The Air Up There

Comet cross country teams make biennial visit to Rocky Mountain National Park

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

Aside from PEDs, this has probably made humans run faster than they ever though capable.

Bears.

Not the ones in Chicago, but the ones you occasionally come across in the wild … like in places at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.

Maybe that’s why the Charles City cross country teams make biennial visits there just ahead of their training season.

“That’s the first time we’ve seen any bears out there,” Charles City boys coach Ryan Rahmiller said.

“It was a mother and her cub.”

In other words, the most dangerous bear this side of Dick Butkus — a protective mother bear.

“We were in the bus when we saw them,” Rahmiller said, “not out in the open.”

This was the Comets third trip to Colorado since 2010.

“Like any good idea, this is one we stole for ourselves,” Rahmiller said of when he heard of another high school cross country program taking trips together to the Rocky Mountains before the season began to help strengthen team unity.

“And I have some ties to Colorado, so I thought it could be good for us, too,” Rahmiller said.

The team did a lot of hiking and sightseeing, and did brave the thin air with some group runs.

“But it wasn’t like you could condition yourself to run in the thin air up there,” said Amanda Rahmiller, Ryan’s wife and coach of the girls team.

“You’ve got to train much longer than we were up there for it make a difference.”

For Charles City freshman Makenna Schmiedel, running amidst the Rockies was a challenging experience.

“It was a lot harder to breathe,” Schmiedel said. “Then when we came back home, I could immediately feel the difference.”

Schmiedel hopes to make a subsequent trip, which is due for 2018.

“I’ve never been that far away from home,” she said.