Virtual 5km: Fun in the sun

A bright and chilly midday at the Hudson Valley Rail Trail for the MAAC XC Virtual 5km, Marist men’s XC style. Most of the team showed up to cheer on and support our 7 finishers. A few of the milers from yesterday took the wheel out of the trunk of my car and accurately measured 5,000 meters, so the seven men didn’t have to rely on GPS statistics, which generally vary from person to person. West to east they ran, hard, with a 7-for-7 record of personal-best times (in fairness, several of these guys had never run 5km). Another great day after several months of not-so-great days. Fun in the sun. Here are the results, in time order:

Dominic Mastromatteo (sophomore) 15:15

John Ignacz (freshman) 15:21

Patrick Kutch (junior) 15:30

Jon Kittredge (sophomore) 15:45

Jack Parsons (freshman) 15:54

Aidan Pech (sophomore) 15:56

Christian Locker (freshman) 16:20

Rail trail in the snow

In the most unusual fall of 2020, our athletes have been doing their best to focus, train hard and stay motivated. It’s not easy. Without the compass of a season – or seasons, really, as we await the fate of upcoming months while nervously watching Covid-19 case numbers creep up and beyond record numbers nationwide – it makes it challenging to train with a level of coherence. There are workouts, long runs, weekly mileage goals and other metrics to chase. It’s still not easy. Clamoring for time trials and intrasquad scrimmages started over the summer and continued into the fall. Intrasquad scrimmages were out of the question – too many bodies in the same place, as we have been relegated to training in smaller “pods” each day. We waited until there was a level of coherence and consistency in training before entertaining time trials. Finally, as things started to coalesce a bit, time trial plans started falling into place for a few weeks ago. But then they became unhinged when the college went on a weeklong pause to stem the tide of a small Covid outbreak. Poof, there goes the time trials, and the coherence of a team in training.

The weather this fall has been glorious. Cool nights, warm days, incredible foliage. But the calendar is relentless and the mid-Hudson Valley is not San Diego, and so late October started looking and feeling like late October around here this past week. Still, as we restarted and regrouped, the time trials plan moved forward, with Friday, October 30, as the date circled on our calendar – a group of guys wanting to blast out a hard mile, another group of guys signed up for the virtual MAAC 5km. But the long-range forecast showed a big, fat snowflake several days in advance of Friday. Should we move the time trial back again? One training pod – the group that had locked in on the 1-mile distance for a time trial – was emphatic: No. We’re running it, weather be damned. And so yesterday morning, in the snow as the heavy wet flakes blunted those beautiful fall colors, the guys piled into their cars and made the short drive up the hill to the Morgan Lake trailhead of the Dutchess Rail Trail. I had marked out the linear 1-mile course last week with pink flags, which were now sagging under the weight of the snow. I picked a section where there were no road crossings. It was cold, damp, miserable and the big fat leaves were wet and slippery on the paved trail. Some guys donned their high school singlets. Some guys wore racing flats. And away they went, sprinting their hearts out down the snowy rail trail. Sophomore Brendan Dearie overtook classmate Paul Sandford in the final 200 meters for the victory. The times and places didn’t matter, don’t matter. On this morning, we were all winners because we felt like a team again.

Time trial weekend continues later this morning, as guys from a few other training pods will do the virtual 5km on the Hudson Valley Rail Trail over in Highland. It won’t be snowing, but it’ll be pretty darn cold – as I type this, it’s a brisk 25 degrees outside. By the time the guys do the 5km, it’ll be closer to midday (classes are in session on Saturdays during Fall 2020, so we cannot go any earlier than our normal weekday 11 a.m. practice time). The guys who time trialed the mile will be out there cheering on their teammates, just as the 5km guys were out there yesterday shivering in the wet snow. We were supposed to be up in suburban Albany today for the actual MAAC XC Championships (not the virtual one, the actual, real one). A brisk, sunny morning, with the Colonie Crossings ground hardened by the Friday snow. Cross country in the Northeast at its best. In 2020, at least in our conference, a chilly rail trail will have to do this weekend.

Rolek to run perimeter of Manhattan for charity (neat!)

One of our favorite Forever Foxes, Mike Rolek (Class of 2008), asked me to post the following information about a charity run around Manhattan in early November. It’s a pretty cool loop and an even better cause. For those old-timers and/or lovers of ultra running history, the great Ted Corbitt used to run the perimeter of Manhattan as a training run quite frequently. Rolek is following in Ted’s famous footsteps. Highly neat. Here’s the information Mike asked me to pass along to the Marist Running blog family, along with the link to the donation page:

On Sunday, November 8, 2020, I'm running the perimeter of Manhattan to raise money for The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children ("SFIC"), in connection with SFIC's "A Run for Education."  SFIC, a non-profit organization founded in 1983 by Archbishop Emeritus Peter L. Gerety, is based out of Newark, NJ and gives low-income children living in Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Union counties the opportunity to attend high-quality private and parochial elementary schools, high schools and colleges.   Since its inception, the Fund has impacted the lives of thousands of inner-city families, providing approximately 57,000 students with over $47,000,000 in partial-tuition scholarships.     

My Run is a little over 30 miles.  My original goal was to raise a little over $3,000 - we surpassed that in less than a week.  The Goal is now $5,000.  Currently, I've raised over $3,500.  If you don't mind, could you post this on the blog along with a link to my donation page (below).  It's a fantastic cause that is actually creating positive change in this world.  

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-run-around-manhattan-for-the-scholarship-fund-for-inner-city-children/michaelrolek

Early voting

The lines were long. And longer. And longer than that.

Among the many, many unique aspects that we’ll remember about 2020, early voting on Saturday with my daughter Natalie is one of them. And like a lot of things in 2020, it had some unusual twists and turns. Start here: My daughter, a freshman at Siena College in suburban Albany, registered to vote this summer and made it very clear to us that she wanted to come back home to vote early – as soon as possible -- in this election. She has been up at Siena for more than two months now and has not been home once since her arrival in Loudonville. We’ve been up there (especially me) for several short visits – it’s an easy drive from our house – to provide her with additional snacks for her dorm room, clothes, things she forgot, a new cell phone after her screen shattered, and any other excuse we could find to make the trip up there. We miss her. What’s another couple round-trips on another fall weekend?

So anyway, Saturday, October 24, was the first day of early voting. It worked well with all of our schedules. Natalie had swim practice (she’s on the Siena team) in the morning. My youngest son James and I piled into my cluttered Subaru for the relatively short drive (1 hour, 20 minutes) up to Loudonville. We picked her up, went to a local Salvation Army thrift store so she could shop for clothes for a Halloween outfit, and then started the trip south to the nearest polling place in Dutchess County – Rhinebeck town hall. Of course, there were multiple Stewart’s shops stops along the way on the roundtrip (coffee, gas, snacks, bathroom, etc.). When we got to Rhinebeck, the line along the quaint village streets was long, snaking into another neighborhood. James was grumpy. He didn’t want to wait; can’t blame him too much. So, we decided to drive home to Hyde Park, drop him off, and seek a polling place in Poughkeepsie. Little did we know that Rhinebeck “long” was nothing at all!

We dropped James off, Natalie had an emotional reunion with the beloved dogs, and then we drove into the City of Poughkeepsie, to the board of elections on Cannon Street. Lines snaked through the city as far as the eye could see. Screw THAT. Let’s go to Boardman Road, Town of Poughkeepsie, and check out that polling place. Same deal. Long lines as far as you could imagine, cars parked in all manner of disarray on the grass, and the side of Boardman Road. Screw it, we’re waiting, there are no more options. Now Natalie was grumpy. The afternoon was getting chilly. Folks coming out of the library polling place (what a beautiful public library! Only a nerd like me can get excited about such a place, a relatively new addition to the Poughkeepsie Public Library District!) mentioned that their wait was four hours. Holy hanging chad, it was 3:45 p.m. A four-hour wait approaches my bedtime (not quite, but close). I mentioned to Natalie that maybe we should try Rhinebeck again on Sunday, on the way back to Siena. She bristled. She had homework on Sunday; she needed to get back on Sunday for a Zoom call. She wanted to vote now. Good for her. She could have bailed, and at one point she was questioning if it was worth it. But the kid wanted to vote for the first time. She turned 18 in July. This was important to her. And so, we hunkered down in the parking lot line. To wait to vote. Again, this was important to her, it mattered to her; and so, it mattered to me too.

Clearly, it was important to a shit-ton more people than her too. Wow. Because I’m a numbers geek, I walked around that beautiful new library and counted how many folks were in front of us. Not including those already in the building? I counted 262 humans. Wowsers. Eventually, her mood got better. She’s a generally good-natured kid. She put on her XL Siena swimming and diving sweatshirt to stay warm. I fetched some gloves from the car, as well as a notebook and some flash cards for her to study for an upcoming bio exam. An extra layer of flannel for me and a winter hat. It really wasn’t that cold (low-50s) but when you are standing outside for three hours as darkness approaches, it gets chilly. Yes. It took us about three hours before we finally got into that beautiful new library (did I mention what a great library it is!) to cast our ballots. I’ve been voting for close to 40 years. I’ve never missed a general election (I can’t vote in primaries, because I’m not registered with a political party, I’m an “NOP” in election official vernacular). This felt special, this felt meaningful. And like so much else in 2020, this is something – a day in the life – that we’ll never forget. Natalie voted and seemed happy to do it. I voted and I’m definitely happy that future long lines will not include me. We all should rest assured that our democracy, flawed, and perhaps reeling as it is, seems to be alive and well. Rock the vote, people, no matter how long it takes. That’s what we did.

Pandemic Papers: An interview with Mike Nehr (Class of 2002)

This interview has been on my mind for many weeks now, ever since the great Mike Nehr (from the beloved Class of 2002) sent me his answers via email. Loyal followers of the blog have most certainly noted the sporadic nature of posts. The Pandemic Papers series perhaps has faded into memory. But the pandemic has not. In fact, it’s humming along quite briskly. We might all be tired of this pandemic (“pandemic fatigue,” it’s called) but it’s not tired of us. Being weary of it and wanting it to go away does not make it go away. Hope is not a strategy. Include any other 2020 cliché here right now, but this latest ‘surge’ or whatever you want to call it is frightening the bejesus out of me. Call me a nervous nelly. I hope I’m overreacting, as usual.

So yeah. Now it’s high time to get this interview up on the blog. So much can be said of Mikey Nehr and he did a great job of summarizing it here in this long and wonderful interview. I won’t rehash it here too much but I will tell you this: I am thankful every day for the loyalty of our Forever Foxes. Each of you is a part of the fabric of this program over the past three decades. Mike Nehr has taken loyalty a step beyond that. Nearly 20 years after his graduation, Mikey stays connected to our program in a special way. He still comes to meets (you know … when we actually HAVE them). He has connected with newer generations of Foxes. They know him, he knows them. Over the years when he has come to the meets, he has gotten to know our current team members and parents, especially the ones that live near him on his native Long Island. As our oldest son Joey wraps up his time as an undergraduate student at Stony Brook, it was comforting to know that Mikey was a short drive away in Hauppauge, if he ever needed him. Joey is a fiercely independent kid and would never ask for help, but I always knew that I could text Mikey (or the Townsends or the Valentinos or many others) and they would be there for him.

Like I said. I could go on and on and on. Know this. In the first several years after graduation, on Father’s Day, I would get calls, emails and texts from Mike Nehr and I’ve always remembered every one of them. Now that he is a father himself, with two beautiful young children and an awesome young family, I’m proud of the man he’s become and it was an honor to be his coach (and to still be his coach). Mikey, sorry it took so long for me to post this interview. I guess my “pandemic fatigue” has manifested itself in the blog. Better late than never. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions so thoroughly.

How, when and why did you start running?  Did you play other sports growing up? 

I didn’t officially start running until I joined the cross country team in middle school. I knew nothing about the sport.  My 6^th grade physical education teacher asked me to be part of the team in 7^th grade and that’s how it all began. Growing up, I was always active.  I would spend hours every day playing sports with friends, riding bikes for hours, but I was never part of any organized programs.  Joining middle school cross country and track was an amazing experience.  I won my first medal during my 8^th grade track season when I ran the 3000-meter race at an invitation.  I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew I could just keep running.  I also didn’t really know what I was doing during the awards ceremony, but it was as if I won a medal in the Olympics.

What was your high school running career like; highlights, best memories, etc.

Coach Pete once referred to me as some schmoe 10:15 two-miler in high school.  I was also kicked off the cross country team when I was in 9^th grade.  OK, I wasn’t your typical Marist recruit from high school.  I was mediocre or perhaps to some, you might just say I was slow.  You might be wondering why I was kicked off my team.  During my freshman year, I was the top runner with a great group of teammates, but we were not very competitive. Towards the end of my freshman season, I came down with a virus or something and I didn’t adequately train for about two weeks. I didn’t feel like I was ready for the county meet and I really didn’t want to let the team down with a poor performance. We were supposed to leave school early for the big race, however, I refused to go. My coach tried to get me to go, but I gave every reason in the book to not go and he kicked me off the team in front of my class.  Coach didn’t know what was going on through my head and how I couldn’t handle the pressure. As a result, I never ran for the rest of that school year.  We made amends by sophomore year and I resumed with my running journey. 

My somewhat official best times were:

5k sunken meadow—17:47ish

3200 meters---10:11

1600 meters---4:48

800 meters—maybe 2:16—don’t remember

I was, at best, a mediocre runner.

Refresh my memory with regard to the recruitment process—what other schools were you interested in and how did you ultimately choose Marist? 

I really had no idea where I would end up.  I think only one school really reached out to me and that was Molloy College.  Everything would have been paid for and financially, that seemed like the most logical decision.  However, I was encouraged to look at other schools. I reached out to Iona and they asked me about my state meet times. Unfortunately, I never qualified for a state meet. Villanova told me to call them back when I ran a minute faster. I almost went to Canisius College. I reached out to them, they expressed interest and I was almost sold on going there until I visited Marist College. Best decision of my life. I knew right away that Marist is where I wanted to be, if I could afford it of course. Coach Pete picked me up from the train station in what appeared to be somewhat of an old beat up jalopy of a car (maybe a Subaru station wagon/hatchback) with a plethora of bumper stickers (Editor’s note: This sounds about right … not much has changed in 20-plus years …). Coach Pete welcomed me and we were on our way to campus.  It felt like home as soon as we arrived and the picturesque campus was a dream come true.  Coach Pete left me in good hands with Joe Majkowski to tour the campus.  After talking to Pete and seeing the campus, I couldn’t wait to be a student athlete at Marist.

I’ll never forget your first few days at practice, coming in wearing an “Air Nehr” hat and with the swagger of a top recruit.  What are some of your first memories of your first days, weeks, and months at Marist?

I still have that hat.  It was a nickname that I got from running in high school and playing handball.  It just kind of stuck with me for a little while.  As much as I wanted to go away to college, it was hard for me at first.   I was a slow, shy freshman who tried to fit in.   Everyone was trying to find their role, I think mine just took a little longer.  I suppose at first, I hoped to have that confidence wearing that “Air Nehr” hat, but I guess I had to redefine myself.  I managed to run in the mid 28 min range at Van Cortlandt Park for 5 miles.  That time seemed ok.  The rest of that first semester didn’t go so well for me.  I went home many weekends and developed a really bad case of acne which was probably induced by stress.  The doctor put on me on some medication to treat it for the next four months.  One of the side effects was joint pain which made it difficult to train through even though I tried.  I ended up redshirting winter track. It was a challenging few months, but luckily I had some great teammates to pick me up.

You improved rapidly during your time at Marist eventually becoming a record-setting runner on the team.  To what do you attribute your great success?  Also what are some of your favorite memories and highlights of your four year career as a student athlete at Marist?

I attribute my success to Coach Pete and the team.  It wouldn’t be possible without them.  They truly were my family away from home.  Coach Pete writes blogs on many alumni and current athletes.  In his eyes, we all matter to him as we have played an integral part in Marist XC/Track history. I think someone needs to write an article, “Why does Coach Pete matter”? You took a chance on a kid who ran 10:11 for 3200 meters just as you take a chance on any athlete who walks through the doors of Marist. My first semester ended with me in the hospital for food poisoning and Coach Pete was there in the hospital to make sure I was ok. Pete actually visited me in the hospital a second time for food poisoning. I will never forget that and the countless things you have done for me. Coach worked full time at the Poughkeepsie Journal and coached part time at Marist, but we all know in reality, it was a full-time job.  On top of that you started a family while I was a freshman and you managed to find time for guys like me when I needed you the most. My father was never part of my life and Coach Pete was too young to be my dad, but he always looked after me like he would for any of his athletes. Again, my success starts with Pete and the team and I’m extremely thankful to you. 

After my redshirt winter track freshman season, I finally had the opportunity to run spring track and ran a respectable 16:00 minute 5k.  Putting in all those miles and with patience, my times continued to drop.  Sophomore year, I ran around 27 minutes for 5 miles at VCP and around 15:10 for 5k.  My best times would end up being 25:52 for 5 miles at VCP, 8:24 3k, 3:57 1500m, and 14:45 for 5k.

One of my favorite memories was our record setting day when we won the IC4A for XC in 2000.  Alumni Pat Driscoll spoke of this day in an earlier interview.  It was truly an amazing day.   Only 7 of us took part in the record scoring race, but every member of the team contributed to make that happen.   I have a little story that sets this up.  Be patient with it.  

Story:

Growing up, my mom worked at a local church and there was this priest who would visit every summer from the Philippines.  He was an extremely wise and soft-spoken man.  When I was about 10, my lymph nodes throughout my body were all very swollen and there was a great deal of concern. I visited two different doctors and both felt that I needed to see a specialist to do a biopsy with fear that there could be something there. Father Adolfo gave me a blessing at this time. He put his hand on my head and told me everything would be ok.  He proceeded to tell me a few other things.  He said that in the year 2000, a big event would happen in running and in 2001, that I would become famous. Shortly after that, I went to a third well known doctor at a top hospital and he looked at me and basically said that there was nothing wrong with me. All the swelling in my lymph nodes dissipated. I was good as new.  Fast forward to 2000. A few weeks before IC4As, we raced at Disney. It was the first time going there and I probably spent too much time enjoying myself at the park (Editor’s note: Not probably. Definitely. From that point forward, every year I have given the “Mike Nehr” speech … don’t tire yourself out before the race! … before and during the Disney trip).  I think I wore myself out and I raced poorly. I felt like I let the team down. We returned to Marist and my goal was redemption. Our first big workout after Disney at Spackenkill High School track, Coach had us run repeat 800s.  I told him I needed to prove to myself that I could still run.  During the first interval, I ended up running 1600 meters instead of 800 meters in around 4:23 or so and then finished the rest of the workout.  I now felt ready.  Father Adolfo said that a big event was going to happen and IC4As was the last race of the season. As a team, we dominated that race by winning and obliterated all types of records at that time. Father Adolfo said I would become famous.  I ended up doing well as I set some records of 8:24 in the 3k, 4:16 mile, 1000 meters in 2:29 and I think I was part of a DMR record of 10:16.  I wouldn’t say I became famous, but it did help me believe that great things could happen as long as I continued to stay driven throughout the process.  Through Coach Pete’s work, awesome teammates and desire to do well, you can make anything possible.

What was your major at Marist and how did it prepare you for your teaching career?

My last answer was long. Sorry. After going undecided my first year, I dual majored in Psychology/Special Education.  I completed my student teaching at Marlboro Elementary and Poughkeepsie High School which ultimately prepared me for what I do today.  My goal in life was to help others through education and still be involved in running.  I have been fortunate to be a teacher for the last 18 years and I spent some years coaching cross country and track while continuing my own running. 

You had a really strong post-collegiate running career—winning races and running fast times.  What are some of the biggest highlights from those years?

After Marist, I went to C.W. Post for Grad School.  I had one season of Winter Track eligibility to use.  I was teaching full time, going to grad school, training and competing during my first year out of Marist.  I ended up running the 5k in 14:31 which earned me a national provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Division II championship meet.    

I won the Long Island half in 2003 in 1:09.  In 2004, I entered to run the half marathon again, but you could decide midway if you wanted to do the full instead.  As I was standing on the starting line, a good friend suggested that I should just run the full.  Without much hesitation, I ran the full and won in 2:34. Another big race was The Great Cow Harbor 10k in which I placed 4^th.  This was really cool since they pay and fly the top 10 runners or so from around the country to be part of it.   I would go on to be part of the local running community participating in many running events.

What are some of your overall fondest memories at Marist -- on and off the track/XC courses? 

My four years at Marist provided an incredible learning experience.  There are so many great memories through the friendships gained, my teammates, coaches and time spent in the classroom.  Marist track was my family away from home.  Something that I never did until Marist was travel.  Most of our meets were in the Northeast but we had a few invitations that brought us to Notre Dame (amazing), various colleges in North Carolina, Disney World (first time ever there) and many other schools from upstate to all over the Northeast.     

I know you’ve had some knee issues since then that have curtailed your running.  Are you still running and if so, how much?  If not, what other exercise/sports are you doing?  

I limited my running to only a few times per week at about 2-4 miles per run.  Most summers I would also play beach volleyball which was not only bad for my knees but did a number on my back. Getting old takes a toll on the body.

Tell us about your teaching career -- where and what do you teach, how long have you been there, and tell us about your coaching career as well!

My first two years teaching was at a BOCES on Long Island.  For the past 16 years, it has been a pleasure teaching at Syosset Central School District.  I currently teach 6^th grade math and science at the middle school.  Early in my teaching, I coached the girls varsity XC/Track and a couple of years helping a good friend with the North Babylon Track Team. Throughout that time, there were multiple athletes named All County and one who became state champion in the 3200.

You’ve got a wonderful young family.  Tell us about your wife, kids, where you live, etc.  How has the pandemic affected your family and work life? 

We currently live in Hauppauge, NY which is basically in the middle of Long Island.  Julie and I recently celebrated 13 years of marriage.  We are blessed with two wonderful children.  Our 8-year-old daughter Sophia is usually busy with dance and gymnastics while our 5-year-old son Matthew is involved in deck/ice hockey and baseball. Both are very athletic as we spend hours outside riding bikes and doing other outdoor activities. The pandemic has been a game changer for everyone.  Coach Pete knows how much we like to do road trips during the summer.  Unfortunately, all of that has been cancelled except for some day trips. Most days, we just try to keep our kids busy.

As I ask everyone, what are some of your favorite memories of the final few months of your college years and what message can you impart on our recently graduated seniors?

I cherished every moment of Marist, especially those last few months whether it be on the track, the classroom or just hanging out with friends. I feel really bad for those Marist seniors who lost out on some of those culminating activities and a typical graduation ceremony. At the same, I congratulate you all for all that you have achieved and overcome. You are officially a “Forever Fox.” Your journey is going to be a challenge as we continue to navigate through these unprecedent times, but like most Marist Alumni, your time spent at Marist will greatly help you achieve the success you are looking for.  I wish you the best of luck. 

What does the short-term future hold in terms of the pandemic, going back to school, sports, all of it—in your opinion?

It was unfortunate to hear about the cancelling of many college sports, but ultimately, safety and well-being is top priority.   Sports help drive us, but this virus has clearly put those plans on the back burner.  I have my own concerns with my children going back to school. My children are expected to wear a mask most of the day, maintain little movement and stay socially distant from their friends. School is supposed to be a fun learning experience, but it looks like that will be on hold too.  I can only pray for our world to return to normal so we can enjoy and do the things we once did without worries.  Perhaps science will come to the rescue with a vaccine that will be safe for all.  Based on what I have read and seen, we might not return to a near normal status until next summer.  I will remain optimistic and hope for the best as I know we will get through this.

Anything else you’d like to add…

Thank you Coach Pete for including me in the Pandemic Papers.  It is an honor to be a Marist alum and to watch and hear about all the success of the program that you and Coach Chuck built. Marist XC/Track will eventually be back in action. I wish everyone the best and be well!

Ellie Davis CRUSHES half marathon in NYC

Pause, schmause. Junior Ellie Davis cashed in all her hard work from the spring, summer and early fall with a scintillating half-marathon debut at the Queens Half Marathon on Saturday morning. Ellie blazed to victory in an official time of 1:22:29, a 6:19 pace and a picture (posted on Strava) that was so fitting and so poignant for 2020. We are so proud of Ellie. She came to Marist as a soccer player and switched over to cross country and track at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. We're glad to have her. And whenever we can start racing intercollegiately again, she could be a secret weapon for us. Nicely done, Ellie!

Attention alumni! Virtual MAAC race -- let's DO it!

OK, loyal Forever Foxes – our beloved alumni of the men’s and women’s cross country and track program – here’s your chance to turn back the clock and relive your glory days (which, for you recent graduates, isn’t that long ago!). The MAAC is hosting a virtual 5km XC Challenge. Joe Compagni, the legendary Monmouth University coach and a true gentleman of the sport, is the race director. Joe retired from Monmouth last summer after a Hall of Fame caliber career and he is still remaining quite connected to the sport he loves, so he created this virtual race. Although we have always been “rivals” (back in the day, in the NEC, and now in the MAAC), Joe has always been a “friend” to the program and a genuine good guy who produced championship caliber teams year after year after year. As a result, we feel compelled to support his efforts here. Plus, it’s a good idea.

 The entry fee is nominal (just $5, plus the requisite, annoying processing fees) and the net proceeds will go to a worthy cause (Monmouth/Ocean County food bank) in New Jersey. I reached out to him to see if I could rally our loyal Forever Foxes to participate. And Joe being Joe, he was enthusiastic and supportive of it. I asked him for a Marist Alumni (men’s and women’s) pull-down option for teams, and again Joe got it done for us. So, my message to you, Forever Foxes, is this: LET’S DO IT! It will be fun. It will be neat. And, at least for one last time, you’ll get to represent Marist in a MAAC meet. Hey. It’s 2020. Of course it’ll be “virtual” … come one, come all, let’s have the biggest team participation out there!

 Here are some specific details on the Virtual MAAC race. Please feel free to spread the word to other alums via group text, social media, etc. I may even post something on Facebook about this (rare, for me). Let’s GO.

Race Director: Joe Compagni

Registration: https://runsignup.com/Race/NJ/Edison/MAACXCChallenge

Website: maacsports.com/virtualxcchallenge

Length: 5k (3.11 miles) for men and women

When: October 29 through October 31

Cost: $5 per person, plus processing fee

Typing, paused

As the days and weeks go by and the number of blog posts becomes less and less frequent, there is a gnawing sense of guilt about the lack of production in this area of my life. If you look at the blog statistics from many years ago, there were several years where we averaged more than one post a day for the entire year – a few years, more than 400 posts! We had a lot to write about. There’s not as much to write about these days, and there are far more distractions hovering in our universe – even for someone like me, who doesn’t spend a lot of time scrolling social media.

Writing is a tricky thing. At least for me, and I imagine for most writers, the spirit needs to move me to put down some words. I need something to write about. This may seem like an obvious statement, but when you are staring at a blank screen – or contemplating and searching into a scattered mind with fewer and fewer words to share – you realize that writing is far more than typing fast (one of my few skills … I can type really fast). For a long while, I think my wife Heidi equated the two, or at least her words conveyed that to me. Because I’m a literal nerd, words matter to me. Years ago, when my full-time career at Dutchess County’s Finest Daily Newspaper ended and I began doing most of my writing from home, if I had a freelance deadline looming, Heidi would ask me, “do you have some typing to do tonight?” Of course, I knew what she meant, but I would cringe at the question, especially if I had my weekly running column due and I wasn’t sure what the topic was going to be. Look. I’m no Frank Deford, Grantland Rice, Christine Brennan, Juliet Macur, Tyler Kepner or David Maraniss (for those keeping score at home, all phenomenal writers – most alive, some dead -- who I have tried to emulate throughout my writing career). I’m well aware that my newspaper columns and stories hastily ended up as kindling for a bonfire, or at the bottom of a bunny cage, or mercifully placed in the recycling bin. But still, it’s writing. It’s not “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” (again, for those keeping score at home, that is the shortest sentence that includes all 26 letters of the alphabet – we used to use that as a typing test message back in the day). You type to write, but writing isn’t simply typing.

Where am I going with this? Oh yes, the lack of blog posts. There’s a certain unusual sameness to our days now. The previous sameness had a lovely cycle, one that we miss dearly. Last weekend should have been Paul Short, a meet we have gone to for decades. At practice yesterday (oops, sorry, “training”), a bunch of guys started rattling off the things they miss about normal practice, mostly mundane things like van rides, drinking sugary Gatorade mix out of the coolers with the littered plastic cups in the back of the vans, terrifyingly unsafe bus drivers, complaining about meal money as we bring them to a grocery store at the beginning of a meet bus trip, all the stuff that used to annoy us on a daily basis but we now miss so dearly. A lovely cycle. That lovely cycle had a rhythm to it, and this blog was able to follow that rhythm. We tried to create a pandemic rhythm during the spring and the summer. Now that we are in the fall, life has gotten busier – a very different kind of busier than ever before. And so, there are few posts, less fast typing than before. In his song “Patchwork Quilt,” a tribute to Jerry Garcia, the great Warren Haynes wrote and sung the following lines: “But the spirit she moves me. In fact she pushes me along.” Right now, the spirit has moved me to around 600 words, but far fewer times than in the past. Warren was right when he sung about “a patchwork quilt of life. Memories embroidered on your soul.” So many great memories embroidered on our soul from 30 years of coaching wonderful athletes, 40 years of running, jogging, walking, racing (for me, “racing” really should be in air quotes). I don’t think it’s all over, just “paused” (that’s the latest pandemic vernacular to sprout up lately … “paused” or “on pause”). And so, I guess, the frequency of blog posts has also “paused.” I’ve had a list of blog post topics staring at me for weeks, but the typing has paused. The spirit has paused. I have to believe she’ll move me – she’ll move all of us – again, at some point.