Day two begins with

Day two begins with a hearty, “It’s show time!” from Coach Miller at 6:30. The athletes struggle to get up, but do so with no complaints, realizing the longer they are in the tee pee the later they will be on the road and the later they are on the road the hotter it gets. The athletes mill about eating pieces of muffin and fruit and hydrating. This will be the big run – one hour. Those having done this before know what is ahead. The course begins flat on a paved road along the river and then winds up a dirt road guarded by red rock pillars. There is not much up this road, except for a couple of homesteads.  As the run progresses the country opens up and white capped mountains begin to appear between long dormant volcanoes. A herd of wild horses are sent into a stampede by our herd of wild guys.  This is a strong impressive group of runners. Even a herd of wild horses are no match.
Each athlete selects his turning around time between 35 and 40 minutes. The return to the camp is faster because it is down hill. Max gets an upset stomach and drops back, only feeling better when he throws up. Bryce who had a brush with the heat yesterday is running strong with no problems. Ryan H is amazing staying up with the second group with very little experience or conditioning. Noah tacks onto Graydon on the way back and sticks with him all the way to the tee pees.  Everyone arrives back at camp and only a few have blisters. Max is feeling much lighter.                                     The river is very popular with the guys as the PHAT Dads build pancakes. Yes, I said build. It took about four of us to pull it off, but no one complained as they gobbled them down.                                                                                                                                                                                      After breakfast everyone either headed to the pool or the river. At the pool Connor wins the belly flop contest and Noah places a close second. I must admit that I think this is one competition at which I could defeat them. Free time is spent reading playing cards, napping and talking about whatever.
Lunch is peanut butter and jam plus fruit and cookies.  We mixed up some strawberry and banana flavored Gatorade type drink which tasted like our muffins. It disappeared very slowly. Next year we’ll stick with Gatorade.
Just before dinner the guys put together a soccer game and Max gets a bloody nose which Chris, our built in trainer, attends to. Chuck piles up precut peppers, onions on his Red Devil Wok and stirs them until the moisture reduces the ingredients and then adds cut up chicken for a splendid chicken fajita filling. Dinner is devoured quickly as is another watermelon.
After dinner the PHAT Dads attempt to retain their volleyball title, but fall to the talented but lucky guys. Everyone heads to the pool and the team works on their synchronized diving. Not being too successful at that they decide to work on their synchronized “getting kicked out of the pool.”  They do this by forming a train and going down the slide. The life guards are laughing as they blow their whistles in unison and kick them out for the evening. Laughing even harder are the PHAT Dads gathered in the pool for a chat. Our boys politely pick up their towels and leave.
The only thing left to do is the fire pit. Chris took all the items needed for smors and set everything up. Unfortunately we ran out of chocolate and the marshmallows started flying. A lot of people don’t realize that a marshmallow can be a deadly weapon and so we put a stop to it. Actually I thought people were getting too close to the fire and might get pushed in and burned.
Coach Miller gives the guys a beddy bye, night - night story and they all slip off to sleep until 2:20 a.m. when Max laughs loudly.