With the disappointment of our missed team goal at Regionals still fresh in my mind, I had an interesting thought today as I ambled slowly through the McCann Center parking lot.
How you judge teams and performances -- from meet to meet and from year to year -- is relative and in some ways arbitrary. I mean, it's not like we get to choose which league, conference or region we get to be affiliated with. There are no "rules" that say we get to run against teams with the same amount of scholarship funding, facilities, etc. Listen, I'm not using any of this stuff as excuses in any way, nor am I trying to feel sorry for myself or for you guys. We could have run better on Saturday, and we did not.
But again, we must be careful how we judge ourselves, and perspective is very important. A former runner of mine called and commented how well he thought we ran at regionals based on our fast 10k times -- especially compared to past years and past programs on the Franklin Park course (heck, our JV top 5 was as good or better than past varsity teams on that course in that meet!. I downplayed it, saying we didn't get the job done. But I thanked him and it gave me pause to think.
Again: Put us in a different conference (say, a conference that we used to be affiliated with before the MAAC), and we might be perennial champs and hanging banners in the gym. We are not, and yet we relish the satisfaction of being a strong 2nd to a national powerhouse. It may get us somewhat overlooked internally, and Internet threads out there can go on and on about what a weak D1 conference we are in. Like we have a choice. Such is life. Put us in a big-time power conference and maybe we are middle/back of the pack, and running strong and putting in the same ball-busting effort that I love about you guys.
What does it all mean? It all boils down to effort. Heart. Guts. It's also why I love our VCP list and our VCP history. We run the course enough. The course is the same as it always was. Sure, we have hot days; windy days; rainy days; cold days. But over the course of 4 years of running at VCP -- individually and as a team -- we pretty much know where we stack up in the history of Marist Running.
Doesn't matter what conference we are in.
Doesn't matter which IC4A race we run in.
Doesn't matter what team placement we get.
Your VCP time is who you are, as a collegiate cross country runner, and in the history of our Marist program.
You get one last crack at the course on Saturday -- for the year (underclassmen) and for your career (seniors). Try to make the most of it. Savor it.
Most importantly, treat IC4As for what it truly is: Pure running. Pure racing. It's why we go to this meet, and other teams just go home. Pure running. Pure racing.
As Jut always liked to say: Just race.
And remember: Van Cortlandt Park matters.
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