2017 cross country schedule

Here is our XC schedule for this late summer/fall. A lot of familiar venues and meets. More details as the meets get closer, but at least this is a start for planning purposes ...

2017 CROSS COUNTRY SCHEDULE

Saturday, Sept 2: Marist Season Opener at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve

Colleges/universities expected to compete (D1 and non-D1 scored seperately)

D1 teams: Fairfield, Iona, Marist

Non-D1 teams: Hunter, LIU-Post, Post University

Men’s 6km at 9 a.m., women’s 5km at 9:45 a.m.

Saturday, Sept 9: Wolfie Invitational at Stony Brook University

Women’s 5km at 10:30 a.m., men’s 8km at 11:15 a.m.

Saturday, Sept 16: Monmouth/Pre-MAAC Invitational at Holmdel Park

Women’s race at 9:45 a.m., men’s race at 10:30 a.m.

Friday, Sept 29: Paul Short XC Run at Lehigh

Men’s open 8km at 9:30 a.m.

Women’s open 6km at 10:15 a.m.

Women’s Gold 6km at 11:45 a.m.

Men’s Brown 8km at 12:15 p.m.

Friday, Oct 13: Metro Championships at Van Cortlandt Park (split squad)

Women’s 5k at 1:30 p.m.; men’s 5-mile at 2 p.m.

Saturday, Oct 14: Princeton Invitational at West Windsor Fields (split squad)

TIMES TBA

Championship Season

Saturday, Oct 28: MAAC Championships at Holmdel (Monmouth hosts)

Friday, Nov 10: NCAA Northeast Regional at Audubon Golf Course, Buffalo (UB hosts)

Saturday, Nov 18: IC4A/ECAC Championships at Van Cortlandt Park (Fordham hosts)

Where we're headed: Wolfie Wife

On Thursday, my beautiful wife Heidi and our oldest son, Joey, were down on Long Island for freshman orientation at Stony Brook University, which Joey will be attending in a few short weeks as a computer science major. After growing up his whole life in and around Marist, it's hard to fathom our kid going to another school, but we firmly believe this is a great fit for him and we are proud of his efforts in securing a spot in the freshman class at a very competitive university. So please forgive us if we have different shades of red, as proud parents in Seawolves Country: Heidi got her photo taken with the Stony Brook mascot, Wolfie, during the orientation. He reports for classes in a few short weeks, right around his 18th birthday. Wait. How did this happen so fast?

Fun running pix challenge: Waterlogged freshman

Thanks to incoming freshman James Draney from New Jersey for these photos of him aquajogging followed by diving off the board, with this text as explanation: "First work, then play. Aqua joggin at the Bogota Swim Club (The Bogotian Ocean) after hours."

Fun running pix challenge: Falling freshman

Thanks to incoming freshman Gianna Tedeschi for submitting her Fun Running Pix Challenge, last week while I was on vacation. Here’s what she texted me with the photos: “Here are my running pictures from this week. Please enjoy the one of me falling in the rain hahaha. Also, Michael Holinko was my coach in high school and he says hi.’’ Hink is a proud Marist Running alum who is doing a great job as a high school coach in New Jersey. 

Fun running pix challenge: Hills and hops for Conor

Marist Running Alum Conor Shelley noted Coach Chuck’s Fun Running Pix Challenge and submitted the following photos from his family vacation up in the Adirondacks. Here’s what he texted me: “Did my annual workout to the Paradox Brewery (almost paradoxically at Schroon Lake 8 miles south) with my sister Erin in tow on the bike and the rest of the Shelley Clan meeting us there by car. Hopefully I’ll be in (actual) marathon shape this fall as a result. 

Tino's travels: Grand Canyon

Marist Running Alum Mark Valentino hiked the rim of the Grand Canyon, along with Gregg (“Bryan Buttigieg”), his family (parents and sister) and co-workers. Excellent photos with excellent choice of hiking shirts!

Tino's travels: Yosemite

Marist Running Alum Mark Valentino is doing some serious traveling this summer, and repping our program well. Here you can see Tino at Yosemite.

Three weeks and counting ...

We'll try to keep the posts a little more frequent. Last week, we were away at Lake George, with spotty Internet access. My laptop stayed safely tucked away in my backpack. My connection to the outside world was decidedly 1990s -- reading the New York Times (print version) every day and making sporadic phone calls when cell service permitted. Great to be back home and it was great to see many members of the team at our annual midsummer BBQ on the river. The weather cooperated as the heat and humidity abated with overcast skies. Good stuff.

Three weeks from TODAY, our cross country teams return to campus for the beginning of preseason. Summer flew by and now it's time to turn the corner into XC mode. Should be fun.

Fun running pix challenge: Country roads, take me home

Rising junior Shea Bohan sent this photo of her and fellow rising junior Jordan Casey, on a run deep in the Adirondack woods. Jordan was visiting Shea's family cabin in the Adirondacks for the day, "enough time to get a in a nice run on some rolling dirt hills (not pictured)." Looks good enough to me!

Fun running pix challenge: Making waves with Mariah

Thanks to rising senior captain Mariah Christian for her contribution to the fun running pix ... her warming up for an aqua jogging workout with a few swimming laps.

Fun running pix challenge: Nicki at night

Got the following photo and text from Nicki Nesi, time-stamped at the ungodly hour of 10:47 p.m.:

"Nighttime running is not as safe as you might think. Always wear reflective gear." -- a haiku by Coach Nicki (lol).

Good to see Nicki sporting the reflective gear. As a pre-dawn early morning jogger/walker, I know all about moving along in the dark for the majority of the year. Be seen, be safe.

Fun running pix challenge: 'Dropping some NYC' with Christine

Thanks to rising senior Christine Gambell for sending along this selfie, with the following text: "On one of my typical running routes, the Hudson River bike path, with a great view of the One World Trade Center!" Christine is from upstate Tully, but she is in the city for the summer, interning and "exploring all the NYC has to offer." Good stuff. Also! For those wondering? The title of this post is taken from an old Blues Traveler song that I like.

Fun running pix challenge: Soul searching with Jenna in Minnesota

Thanks to rising senior captain Jenna Robinson for sending along this contribution, with the following text: "Silently striding alongside some souls (aka the only rolling hills and grass I can find is within this cemetery...). You can also see the skyline of Minneapolis behind me!" Very neat.

Fun running pix challenge: Horsing around

Rising sophomore and the team's official Animal Lover Denise Grohn contributed this photo via text with the message, "four legged running buddies are the best, followed by a heart emoji (💓)" Indeed!

Fun running pix challenge: Run, Roxy, run

In his weekly summer training email on Sunday night, Coach Chuck asked the ladies to submit "fun running pic challenge" photos to the group chat. Of course, being the non-iPhone technonerd that I am, I'm not on the group chat so I sent a follow-up email to have ladies text or email me photos. Rising senior Roxy Novo was the first to check in, with this 5:10 a.m. time stamped photo from this morning. I happened to be up at the same time for my Monday morning group jog, and I saw this same moon (uh, as opposed to another moon?). Roxy runs early before her internship and she was treated to both an awesome moonrise and a sunrise. Neat. Thanks for sharing, Roxy!

Run, Robby, run

Thanks to Rizzo (left) for sending me this awesome photo of him and Kennedy (right), flanking a jubilant Robby Andrews last week at Icahn Stadium in NYC. Robby had just run 3:35:25 for 1,500 meters, placing second behind Johnny Gregorek, and qualifying for the IAAF World Outdoor Championships. Robby’s connection to our program is through his dad, who was Kennedy’s coach in Manalapan (NJ), where Robby went to high school as well. Mr. Andrews is a great friend to the Running Red Foxes, and it’s an honor when he comes to cheer on Kennedy and the rest of our team. By the way, I guess Kennedy was celebrating his birthday on the night of this race too. Right around the same time last week, Alum Extraordinaire Marty McGowan sent me a link to this excellent article about Robby’s race. 

Repping our generation

He was my teammate, classmate and good friend for four years at Marist, and he also happened to be the greatest Marist runner of that era. Pete Pazik remains the only pre-1990s runner to have broken 15:00 for 5km – his time of 14:35 from the winter of1986 stood as the school record for a LONG time. Well. Thanks to a tip from another great 1980s-era runner, I found out that Pazik is still getting it done at the ripe old age of 53. At Sunday’s Boilermaker 15km race, 53-year-old Pete (the fast one, not me) won his age group – no small feat in a big race like that – with a time of 57:34, 11 seconds ahead of the nearest age-group competitor. For those keeping score at home (and I know you are!), that’s a pace of 6:10 per mile on the hilly 9.3-mile course in his hometown of Utica. Current team members Riley Hughes (59:17) and Emily Burns (1:03:01) were also there on Sunday, and teammate Dan Hillman (battling a cranky knee currently) was there to cheer them on. Here is a photo that Pete sent me of him greeting his 7-year-old niece along the course, at around the 10km mark. 

Happy new year

This blog seems to follow similar cycles each year. This time of year, the posts are sporadic as we are definitely in Summer Mode. But with the calendar turning to July recently, it is the signal of a new year for our program, as we are gearing up for XC preseason camp in a little more than a month. With our annual Lake George trip coming up, and with not much else going on, the posts could be very spotty. Don't worry. We'll make up for it once the season starts in earnest. As of June 30, we were on pace for a yearly post PR, but not posting for the first week-plus in July doesn't help the count. Alas! In the spirit of this blog, I only post when there is news or the spirit moves me to post. So if there are gaps, so be it.

The only bit of "news" we have is that our team BBQ is slated for Saturday, July 22 at the historic Cornell Boathouse on the Marist campus. We're aiming to start things at around 3 p.m. Anyone who is reading this is welcome to join us for what is usually a hot day of food and drink.