, including nearly $107 million in fiscal year 2010.

Runners wowed by Olympic champion Peter Rono

By Laurie Gordon

There was Olympic gold in Newton last week when 1988 Olympic 1,500 meter champion, Peter Rono, of Kenya, spoke to over 70 runners at the Eighth Annual X-Treme Running Camp.

His message to the kids was that anything is possible with hard work and dedication. Rono urged them to listen to their coaches, teachers and mentors, respect their bodies and put in hard work not just with their running but with everything they strive to achieve in life.

Following his speech, Rono reached for a blue velvet box in his bag. When he opened it, mouths dropped as he revealed the gold medal he won at the Seoul Olympics. Rono then went one step further and let the middle and high school kids at the camp pass the medal around. “I want you to see it, hold it and touch it so you realize that one day you too could win one.” Rono left the kids with, “I believe that one day, one of you will win a gold, a silver or a bronze medal. Will it be you?”

X-Treme Running Camp attracts runners from all over the New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York area. Camp is held at Swartswood State Park and consists of distance base building, guest speakers and speed and leg turn over drills.

Crystal Carlson, of West Milford, was back at camp for her third year. “This camp gets me going heading into my cross country season,” the 17-year-old said. Carlson will be a senior at West Milford High School and has her sights on hitting some personal best times this fall. The culmination of her goals would be to run in the coveted Meet of Champions which just happens to be on her birthday, November 17.

Another camper, Kittatinny Regional High School’s senior co-captain, Kylie McGlew, had one word for the medal: “Wow.”

The Fork in the Road By Laurie Gordon It was a dog day of summer. The thunderstorm that had roared through Stillwater had caused a ruckus and given the land a good soaking, but instead of cooling things down, in its wake came yet hotter, stickier weather. It had been a long day: one of those days where everything seems to take twice as long and twice as much effort. My husband surprised me and came home early to watch our baby so I could get in a good run before I had to work at 6. I was delighted at the opportunity to get in a good run, but as I headed down Edgewood Drive, my body felt extremely lethargic, the result of the type of day I’d had compounded by the intense heat. I nearly turned around to trade in my run for a go on the Nordic Track machine in our basement. Less effort and cooler. It sounded good, but I was a runner with an opportunity to run so I kept on going. Two miles later, the lethargy was still in my bones, but it was getting a little better. That’s when I came to the fork in the road. If I headed left, it would be a 7 mile run, but part way through, there was another left I could take to whittle it down to 5. If I headed to the right, I was locked in to a 10 mile run. Left would be prettier, and maybe I’d be motivated to bounce into the Park for a loop. Who was I kidding. I knew chances were, if I headed left, I’d do 5. Though my pace was slower than usual and my back was hurting from picking up 20-pound- 6-ounce Ashley Rose up the wrong way, I knew what my choice had to be. I went right. There are days when one should commend ones self for just getting out the door: the days when you’re tired or sick or unmotivated. This was one of those days, and now I was really raising the bar: committing to 10 miles. A half mile later, I passed a church. It was a sweltering stretch, and I looked up at the steeple and prayed that I’d finish the run. Another half a mile, and I passed Mengo’s Pizzeria. Hot and hurting, the smell of the tomato sauce nearly made me throw up, but I swallowed hard and kept on going. The back side of Swartswood Lake isn’t nearly as shaded as the front side: the side I’d have chosen if I’d gone left. Any sign of storms had passed, and the late day sun scorched down on the pavement. Finally, I hit Dead Man’s Curve, a double twist in the road on Route 519, and thankfully, a section of shade. Unhappily, this part also involved two hills. That done, it was time for what I realized would be the most brutal portion of the run: Pond Road. There is no shade and it’s a very boring little-over-a-mile stretch. Perspiration soaked my blonde hair protruding under my Runner’s World cap, and my once light blue shorts were dark with sweat. The only thing I looked forward to was perhaps catching a glimpse of a farm animal or two by the big barn on the left part way down the road. There were no animals. They were all in the barn…in the shade. Finally, Pond Road was coming to an end, but two issues were left: the dogs that live at the house on the corner of Pond and Route 619 and the infamous Brannigan’s Hill that I had to surmount to get back to my neighborhood. The dogs don’t get loose -- well, once they did, but that was years ago -- but they are annoying yappers and there is that perpetual threat of them getting loose. As fate would have it, I always seem to pass them late in a run, so it’s a big question as to whether I could muster enough umph to out run them if they escaped. Yap, yap, yap: there they were, seemingly unscathed by the heat, running around and then, when they sensed my presence, as fast as they could to the brim of their electric fence with drool on their faces. Few, no escapes, and I threw in a little charge as I passed them up the slight incline that leads to Brannigan’s Hill. Now the hill loomed. The pull in my back was becoming an issue rather than an annoyance, and I had two miles to go. With the heat index over 100 my only hope of getting up Brannigan’s Hill was to coach myself as I do the kids I train. “Use your arms, lift your knees, lean forward,” I mouthed to myself. I knew what to do, but knowing and doing can have a problem syncing in such abominable conditions. It wasn’t the pounding sprint of a race horse, but rather the steady, persistent crawl of a tortoise that got me to the summit of Brannigan’s Hill. I thankfully let my body fall into a flopping clop into the shaded downhill of the other side. I made it another half mile, and then my sweat-drenched body could take no more, and I was reduced to a walk for the final stint that led up Edgewood to my house. On days like this, I can’t drink anything too cold, and I knew, with two miles to go, there was a bottle of green Gatorade in the trunk of my car. Wiped out, heated out and drained, I reached for the bottle, and when I drank it, I could feel it going to every inch of my body. That night, as I lay in bed, I thought about my run. At first, I was disappointed at how tired my body had felt and how unable I was to snap out of the fatigue and battle the heat and humidity. But then the disappointment turned to pride. Despite how I’d felt and despite the conditions, I’d chosen the right fork in the road, not the path of least resistance. And, though I’d had to walk at the end…I’d finished the run. I fell asleep with a smile on my face. ...oh, and then 5 minutes later, the baby was up for a bottle. I'm the point man, but I'd have it no other way. Another reason to be proud of the run. If you don't have kids, you neither know nor appreciate a good night's sleep... nor how you'd gladly trade that sleep in for anything just to see your baby smile. Ashley Rose was down 20 minutes later and then, once again. Not bad for a 1 year old. Ok, most kids sleep 7 to 7, but she's experiencing life things no other kids do. I not only appreciated the run, then, but the sleep. And her even more.