Breakfast Anyone?

The Spartans hit the track nice and early on this fine April morning for a tempo workout. The plan was to get some quality work in before a rest day on Sunday and a race on Tuesday or Wednesday. That’s exactly what happened.

Each group had a number of laps and a pace per lap to hit. Lots of encouragement could be heard from T-bone as guys called out splits as they passed. Lucky for him, Husmann came to practice and helped write down splits. Jack learned a valuable lesson – writing numbers on a clipboard is far more difficult than it appears. Back on the distance squad was Potter who had an 800 specific workout with Scherping. Aided by the early practice time, Potter picked up his first point in Potter vs. Food. It’s now 2-1. Everyone finished the workout with 4-6 200s at mile pace. The guys looked smooth today and coach was happy with the performance.

After practice, the guys who put in the miles in the off-season were invited over to the Traughber’s for a pancake breakfast. For starters we had the 2nd Annual DeSmet Distance Team Smoothie Contest. The competition expanded from 3 to 4 competitors – Potter (the only returner), Abernathy, Seiler, Callahan-Sullivan. Jacob’s speed was impressive, his “smoothie” (it was totally a milkshake but we let it go) was made the fastest. Abernathy added watermelon to his smoothie to try to set it apart from the others. Callahan-Sullivan struggled blending their thick and sweet smoothie, but it turned out alright. Potter forgot the lid for his blender which would have eliminated him from the competition had Coach Traughber (who said he did not “think” he wanted strawberries all over his walls) not let him borrow his.
After everyone there had plenty of samples of each smoothie, the voting took place. Abernathy, Potter, and Callahan-Sullivan were all tied with 4 votes apiece. There was still one vote not cast. Liz was torn and wanted to vote for two, but this contest needed a winner. After a final taste of Alex and Kevin’s smoothies, Liz chose Alex. After his disappointing showing last year, Potter is the Smoothie Champ.

With the excitement over, it was time to eat. And oh boy was it delicious. Pancakes, pancakes, and more pancakes, not to mention, eggs, sausage, and fruit. We ate and hung out and had a blast. Scherping, not to anyone’s amazement, ate the most. Justin Potter had the weirdest meal-chocolate chip pancakes covered in chocolate syrup. It induced what Liz called a “chocolate coma.” There’s just nothing like getting together as a team to celebrate lots of hard work.

Traughbers, thank you so much for your hospitality and wonderful food, we once again had a great time! Remember if want to be a part of the food and fun next year, get your miles in and you will get your invite.

Quote of the Day: “If I wasn’t mean to kids, I’d still be a DeSmet selling chocolate milk.”- Coach Traughber. We were telling Liz about how coach gives kids trouble when he’s selling milk.

Joke of the Day: “My favorite part of breakfast was the muffins. They were right next to the stove. What do you mean you didn’t see them?”- Seiler to Abernathy. Kevin went inside to find that there were never any muffins.