A few weeks ago, LGL Productions received an email from a big fan of The Long Green Line named Zach Seigel of Irvington, NY who just began his senior year as a high school cross country runner. Apparently one of his teammates stumbled across a review of The Long Green Line and bought himself a copy. His team sat down to watch it together the night

before sectionals, which would pit them against a team that had been favored heavily all year. Zach’s team won by one point and he claims that watching The Long Green Line was the little bit of magic that pushed them over the edge. He says of watching the film, “It makes you almost cry with anticipation for your race.” Zach has gone on to share the movie with other runners, many of whom attended Green Mountain Running Camp in Vermont this summer. He says,”More than few tears were shed, and everyone went out that day running a little more inspired.”

Zach and his team are well bonded and ran together this summer multiple times a week. They also attended the same running camp, did team camp-outs on their self-built trails in the woods and had a team beach-day. But the most important thing they did as a team this summer was to host a 5k on August 29, 2009 in order to raise money for their cross country program. Due to rampant budget cuts for school sport, they lost the funding for their beloved assistant coach. So they banded together, raked and built trails and constructed bridges over mud pits behind their school to make their 5K the best it could be.

The 5k went well.  Though it rained horribly that day and they only had half their expected turnout, they  still raised $1755 and will definitely be able to keep their assistant coach. In fact he was there for their first team practice. In order to scrape together the rest of the money they need to keep him on they will once again work as a team and  sell snacks at their meets.

When asked which he thinks is more important, winning or trying, Zach says, “Winning is more important, you have to look at it as your only option. If you’re ok with just trying and not winning, you won’t win.” But after he completed the 5k fundraiser his view expanded a bit and he told me, “It did feel really good to run for something other than winning, and everyone loved the trails.”