Scorched earth

It rained last night. Haven’t been able to type THAT sentence around these parts for a long time! Yeah, it’s been quite dry – and mostly hot, too! – for most of this summer. Yesterday’s first 11a practice for the men was a scorcher with much attrition. I was not forward thinking enough (like Coach Chuck) to call for an early-morning practice, which would have ameliorated the midday heat. Walking on the rugby field at Vassar Farm, where the men were doing a timed fartlek workout, the crunching of the dry, hard – and yes, scorched – grass was incredible. Don’t remember it being this dry in many decades (the summer of 1995, when we got married, is the only one that comes to mind; that’s a long time ago!). Along with this came the news that one of our team’s Happy Places – Minnewaska State Park Preserve – was closed due a fire caused by a lightning strike. That’s how dry it is. Now, this pales in comparison to the raging infernos out West, but “forest fires” just don’t happen in this part of the country that frequently. So last night’s soaking rain was a welcome sight and sound. The humidity is ebbing. Tomorrow, the calendar turns to September. For someone who complains a lot about cold and wet conditions? Cooler and damper is sounding really good right about now.

Semester begins

Our long and productive preseason is now in the rearview mirror. Today was the first day of classes for the Fall 2022 semester. Very neat! Our XC season opens up on Saturday at Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve in Poughkeepsie. Men's 6km race at 9a, women's 5km race at 9:45a. Hope to see many of you there. Visiting teams anticipated to be in attendance = UConn (women), Felician, Hartford, Iona, Manhattan, Siena. OK!

Minnewaska: Run and eat (and swim)

 

Our first Sunday long run of the cross country season was at one of our all-time favorite venues -- Minnewaska State Park Preserve in Ulster County. How awesome is Minnewaska? Whenever alums are back in the area, they often make the longish trek over there to experience the beauty all over again. We organized boxed lunches from Panera afterwards to make it a full morning of running and eating (and for many, a quick dip in the cool waters of Lake Minnewaska ... of course, one of our top guys completely ignored the 'no swimming in the lake before 11:15a' edict and dove in after a very good quality 15-miler). A good way to start our weekly long runs. OK.

Preseason 2022

 

And so begins another journey into our three-season academic year. Because I rarely think of these things, I haven't been taking any pictures of the many activities over the past few days. I was able to poach this photo from Jonny K's Strava from the traditional men's Mills Hills workout. The women's first workout was on Friday morning at the New Paltz Rail Trail. We had photo day on Thursday afternoon, it has been hot and humid, and tomorrow morning we're heading up to Minnewaska for our long run. In other words! The usual. Rewind two years, and this sort of ho-hum "usual" is sweet indeed. Run, rehydrate, run some more.  

Another Forever Foxes postcard

Thanks to Kathy Gaye (mother of Forever Foxes Michelle and Kerry) for sending me this photo from Michelle’s wedding to Forever Fox Joel Moss, on Saturday afternoon/evening on Long Island. In what is now becoming a tradition, the bride and groom gather with their Marist friends with a Marist banner. It’s a beautiful thing. It always is. 

Peak hunters

Four returning members of our men’s XC team had a little pre-preseason hike up to the summit of Hunter Mountain in the Catskills. Thanks to Citera for sending me this picture of him, Jiggy, Czop and Ian from the fire tower summit of Hunter on Monday afternoon. Preseason begins with the team reporting on Wednesday and practice beginning on Thursday.

Chasing Wally

There is so much absurdity packed neatly into this photo. Some would call it downright loopy. For starters, there is the man (in the forefront) dressed straight out of a consignment shop catalog – outdated plaid shirt and tie, taped together glasses and equally incongruous plaid shorts. Oh, by the way, he’s running in an 8-hour ultramarathon. Also, by the way! That’s a watermelon strapped to his chest. In a clear backpack. Worn backwards (a frontpack?). And then, for kickers, you have a truly insane looking older guy (in tube socks, no less), gesturing maniacally at the consignment shop runner guy with the watermelon strapped to his chest. Did I say loopy? Yes, loopy. This was the Sweltering Summer Ultramarathon, an 8-hour fixed time affair on a sandy dirt track (measuring at 0.3553 of a mile) at Clapp Park in Pittsfield, MA. I’ve done this race for the past 10 years. The watermelon – his name is Wally, by the way – covered a remarkable 64 laps, carried by numerous members of the Clapp Park family of walkers, joggers, etc. I was not one of them (Wally enablers, that is). Each of my painstakingly slow 104 laps was covered using my ever slower powers of ambulation. Wally was ahead of me on this lap, but overall I stayed on the track longer than he (it?) did. I’m glad I did. It’s the one race I do every year, and I’m grateful to be able to do it still. OK!

Calling all (Forever) Foxes …

Hey there, Running Red Foxes alums. Pay attention! We want to SEE you all over the coming weeks and months. And, we’re going to give you PLENTY of reasons to get you Forever Foxes back to the Poughkeepsie area in September and October. Come one, come all, come back home to the Hudson River Valley and see us, and maybe even run with us! OK, here’s a rundown (pun intended) of activities.
 
Saturday, Sept. 3: Our “home” cross country meet at Vassar Farm. Gary Wiesinger (Class of 1981, and father of rising senior Ian Wiesinger!) posted on the Forever Foxes Strava page, encouraging all past runners to take part in the 5km (women) or 6km (men) races. I’m not sure we can add an alumni/open race, so you’d have to duke it out with current team members. Please contact me soon ( 845 309 3640, text; runhed246@hotmail.com, email) if you are interested. Or, even better? See this NEXT item ...

Sunday, September 18: A racing opportunity with more (and perhaps better) options is the Dutchess County Classic road race, which drew a good crowd of Forever Foxes last year. The race lineup this year includes a point-to-point 5km (starting in Highland, crossing the Walkway Over the Hudson) and finishing at Dutchess Community College), an out-and-back 10km (new distance) and the same half-marathon course as last year. The marathon distance has been eliminated this year.

Homecoming Weekend (October 28-30): The timing is not great for us, as we will be racing at the MAAC Championships on Saturday, Oct. 29, up in the Albany area. But that afternoon, when we return, there will be a planned dedication of the founding of the men’s track team (way back in 1967) as well as what we hope will be a massive track alumni reunion. Many of you come back for homecoming anyway, or it may be a “reunion” year (centered around milestone years since graduation), so whatever reason you need to come back … please come back and celebrate with us!

Super shoes, school records: Causation, correlation? Both? Neither?

 With alumni weddings and a few sort of random alumni encounters over the past few weeks, the subject of the numerous school records set by our athletes (mostly in men’s track) in 2022 was front and center. Many alumni (including YOU, if you are reading this!) follow our program very closely (and we greatly appreciate THAT). Some, a bit more peripherally but still are “aware” of the general trend of the program. Alumni are generally very supportive and encouraging of the positive arc of the team. But, like in so many areas in life, they want to know WHY. Is it better athletes? Better training methods? Better meets? Better equipment? Better SHOES! Notice how, in a very subtle manner, I changed from question marks to exclamation points?! Ah, the shoes. The Super Shoes. Are they the cause of this glut of school records? Are they related? Many years ago, one wise coaching colleague explained to me the difference between correlation and causation. It is nuanced. One thing I have come to realize, as life plows on and as I get older, that the WHY question (what’s the cause, what’s the correlation) tends to be louder than it ought to be. As humans, we are constantly trying to connect dots. We are constantly trying to compare, relate and explain what is often unexplainable – life. There is far more randomness in life than we would all care to admit. A beautiful soul in her 60s, a woman who took care of herself and lived life properly, gets ravaged by cancer. Pedestrians get run over by errant cars and motorcycles. Wildfires, floods, hurricanes. There is so much calamity in the world that we cannot control or explain. We ask WHY and try to come up with answers and we grope for answers and we get frustrated when there are no answers, so we make up plausible reasons, causes for why things happen. When sometimes – most times – we should just sit back and let it all be.
 
Whoa. Rambling idiot just got off topic again, didn’t I? Back to the Super Shoes debate. The New York Times did a very interesting story after the World Athletics Championships about the arc of world records and put into question the premise that records are rapidly getting faster and falling faster. But they are talking about the best of the best, and there is even randomness there. Another tangent: It has been a decade since a Major League Baseball pitcher has thrown a perfect game. A decade ago, there was a flurry of them. Hall of Famers have thrown them. Journeymen has-been pitchers have thrown them. A bunch in a few years. Then? None for 10 years or more. Random. The Super Shoes. Have they contributed to the elevated school records? My initial reaction is to get defensive. Hey. Wait a minute. These guys are working hard and running fast! What’s the big idea! Ultimately, my “defense” is that I control what I can control: Their preparation and their effort. Or, in my inane way, I like to say? “Hey, I’m working on improving the engine, not the tires.” And that’s true! It will come to the surprise of no one reading this blog (who clearly has an inkling of what we’re about) that we (Marist Athletics) do not provide training or racing shoes for our track/XC athletes. Again, I’m not in the tire industry. That’s up to the athletes. Do many/most of them have Super Shoes? Probably. It’s gonna sound like a cop-out but … I really don’t NOTICE. The only time I get involved in the discussion is to determine whether spikes or non-spikes should be worn in distance races. Only then do the Super Shoes enter the conversation.
 
So to conclude: Have the new shoe technologies contributed to improved performance? Most likely, yes. Is that why so many school records have been set? If you say so, I’m not gonna argue with you. My response is, “don’t know, don’t care,” let’s talk about training. And as we are about to embark on a new cross country season, the Super Shoes debate is even less of a debate. Cross country TIMES are secondary to places. While we do have some XC “school records,” they are not nearly as sacrosanct as in track. Again, as we get ready to launch the rocket known as 2022-2023, I’m hoping that my alums keep pushing this debate forward, even aggressively if they want. Because, that’ll mean that our athletes have set more and more school records

Lake George, now

It’s a little late in the summer to be here in Lake George, but alas this is where we are as the persistent hot and humid weather drags on (this was originally written on Monday morning, just getting Internet access now, and the heat wave has broken). Pretty neat to have access to a clear and cool lake, as well as a clear and warm pool, when the weather is oppressive. With preseason only a week away, it’s a bit incongruous for my simple mind to fathom vacation mode with seven-day-a-week mode looming on the horizon. The July timeframe for vacation is a bit more pleasing on the brain. But alas! It is what it is and we will make the best of it with family and friends here in the Adirondacks. Neat.