It is a beautiful time of year in Ojai. I just drove back from a dinner in town with my advisees and we could smell the orange blossoms from Grand Ave. all the way up to campus. It can be very easy to be removed from world events while living in this bucolic setting. […]
Wow! I can’t believe that fall is almost over!! Looking back, I wonder exactly what I was doing. FIrst, the cross country team had its last league meet several weeks back at Cate School. As expected, we won the league, and I got a personal record of 20:10. I actually ran that race faster than […]
“FOR THE THRILL OF IT, THRILL OF IT! ALWAYS PUSHING UP THE HILL SEARCHING FOR THE THRILL OF IT. OHOHOHOH! 1,2,3 THACHER!” The girls cross country team sings at the top of our lungs before the race. You could call it a pre-race ritual. It’s my senior year, I can’t believe it, my final season. […]
This summer, I spent many hours running and preparing for the upcoming cross country season. This included lots of push-ups and sit-ups when running was not an option (camping trips). I ran in some really cool places including: Sanlúcar, Spain; Southwest harbor, Maine; Northern Maine on the border of Canada, and Newburyport, Massachusetts. Many days […]
An essential part of my routine is an early-morning run of 40-70 minutes almost every day. Last winter on such a run at about 0630 on McNell, not far from Reeves road, I noticed movement to my lower left and stopped to take a look. There appeared a tiny creature, about the size of a […]
As my Thacher graduation date is ever looming closer, I can’t help but begin to form a bucket list of things I want to do before I leave. And in terms of my senior year, I think I’ve already done a pretty good job. This year I have sung in a coffee-house, written for the […]
Early on Thanksgiving Day I participated in a 15k trail race in Topanga Canyon of the Santa Monica Mountains (part of a series of XTERRA trail races in Southern California). While jogging in place and attempting to stay warm prior to the event I was surprised to see a competitor stroll in to the starting […]
Returning from Midland, as late afternoon light faded to darkness, some of the boys and I, sitting toward the front of the bus, were talking quietly about our successes at the league championships, where both teams won. As we wound down the mountain from Lake Cachuma, Chevy mentioned that a friend of his had improved […]
Several times each month, Thacher brings in speakers and scholars who give talks in the evenings. Tonight, Chris McDougall will be speaking about his book, Born To Run, and I am ridiculously excited about his coming. I have been reading his book, which I’ve actually borrowed from the Thacher Library, and am expecting a lot […]
Every week that I am at Thacher, a special event, specific to that week, occurs. Some of these events may remain in my mind as lasting memories, such as Gymkhana, the musical, or an especially interesting conversation. This week, that special event is particularly important to me. It is 6 am, on a mid-November Saturday, […]