Nice tube socks, dude

A regular reader of this blog had a great observation for me during one of our endless indoor track meets at the Armory this past winter. He saw me hanging around with a handful of Running Red Fox alums who were there either running as part of the Alumni Racing Team or cheering on the current Red Foxes.

Although it may not be a 100 percent accurate, direct quote, he told me something like this: "You may never get rich (monetarily) being a coach, but with the lifelong connections you make with your former athletes, you will grow old being a very rich man in terms of these lasting friendships."

Again, some of the words may have been lost in the translation, but that was the gist of what he said. I agree. I cherish the close ties forged with our running alums old, older and not so old. And I am always proud of the efforts of the Marist Alumni Racing Team, which keeps those ties fresh and strong.

Those ties now get multiplied by two as I have started working more directly with the women's program over the past few years. One of our women's alums -- Lisa D'Aniello -- stopped by our home on Saturday afternoon with her boyfriend Justin Corelli, a legendary Section 2 runner out of Shaker High School and later Princeton University. We had a nice visit on one of these ridiculously warm early-April days (NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING!!)

For those that do not know or remember Lisa (what the heck, she only graduated in 2008!), she is perhaps the most prolific two-sport women's athlete that Marist has ever had. She was a record-breaking runner on the track -- that we all remember. And she was an excellent rower on MAAC champion crew teams. She was such an amazing rower and athlete that two summers ago she qualified for the US U23 National Rowing Team that competed at the World Rowing Championships in Germany. Tell me how many athletes were that good in two sports!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from her visit. In case you were wondering, the goofball with the cool tube socks is me.