Registration for 2023 is open and we are excited to start pre–season practices soon! If you are new to the team you are welcome to join us for a few practices and talk to our coaches and parents to see if our team is a good fit for you. For the beginning of the season, our practice plans are as follows, starting the week of June 5:

• Monday 6–7:30pm at the American Tobacco Trail New Hill–Olive Chapel parking area. Focus on distance. (Note: park closing time shifts with sunset so we may need to end our first couple practices early.)
• Thursday at 6–7:30pm at Seymour Athletic Fields in Apex. Focus on speed and pacing.
• Saturday at 7:30–9am at Sugg Farm park. Focus on “hills and drills.” Sometimes the gates are not open yet at 7:30 so we park just outside.

Occasionally we may try a Durham parkrun, switch to Seymour Athletic Fields in Apex, or do some track work at Apex Friendship Middle School. We use TeamSnap exclusively to communicate changes to practice location and schedule, so please reach out to us if you are not on TeamSnap currently.

Our primary coaches are Karen Adams, Scott Moonen, and Josiah Ruhl. Please let us know if you’re interested and available to assist with coaching in case someone else can’t make it. We’re glad that Eli Ruhl is continuing as assistant coach, Ana María Fraticelli as team manager and assistant coach, and our alumnus Keaton Adams is joining as assistant coach.

As in the past we depend on you to register with USATF for team insurance. Their fee is about $33 this year. You can go ahead and register with them any time; our team is “CARY FIRE (NC – 13-1087).” Fees for team registration this year are:

• High school runner $75 before July 1, $150 after
• Non–high school runner $60 before July 1, $120 after
• For non–competitive runners we request a $30 donation before July 1, $60 after

We welcome kids who are younger than middle school to practice but we need help from parents during practice to ensure they are safe. They won’t be able to run in every race but we will do our best to include them when we can.

Grace and peace to you!

Karen Adams
Keaton Adams
Ana María Fraticelli
Scott Moonen
Eli Ruhl
Josiah Ruhl

We’re excited for our pre–season work to start soon! Here are some details:

Our pre–season practices start Monday, June 6. Our current plan is:

• Monday 7–8:30pm at the American Tobacco Trail New Hill–Olive Chapel parking area. Focus on distance. (Note: park closing time shifts with sunset so we may need to end our first couple practices early.)
• Thursday at 7–8:30pm at the picnic shelter at Seymour Athletic Fields in Apex. Focus on speed and pacing.
• Saturday at 7:30–9am at Sugg Farm park. Focus on “hills and drills.” Sometimes the gates are not open yet at 7:30 so we park just outside.

Occasionally we may try a Durham parkrun, switch to Hilltop–Needmore Park, or do some track work at Apex Friendship Middle School. We’re planning to use TeamSnap exclusively to communicate changes to practice location and schedule, so please reach out to us if you are not on TeamSnap currently.

Our primary coaches will be Scott Moonen, Eli Ruhl, Josiah Ruhl. Please let us know if you’re interested and available to assist with coaching in case someone else can’t make it. We’re glad that Karen Adams and Ana Maria Fraticelli are continuing as our team managers. We’re still working out assistant coaches as well and hope to see some new faces as well as some familiar faces.

As in the past we depend on you to register with USATF for team insurance. Their fee is just under $30 this year. You can go ahead and register with them any time; our team is “CARY FIRE (NC – 13-1087).” We’ll have more details on team registration in early June but our fees this year will be:

• High school runner $50 before July 1, $100 after
• Non–high school runner $30 before July 1, $60 after
• For non–competitive runners we request a $15 donation

We welcome kids who are younger than middle school to practice but we need help from parents during practice to ensure they are safe. They won’t be able to run in every race but we will do our best to include them when we can.

Grace and peace to you!

Karen Adams
Ana María Fraticelli
Scott Moonen
Eli Ruhl
Josiah Ruhl

We’ve updated the Meet Schedule on the site. All current key communication happens through TeamSnap. Ask for details if you think you’re missing messages.

Daniel

Some details about our summer plans.

First, the practice schedule. Here is the basic plan:

• Mondays @ 6:30pm @ Apex Nature Park. Meet at the gazebo next to the tennis courts. The focus of these nights is speed, but we’re still building our base right now.
• Thursdays @ 6:30pm @ Hilltop-Needmore Park. Meet under the big tree next to the (old) clubhouse. The focus of these nights is distance, but we’ll add some variety to these nights.
• Saturdays @ 7:30am @ Sugg Farm. Meet near the gate at the end of Grigsby Ave. The focus of these mornings is hill work and general fitness.

Second, the meet schedule is developing, but you can check out that page on our site for the latest news.

Third, it’s time to begin your registration process. Go to the registration page on the site to work through the various steps for registration. If you need a uniform, we’ll be handling that in a week or two. We’re making some changes this year.

Fourth, though you likely know this already, but here is our current team of volunteers making the year happen:

• Daniel Baker, AD
• Jim Martin, Head Coach
• Josiah Ruhl, Head Coach
• Elias Ruhl, Head Coach
• Henry Noel, Assistant Coach
• Josh Ruhl, Assistant Coach
• Caleb Weathers, Assistant Coach
• Ana Maria Fraticelli, Team Mom
• Karen Adams, Team Mom

What a gift to be able to honor God with our bodies through a sport like cross country. As the apostle said, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Of course, he had cross country in mind when he said that! We want our actions and words in our practices and meets to be “in the name of the Lord Jesus”—which means done so that others would praise him, done consistently with his holiness and character, and done with an awareness of him as we workout.

We hope 2021 is a great season of growth for you—as a runner but especially in your walk with Christ.

Daniel

Hello, everyone! The season is almost here. Here are some details on our summer running and fall season: 

1. 1st practice will be June 7th at Hilltop-Needmore Park, 6pm. We’ll meet with the parents a bit and have the kids do some running. 

The plan for now is Hilltop-Needmore on Mon and Thursday at 6pm and then Sugg Farm (2401 Grigsby Avenue, Holly Springs, NC 27540) on Saturday mornings at 7:30am. 

2. The coaches for this year will be me, Jim Martin, and Josiah Ruhl. But…we need some assistant coaches to help with practices and maybe manage an occasional one if one of us can’t be there. Usually this is only once or twice per season. Are you interested? Shoot me an email and let me know.

3. I’m pleased to announce this year that Ana Maria Fraticelli and Karen Adams will be our team managers (team moms). They bring a lot of energy and commitment to the team and also a desire to see us grow in our organization.

4. Along these lines we’ll be using TeamSnap app for schedules, RSVP for meets, etc. Details coming about that. Likely it’ll be July when we get that set up. Until then, we’ll use our Google Group pretty exclusively.

5. The registration deadline for this year is June 30th. Till then, feel free to run with us and see if this is what you’d like to do for the fall season. 

6. One other change for the year is that we’ll have some track workouts with Josh Estepp who is coaching the Heritage Academy cross country team. Details coming.

See you soon! Feel free to ask if you have questions I didn’t answer. 

Daniel

Sorry, more details would have been helpful. Here’s the link for a map of the Hilltop-Needmore Park: https://www.fuquay-varina.org/DocumentCenter/View/4695/HNTPP-Trail-Map?bidId=.

We’ll meet there at 6pm.

Basically, varsity will work off the Red path, middle school will work on the yellow path, and parents/littles will work on the blue path. This will be at the start, at least.

The two issues we have to deal with now are keeping below that 25-person limit and also COVID itself. If you have had exposure to COVID, please stay home. For the 25-person limit, we should be good if we keep to these three groups.

And…hydrate. It’s hot. Drink a good amount of water but mix in some non-water so you don’t get too low on your sodium and other nutrients.

Thanks!

Congratulations to our varsity boys for taking 1st place at both states and nationals (scroll down to Nov 2, 2019, to see meet results for nationals). This is definitely a team victory. Having a top finisher helps a ton, but it takes a team to win an event like these. You can see all results for the national meet here.

In the varsity girls race several got PRs, which was true of our boys as well. Harder to determine that with the middle schoolers since they run a 2.1-mile course at nationals. This was a highly competitive race overall, with the top 10 girls coming in under 20′ and the top varsity boy finishing in a Flash-like 15:24. Of course, we were part of that competitiveness with our top 7 varsity boys coming in under 18′.

In the state meet, kudos to the middle school girls for taking 1st place and the middle school boys for being runner-up.

You guys have worked hard for a long time now. Well done!! You can’t predict the outcomes of races, but hard work is an achievement in itself that will stick with you throughout your lives. The coaches are extremely proud of you.

Daniel B

The 2019 season begins with pre-season workouts on Monday, June 3rd. To start the pre-season training, fill out this waiver. Email it back to me (daniel.baker@sgcapex.org) or bring a copy to one of the practices. This will serve as your initial registration.

Here’s our basic summer schedule (though keep up with our Google group for changes on a given night or week):

• Mondays – 6:00pm – Symphony Lake Greenway (lake near Koka Booth Amphitheater in Cary). Meet in the official parking lot for the Greenway (marked “P” on the map at the town website). Practices run by Daniel Baker.
• Thursdays – 6:30pm – Apex Nature Park. Practices run by Elias and Dawn Ruhl.
• Saturdays – 7:30am – Sugg Farm in Holly Springs. Practices run by Josiah Ruhl.

Any other questions, send them to me (daniel.baker@sgcapex.org).

Thanks,

Daniel

• A couple are doing the Tobacco Road half
• A family doing Run the Quay’s 5k (and maybe the “15 Quay” version)
• Josiah Wolfe is hosting the run4relief race to raise money for the Agua Viva orphanage in Guatemala.
• Middle Creek High School 5k on Sat Apr 6th: https://www.stampedeclub.org/stampede-club-5k.html
• Others are doing the Moncure Panther Prowl – Sunday April 7, 2019, at 3pm.
• A couple families mentioned the Cary Road Race
• We might have a team or two for the Raleigh Minuteman Muster – May 18 8:30am
• If you’re looking for a 5k with not many runners and pretty decent prizes, consider the St. Paul Village Community 5k.

Thanks!

Daniel