Follow senior Will Shafer as he embarks on his senior season at Gray New Gloucester HS. Shafer is one of the top distance runners in the state, he was the Class B state champion in the 800m, and ran the second fastest 1600m in the state in 2013. Shafer finished 10th in the Class B XC state championship last fall, see what he's doing to get to the next level
Hello all,
I hope everyone is having a nice summer and a great holiday weekend, America! I just
finished up my first week of summer training for the upcoming XC season and thought it might be a good time to give blogging a shot. I know that I’m probably a little behind the rest of you guys and girls on summer training because a lot of the people I have talked to are already on their second or third week. However, I had a rather long track season that I thought warranted a two week break from running. A break from running always sounds great at the end of a long season, but I’m a pretty hyper-active person so I found myself getting restless after about two days. Instead of running, I passed my extra time by playing golf, lots of golf, biking, playing basketball, and doing some lifting. Needless to say, I’m happy to be out on the roads and trails again and I’m very excited for the upcoming season!
Before I look too far ahead, I thought I would fill everybody in on the past couple of months. This past track season was kind of a blur to me as I was focused on trying to hit some fast times that could potentially help me with the college recruiting process. However, after the State meet at the start of June I told myself to relax and try to enjoy wherever the rest of the season took me. I traveled down to New Britain, Connecticut the next week for New Englands, which was a great experience and I’m proud of the strong show that Maine athletes put on against some stiff competition. The next week was a little bit of a whirlwind. Because of my time from the State meet, I was able to enter in the Emerging Elite Mile at New Balance Outdoor Nationals. This meant that I had to turn around the following Thursday to catch a flight down to North Carolina for my race on Friday. I wasn’t expecting anything special from this race because I had never really traveled like that to a race before and I was worried about being jet-lagged and worn out from a long season and lots of travel. What I was looking forward to was the experience that could be gained by competing on the national level. My race was one of the first events of the meet and it was over before I even had a chance to sit down and think. The race was definitely icing on the cake for me as I was able to move up from last place early onand earn a podium finish along with a big shiny medal. This was not the important part though, I believe the confidence that can be gained from competing against athletes from across the country is invaluable and I urge anyone else with a similar opportunity to make the most of it. Go as far running takes you and make the most out of every chance that you’re given!
Now back to the present. The trials of summer miles can be boring and I’m always looking for running partners! I have made numerous connections with other runners across the WMC and I love the companionship of training with peers from other schools. I think you can learn a lot from your competitors and give some of your own advice in return. This way everyone is learning and striving to further the level of running in Maine, regardless of school affiliation. With that in mind, I’m open to anyone who wants to hop in on some quality miles. I live a couple miles down the road from Pineland, which has a great trail system, I’m also only 20 minutes from Twin Brooks if anybody wants to check out the course for Western Regionals and States this year. Feel free to shoot me a message on Facebook or Twitter if you want to take me up on one of these runs.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and try to beat the heat on your runs! -Will Shafer
