More thoughts on the Fox Trot …

A few more random comments on yesterday’s road race:

--Marist Athletics is truly blessed with a skilled and professional Event Planning Team. These administrators put on countless events with great efficiency and calmness. It is not an easy task, and they are always up for it. Our home cross country meet and the Red Fox Trot are the two home events that we either organize or help organize each school year. The home XC meet at Bowdoin is one of the rare times when the Athletic Administration is on hand for a home event but are free of the stresses of running the event – thanks in large part to Coach Horton. But at yesterday’s road race, they were back in full force. As part of the planning team for the race, I get to see them in action up close and personal. Putting on a race like this can be a stressful thing for the organizing committee, but it’s nice knowing we have such a great team of administrators who know what they are doing, and they do it very, very well.

--This year’s course was revamped, and it was tougher. Basically, the first half was all uphill. At the urging of Athletic Director Tim Murray, we ran the race through the new pedestrian underpass. This was a nice touch, but it added a huge amount of uphill running to the turnaround point. The great thing about the new course from my perspective: For runners who liked the course, I could take the credit for mapping out the route; for runners who were not enamored with the extra hilliness, I could cite Mr. Murray’s request to go under Route 9 as the reason. Ha! The best of both worlds. In all seriousness, the course worked well. We will tweak it a bit for 2012 to make the turnaround a bit smoother and with fewer turns. Otherwise, I think we are set moving forward with a tough but fair course – what I would consider the road racing equivalent to the Bowdoin Park 5km cross country course.

--Having the Marist Band there before and after the race was really awesome. It’s a great touch. I’m sure Conor Shelley appreciated it.

--Credit must be given to the Red Fox Club, the official booster club of Marist Athletics. This is their race. It was their idea, and the race committee has been planning this event since January. Their dedication and commitment to securing sponsors, working with the Mid-Hudson Road Runners Club and working with Marist Athletics is to be applauded. It is an honor to play a small role on their committee and to be work with such a loyal and hard-working group of volunteers. Nicely done!

--We know the men’s Marist Running Alumni connections are strong. We are slowly trying to foster the same cohesiveness on the women’s side. On that note, it was great to see women alums Brittany Burns and Caitlin Garrity taking part in the race – with Britt winning and Caitlin taking fourth. Good stuff.

--Speaking of good stuff, how about sprinting alums Mike Cocca and John Kristie running fast and strong in the race? They were joined by current sprinter Christian Coscio, a 400-meter man who stepped way up in distance to run the 5k. Hope you guys liked the hills!

--I mentioned the Marist Running Alumni connection in a previous post. The alumni running presence was strong. But what was especially cool was the several “generations” of Marist Running that were present. From Mr. Bucket (“David Swift”) from the early 1990s, to Ned Kenyon from the late 1990s, to Pat Driscoll, from the late 1990s/early 2000s, to Charlie “Junior” Williams from the early/mid 2000s, to the many recent alums from the past five or so years … the bond remains strong and it makes me smile.

--Speaking of making me smile … right before the race, many alums gathered together for a pre-race huddle. How cool was that? Several Red Fox Club members noticed and thought it was extremely neat.