Reese to the rescue

Great to see Greg Salamone (aka REESE) commenting on the course post from last night. It's great for several reasons, not the least of which that he is still ALIVE.

You see, Greg -- I actually call him by his given name now, after years of calling him Reeses and eventually Reese -- likes to vacation in, um, dangerous places. He just got back from a lovely holiday in the Congo. He has also visited Yemen. He's most definitely not a "sandy beach and bottle of Corona" type of guy; but then again, he never was.

Anyway, back in college Reese did run a lot of the courses through the old Pysch Center. As did I. Great runs through there. But yes, Greg, the old joint has been closed for many years, and it is patrolled by guards who will arrest you if you are caught trespassing. Damn shame as there are many great runs up that way.

Most blog followers are a bit young to recall the running of Reese, so I will recap it briefly here. His nickname came from the fact that, on his recruiting visit, he wore a "Reese's Pieces" t-shirt. Clever and alert team members dubbed him "Reeses" and it stuck right on through college and beyond.

Reese came from upstate Liverpool, where he was a solid distance runner. Through a lot of hard work, he became a team leader on the track and in cross country. He'll be the first to admit he was not blessed with a lot of "natural talent" but he more than made up for it through hard work, a lot of it being through those hilly runs through the Pysch Center and the hills of Hyde Park.

He was a school record holder in the steeple, an IC4A qualifier at 10,000 meters and broke 15:00 for 5km indoors (although, to this day I believe he could have run much faster than 14:55 had he not gone through the 1600-meter split in his PR of 4:38!). Reese remains one of my favorite runners I've ever coached in that he squeezed the most out of his ability in his time here.

Greg graduated in 2001 and remains a loyal follower of the team. He and his brother, Chris, live a few minutes from Vanny and apparently they have started running again on a regular basis, which makes me happy.

So there you go. Not much to write about but I've still squeezed a few posts during the barren times of December. Enjoy the day.