The race is on

There are races, and there are races.

Last Friday, we had our first competition as a team in nearly a year at the MAAC Cross Country Championships, winter edition. Hopefully, this will be followed by more races and meets during the outdoor track season. In the meantime, off the track and the course, the big race going on – in our country, in our world, on our campus – is the one between Covid vaccine distribution and dissemination and the persistent, impressive virus that we are trying to tamp down. I’d like to say the vaccine is winning, but I’m not so sure.

On Tuesday afternoon, I received my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at the vaccine clinic at UAlbany. I am grateful to report this news, especially since my initial vaccine appointment was scuttled by my quarantine due to family Covid cases. I’m scheduled to go back to Albany in three weeks for the second dose. So, I’ve got a head start of the race that we are all still running. Members of our team are not as fortunate. Most do not qualify yet for a vaccine appointment. While they wait, the virus continues to spread on campus, and in and around our team. If the virus wins some of these virus-vs.-vaccine races – on campus, on our team – the cost could be other races. You know, the ones on the track. Would I love to have our entire team – and our entire campus – vaccinated, in time for the outdoor track season? Yes, I would! Go vaccine = Go Red Foxes. Such fantasies of campus-wide vaccinations are unlikely. In the meantime, we’ll watch and hope – for races of all sorts.