Home meet: Additional information

Forgot to mention in the previous post: There WILL be Senior Day festivities to honor our seniors, after the Marist Invitational races. The complete details are still being worked out, as our excellent Sports Information Staff will be orchestrating this event. So, something else to look forward to on what we hope will be a fine morning of collegiate cross country in Poughkeepsie. OK!

Home meet: Info and tailgate planned

As we round the corner into September soon -- although, based on the weather forecast it will feel more like midsummer next week as we enter the first month of fall -- here is some information on our home XC meet on Saturday, September 5, at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve in Poughkeepsie.

9 a.m.: Men's 6km race, Marist Invitational
9:45 a.m.: Women's 5km race, Marist Invitational
10:30 a.m.: Men's 6km race, Vassar/Ron Stonitsch Invitational
11:15 a.m.: Women's 5km race, Vassar/Ron Stonitsch Invitational

Yes! It will be a full morning of XC at the Farm, with our meet and Vassar's excellent early-season meet. Our meet will feature the following visiting teams: Iona, Fairfield, Siena, Hofstra.

Also! Kathy Gould is planning a team tailgate for the day. If you would like to coordinate/contribute to the festivities, email her at kathygould@optonline.net.

Wrapping up preseason with a BBQ

We had a very pleasant team BBQ on "South Field" -- the grass field behind the McCann Baseball Field outfield fences and next to the McCann Center -- on Friday afternoon/early evening. It was made all the more enjoyable with the presence of a few track team members who are on campus early for a variety of reasons. Great to have them!

While I mostly enjoyed myself, I also found myself pacing nervously while the "men" were acting like "boys" and playing various, crude forms of ultimate frisbee and touch football. Always wary of freak injuries, I did not enjoy watching these "activities" but everyone emerged unscathed. This concluded a very positive and productive preseason. Classes start on Monday, and we continue to forge on with the hopes of a strong and positive XC season.

Minnewaska Men

On Thursday, our men made their second and final journey to Minnewaska State Park Preserve for a nice mountain run on the carriage trails. Thanks to Brian Edsall for sharing this team photo/selfie he took at the top of the mountain.

Hooker Avenue shuffle

This morning's practices called for a dirt road interval workout for the men at Vassar Farm and a track workout/fartlek for the women at the Vassar College track. In an attempt to be two places at once, I got the men going a little early with warmup, drills and instructions on their paces, and then darted across the street to the track to see the women begin their workout. And then! I darted back across the street to catch the end of the men's workout. The humidity was low and the heat of the sunny day did not burn too brightly, so the work was done and done well by both teams. This has been a positive preseason and we look forward to what fall XC 2015 has to bring for the team. OK!

Defying gravity in Stormville

It was truly a treat to be able to finally attend the women's team gathering at the Gould residence in Stormville. This has been a preseason tradition for many years, but it was the first time I was able to clear my home schedule enough to make it. What fun! I mean, I really really enjoyed it. Kathy Gould is the mastermind of these festivities, and it is truly creative and fun and excellent team bonding for the ladies. And oh yeah, the food was incredible -- personal highlight were the meatballs, capped off with a sumptuous dessert celebrating the many August birthdays on the women's team. Here is a team photo as well as a photo of one of the group activities, dubbed "defying gravity" in which the teams had to keep balloons in the air for as long as possible. Kudos to the "Purple Team" for winning. But really, all were winners on this great summer evening. Many thanks to Chris and Kathy Gould, and all the other brains behind the operation. Well worth the effort. Nicely done!

Tuesday tempo at the rail trail

The storms overnight were so loud and so scary that they woke up many of us in the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately, the morning cleared sufficiently for our tempo workout at the New Paltz Rail Trail. It was a bit muggy, but overall it was a spirited workout with the men and women practicing together -- always a treat. Here is a photo of the women's team beginning their cooldown toward the Village of New Paltz. We look forward to a return trip to the trail later in the summer/fall.

Preseason, day 5: Dirt roads in Millbrook

The men had an excellent long run on the undulating dirt roads in Millbrook today, getting in anywhere from 13 to 15 miles on the mostly traffic-free, shaded and hilly roads. Most of these are rural, one-lane roads and today the one lane was filled with long-distance men.

Notes from abroad: Running in Paris

It was great to hear from track/XC team members Bryn Gorberg and Jenn Horner, juniors who are studying abroad for the fall 2015 semester in Paris. Bryn e-mailed this photo and this brief report of their first run in Paris:  

"We went on our first run in Paris today! We did just a 30-minute run to explore the area. We ran along the Seine River; it's not the Walkway Over the Hudson, but it'll 'do!' I love having the Eiffel Tower in view. Also, we found a track right next to the Eiffel Tower that is accessible to the public so we can do workouts there as well! Hope preseason is going well."

Great to hear from them and glad they are enjoying Paris on foot.

Preseason, day 4: God's air conditioning

Saturday morning practice called for Farm Lane repeats (men) and Bowdoin Park hill repeats (women). The early morning sky was bright and the early morning air was beautiful with low humidity and cooling breezes. One men's team member who shall remain nameless even said it felt a little chilly before he started running. Imagine that, on August 22? It made for a spirited and excellent workout. This refreshing weather will be short-lived, as the warmth and humidity is scheduled to return early next week. For one day? God's air conditioning sure felt great.

Straight outta ...

Talk among some team members was about going to the movies at some point during preseason. One movie that has garnered a lot of interest is the biographical drama "Straight Outta Compton" about the California hip hop group N.W.A from the late 1980s/early 1990s. How long have I been coaching? Well. Geez! That first fall in 1991, the team's unofficial "anthem" was a Naughty By Nature song of very questionable taste (I would link it here, but this is a Family Blog, after all), a product of that very same early hip hop/rap era. And now! That same era is the subject of a historical drama. Been a long time, indeed! The photo on the left is one I found on Facebook, and it is far more my taste: Warren Haynes, the pride of Asheville, N.C. (Oops! Whoever made this copycat thing spelled Asheville wrong!) Hopefully someday they'll make a movie about Haynes' remarkable music career. OK!

Preseason, day 3: Carry that weight

It was crowded but very productive in the weight room for our first session with new strength and conditioning coach Aaron Suma. Here, you can see Coach Chuck leading by example with the women's team, while the men gathered around for some expert instruction from Coach Suma.

Preseason, day 3: Planks in the gray gym

We had a great introductory session with new Strength and Conditioning Coach Aaron Suma on Friday afternoon. Coach Suma was a breath of fresh air for our distance runners, who have not been accustomed to such knowledgeable attention for many, many years. We capped the session with some planks in the gray gym.

Preseason, Day 3: Sunshine's the "thing"

The original forecast was pretty ominous for Friday morning: Heavy rain and thunderstorms. However, the worst of it blew through in the early morning hours, leaving a brilliantly sunny and warm morning for a distance run at Vassar Farm. Juniors Stefan Morton and Spencer Johnson decided to wear their "Thing" shirts, prompting me to wonder whether they were part of a family visiting a Six Flags theme park or something. Here's the THING! Those shirts got pretty sweaty on the 9-mile run. OK!

Preseason day 2: Chillin' in the Gunks

God turned on the air conditioning for Day 2 of preseason at Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Ulster County. The clouds rolled in and there were even a few steady showers as our men and women embarked on the beautiful carriage trails in the Shawangunk Ridge. The "real feel" temperature had to be at least 30 degrees cooler than our first practice, less than 24 hours earlier. Such is the beauty of going into the hills of Ulster County. A special treat was literally running into Marist Running Alum Ned Kenyon (Class of 99), who drove up from Long Island with his nephew for a nice 9-miler in the woods.

Upon returning to campus, the sun broke through the clouds and summer resumed in full force for a hot afternoon of team photos in the gray gym and on South Field. Heavy rains are expected late tonight and tomorrow, which could hamper our practice schedule for Friday. Fortunately, the foul weather should clear out somewhat for the weekend's hard workout (Saturday) and long run (Sunday).

Hot start to preseason

If you happened to check GoredFoxes.com, you saw a nice team photo (the same one as here) and an update on our practice venues as we began preseason in earnest today. It was hot and humid. Not exactly breaking news for August, but given we had to practice mid-afternoon, it was less than ideal. We made the best of it, loading up the coolers with water and Gatorade and away we went -- the men to Mills Mansion in Staatsburg for our annual hill workout, and the women to Bowdoin Park for repeat 1kms on the horseshoe loop. Even after 25 years, a new season is still new. If that makes sense.

Here we go

The final fall sports teams arrive on campus for preseason camp today at Marist. Yeah. That would be the men's and women's cross country teams. The excitement and anticipation has been building among our athletes for the beginning of our 9-month journey together. It starts this afternoon with the arrival of the XC runners on campus. Official practice begins on Wednesday afternoon.

As I type this, bags and cars are probably being packed. Our freshmen are about to begin their four-year, life-changing adventure. Their parents are bidding farewell to their children, who they have nurtured and watched grow for the past 17 or 18 years. This fact inches closer and closer to home as we face a similar prospect in two short years; our oldest son, Joey, entering his junior year of high school, is currently away at XC camp -- a little snippet of what's to come if and when he departs for college. And so we begin again, as we do every year. Each year on this day, we always remember the Forever Foxes who came before and who remain a big part of our family -- now and always. Today, we add some new members to that family, and we form a new team.

Lastly! I know there are many other, more relevant ways to keep tabs on our program in an instant. Like an old coach, this blog moves a bit more slowly; posts are not as frequent, and certainly not as immediate as other forms of social media. But, I will do my best to keep things updated here throughout the long journey we call cross country and track.

Marist Running in Maine

Great photo from earlier in the week of some team members who are camping, training and vacationing at Acadia National Park in Maine. Team members in the photo: Charlie Ropes, Catherine Ferreri, Omar Perez, Mark Vuono, Mark Valentino, Ricky Willi. Text reports indicate they are having a lot of fun and enjoying some world-class trails for running and hiking. OK!

If the shoe fits ... wear it!

Call it the science of common sense. After all these years of discussing foot type -- high arch, low arch, pronation, supination, etc. -- and its relation to the proper running shoes for your feet and for your body, it turns out the right running shoes are the ones that are most comfortable. That's it! If you put them on, and they FEEL good, then they are the best and right shoes for you. So says the latest research that is presented in this New York Times article. So feel free to saunter into that fancy specialty running shoe store, get your foot type and your gait analyzed, and discuss the options with the resident shoe expert. But the true test, apparently, is as old as footwear itself:  Lacing them up and putting them on. If they feel good out of the box, buy them. If they don't feel good, don't get them. Can't be much simpler than that.

Old-school shirt from 1991

Witnessed on Facebook recently: This circa 1991 T-shirt from our first year as Marist cross country coach. Man, does this shirt bring back memories! First of all, the phrase on the front of the T-shirt is so late-1980s/early-1990s – a reference to an old Nike ad campaign (“Bo Knows”) centered around the multi-talented Bo Jackson. I really don’t know who came up with this idea for “Bo Don’t Know Distance.” I don’t think it was me, but it may well have been. Remember, that was a long time ago!

The back of the shirt brings back memories, too, of that first season (for me) as men’s coach and for Phil Kelly’s second season in charge of the women’s XC team. I think Phil would agree that it was the first season in a long time of a truly unified “program” and it laid the groundwork for what was to come over the ensuing decades. One thing you’ll notice is how frequently we raced! For those keeping score at home, our season began with six meets on six consecutive weekends; that’s not a typo, it’s true. And! Unlike modern times, we did not split the squad back then, for there wasn’t enough squad to split – about 10 runners per gender back then! We all ran every meet, and we traveled to most of them in vans.

How old is this schedule and how long ago was it? The venue of meet #3 doesn’t even exist anymore! The King’s College used to be located inBriarcliff Manor, but has since shuttered that campus and relocated to New YorkCity; our athletes loved that old TKC course. It was a fast road race, and we left there with happy PRs almost every year.

Other random memories from that first year:

--We brought home a huge, third-place trophy from the CCSU meet. Pretty neat, right? Well. There were only three teams in the meet.

--Mr. Bucket, our fearless leader, had a mostly successful season as lead runner. One exception? When he took off like a bat out of hell up a huge early hill at LeMoyne, and faded badly to like 50th place. This was unusual for the usually savvy racer, but he made up for it with a great Northeast Conference meet.

--Ah yes, that NEC meet out at Robert Morris. Our one “bus” trip – it was a stuffy and cramped minibus reeking of garlic (those who were there remember exactly what I’m talking about). Both teams did well on that mountainous course, and then we had a raucous, karaoke-style sing-along of Billy Joel tunes on the long drive home.

--And no, we did NOT attend the NCAA Championships – that or any year. Not sure what the T-shirt designer was thinking there.

Hey. There’s only one first time, and all these years later – as I enter my 25th year as a coach at Marist – the memories endure of that first season. 

305 laps

Me and my surgically screwed together upper leg/hip are pretty much done with conventional road races – you know, 5ks, 10ks, half marathons and the like, at least for the time being if not indefinitely. But there is still room for my partially broken down body to do unique events like Saturday’s Sweltering Summer Ultra in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. This is an 8-hour event on a dirt “track” – really, a well-worn and not so pretty walking path at Clapp Park in Pittsfield (see surreal photo from the 7 a.m. start; if you look closely, I’m the shuffling schmoe by that stack of big cones). Here’s how one entrant described it in a Facebook post afterwards: “Mentally, that might have been one of the toughest races I've done. Running in circles for 8 hours is borderline torture.’’

Yeah. Well. Fortunately, I thrive on such tedium, and this was the third year in a row I’ve done this race – having done each year’s event, organized by the awesome and enthusiastic Benn Griffin. For obvious reasons, this year I didn’t get as far as I did in the previous two versions – in 2013, it was a 6-hour and in 2014 and 2015, it was an 8-hour. I was just happy to make it there, able to awkwardly ambulate for 80 laps of the .3553746428 of a mile “track” before calling it quits a little after six hours, leaving about 100 minutes of so on the table. Hey man. Considering I needed a walker to go to the bathroom just a few months ago, I’ll take the partial completion; my pre-race goal was 74 laps

anyway. I’ll also take this cool 100-mile medallion earned for having covered more than 100 miles on the Clapp track over the course of the three-year race history.

For those keeping score at home (and really, who isn’t?), I covered 100 laps in 2013, 125 laps in 2014 and 80 laps in 2015 – 305 laps, for a grand total of 108.389266054 mind-numbing miles over the course of three sweltering summers. After being on crutches for the better part of two months this spring, and barely resuming regular jogging (if you can call it that) since then, it’s all good. Maybe next year, I’ll be able to keep moving for the entire 8 hours. For now and for always, I’m thankful for any and all forward progress.

A-Rod: Hero or anti-hero?

Alex Rodriguez has been labeled in many different ways over the past few years. "Hero" has not been one of the labels that has stuck. However! This very thought provoking piece by excellent writer and author Rob Neyer posits that, by his actions and words this season, A-Rod is in fact having a heroic season. This will surely provoke many strong opinions. Here's mine, on A-Rod in general: He has made a lot of bad personal decisions throughout his baseball career. He then followed this up by hiring people who guided him to even far worse decisions. This made him a pariah, and cost him a year away from the sport he loves. However, by all accounts, he has been a great teammate and he has said and done all the right things this season -- hitting a lot of home runs sure helps. Does this make him heroic? That's for you to decide. Good read!

Debate over the debate

You know what they say about politics and religion ... so although this is a "political" post I will try to keep the politics to a minimum -- here and in the future. Having put that rather awkward disclaimer out there, it was impossible to ignore last Thursday's Republican Presidential Candidate Debate on Fox News. I normally don't watch these things, but this was -- as they say -- "must watch" TV. It did not disappoint. It was equal parts Saturday Night Live skit and Reality TV show. What it was NOT was a conventional political debate. It had a sporting element to it -- who's winning, who's losing, who's in a slump, who just hit one out of the park -- and I found myself texting with A Loyal Marist Running Alum who got me intrigued with this thing in the first place, until I fell asleep with about 30 minutes to go in the debate.

So anyway! You can "debate" whether we should have taken this debate seriously. However, none other than the good gray New York Times -- perhaps the polar opposite of Fox News -- gave heaping praise to Fox News on how the event was orchestrated. This alone is pretty amazing. Check out the link to this surprising take on the debate from the Times.

2015 XC schedule: Updated and final

Our 2015 cross country schedule is finalized and confirmed. Even though it is more crowded than normal in terms of the number of meets, not everyone will race every meet. Because of the size and variability of our roster, we wanted to give everyone ample racing opportunities. Everyone that is healthy, and training well, will race at the season-opener and the Rider/Pre-MAAC meet. After that, we will split the squad up, with only the top portion of the team traveling to Paul Short (a departure from the past), with partial squads racing at Central Connecticut and Mets. Most athletes will be back in action at UAlbany two weeks prior to MAAC (the Princeton meet on that same date has severely limited its field size and as a result we cannot attend there), and then championship season will be upon us. Here is the schedule:

Saturday, September 5: Marist Season Opener at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve; men = 6k; women = 5k. Teams expected to attend: Iona, Siena, Hofstra, Fairfield

Saturday, September 19: Rider Invitational at Rosedale Park, Pennington, NJ (site of MAAC Championships)

Saturday, September 26: Ted Owen Invitational/Central CT at Stanley Quarter Park, New Britain, CT

Friday, October 2: Paul Short Run at Lehigh University

Friday, October 9: Metropolitan Championships at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx

Saturday, October 17: UAlbany Invitational

Saturday, October 31: MAAC Championships at Rosedale Park, Pennington, NJ

Friday, November 13: NCAA Northeast Regionals at Franklin Park, Boston

Saturday, November 21: IC4A/ECAC Championships at Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx

Marist Running: Past, present and future

Thanks to Marist Running Alum Nick Webster for texting me this photo of him and current Marist runners Jenna Robinson and Elizabeth Wasserman. They met up randomly at Thatcher State Park, where they were running in the Indian Ladder Trail Run over the weekend. Web runs for our good friends at Albany Running Exchange (ARE) and he happened to notice the current Foxes in their Marist gear. One Forever Fox and two current Foxes, running strong all over the place. Good stuff.

Let’s. Go. Mets.

We are officially on the Mets’ bandwagon. The first-place Mets, that is! I have my young son James to thank/blame for that. The kid wears his Lucas Duda shirt about 5 times per week. Yes, we even wash and dry it on occasion. He is currently at Marist Baseball Camp. With his Duda shirt, and his Mets’ cap, autographed by David Wright (more on that in a little bit).

Ever since last Thursday, the Mets have turned their fortunes around. Swept the Nationals. Pummeled the Marlins. Now in first place. But oh wait. Last Thursday. Yeah. We were there for that. What a long day at the Citi. Nearly three hours of rain delays. We stayed through them all. James got to meet Mr. Met (see photo for proof). We got Wright’s autograph (side note: very cool and classy thing of the Team Captain to do, rewarding the diehards that stayed through the downpours). Oh, did I mention? The Mets blew a 7-1 lead (it wasn’t long ago that 7 runs was a week’s worth for the Metropolitans …) and lost that game to the Padres, 8-7. Mets’ fatalists saw that as the beginning of the end for them. It was not. Duda has gone from “dud” to “dude” by whacking home runs at an alarming rate; their pitching is world-class; their lineup all of a sudden has some Major Leaguers in it. This could be interesting.

Meanwhile, quietly, across town? The Yankees are in first place too. OK!

Summer of swimming: DUSO Dad

Natalie checks her iPod while heading to the pool; idiot dad finger in the photo

Welcome to August. Two weeks from today, our athletes return for preseason. Summer has flown by in the blink of an eye. I apologize for not chronicling things better – as my lack of blog posts can attest. There are many reasons for this, but one that stands out has to do with the acronym DUSO. Stands for Dutchess Ulster Swim Organization. There are eight teams in DUSO, one of them the Hyde Park Stingrays. I am a Proud Swim Dad, as my daughter Natalie just completed her second summer as a Stingray.

Youth swimming is a time-consuming affair. We see the Red Fox Aquatic Club (formerly the Marist Swim Club), year-round in and around the McCann Center. Those kids swim six days a week, 11 months a year. Endless practices. Endless meets (really, really endless sweaty meets). Parents are sucked right into this well-worth-it but time-consuming culture. The DUSO/Stingray thing is just a snippet of that; it basically consumes the month of July, and culminates with the DUSO Championships – a sort of all-day swimapalooza – that was on Saturday morning, afternoon and into the evening up in Rhinebeck. There are 62 events, each with multiple heats. Natalie was in event 10, 44 and 52. For those keeping score at home (and I know you are), that’s a lot of down time between events. I’m happy to report that Natalie had an excellent season. She improved significantly in all of her strokes, and she is going to try out for the high school team, if she can pass that fancy District Fitness Test (she’s still in 8^th grade) next week. So yeah. DUSO season is over. Cross country season is nearing. Here we go. 

New book: Savor it

Filip Bondy, sports columnist extraordinaire for the New York Daily News, has a brand new book out. It’s called the “Pine Tar Game,” and it’s about – you guessed it! – the Pine Tar Game involving George Brett, Goose Gossage, Billy Martin, the Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees and the whole wild 1970s/1980s era of baseball that I grew up watching. The story of the Pine Tar Game is good enough; Bondy makes it even better with his descriptive, colorful writing.

As is my custom, I ordered the book through my local public library. Usually with new books, there is a long waiting period. But for this book, I was able to get it within a week of my request. And, as an added surprise and bonus, the local library system gave me the standard three-week period to keep the book; at times, with new books, you are only granted one week – a lot of pressure to read a book in such a short timeframe, especially if you have a penchant to fall asleep while reading after 10 pages or so. This was not a long book. It was a great, easy read and I knew I wouldn’t require the entire three weeks to read it. So, when the lady at the library saw my reaction to the timeframe of it, she said, “Good, glad you are happy; SAVOR IT.”

And savor it I did; every word and every chapter. A great read. I highly recommend it. Maybe you can even buy it. OK!   

New music: Gone country, sort of

Regular readers and close friends know how much of a fan I am of musician Warren Haynes. He could probably play “Happy Birthday” or “Chopsticks” and I would think it be worthy of a Grammy. Keep that in mind as I give you the following, brief music review. His latest solo effort, called “Ashes and Dust,” is a major departure from most of his work with Gov’t Mule, the Allman Brothers and other solo efforts. He collaborates with Railroad Earth, a rootsy, Americana group from New Jersey that I saw at Mountain Jam a few years ago (they were really good there!). Of course, I love the new record. The album borders on old-school country/mellow Neil Young. Only better. Check it out. Of course.