This weekend, I’ve spent enough time riding a bus to last me for awhile. We had Liberty Leagues at St. Lawrence University this weekend, which is located “practically in Canada," as many of my teammates eloquently put it. We left Vassar at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, and drove as far as Utica before stopping for dinner, then climbed back aboard the bus, on which we stayed until reaching the hotel just before 11:00 p.m.. On the plus side, I got a lot of homework done on the bus, but by the time we arrived, I was definitely ready to do something besides economics or watch Gladiator. Due to our late arrival, we didn’t preview the course until the morning of the race, and I was definitely impressed with what I saw. The course was comprised of loops around the athletic fields and a wide trail between a river and woods, and the footing was excellent. By race time, it had even warmed up enough to be considered comfortable. My family even made the three hour drive from Vermont to see the race, marking the first time my younger brother has seen cross country.
The course was excellent for spectators, which meant the women’s team had plenty of opportunity to notice that my stride was off, due to the shin problems I’ve been battling. While I didn’t feel great, I still ran a time I’m happy with. It was a fun race to be in, however difficult, just because we were so familiar with the competition. As a team, we didn’t meet our ultimate goal of beating RPI, but we made it close, and many of their runners had excellent races. For many of our freshmen, it was their first 8K, and as a whole, they performed very well. Anthony (Lucero)also showed that he was one of the best runners in the region with a second place finish.
Since the men raced first, I had the opportunity to watch the women’s race. It’s hard not to be an active spectator at a race, especially on a course that lends itself to seeing the field at multiple points throughout the race. Instead of going to the hardest hill, we tried to see the women as many times as possible. Whether it’s a reminder to focus on form, to stay with the pack ahead, or to just give a split, there’s always something constructive to offer to a runner. While I think the women achieved their 2nd place finish on their own merit, I bet you just might be able to attribute someone moving up a couple spots specifically to a helpful piece of advice. I know some Vassar supporter (I’m not even sure who, thanks in part of my level of focus and in part to total fatigue) told me to just close the gap between a bunch of St. Lawrence runners who passed me at mile 3, and I ended up catching one of them in the wide-open sprint to the finish.
We ended up getting back to campus just before midnight on Saturday, and while I definitely didn’t have a normal Vassar weekend (minus the copious amounts of homework and sports-watching on Sunday), I think it was a weekend well-spent.
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