By Erika Reals
Senior Michael Huff from Kapaun Mt. Carmel is planning a trip to Disney World this January, but not to ride the Rock ‘N Roller Coaster or the Tower of Terror with a Fast Pass ticket. Instead, he will be running a grueling 13.1 miles through Epcot, Magic Kingdom and MGM Studios for the annual Disney World Half Marathon.
Huff has been running cross country since seventh grade. He has raced in state competitions since his freshman year, and runs about 40 miles per week in the summer. He plans to run in the Disney World Half Marathon this January, after his friend, Craig Compton, told him about it their freshman year. He brought his love for running to Manhattan this week at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop.
About 6:30 Tuesday morning, Huff laced up his blue and white Adidas AdiZeros, long before many other campers were awake. He didn’t know what he was getting into.
Planning to run outside the perimeter of the campus, he did his research the night before. The directions instructed him to turn on Kimberly Street and then back toward the Holiday Inn, running approximately six and a half miles total. The street never came.
“Once I realized I wasn’t where I should be, I asked a couple how I could get back to the Holiday Inn,” Huff said. “They laughed at me and were like ‘Oh, wow, you are so far away!’ I was about 20 minutes from the hotel.”
He ended up running more than eight miles.
“I definitely learned the lesson to know every road in that area,” Huff chuckled as he ate his butter-colored sugar cookie after dinner, managing to pack back on a few calories he had run off earlier in the day. “I need to pay more attention to where I am actually going next time, because you never know what could happen, especially when running alone in an unfamiliar area. If I got kidnapped while lost on a run, I would probably start flailing my arms like I do when I am tickled and try and run away.”
Huff’s tousled black hair matches his dark brown eyes, set on a thin-framed, short and toned runner’s body.
He planned to run every day he is at camp to reach his goal of breaking 18 minutes in the 5K and place in the top 10 at City League during this cross country season. After Tuesday morning, his ability to carry out this goal was threatened, but he is not a quitter. He went for another run Wednesday morning.
“The nerves were killing me,” he said somewhat sarcastically. “Anxiety was really just running through my veins.”
But this time he didn’t get lost.
Huff said his love for running began in the summer of 2005.
“That year I decided to go to a summer cross country practice, and I didn’t really want to stick with it, but Coach [Jeff] Washburn and Craig (Compton) talked me into staying and it has been really fun every since,” Huff said with a smirk. “It had nothing to do about my weight.”
His friends laughed as they ate their meatball dinner in the Union Ballroom.
“I still have that sixth-grade class picture,” teased senior Katie Hand from Kapaun Mt. Carmel, threatening to use it to prove Huff was not the same person he is today. “He had a little ‘stache… and was a kind of a chub.”
According to students’ legends, Huff took up running in seventh grade to shed a few pounds, but he has not confirmed this accusation.
“I still can’t even imagine Huff chubby!” yelled senior Bea Tretbar from Kapaun Mt. Carmel. Huff turned red in embarrassment as he laughed.
“I’ll definitely be running again tomorrow,” he said.
Erika Reals is a senior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel and a student in the advanced writing class at the Flint Hills Publications Workshop.
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