Polk County High School cross-country team members are blessed with one of the finest, or at least most demanding, training courses possible.

Whatever difficult course they face during the season, they’ll remember their annual three-mile run up White Oak Mountain, and be better prepared to win.

That’s long been the idea of Wolverine had coach Alan Peoples, whose teams made the arduous and ambitious run on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

“We have done this 27 years. Actually at least 27 or 28 times. I have done 27, because one year, I had torn my meniscus, and could not run. However I ran it twice the first year,” said Peoples.

Peoples, who would not make his charges do anything he does not also do, said the initial inspiration was that one of his long-ago runners rode his bicycle up the steep grade. Based on that, Peoples’ son and a few others said that if someone can bicycle up there (a heroic feat, too), they could run it.

“And so a legendary run was invented,” Peoples observed.

“It has helped my runners in that it is a confidence builder. After this run, I tell them that they will never run a course as tough, and it seems to make it easier to tackle the next races. It has helped me maintain a semblance of being able to still run,” continued Peoples, who will turn 70 in December.

Each team member who completes the run without walking even a single step of the way, signs a paper to record that effort.

There is method to Peoples’ plan; the Wolverines have captured Western Highlands Conference titles the past two years.