Recently the temperature has been well over triple digits, but extreme heat is not going to keep the Fountain Hills High School cross country team from doing what they do best.

Head coach Mary McDonald, who is new to the team this year, holds her cross country practices in the mornings to beat the summer heat.

“Our normal practices have been morning practices, to escape the heat,” McDonald explained. “Also because the first several meets they will run take place in the morning hours. Many days are long run days, and if you are up at 5:30 a.m. you may see groups of our athletes running the streets of our town.”

Obviously, cross country practices consist of a fair share of running, but McDonald utilizes the natural terrain of Fountain Hills to train her runners.

“On other days we do speed work on the track,” McDonald said. “We also run on the grass at Fountain Park, as the races themselves are on the grass. Races are 5000 meters (5K) distance. Other days will incorporate hill work, and the runners will work on efficient ways to power up the hills. Living in a hilly town like Fountain Hills means most of the runs have a bit of hill work built in already.”

McDonald has a team of 12 runners this year with representation for each of the grade levels. Three of the seniors on the team have been runners for all four years of high school and are eager to chase new personal records at meets.

“Several of those athletes ran this summer in preparation for the season, and are ready to race.” McDonald said.

While the boys cross country team has enough runners to compete in meets, it is unlikely the girls team will have enough runners for the second year in a row. They can still participate in the meets but, without a full team, they cannot place.

Despite that the team’s goal right now is to make sure that everyone on the team is in racing condition.

“Our team goals have been to build the endurance levels of our newer team members,” McDonald said. “Then the plan is to focus on speed and strategy as we get close to our racing season.”

The cross country season is set to start on Sept. 5 with an away meet at Shadow Mountain High School.