The Pageantry of Van Cortlandt Park

Recently, ESPN.com’s Page 2 did a story on the 100 most important sports venues in America, which can be found at the following link: (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/080919/venues).

Running-related locations appearing on the list include the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, site of this year’s Olympic Trials and Steve Prefontaine’s record runs, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Franklin Field, which hosts the Penn Relays. Sitting at #99 is Van Cortlandt Golf Course in the Bronx. While I usually agree with most everything on Page 2, I think ESPN overlooked the greater significance of the park. While the oldest public golf course in America is surely significant, ESPN failed to mention that the park also contains the oldest cross country course in the nation.

Much of what makes Van Cortlandt special is the atmosphere; not only is the park nestled between a major highway and some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the U.S., but the urban nature of the park leads to certain eccentricities. For example, the first few hundred meters of our course cut through a pair of youth soccer games, and past an old-timers baseball game. In addition, the sheer number of schools in the area who want to use the course means that we warmed up alongside big-time programs such as Michigan, Penn State, Cornell and Iona in the park, and then got to watch one of the more competitive Division I meets in the country just minutes before our race started. Once we packed up, the area high schools came out in droves, including the younger siblings and former high school teams of some of my Vassar teammates, turning a September race into a reunion and a family outing.

The size and scope of Van Cortlandt races, and the difficulty of the course also provides an argument for the course’s status within the top 100 American sports venues. Sections of the course have become proper nouns, including Cemetery Hill, which in addition to sitting near the Van Cortlandt family burial ground, has killed the legs of countless runners with its intense grade. It’s hard to leave Van Cortlandt upset, if for no other reason than racing there feels like being a small piece of living history. Of course, a second place finish to the defending national champion and a victory for the women would leave a pretty good taste in anyone’s mouth.

While this weekend was undeniably very positive for the team, next weekend provides a bigger challenge, especially for the men’s team, as the race will be the first 8K race of the season for us, and the first ever for the eight newcomers to the team. There’s definitely an adjustment to be made, but November is still off in the distance, giving everyone plenty of time to adjust.