Saturday, March 29, 2014

Monmouth Season Opener: Loyalty in the rain

Before I delve into the results and try to sort out the soggy splits from today (note to stat geeks out there: you will be disappointed in the lack of completeness in the splits; it was not from a lack of effort), I must say how thankful we all are for the wonderful support we receive at each and every meet. You really notice it on a day like today. In particular, it was great to see some families who we have not seen since the long-ago XC season, because their sons did not race during the winter months. Welcome back!

Also, a special note of thanks to all our teammates who supported each other in the driving rain, and to the dedicated athletes who tried their best to record splits for us. A huge shout-out to Mark Valentino for taking the lost 10km splits -- he did a great job with them, gave them to me in the gym, I put them in my bag, but they were destroyed by my soaking wet hoodie -- hours before his steeplechase debut. Thanks also to Doug Ainscow, who ran the 25-lap 10km race, and then volunteered to help with splits in all the later races.

And lastly, it was so great to see resident Marist Running Bro Kevin O'Sullivan for a return engagement. Sully graduated a semester early and will be embarking on law school in the fall. He hung out with us the entire day, and his presence made us all realize how much we truly miss the true gentleman of our distance squad, Class of 2014.

Another great surprise was the presence of Marist Running Royalty Will Griffin, now running for Garden State Track Club. Will ran the 3,000 and hung out with the team for the majority of the day.

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