Numbers

Today I did a morning run for the 31st consecutive day which breaks last year's high of 30 days. I also had a "PB" for the 3.5 course that I run every morning. I knocked off 14 seconds from last year's best time.

I've yet to run in a race this year (Zero) but hope to get into one before the end of the month. Last year my first race was on July 4th but this year I didn't feel I was in racing shape at that time.

There are 19 days left until I hopefully meet the 10 girls who committed to running Cross Country for E-City this fall. If 4 or 5 of those girls actually show up, I'll be satisfied.

Look's Promising

I had my Cross Country pre-summer meeting at the E-City School today. Amazingly, ten girls attended. There were 7 Seniors-to-be and 3 Sophomores-to-be. All seemed genuinely interested when I gave them their summer running schedule. I've been at this point before (three times) and I can only hope that this time the team and the season become reality.

We set up an August 3rd date to meet in order for me to determine if the girls have been training during the summer. If so, I'll notify the AD and ask that the team be entered in the school's athletic conference and to start looking at uniforms.

Next week, I will also submit my letter of resignation as X-C coach at N-City School.

Humbled

I drove down to Holmdel again today to run the course. I can't make any excuses such as it being too cold (high 30s but sunny) or that it had only been 72 hours since running a grueling 5k race on Thanksgiving morning. Bottom line is that the course beat me today. I won't even mention the time. But I will be back.

Basketball practice started in earnest this weekend so personal running will decrease over the next three months. Hopefully, I can get out 2 or 3 times a week to keep the stamina at a decent level.

Two Good Days

The first day (yesterday) started out with the receipt of my second check from the N-City school. It ended when I stayed over my friend's house in preparation for the Flemington Turkey Trot. He would be running along with his wife, two sons, brother, and niece. The night was spent talking about nothing but running and cross country!

The second day (today--Happy Thanksgiving to all) was even better because I went out and ran an over-40 PB (personal best) in the 5K despite running only 3-4 times a week since Labor Day. The Verona Labor Day race was my previous best (26:15) and I bested that by 59 seconds (25:16.37). There were 3,851 finishers and I came in 859th. The time is a bit slower on the website results page because there were so many slow runners in front of me at the start. It took 51 seconds to get to the front. So I timed myself on my own watch. It was worse the further back you went; my friend's wife took more than 2 minutes to get up to the starting line.

After knocking off almost a minute off of my 5K time, I have to wonder how low I can go at this age.

Mecca

Today, on a beautiful Sunday morning, I decided to take a drive down to Holmdel to view the State Cross Country Championship Course. The state's cross country season officially ended yesterday with the Meet of Champions so I knew the park would not be crowded. I had never been to Holmdel Park, either to watch a race or just to visit. I had another reason for wanting to view the course for the first time. Although still being cautiously optimistic about next year's possible X-C team at E-City, my goal would be to take them there for the states. And this would be a first preview of the course for that race.

The park was easy to get to. Exit 114 and a few country roads brought me to the park. In hand I had a map of the course and a memory full of X-C videos of races held at the park. I found the starting line easily and proceeded to walk the course. As I traversed the running path I was amazed at what I was discovering. This is a true cross country course--almost all gravel, lots of open areas, and lots of woods running too. And it is a tough course--many hills including a hill which should be named "heartbreak". The entire park is very beautiful; even to a non-runner, the "bowl" is an incredible sight.

As I neared the finish, I had the temptation to go back to the car, lace up my running shoes, and give the course a jog. But I had already had done four miles in the morning so I just went back to the car.

I knew I had to come back soon to run this course and before the weather turned any colder. I am planning to do so one week from today. And I will definitely try to factor a run in whenever I visit family I have in the area.

In other news:

The N-City AD called to let me know that he has my second check. It's nice to get that money a lot sooner without all the letter writing to their treasurer, even though the amount is smaller.

Three more Juniors at E-City have expressed interest in running next year. The E-City now had six definites, three maybes, and a tennis player who wants to work out with the team.

This Thursday I'll be running in a 5K in Flemington with an old Pru/running friend and his family. Since Labor Day, I have been only running about three days a week and have lost some of my summer strength. So I'm shooting for a time of 28 minutes.

End of Another Season

This past Saturday, I drove my only N-City runner to the CTCs in W-Park in E-City. They say running is 10% physical and 90% physical. Well, my runner was definitely ready for the race mentally. He had been psyching himself up for this big day for weeks. But the physical wasn't there. No summer training and only 4 practices a week left him unprepared for the big race. He finished last.

And so my third season at N-City came to a close. Tomorrow I go there to collect uniforms and that will be it.

My new E-City team is still intact at 6 runners ready for next year.

And on the personal side, now that the season is over, I'll be spending more time after school to get ready for the Thanksgiving Day race.

One Week To Go

N-City - During the past week the girls were almost non-existent at the team's practices. So I decided against taking them to this Saturday's CTCs in E-City. I'll give them the bad news when and if they come to practice this week. That leaves just one male runner on the team. He still wants to run Saturday, but he still can't run 3 miles without stopping. He has four days (he works Wednesday) to fix that problem.

E-City - Six of the 10 girls who came to my X-C meeting signed and had their parents sign a "contract" stating that they understood the commitment involved in being a member of next year's E-City X-C Team. Of the other four, I'll only will miss two. One has a minor asthma problem and her mother won't let her run. The other is the best tennis player in the school but she almost loves running as much. We agreed to allow her to be involved in our practices when she doesn't have a tennis match or practice.

Personal - not running as much during the school year as I did during the summer. But I signed up for a Thanksgiving Day run anyway. A running friend and former Pru employee always runs it with his family. His two sons and niece are top notch runners in middle school. We'll be hearing about them in the next few years. Unfortunately, they won't be running for E-City. Oh, well. LOL

The Battle Is Won But The War Is Lost

All five girls showed up for last Friday's race. St. Vincent had 10 girls. I knew that four of our girls would be doing more walking than running, so I prepared for the worst. And that's what happened. SVA beat N-City by a score of 20-42. But the highlight of the day was that the one runner on our team who isn't walking anymore actually out-kicked three SVA runners in the last 100 yards to win the race. The time wouldn't get her in the top 100 of the CTCs but it was still a thrilling moment.

And now there are 12 days until the aforementioned CTCs. Goal #1, the girls have to eliminate all walking and build up their stamina. Hard to do when two of them never came to practice today. Par for the course at N-City. Goal # 2, lower their times, which will go hand in hand with the cutback of walking.

Bad News - Good News

The boys at N-City have stopped coming to practice except for one. He's pretty dedicated and wants to run in the NJCTC on 11/6. We did not run in the Greystone Invitational last Saturday because someone in the main office of the N-City school didn't mail out the check with the entry fee. Just as well since we only had one runner available.

The girls are only a little bit better. They come sporadically to practice but we still have five, enough for a team. They still can't run 2 miles without stopping to walk and they have their first race (3.1 miles) tomorrow. We are racing an all-girls school from N-City and it should be a massacre. I'm more worried about whether they will show up tomorrow than how they will do.

But the good news is that we had our X-C meeting at E-City school today. All ten girls showed up at the meeting. I thought I was dreaming. I gave them a 15 minute talk on what Cross Country really was about and to see if they still wanted to do it. Seven are still on board and three are thinking it over. Keeping fingers crossed for the 2011 E-City Harriers.

Mid-October Update

My third season at N-City is more than half over and nothing has changed from the previous two years. The runners are still out of shape, they come to practice sporadically, and the amount of time we have to practice isn't enough to form any kind of respectable team. The AD and myself scheduled 3 races for the year. The first is an Invitational meet this Saturday in Morris County for the boys on the team. But I found out from the meet director that the N-City AD did not send in the entry form nor the fee. Just as well. Our runners would have been embarrassed in the meet. The second meet is on October 22 for the girls against another N-City school (all girls). One of our girls quit due to poor grades so racing with only four runners will definitely shift any advantage to the opponent. And while this school is not a great team, I've been monitoring their results in their weekly races, and we will have our hands full with them. The third and final race (if everyone is in shape by then) is the CTC Championships on November 6. This is the Catholic Track Conference meet held at W-Park in E-City. This is the same race that one of our runners entered back in year 1. He's about the only one who is dying to get back there and have a good race.

So again, nothing has changed at N-City. I'm just baby-sitting a few runners who show up once in awhile. And getting paid less this year than the past two years. So I have slowly realized that I can't have a decent X-C team at N-City. And I have found out in the past three years that nothing will probably happen at E-City either. My three failed attempts to land a position at other schools this past summer (because of my age?) seems to seal my fate. I finally realized that my dream of coaching a decent X-C team was never going to come true.

So I decided to make some changes. I decided that the E-City school, especially the girls, needed another sport. Preferably in the fall since I'm busy in the winter and spring with other sports. In the fall, there are five major female sports in NJ. One is X-C. Another is Tennis, and E-City already has a team. Field hockey and soccer are two others but equipment and field locations present real obstacles. The fifth is volleyball. Practices and games would take place in our gym. And it seemed like the easiest of the three sports that I could learn quickly.

So I wrote up a proposal for the E-City AD and Principal. The principal liked the idea because we need to attract more females to the school. The AD said he would think about it since it would mean more work for him (he's not an energetic AD). So I left both meetings with the plan to forever give up X-C and to try volleyball in the fall of 2011.

Enter Mr. Murphy. The man who wrote the famous Law. That very same night, just eight hours after my volleyball proposal meetings, I'm at the Freshman Parents Orientation Meeting at the school. Two females who were in attendance with their parents came up to me and wanted to know why we don't have a Cross Country team. Yes, unbelievable. Murphy works in such strange and mysterious ways. Well, I was cautious and knew that fool me three times I'm an idiot. Fool me a fourth time, and I'm a bigger idiot. But they seemed so sincere and passionate. I told them that if they could get a list of girls who were SERIOUS about running next year, and give it to me by Columbus Day, I would think about it.

Well, today they brought me a list. Seven names, five females and two males. Only the five females were definite. The boys were maybes. So I decided my next step would be to have a meeting with the definite females. I may have two other females (two Juniors) who may be interested. But for my next step, I decided to try something new. I would empower these two freshman who seemed passionate about running. I told them it was too early to name captains, but they would be my "leaders". They would need to talk to the other runners and come up with a date when we could have a team meeting. By giving them this responsibility, I'm hoping that they will try to get the others to be as serious about the team as they are.

So hopefully, next week, we'll have a meeting and I'll have a better idea if this is going to happen.