In Her Own Words: Stefanie Kurgatt

 
Hello everybody! I hope you all are having a wonderful summer. My name is Stefanie Kurgatt and I am a rising senior at Maclay School.   I have been given the honor- along with other great runners in Florida- of writing a blog about the upcoming XC season.  I would like to thank Flrunners for giving me the opportunity to share my journey as the season progresses.

This summer has been very busy and will definitely be one to remember.I started out summer training somewhat late because I got to go compete in Caribbean Invitational and New Balance Nationals. I had an experience of a lifetime in Puerto Rico. I was treated like a true elite athlete. We were blessed to have everything from a massage therapist to sport physiologist. I never really realized how much it took to perform at your very best, and Team NSSF really took care of us. Aside from that, I made lifelong friends. Thank you so much NSSF. Anyway, after New Balance I stayed in North Carolina and took some time off from running. I got to spend some time with my dad, which was a lot of fun.  We also traveled and visited some colleges. By the time I got back to Tallahassee it was already the second week of July. I couldn’t believe it. I was only in Tallahassee for a week before we left for running camp.

We attended Warrior Running Camp in Berry, Georgia. I would like to thank all the coaches and counselors who put together Warrior and made it such a great experience. It was my fifth and last year at running camp, so it was really sad leaving, but I had so much fun. It was a great time to bond with the team, get in some amazing training, make new friends and set team goals for the season ahead. Surprisingly you don’t just run at running camp. We played a lot of fun games, and I will never forget the “Amazing Race” and my favorite game, Noodle Wars. We were also very lucky to meet Coach Hanson of Hanson Brooks. He gave us a lot of tips and I was able to run with him a few…. he kicked my butt.  Quick recovery to Hanson Brook’s runner Desire Davila and good luck to all the Olympians in London.

Now we are back from camp and continuing our training in the beautiful trails of Tallahassee. I still cannot believe how fast summer is going, but I hope everyone is just as excited for cross country season as I am. Good luck to all the rising seniors who are looking for colleges. Let’s enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Happy Running and Godspeed!



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