NCAA Regionals: Final thoughts

As we look ahead to our final meet of the season, this coming Saturday at the IC4A/ECAC Championships at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, we must first put a cap on last Friday’s highly unique and unusual NCAA Northeast Regional “road race” at the University of Buffalo. There has been a lot of “chatter” out there on social media and especially in the vile and insidious “message boards,” which spew sarcasm, anger and hatred with alarming rapidity. The two prevailing topics are the effect of the Nike Vaporfly running shoes on athletes’ and teams’ performances, and related to that, the unusually fast times recorded on the road course (especially in the men’s race) and whether the race distances of 10km and 6km are “accurate.” First, let’s address the times topic with two words: Who cares? Cross country is a sport in which place matters far more than time. Last year, the times were slowed dramatically by the atrocious conditions of the Audubon Golf Course, which was even more abominable this year, leading to the move to the roads. This year, it’s possible the times were inflated by the flat and straight (relatively few turns) road course. And maybe it was short, although the evidence is inconclusive on that. As far as the running shoes issue … that’s a bit more complicated. Did some of our athletes wear the Vaporfly shoes? They did. Did they run well? They did. Did they run well solely (pun intended) because of those shoes? I’d like to think not. Did the fact that some entire teams and/or some athletes were wearing those shoes and others were not create an unfair and unlevel playing field in the race? I’m not smart enough to draw that conclusion. Is it possible? It’s possible. But in the case of our athletes, no one ran out of the realm of possibilities, outrageously placed performances. Again, I discount the times. Place-wise, our athletes did well, but it wasn’t otherworldly well. I’ve seen them train and race all fall. It’s been a good season. This was another block in that good season. The debate over this very surreal day of “cross country” can continue ad nauseum. For now, it’s time to turn the page and get ready for our final meet of the season.