Ending at the beginning

mid-November: cold and windy

mid-August: hot

As has been our custom on and off for many years, our men's XC team had its final hard workout of the season at the same venue as the first hard workout of the season -- Mills Mansion in Staatsburg, for the "Mills Hills" workout. Instead of the usual 3 sets (first day of preseason), today we did 2 sets. Each set consists of five hills on the Great Lawn of the mansion grounds. The juxtaposition of the three-month difference is startling. On the first day of preseason, almost exactly three months ago, it was warm and humid and the men ran shirtless. Today, it was cold and blustery and no one even thought about running shirtless as the temperature was in the mid-30s and the "real feel" was much colder than that, with a stiff wind blowing uphill off the Hudson River. The mood was light and fun. Workout groups were divvied up based on class -- group 1 = seniors; group 2 = juniors; group 3 = sophomores; group 4 = freshmen. The ground was soggy toward the bottom of the hill and crusty/frozen toward the top of the hill. Our long three-month journey that is cross country is coming to an end, where it began back in the summer.