Warriors hold 8th annual Peanut Marathon
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ARLEE — Even during the holiday break, the Warrior grapplers were hard at work. Though there was no wresting meet on their schedule, they found other ways to keep in tiptop shape: booking a total of 4,300 feet in elevation by running the stairs in the Arlee gymnasium.
“It’s a annual event which started back in 2003 because of a 105-pound freshman with a great idea,” said head coach Ken Hill.
The Peanut Marathon was named after Warrior wrestler Jacob Santos (whose nickname was “peanut”) after he decided it would be a great idea if the team ran stairs for the entire two-hour practice. So on Dec. 29, early in the morning, the team didn’t wrestle, but ran the entire practice. Hill projected the movie “The Lion King” on the wall to provide background noise and boost morale.
“The first half-hour of the run went by fast, with some of the wrestlers being boisterous and singing the songs from ‘The Lion King,’” Hill said. “But then they quieted down for the duration. At the one-hour mark, it was totally quiet as the members of the team, in their own thoughts, went through the motions.”
According to Hill, the stairs on both ends of the wrestling room are 12 feet high and 16 steps long. So the wrestlers had quite a challenge as they ran up one end, across 100 feet of wrestling mat, down the stairs on the other end, turned around at the bottom of the stairs and repeated their course.
“It sounds kind of boring, but very doable, as every member of the team completed the marathon,” Hill said. “By the end, everyone had completed the run and felt a good deal of accomplishment for the day’s workout.”
The Warriors are back in action on Thursday at a home meet and wrestle in Ronan on Friday and Saturday.
