Thursday, November 14, 2019

Regional ROAD race

It was announced last night that the NCAA Northeast Regional in Buffalo will now be contested on the ROADS rather than the complete sh*t show that is the Audobon Golf Course in Amherst. This is an extreme decision, made after much deliberation among the University of Buffalo staff and the NCAA. Obviously, the Audubon course must have been treacherous to the point of being completely unrunnable. Again, this is an extreme decision. What we as coaches and athletes "think" about this decision is not relevant. What IS relevant is how we adapt and react to it. The first order of business is stopping somewhere in Central New York to get road racing shoes for many of our athletes, who only have XC spikes. While the analogy might seem odd, this change would be like a baseball team expecting to play on a muddy field only to find out that it was now a stickball tournament on the blacktop. Those metal cleats won't help much! Same with our runners. Hey, it's November: I'm telling our runners it's a Turkey Trot, only two weeks earlier! So tomorrow, we'll just have to be Roads Scholars.

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