Full circle

The landscape was barren. The sun was bright, but its warmth was overshadowed by an unusual bitter chill for mid-November. These conditions were in stark contrast from the last time we were at the Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, almost three months to the day, for the first day of cross country practice. Today was essentially the final day of cross country season practice, and we decided for the sake of symmetry to finish at the beginning. We returned to Mills to do the same hill workout -- two sets instead of three -- that we started the season with. You can see the images above, taken by Hickey from my phone. (Side note: Hickey had the line of the day. When Tino tossed me his gloves mid-hill interval, I fumbled and dropped them both. Hickey's comment: "Wow, you could play for the Jets!" Nicely done.)

You may recall that first workout post, with a photo of the mostly shirtless runners scaling the Great Lawn at Mills. Today, there were no bare chests. The temperature was 29 degrees. That was summer. This was impending winter. After the workout was over, the men gathered around in a circle for an inspirational moment, celebrating what has been a mostly successful season as we approach our final meet.

Later in the afternoon, the women's team completed our final workout of the season, an interval session at the FDR/Cator Loop. Sorry that there are no images from that practice. My fingers were frozen and stuffed deeply into the pockets of my hoodie, after spending the better part of four hours shivering through the practices. When the women's workout was completed, the ladies gathered around in a circle for an inspirational moment. After three months and thousands of miles, we have come full circle. We have ended at the beginning. As the 2014 XC season approaches its finish line, the image of a full circle reminds us that, really, there is no finish line in our sport. Summer blends into fall blends into winter blends into spring ... we are at the end, which is really very similar to the beginning. For today, we reversed time and we stopped time, and we came full circle.