The Cavalier Distance Running Camp was held at Montreat College from July 12-17^th, the third year during which Montreat College Cross Country and Track head coach Jose Larios and others welcomed students to campus for an intensive course in running and training.

Larios, the Director of the Cavalier Distance Running Camp, explained that the camp is "an opportunity for developing runners to train and learn as much as possible about distance running," and this year, 49 middle and high school runners, representing the largest camp to date, came to the mountains to train at altitude and enjoy the camaraderie available in a beautiful setting.

"What makes our camp different from many others across the country," Larios added, "is that we want to provide an intensive, encouraging summer running camp experience in a Christ-centered environment."

This year's residential and day campers were combined for the week, comprising the largest camp in the camp's three-year history. Runners attended from Daytona, Orlando and Immokalee, Florida, as well as from North Carolina, Illinois, and South Carolina. The camp even featured one student from Germany.

Larios told of the great effort to include a group of runners from Immokalee High School who struggled to raise the necessary funds to attend the camp. Larios had coached Ismael Galicia in college, and Galicia, now a math teacher and coach at Immokalee, had hoped his team could make it to camp.

The nine Immokalee High School team members of Mexican and Haitian decent held car washes and yard sales to raise money for the camp, and it was a proud group from Immokalee who came to Montreat: eight of the eleven, all children of migrant farm workers, had never left their hometown or state, let alone dashed through mountain streams or run to the highest point on the East Coast.

For those students and all the others, Larios said, "Being on our ropes course and running up at Mt. Mitchell was a great experience. Most importantly, though, we were able to share the Gospel to some for the first time, or in a different light."

Along with the high ropes course and the Mt. Mitchell trip, campers experienced daily lectures on training, motivation, and nutrition; they also enjoyed daily devotionals and testimonies from Montreat College student-athletes, local coaches and leaders from the Black Mountain and Asheville area.

During a day trip to FootRX, a local running specialty store in Asheville, each runner ran on a treadmill so a video could be made recording each campers' foot strike, in order to determine the proper training shoe for each individual. Scott Socha, one of FootRX co-owners, also shared how they are able to incorporate their Christian faith in their profession each day.

Campers also experienced two great runs per day, meals in Howerton Hall, and nightly worship services in the Gaither Fellowship Hall. Pastor Jerry Lewis, from Grace Community Church in Marion, NC, gave the nightly message out of the book of Psalms.

"The Cavalier Distance Running Camp exceeded all my expectations for what I wanted my team to get from a running camp," said Coach Dave Dunn, from Daytona Beach, FL. "The lectures were informative and useful. The running trails were beautiful and varied in difficulty. The high ropes course was the best team building experience that I have ever been a part of with my team. The nightly worship services helped me to renew my own faith and seemed to help everyone at the camp grow spiritually. All the kids on my team want to come back next year!"

The Cavalier Distance Running Camp would like to especially thank Jason Lewkowicz for attending this camp for the third year in a row as our worship leader. We'd like to thank the following people that have helped this camp flourish. We couldn't do it without these supporters and sponsors:

Sharon Riley, Joe Hyder, FootRX-Asheville, Rudy Moberg, Dave Dunn, Don McMahill, Paul Scouten, Montreat facility staff, Bill Leadbetter, Roy McGinnis, Pastor Jerry Lewis, John Rogers and staff, Bernie Martinez, Hugo Gijon, Joseph Dohmann, Noah Hall, Ismael Galicia, Teresa Price/staff, Jonathan Bennett, David Parker, Ben Hall, Elyse Gildernew, Hunter Howe, Benton Jones, Becky Mendes

For more photos and camper's and coaches' testimonies, click HERE