The trails of First Landing State Park were a little busier than a normal Sunday morning in mid-August. The park is the routine training ground for Coach Mike Nestor and the Ocean Lakes HS Cross Country team. This morning they were joined by 24 girls and 3 coaches from St. John's School, a K-12 private school in Houston Texas.
Based on enrollment SJS would be a 2A school in Virginia. They compete in the Southwest Preparatory Conference, which is comprised of 19 accredited independent schools.
Each summer the coaches take the girls to a different city for a "running vacation." In previous years they've visited Oregon, but this year opted for an East coast adventure. Coach Haley Barrett has family ties in Virginia Beach and after a little research, the contact with Ocean Lakes Coach Nestor was made and the trip began to take shape.
The girls flew in Saturday and will enjoy a week at the beach, literally, as they are staying in a rental property in Sandbridge, just a few steps from the ocean. The SJS Boys XC team is spending a week in Colorado with their coaches.
OL runners paired up with the SJS girls and guided them through the matrix of dirt trails that makes up FLSP. The Texas runners reported that the weather here is very similar to what they've been experiencing at home, but their trail run this morning provided something they don't normally have - shade! The coaches said that they don't have any trails nearby and nothing with any tree cover.
Monday the team practices at Oak Grove Lake Park, a 1.5 mile looped trail in Chesapeake with markers every .25 miles. On Tuesday the girls traveled to Williamsburg to run the Matoaka Trails and tour the William & Mary campus.
The highlight of the week was a 2-mile xc run on Wednesday at Bells Mill Park in Chesapeake, the site of the 5A/6A South Regional XC Meet in the past. Several area schools will be participating in the run, including Ocean Lakes, Princess Anne, Salem, Cox, Bayside and Great Bridge. The girls are excited to run a grassy, hilly course!
MileStat provided photo coverage of the run and will have more on the SJS girls visit to Virginia Beach!