Walkway races: Spanning the generations

As it used to be with the now defunct Red Fox Trot 5km, the Walkway races accomplish two wonderful things for our program:

1-It’s a day in which our runners are like rock stars. Usually, we toil in relative anonymity throughout the year. We are always off campus and away from Marist. While we have success, it is always in the context of competitive, Division 1 running – so we are often simply bit players are a much larger scale. Don’t get me wrong: We are proud of everything our athletes have accomplished and will accomplish in the future. But, we are what we are. On a day like Sunday, when we have our athletes out en masse in a local road race, people notice the red and white runners zooming ahead up front. I hear similar comments throughout the year when local runners or local people see our athletes out on the Walkway or rail trails training. “Wow, they are going SO FAST and just talking like it’s nothing.” To older, mid-pack runners, collegiate athletes in our sport are superhumans. Rock stars for a day!

2-Events like this, in which many alums come back and share the starting line with our current runners, it creates an environment in which the span of Marist Running generations is narrowed. Although these men and women may never have been teammates during their four or five years at Marist, on this day they are most definitely teammates – sharing the same uniform, and sharing the same passion and love for the sport and the Marist Running tradition that bonds us through the decades, even all the way back to the Marty McGowan prehistoric era of the 1970s (sorry, Marty, I know you’re reading and I know you love it when I remind everyone how OLD you are!) But seriously: When I see and hear things like Nicki Nesi and Nick Webster running together in the early stages of the 5km … to Luke Shane going out of his way to congratulate Spencer Johnson on his 2:39:32 (Luke’s long-term goal has been sub-2:40 in the marathon) … to Dietrich Mosel turning around after Mass to personally introduce himself to Father Janczyk and congratulate him on his recent ordination … to many current young men who talk to Billy Hild (the son I never wanted) as though they were teammates for years … to me, that’s what it’s all about. And it’s why the Walkway race will continue to be one of our favorite days and weekends of the year. It is my sincere hope that alums keep coming back.