The classic runner’s adage, “Run through the pain,” took on an even more literal significance for the athletes on the Bainbridge High cross country team last week when, in one of their few annual practice sessions at Johnson Farm, they inadvertently disturbed a rather large — and angry — colony of bees.

Nobody was seriously hurt and only a few were forced to abstain from the workout that day, which saw all of the team’s approximately 110 students on the trails gearing up for the first meet of the year.

The runners are currently in what the coaching staff calls “Phase I,” which entails the students working to gain strength through building overall weekly mileage, increasing the length of long runs and core strength exercises.

To that end, switching up courses and getting the runners off the usual high school route is essential, explained Spartan Head Coach Ann Howard Lindquist.

“It’s pretty important to try and replicate the kind of course you’re going to run on, where you want to do well,” she said. “It’s nice to be on the soft surface and the varying terrain and we’ll be looking at running better on hills this year because our district and our Metro League courses are hilly.”

Assistant Coach Paul Benton agreed, adding that maintaining the interest of the more advanced, fitter runners is crucial as well.

“Bainbridge, the high school, has limited places to run without getting boring,” he said.

In addition to Benton, Lindquist is assisted this year by several other officials, including Rick Peters, Dustin Haydock, Michael Almodovar, Erin Chadburn, Lara VanDyke and, new to the team this season, Fuxia Stankus, who met Lindquist while volunteering with Go Run!, a nonprofit running group for young girls.

“I’ve always enjoyed running,” Stankus said. “I volunteered with the Port Townsend [High School] cross country team. I’ve done it in college.”

The team has also picked up some new students — and not just freshmen either. Team leaders said this year’s squad is a good mix of younger and upperclassmen.

The previous season’s major influx of freshmen, Benton said, was unusual.

“Last year’s freshman class was exceptional, this year’s average, I would say,” he said.

Though the gender ratio of the team had changed recently with the addition of more boys.

“We’re pretty close to 2-to-1 right now,” he explained.

The Spartans were once almost exactly even gender-wise, not at all the norm in the sport, Benton said, but a recent influx of boys and the surprise addition of a few junior and senior girls has rounded out the rosters nicely.

“The girls team has a chance to be pretty good this year because of that,” he said of the older multi-sport athletes. “We’ve got the continuing veterans and we’ve got the new kids coming in, not necessarily freshmen.”

Stankus agreed about the incoming batch of sporty Spartans: “We have some people from lacrosse and soccer and crew.”

The freshmen who did come out this year are promising, especially a certain cohesive pack of girls.

“I’d say we have a good solid four or five that run together, that compete with each other,” Stankus said.

The team’s first meet was Saturday, Sept. 10, an informal jamboree-style relay event.

“It’s a non-official, shorter than usual, weird kind of race,” Benton explained.

“This one’s set up as a coed relay. So each five-kid team — two girls, three boys — runs a two-mile, more or less, leg.”

There is only one home meet scheduled again this year, at Battle Point Park (Oct. 5).

Though it can be tough, Lindquist said, to get the Seattle-based schools to arrange transportation and come to the island, many Olympic League schools are slated to attend the event, which promises to be an exciting home turf test for the perennially successful Spartan squad.