Our one-race 'season'

An update on our upcoming training and racing plans: We just recently learned that College officials, out of an abundance of caution, have determined that no Marist athletic teams – “winter” cross country athletes included – will be returning early for preseason style practice. Student-athletes will be returning during the last few days of February, with the rest of the student body, in advance of the anticipated beginning of in-person classes on March 1. Our first official practice date, as a result, will be on or about March 1. The goal is to limit the number of folks on campus in an effort to mitigate the spread of this never ending – and now changing – virus situation.

Alert readers may note two things about this schedule: 1. That’s very close to our March 5 date for the MAAC Cross Country Championships in the Atlantic City area, giving us just a precious few days of official “practice” to prepare for that race. 2. That timetable precludes us from participating in any other of the many winter XC “regular season” races currently being planned to happen during the month of February (a month, for those keeping score at home, begins next week). This news is … what it is. We need to pivot our mindset, adapt our thinking and plan accordingly for what now is a one-race “season” … all the while mindful that these decisions – while difficult and painful – are being made in the midst of a pandemic that is killing close to 4,000 Americans a day. Yes, we are all fatigued from it; no, that does not change the reality of it, and the decisions that are made as a result.