There is the glass half-empty. And there is the glass half-full.
Half-empty: No track facilities on campus. Gotta jam into vans every day for practice off-campus. Do we need another car? Another driver? Will the bathrooms be open/available at the track? Welcome to our world!
Half-full: We have forged positive relationships with the local track community, and we have been blessed with extremely accommodating and friendly programs and venues at which to train – in all three seasons of competition.
As most know, the two tracks that we use on a daily basis are at Spackenkill High School and at Vassar College. Both venues are excellent and vital to the success and daily operation of our vagabond program.
We now reach back into our deep and storied past to add a third venue to our list: Poughkeepsie High School.
Yes! Poughkeepsie High School. Back in the early and mid 1980s, when I was an actual (somewhat) competitive collegiate runner, the majority of our workouts were done at Poughkeepsie High School. My teammates and I would run the 2.5 miles through the city to the track, where we would do gut-busting intervals on the old macadam, 440-yard track covered with debris and often broken glass. Coach Chuck remembers us using that very same macadam, 440-yard oval back in the 1990s as well.
We stopped going to Poughkeepsie in the past decade, after the track fell into disrepair, and we had other options at our disposal. But alas, the track has a brand-new, state-of-the-art red surface, which was installed last summer. It is soft and cushiony – great for our sprinters! And again, Poughkeepsie AD (and former Marist men’s lax coach Matt Cameron) has been exceedingly gracious in allowing us to return to the track.
The Poughkeepsie track coach, Kevin Rother, was a runner at Arlington High School under Coach Terry Horton many moons ago. I knew Kevin’s father, Bob Rother, through the local running community. Bob passed away a few years ago. Bob Rother was truly the epitome of a gentle man (two words) and a humble gentleman. Coach Rother encourages our presence there, and we are happy to be on the new track.
We’ll still be at our main venues of Spackenkill and Vassar on most days. But it’s nice to add an old oval friend to the rotation.
1 comment:
I remember dreading the workouts at Poughkeepsie high school. 20 x 400 then slogging back to campus to barely make it to the cafeteria where all I ever did was drink all the bug juice i could put on a tray. then fall asleep in my night class. Good times!! I bet that red surface looks sweet though!
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