Double the fun

A few days ago for their second practice of the day (it’s preseason; we have the luxury of team doubles in the afternoon!), several men decided their “double” run would be held inside, to avoid the roiling late-summer heat. Several guys like to run barefoot on occasion. The go-to on campus for barefoot running, for years, has been North Field. They guys opted for a different “field” – our turf room, inside the McCann Center. According to sophomore Chris Paxis, who gets credit for “inventing” this double, his watch said one loop of the small turf room is about 0.03 of a mile. Which means the standard 3-mile double would be 100 laps. While this would meet with well-deserved ridicule in most circles, it put a smile on my face. Short loops, endlessly? That’s my THING! I recently completed my annual 8-hour ultramarathon in Pittsfield, MA, on a 0.3535-mile dirt pathway. That’s enormous compared with the turf room! As you can see, several other men chose more “traditional” inside doubles – pedaling away on the stationary bike upstairs by our indoor square track, or in the case of Moe, running laps on the square track. All in a day’s work. As preseason winds to an end in a few days, the “turf room double” thing may remain a thing – but the turf room will surely get more activity as the regular semester begins. Either way, it was neat to see these guys double the fun in there.