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 enjoying their summer, which has been flying along a little too quickly
in my opinion. For me, it has reached the point where I’m just starting to realize how many things I have to do before school starts (wait...we have four chapters of IB Bio??!!). For those of you who are rising seniors, it’s especially difficult. I feel as though I have been on the road at least two days a week the entire summer looking at schools. One thing I know for certain, I want to apply to a school by way of early decision, in the hopes of finishing the college search process as soon as possible.
This past week I attended the Dartmouth College Running Camp, a week that I had looked forward to all summer. Without a doubt, the camp lived up to expectations. Between meeting new friends who enjoy running as much as I do, spending five days at a beautiful college campus, and having a great counselor to learn from (thanks Will G.), I had a fantastic week. Ben True stopped by on Wednesday night to answer questions and I found out something rather interesting....he eats six bagels, covered with peanut butter, before every race. I considered testing his “full stomach” theory before our time trial on Thursday, however, I decided I would rather live to see another day.
Saturday was the Beach 2 Beacon. Although I didn’t register to run this year, I couldn’t resist stopping by to encourage all of my friends who were racing. I found it really cool to watch some of the best runners in the world closely followed by my friends and competitors that I race against each week during the season. Overall, I thought that the Mainers ran really well, from the college guys down to my high school friends (we can only hope Ben Decker isn’t quite as fast on the trails this fall as he is on the road).
Hopefully everyone is staying healthy as August rolls around and the mileage gets ramped up. Preseason starts in two weeks!
Cheers, Will
