Rider Invitational: General comments

Thanks to Bob Hamer and his staff at Rider for putting on an excellent early season invitational and for allowing us the opportunity to race on the course that will host the MAAC Championships next month (on Halloween!). The park is beautiful, and so is the course. Hamer measured the course on Friday and determined that the women's course is 60 meters longer than the advertised 6,000 meters, and the men's course is 60 meters shorter than the advertised 8,000 meters. For those keeping score at home, that means the women's times are about 12-15 seconds slower than their 6km equivalent on the course, and the men's times are about 12-15 seconds faster than their 8km equivalent on the course. Translation: Subtract 12-15 seconds from the posted women's times, and add 12-15 seconds from the posted men's times. I will do the math on our meet results later.

Today, the men's race ran fast because the conditions were decent (warm and overcast for most of the race), but the women's race ran a bit slower because the sun started blazing and it got quite warm during the race -- a late-summer trend for the past few weeks. Overall, we got what we wanted out of this: Getting our eyes and our feet on the course, so that we know what to expect and how to improve on these results the next time we return here. In that sense, it was well worth the trip to the Garden State today. OK! Results to follow.