Nationals!

Willy here. Steve asked me to write a little bit for the blog so that our legions of adoring fans could get the inside scoop on our trip to Cross Country Town, USA aka Middle of Nowhere, Midwest aka Terre Haute, IN. Apologies in advance; this ended up a little longer than I had anticipated.

After a season filled with ups, downs, falls, and impetigo, a solid team performance at regionals ended up being just enough to get us into NCAAs for the first time since 2005. Our women cruised in as well with an automatic bid from their 2^nd-place showing at regionals. Add four coaches and two managers, and you have a Big Green entourage twenty strong hopping on a plane Wednesday afternoon. Somewhat inconveniently, this was also the first day of reading period, with finals starting on Friday – the day before the race.

Fortunately, our professors were sympathetic to our plight, for the most part. Exams were taken early, postponed, or in some cases proctored at the Hampton Inn in Terre Haute by faculty advisor and assistant coach Ron Shaiko on Friday afternoon. Unluckiest of all was Sundance Gorman, whose Latin final didn’t technically conflict with our travel plans…but it was at 8am on Sunday, the day after the race and a mere 7 hours after we stumbled into Hanover, exhausted.

Despite the woes of Dartmouth’s academic calendar, we managed to have some fun in Indiana before the big race. Thursday was the night of the annual banquet put on by the NCAA for all the teams. Naturally, we all wanted to look our best for our blue carpet debut. To this end, I got a hold of a bowtie and spent an ungodly amount of time attempting to tie it, delaying our departure by a solid ten minutes. The highlight of the banquet was a unique motivational speech by Dr. Jason Winkle, who holds a PhD in…leadership?

Da' boys.

  We had a great showing of both parents and alumni out in Terre Haute. Younger alums Phil Royer ’13 (who wasn’t just there for the men’s team…), Ethan Shaw ’12 and his new lady friend, and Ben True ’08.5 all made the trek, as did Tom Paskus ’89 and Ray Pugsley ’91.

On to the good part – the race itself. Prognosticators had provided us with plenty of motivation – the Wood Report had us finishing 30^th to Harvard’s 18^th, and on the other end of the spectrum, Ben threw us in as a dark horse for a top ten finish in the Saucony prediction show. Our more realistic goals were to be the top Ivy squad, as well as to crack the top 20, with 15^th as the “holy grail” because it would have matched our best showing since the ‘80s.

We knew the weather was going to be “unfortunate” (thanks, Chief!). It had rained for two days straight and the course had been torn to shreds on Friday, and forecasts were calling for a temperature in the low 30s with some strong winds. All we needed was a blizzard to upgrade the conditions to Snow Leopard status.

Snow Leopard

We didn’t get our blizzard, but according the official NCAA webcast the temperature at gun time was 27 degrees, with 15-20mph winds. The mud was pretty bad, and it was certainly chilly; even our native Alaskan timberwolf suited up in some extra clothing.

All bundled up (Tim O'Dowd photo)

After an adrenaline-filled pre-race speech from DJ Mango and our trademark cheer, we took our places in box 17. For four of us, it would be the last race of our college XC career, and it was time to make it count. The gun went off.

As we settled into race pace, I found myself much higher up in the pack than I had expected to be. I hit 3K in 17^th, about 8:55 if you adjust for the moved starting line. At this point I still wasn’t sure if I was actually feeling good or a spectacular blowup was coming. The big hill came and went, then 5K, then the big hill again at 7K, and as we picked off stragglers from the lead pack I was suddenly in the top 10. It was the second time going up the big hill, where it started to really hurt but I still felt in control, when I realized I was going to hang on and reach a level I never had before.

I didn’t have the strongest last 2K, falling back a little to finish in 14^th with a time of 30:22, but the feeling of crossing that line ahead of my grandest expectations is something I’ll never forget. I don’t know why I ran as well as I did. Maybe it was because I got out hard and avoided the worst of the mud. Maybe the “Math is Power” bandana Big Mike bequested to me has magical powers. Maybe I just got lucky and hit the peak perfectly. Whatever it was, I’m just grateful that my final college cross country race was such a special experience.

Nearing the finish (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Next across the line for us was fellow ’14 Hank “and Oak” Sterling in 110^th, one his best races of the season. In fact, the seniors made up our top 4. Octogenarian and blog curator Steve Mangan was our third man in 165^th; and John Bleday, our premier Evil Baby Orphanage player, put his balls on the line and ran his heart out despite feeling terrible, coming across in 174^th. Brian Master Chieferson stepped up to score for us despite not even racing at regionals. In his first XC 10K ever, Brian ran aggressively and placed 204^th. Sundance, who was dealing with more finals stress than any of us, and Seabass, who had been dealing with a knee injury for weeks, had tough days, finishing in 216^th and 228^th respectively.

Hammerin Hank (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Stever (Tim O'Dowd photo)

John, getting that Awad scalp (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Chief, stepping up as 5th man (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Sundance, always closing hard (Tim O'Dowd photo)

We didn’t quite reach either of our team goals for this race. When the scores were tallied and all was said and done, we were 24^th with 551 points, ahead of Harvard and Heps champion Columbia, but two places behind Princeton. More importantly, the race marked the end of an incredible four-year journey with my best friends and second family. Running with these guys has been the highlight of my time at Dartmouth, and I can’t wait to see what the next two seasons on the track have in store for us.

Willy out

So You Think You Can Dance?!

Friends, Romans, countrymen.



Let's dance.   


First, a little recap.

Friday's regional race, though not perfect, was exactly the performance we needed to get ourselves to NCAAs.  We knew going in that there was the potential for six teams from our region to go (2 auto-qualifiers, 4 at-large) and there was no doubt in our minds that we would be one of those six.  Will and John had the races that I know they've been striving for since their fast races at Paul Short, coming in 5th and 8th, respectively.  They were right near the front of the pack for all 10K and closed well to beat some seriously fast guys from other schools.  I led the contingent of our 3-6 runners, with myself in 27th, Silas in 29th, Tim in 32nd, and Henry in 34th.  The four of us were close for most of the race which proved to be crucial as things got a little slippery out there and we (almost) successfully navigated a small pileup around 5K.  The final team results had us in 5th place, 11 points behind 4th place Providence and 54 ahead of 6th place Harvard.  Eight hours later, towards the end of an anxiety-filled bus ride home, we got the news via Jon Gault '13 and Phil Royer '13 that we were in.

It is hard to express the collective excitement, joy, satisfaction, and relief that we DXCers are feeling after our first NCAA Cross Country National Championships berth since 2005.  We have been on the bubble many times since then, and it feels like eight years of agony of being on the outside looking in was partially washed away this weekend.  This opportunity to race against the best teams in the nation is the result of a shared passion and desire, passed down from class to class for decades.  To see that passion become something real, under our watch, is literally a dream come true.  What had been just outside our grasp for so many years is finally ours and now it is time to put on our dancin' shoes and head to Terre Haute for one final race.

Alright, some photos, courtesy of Tim O'Dowd.

Somewhere on the first loop, all grouped up.

A bit later on the first lap, staying out of trouble on the outside.

Willy and John, at the lead with a little over lap to go.

Hank and Seabass hanging tough.

John, fighting a headwind down the long finishing stretch.

Me, so happy to be almost done.

Sundance, going full-miler mode on Harvard's Leakos.

Nationals this Saturday.  Let's gooooo!

-Steve

    

Heps, Regionals, and beyond....

Welp,

Heps was now over a week ago, so my apologies in the tardiness of this post.  For those of you who follow DXC, you probably saw the results.  For those of you who somehow, in a series of fortunate events, stumbled across this blog but are not fans of DXC, here are the team results from last Saturday in Princeton.

Team Scores

1. Columbia          48

2. Princeton           56

3. Dartmouth         64

4. Harvard             103

5. Yale                   116

6. Penn                  150

7. Cornell              181

8. Brown                253

Dartmouth finishers were:
John Bleday '14 (9th)
Sundance Gorman '16 (10th)
Willy G '14 (13th)
Hank Sterling '14 (14th)
Old Man Mangan '14 (18th)
Silas Talbathius '15 (22nd)
Chief Masterson '16 (37th)
Nat Adams '17 (38th)
Curtis King '16 (61st)
Ziggy Herzig '17 (64th)
Dylan O'Sully '15 (70th)
Rigatoni Anzivino (90th)

The feeling on this race was on the bitter side of bittersweet, particularly for us seniors.  It was our best team effort of the season.  We finished very close to two teams who have been nationally ranked all season, in a race that always brings out the best in every guy on a very fast course (12 guys under 24:00, 27 under 24:30).  At the 1 mile mark, we were up 36 points to Columbia's 58, and at 3 miles, 44 to Columbia's 47.  But then....the wheels came off a bit over the last 3K, with us finishing in third.  As Willy said post-race, "The peleton always has its man."

The good news is we feel that our best team race is yet to come.  It may have seemed from the outside that we ran a really aggressive race, but to be honest, we just felt like we went out right where we belonged.  On a different day (Regionals) and with Dylan not getting tripped up and taking a digger, we know we'll be moving up the last 2K.  So, next up is 10Ks of fun with the best teams from the Northeast at Van Cortlandt Park in NYC this Friday.  Things are looking good for us to make it to the Big Dance in Terre Haute.  The energy has been palpable here in Hanover all week.  Hope to see you there!

Photos:

Lest the old traditions fail (Mom photo).

Willy and John approaching 2mi with Harvard's Maksim Korolev (Tim O'Dowd photo).

Dylan, Hank, and me chasing (Tim O'Dowd photo).

Ziggy, Dylan, and Curtis a little after 2mi (Tim O'Dowd photo).

John and Sundance nearing the finish (Tim O'Dowd photo).

Pain faces (Tim O'Dowd photo).

The Chief and Nat, stellar underclassmen (Tim O'Dowd photo).

Obligatory '14s! photo (Dad photo).

A huge thanks to the parents for bringing enough food to last us all day and through the next week's post-run snacks.  This photo depicts about a quarter of what was there.

 

Until next week,

-Steve
   

Wisconsin 2013: Hands, Feet, and Mouths

Greetings,

This past Saturday, seven of us and Coach flew out to Madison, Wisconsin for the Adidas Invite.  The Midwest and things pertaining to that region of the U.S. are as enjoyable to me as corn syrup and dairy products are, which is to say they make me fat, red in the face, and vomit.  Add in the fact that last year's Wisconsin Invite was a disaster, and we were very eager to show the race, and the region, who was boss.

The men's race was filled with 35 teams, of which over 15 were ranked, guaranteeing a fast and exciting race.  This also presented a golden opportunity to pick up "at-large" points by beating some of those teams to help get us to NCAAs next month.  The race course out there is about as perfect as an XC course could be -- rolling grassy hills, wide trails, and plenty of places for Coach to see us "along the way there and everything there." 

As the race played out, we had John and Will up front, and the rest of us working together a bit further back.  John got out really well and hung on for 73rd.  Silas and Henry yet again ran good races, crossing in 94th and 102nd.  I managed to not relive the death march that was Paul Short, finishing in 130th.  Will had been battling a cold and what we later found out was a combination of hand, foot, and mouth disease and impetigo.  He did what he could for the team despite looking like a rabies victim, scoring for us as our 5th man.  On top of that, when I passed him with 200m to go, he yelled at me and got me so fired up that I passed 20 people in the finishing stretch.  The guy is a team player.  The results didn't come out for a while, but in the end we finished 21st as a team, not as high as we had hoped.  We're confident that we are a better team than that result indicates, and are looking forward to Heps in 2 weeks.  That race always brings out the best in us.

As it would turn out, Wisconsin and hand, foot, and mouth disease would get the last laugh.  Our flight out of Wisconsin got delayed, causing us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago.  After 12 hours of traveling, we finally made it back to Hanover, but not before a couple of us (Curtis and myself) had contracted Will's ailments.  Apparently it's very contagious!

Some photos:

Henry and Silas early on.

Curtis and I.

John.

Willy, about to bite someone.

Dylan, looking lean.

Silas hammering into the finish.

-Steve

 

Tokyo Drift: Jon and Phil Go To Japan

Every year, the Ivy League sends a team of recent alumni to Japan to compete in the Izumo Ekiden, a six-stage, 44.5km road relay race that kicks off the Japanese collegiate season. Recently, the team had become less and less Ivy-based – in the past two years, just one Ivy alum (Tom Robbins ’11) actually participated in the Ekiden. Those teams both finished 8th, the highest in the history of the trip, so in a possibly-related note, the higher-ups in the Inter-Universty Athletic Union (the Japanese organization that sponsors the trip) wanted to return to a completely Ivy team this year.

That’s a somewhat long way of saying that Phil Royer ’13 and I were two of the nine men selected to represent the Ivy League on this year’s trip. On paper, we had a very strong team, boasting multiple HEPS champs and some very fast PRs. In addition to Phil and I, the squad consisted of: Dan Lowry (Brown), Mark Amirault, Tommy Dialynas, Joe Stilin, Trevor Van Ackeren (Princeton), Brendan Martin and Kyle Merber (Columbia). Injury issues had limited Phil’s training and a full summer courseload at grad school prevented me from training full-time until late August, so neither of us were in tip-top shape coming in. Still, the trip represented a great opportunity to experience another culture, both running-wise and in general.

The trip began on October 9, and after a long day of travel, Phil and I arrived at our hotel at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport early in the evening of October 10 (since we crossed the International Date Line flying over). We needed to run to get our bodies going after two flights (one of which lasted 12 hours) and a bus ride, so we threw on our running shorts and headed out the door.

Not so fast. Because of the warm, muggy conditions, Phil and I had opted to go shirtless, as we often do on our runs. Apparently in Japan, this is a big no-no. Several hotel staffers rushed after us as we attempted to exit the hotel, shaking their heads vigorously and forming crosses with their arms. We understood and headed back to our rooms to change. But they obviously didn’t think we understood, as one of the men hopped in the elevator with us to walk us back to our rooms and ensure we actually put our shirts on. Convinced that we were no longer a threat to public decency, we were allowed to exit and completed our seven-mile run by looping around the perimeter of the airport several times.

We flew from Haneda to Izumo, the site of the race, the next morning. Free from the TSA, check-in and security went much faster, even with the language barrier. They don’t check ID since your name isn’t on your ticket and there were no lines in security, in part because you can keep your shoes on and there’s no limit on liquids. We went for a run as a group when we arrived and I can accurately say it was one of the best I’ve ever been on. We found a paved bike path parallel to a canal that took us through rice fields and several grassy areas. We ended up at the Sea of Japan as the sun was setting and made a brief pit stop to gaze out at the water. If you ignored all the trash from China that had washed up on the shore, it made for a beautiful sight.

Our hotel was supposedly renowned for its spa, which used hot springs to fill two large hot tubs. We decided to check it out that night. A group of us threw on the kimonos and sandals provided in our rooms and headed down. Since Japanese are generally smaller than Americans – I don’t think I saw anyone taller than me the entire week – the sandals were also way too small for my size-12 feet, so I decided to walk down barefoot.

As we entered the spa, the women at the desk immediately began to laugh at us. I’m a bit cloudy on the reason, but I know that several of the laughs were directed toward me. You have to be barefoot in the spa and they seemed both confused and amused that I had seized the initiative by being the only one among us not to wear sandals to the entrance. I didn’t know what to do – I wasn’t going to go back to my room, put on sandals and walk back just to take them off again. I eventually decided to just walk in, and once their laughter subsided, I was granted access to the men’s locker room.

As we prepared to enter the hot tub, we weren’t exactly clear on the dress code. We settled on running shorts/boxers, but were interrupted by a female staffer who had come into the men’s locker room and pantomimed pulling our pants down. Naked it was, then.

We finally entered the men’s hot tub – apart from its size, there wasn’t much special about it – and began to relax. Yet we were quickly interrupted by some of the women from the front desk, who would periodically peek their heads in and eventually came inside to offer us towels. Again, this was an all-male area, and we were all naked. After accepting the towels, we assumed they would leave. We were wrong. They instead stayed and began modeling how to dry ourselves off. I understand that some behaviors are not universal, but among first-world countries, I think toweling off qualifies. We began to nod our heads, and, convinced that we now understood how to dry ourselves, the women returned for good to the desk. We shared some laughs over how stupid they thought we must be and retired to bed shortly thereafter.

The next day, October 12, we walked into Izumo for the kids’ version of the ekiden – a shorter race with 1k legs. Tommy, Trevor, Phil and I all ran legs with some of the younger runners and we walked around the market, sampling some local food. Everyone there was super excited to see us and treated us very well – the organizer of the kids’ ekiden bought us candy and we were treated to figs (a delicious local favorite) and fried octopus (very tasty). That afternoon, we went to the Izumo Grand Shrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo-taisha) a centuries-old religious site that also served as the start line of the race. The shrine was incredibly impressive, and because of our connection to the Ekiden, we were granted special access to the inner part of the shrine. The priests made a special presentation on our behalf to the god that occupied the shrine. That god establishes relationships, and we were told that we would find love very soon. We couldn’t take pictures in the inner portion of the shrine, but it really was a special sight: cobblestone courtyards, thatched roofs and magisterial walls.

We took a bus tour of the course on October 13 and stopped by the track for a run. We did a few loops around a baseball field, and the Japanese Little Leaguers took great pleasure in chasing us around and high-fiving us as we ran. October 14 was race day, so Phil, Tommy and I (the alternates who would be running a track 5k after the ekiden) took the bus to the Izumo Dome, which served as race headquarters. They had TVs set up to follow the race – ekidens are very popular in Japan, and since this is one of the “Big Three” collegiate ekidens, it was shown on national TV. Joe led off for us and acquitted himself well until the leader made a big move to break things up about halfway through the 8k leg. He ended up running 23:24, with Joe crossing in 10th place in 24:29. The handoffs are interesting to watch, since each runner exchanges a sash (like the ones worn in beauty pageants) instead of a baton. Generally, a runner will remove the sash before beginning his final kick so that he can hand it to his teammate more easily in the exchange zone. The new runner will then put on the sash and wear it for the length of his stage. Mark kept us in the middle of the pack for the second stage, but some very fast times up front (three leg records and a course record for the champions, Komazawa University) meant that we only finished 14th overall. There were several reasons for this – a lot of guys on our team were miler/5k types and many were not close to peak fitness since they’re focused on the summer track season – but credit must go to the Japanese schools, which are very, very strong over longer distances. Komazawa is one of several loaded Japanese teams, with four runners at 28:14 or faster for 10k. Meiji University has 11 sub-14:00 guys for 5k (consider that Dartmouth has just seven in its entire history) and Toyo University has two guys sub-28:00 for 10k. These guys are good.

Check out this link for full results: http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp/2013/10/komazawa-university-smashes-izumo.html

And this one for the PRs of the runners in the race: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWeJS8yU-Y1XGJVJrUdwxrP_CUXM_ZcSm5-AgnLLrvyCzUy4lhlg9cDFRwyIBMTaLSbMf5oWVt9EusKAHGE4n5GUxK77C4RzTJqE0KMWoeIi0RndZHCHp7acG8HSt5HSh7fSuJP4-yXbs/s1600/%E3%83%92%E3%82%9A%E3%82%AF%E3%83%81%E3%83%A3+2.png

And this one for some photos I took: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.gault.5/media_set?set=a.10200483332585833.1073741825.1232820559&type=1

Neither Phil nor I had our best showing in the track 5k, but Tommy managed to put it together and PR in the process (14:26 for Tommy, 15:03 for me, 15:12 for Phil). However, we took solace in the fact that, after four years of training at Dartmouth, we had both managed to improve on our 5k times from high school. There was a big banquet that night at a winery and we enjoyed some fantastic Japanese barbecue in addition to the local sake. (Sidenote: could you imagine the NCAA sponsoring a post-race banquet at a winery where alcohol is served to athletes?) We were also given canned whale to sample; I liked it, while Phil gave it a mixed review. After the meal, we got up on stage to lead the attendees in a rendition of “YMCA” before taking tons of pictures with the other runners. As Americans, we were something of a novelty item and were in high demand. I managed to convince several runners that Dartmouth was No. 1, though their accents made it sound more like “Dart-mut.” We finished by heading out to a local bar, where we bonded with some businessmen over drinks.

October 15 was our final night in Japan, and we stayed in a hotel in downtown Tokyo to make the most of it. Because of Typhoon Wipha, it was pouring the entire night, but Brendan, Dan, Kyle and I bought umbrellas so that we could find a local noodle joint for dinner. We ended up finding the perfect place, and couldn’t stop smiling as we wolfed down massive portions of noodles and broth. Phil and the Princeton guys joined us afterwards (they stayed at the hotel and ate at an Indian restaurant. Why?) and we made our way through the storm to explore a little bit of the city. We couldn’t see much, but we did manage to fit in a round of darts and check out an arcade. You’d be surprised how many Japanese businessmen spend their nights playing arcade games in Tokyo.

We made the journey home on October 16. I knew that October 16 would be the longest day of my life (since we crossed the International Date Line on the way back, I was scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 8:25 a.m. on 10/16, two and a half hours before I departed), but even though the trip out had taken a long time, I thought the return would be manageable as long as I could stay awake. I had no idea what was in store for me.

First, our bus to the airport was cancelled due to the typhoon, leaving us to call a cab for the 40-mile ride to the airport. That would have been fine, except everyone else was on the roads due to the trains being shut down. Our 40-mile cab ride turned into a five-hour slog, including one impromptu bathroom break. There are few things more terrifying than rushing to find a place to relieve yourself on a busy road. I then struggled to reunite with the cab – when you add in the fact that I was in a foreign country, had no cell phone and had to catch a flight in a couple hours, it was as if I was living a nightmare. Somehow, we reunited and eventually made it to the airport.

Luckily for us, our flight was delayed, so we didn’t miss it. Unluckily for us, that delay lasted seven hours, six of which we spent sitting at the gate at Narita Airport. Two flights and 16 hours later, I arrived safely back in Syracuse for the final hours of a very, very long day.

I think I speak for Phil and everyone on the trip by thanking everyone who made it possible – the IUAU, Jack Fultz, Yoshi (didn’t get his last name), our guides/translators in Izumo, our gracious hosts in Japan, and everyone showed us kindness while we were there. It truly was an unforgettable experience, and to any current or future DXC runners reading this, I’d highly recommend you pursue the opportunity if possible. You won’t regret it.

-Jon Gault '13

Paul Short (Mall Cop): Big Green (Eggs) Goes Ham

Greetings runners, parents, fans, scholars. Silas Talbot ’15 here with the latest and greatest episode of The Men of Dartmouth. Superlatives aside, this will actually be a mere tribute to the best blog post ever written on this site because the original manuscript was lost in a routine maintenance check-up on my computer that culminated in a system reboot which cost me more than one unsaved document. As you are reading this post, I ask you to imagine words and phrases that not only impress you, but change the way you view Dartmouth running and thus life. Also I apologize on the rather late post, Steven has been dogging me all week to finish this, so here we go!

In the latest post on The Men of Dartmouth, the team was left licking our wounds from a bitter defeat against Syracuse at the Dartmouth Invite. After a tough three week training block, which included traditional workouts such as Skinripper, Grasse Road, and the workout formerly known as the Thetford fartlek, we really wanted to make a “bang!” at the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University.

In the past, this period has been the end of preseason, and the team has been able to focus solely on running workouts and three-hour lunches at Foco. Due to the scheduling change last year, however, this period now lands during the first several weeks of school, meaning lunches have been scaled back to two hours. As we are all student-athletes, we have had to balance schoolwork with a busy training schedule, but most of us have still been able to generously devote time to activities such as: watching movies with Silas, playing Nintendo with Silas, and going to late night Collis with Silas.

Anyways, after these three weeks, we were pretty fired up for Paul Short, as it is our first true race of the season and is a great opportunity to beat some fast teams. With a nine-man squad in the varsity race, many of us knew that we could run risky races in hopes of packing in as many guys in the top 30 as possible. With an unseasonably hot climate on race day, however, this all-or-nothing attitude led to some sizeable blow-ups.

Luckily, however, we managed to get enough good finishes with amazing results from Will Geoghegan ’14 in 3^rd and John Bleday ’14 in 7^th to round out a very strong front pack. Henry Sterling ’14 was in 25^th and I closely followed in 28^th. Curtis King ’16 rounded out the top 5 in 43^rd. These results yielded the best team result for the Dartmouth men at this meet, coming in 2^nd just 16 point behind nationally ranked Indiana and 4 points ahead of nationally ranked Georgetown. Also performing well in the Open race were freshmen Nathaniel Adams ’17 and Matt Herzig ’17, who finished back to back in 11^th and 12^th respectively. Bleday had to say on the matter, “The attitude of the team was exactly where it needed to be. People who needed to step up did so. Boom. You want more?” Dylan O’Sullivan ’15, who was also contacted, denied comment on the matter.

Somewhere around the mile. (Mangan photo)

Wet Willy! (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Johnner. (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Hurting and Hammering Hank. (Tim O'Dowd photo)

Yours truly, bringing it home. (Tim O'Dowd photo)

In all seriousness, this was a great early-season result for the team, and gives us the motivation to keep the ball rolling. This weekend was homecoming and the New England Championship at historic Franklin Park. I’m going to toss the pigskin to someone else on both of those, because Steve said I didn’t have to do anymore.

Silas Talbot ’15 over and out.

The Dartmouth College XC Invitational: The Revenge of the Willies

In yet another fascinating and nail-biting episode of Dartmouth Cross Country, the men's team found itself in that familiar place: the starting line of the Dartmouth Invite and our first big matchup of the xc season.  Providing a great deal of competition to open the DXC calendar was a strong contingent of Syracuse Orangemen.

The race also featured Collegiate record holder and multiple time NCAA champion Sam Chelanga as the top individual and Benjamin True, Saucony pro runner and Dartmouth alumnus, as official starter.  After some embarrassing difficulty with the starting gun, the race was off.  Star "middle-distance" runner Dylan O. immediately took to the heals of Chelanga, resulting in a quick first 2 miles as the pack was dragged behind them.

Just after the start. (Photo credit: Mom)

After descending Freshman Hill, the real racing started through Pine Park as the pack separated with Will, John, Dylan, and Timmy battling the Syracuse pack and the rest of us chasing.  After running, walking, and crawling up Ski Jump, we had ~2.5km of flat fairways to the finish.

Cresting Ski Jump. (Photo credit: Mom).

Will had another stellar Dartmouth Invite, beating everyone but Chelanga.  John, Dylan, Tim, and Brian had good races to round out our top 5, but unfortunately Syracuse was too strong up front for us, as they won 24-34.  Still, it was a solid opening performance for us and a great chance for the freshman to open up their collegiate careers.  Notable performances were Tim Gorman '16 and Brian Masterson '16 in our top-5 for the first time, as well as Matt Herzig '17 as the top freshman.

The Stache. (Photo credit: Mom).

Since the Invite, we've been getting through the tough workouts that you either love or hate: Grasse Road,  a tempo, and Skinripper this week.  Whether you do 4 or 5 [or 6] Skinrippers, it is bound to result in tears.  Two weekends from now we have our first big race, the Paul Short Invite at Lehigh University.  This will be a great chance for us to take down some nationally ranked teams and earn a few at-large points.  

Until next time,

Matt and Steve

Sallying Forth

The Dartmouth and Brown track teams returned to the U.S. on Sunday after a wonderful two weeks abroad. Despite a 4:30 a.m. departure time from the dorms at the University of London, we still almost ended up missing our flight to Dublin Sunday morning. Steeled with the reserve that had served us so well at all those HEPS championships, the athletes took it in stride and appeared relatively unfazed (the zombie-like state that accompanies a severe lack of sleep might also have had something to do with it…). The same cannot be said for the coaches, more than a few of whom were close to losing it as we rushed through Gatwick Airport and its futuristic eye-scanning technology. Everyone made it back to Boston present and accounted for, however, except for the estimable Kevin Cooper, who remained in his native Ireland. Miss ya, Coop! From Boston, the athletes shared some sad goodbyes as everyone went their separate ways: some to Hanover, some to Providence and some back home for the summer. For me, those goodbyes were particularly poignant as I have now graduated and won’t be seeing most of those guys for quite some time. Still, the memories I’ve shared – not only from an unforgettable two weeks in Europe, but from four fantastic years in Hanover – will make it that much sweeter when our paths do cross again.

When last I left you, we had just arrived at St. Mary’s University College in Twickenham, England. Tuesday started with a morning practice, during which some of the St. Mary’s athletes took us to Bushy Park for a run. Being a big football fan myself (real football), I decided to check out if the St. Mary’s guys were too. Their response was pretty typical, in retrospect: “Are you mad? We’re English, aren’t we?” Happy to find some fans of the beautiful game, fellow football nut Erik Berg and I spent the rest of the run talking about our favorite teams. After practice, most of the Dartmouth team participated in a game of handball – basically ultimate Frisbee with a volleyball – which I’m still bitter about losing (if only my team had switched fields more often…). We spent the afternoon getting some food supplies in Twickenham, which included a trip to Poundland, a place Will thought had missed out on a golden naming opportunity. We then put our meager football juggling skills on display outside the track and were promptly outclassed by every member of the St. Mary’s team. The juggling concluded with a couple games of S-P-O-T, where the penalty for losing saw the loser face a wall while the other players kicked the ball at him. Steve and Will ended up as literal sore losers, though it could have been a lot worse if we were more accurate. That night, Brown headed to an alumni reception in London, leaving Dartmouth to battle it out in trivia with the help of some St. Mary’s athletes. Henry and I gained some sweet revenge on Barry (who defeated us in Trivial Pursuit at the Grant in August), as Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog (also featuring assistant coach Scott Phelps) emerged victorious thanks to a dominating performance in the sports and Olympics rounds.

We spent Wednesday at the University of Oxford, and though most of the colleges charged admission to get in (what?), the parts of the university that we did visit, such as the Bodleian Library, were very impressive. We also enjoyed a nice nap under some trees, which would have been nicer if the German tourists next to us could have been a bit quieter. The highlight of the day was definitely the Iffley Road Track, where Roger Bannister became the first human to break 4:00 in the mile. We had dinner that night at a local fish and chips joint, where we got a lot of very good, very greasy food for not much money. My God, it was greasy. Steve was surprised that their whole chicken was just that – an actual whole chicken – and though he put up a valiant fight, he couldn’t quite finish all of it. We concluded the night by plowing through several episodes of Parks and Recreation, a familiar pastime on this trip.

At Iffley Rd. Track.

The similarities are striking

Thursday was race day, which saw some fantastic performances from the Dartmouth squad. Henry and I submitted modest performances in the 3000, as Henry held me off after I closed hard over the last 150m (Will says he’s never seen me move faster; Henry edged me by .03 seconds as we both ran 8:30). Silas stepped things up a notch by winning the 800 in 1:51.2 before Will capped the night with a 3:44.8 1500, a massive seven-second PR, and his second of the trip! We saw a couple PRs in the field events, too as the combined team of Dartmouth and Brown took its second win in two contests. Perhaps Barry should take us to a fish and chips restaurant before HEPS next year?

After the meet was over, we sallied forth to a reception where we got to hear a few words from St. Mary’s vice principal. More importantly, said vice principal was a Brighton fan, allowing me to prove to everyone that they do indeed exist outside of my family! The athletes reconvened shortly thereafter and headed out to a pub in Twickenham in a massive mob that gave everyone flashbacks to their freshman fall. Silas failed in his goal to limit himself to two pints in England and I decided that a shirt wasn’t necessary for the walk back home to the dorms. Back at St. Mary’s, a few of us decided to take one more lap around the track before closing the book on an exhausting day.

With two busfulls of tired, possibly hungover (okay, probably hungover) athletes, no one said much on the ride from St. Mary’s to the University of London the next day. After arriving at the dorms, we grabbed some food and headed to the Russell Square tube stop to journey to Olympic Park. Well apparently it costs money to go on the tube, and at £8 (and with a free day travelcard coming the next day courtesy of Barry), we decided to stay local and check out the British Museum. The building itself was magnificent, and many of the artifacts we saw on display were thousands of years old. Highlights there included the Rosetta Stone and sculptures from the Parthenon. Unfortunately, our visit was curtailed when the wave of tiredness that hit Silas (he slept in the dorms for four hours instead of coming to the museum) caught up to Steve and me. We decided to head home and thanks to some poor navigation on our part, ended up seeing more of the city than we intended to. Taking full advantage of the greatest city on the face of the Earth, we spent Friday night eating takeout at the dorms and watching more Parks and Recreation. 

Rosetta Stone

We began our final day in London at Olympic Park, where to our dismay, we couldn’t actually go in since everything was closed off. We still managed some pretty sweet views of the Olympic Stadium (site of Mo Farah’s double-gold last year, in case you forgot) from the shopping center across the street, but we left a little subdued. From there, I traveled to the suburbs to visit my relatives (not much to report there) while the rest of the boys took in some of the major attractions: Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, etc. After arriving back at Russell Square, I wasn’t sure how to reconnect with everybody, though I had a lingering suspicion that they might have gone to one of a few nearby restaurants for dinner. Scanning the windows of the local eateries with hawk-like precision, I suddenly found myself lost in a pair of brown eyes. After freeing myself from the magical stare of Will Geoghegan, I headed inside the aptly-named Burger and Shake (I should have known) and found the Dartmouth and Brown distance crews inside. We ended the night sampling a few beers and some famed Pimm’s (we couldn’t tell if the bartender actually put alcohol in those since they all tasted like Sprite) and reflecting on the past fortnight. 

Close enough.

Buckingham Palace

Overall, the trip was – to use my favorite word – awesome. I knew I would have a great time in Ireland and England with my friends, but it was a pleasure getting to meet so many incredible people from the other schools we competed with – especially the athletes from Brown, who I hope to see again at future HEPS. I’m sure the rest of the Dartmouth guys would say the same. Now it’s on to different things. Grad school for me, summer training for most of the boys. The last two weeks kinda made me forget that I won’t be coming back to Hanover in August, and that all our traditions will go on without me and the rest of the ’13s. I will miss the team terribly, but I know that DXC is in great hands behind the leadership of the Class of 2014.

Lest the old traditions fail…

-Jon

Ireland and England

Greetings from Twickenham, where I’m writing this entry at 10:30 p.m. because everything in town seems to close at 7:00 or earlier.
 

Last Monday night, 50 athletes from Dartmouth and Brown set out from Boston to Dublin. After a week in Ireland, we’re in London until Sunday, when we’ll head back across the Atlantic and go our separate ways. Today marked the halfway point of the trip and it’s been awesome so far, even if the weather hasn’t always cooperated.
 

I can’t speak for everyone, but the first day in Dublin was pretty hazy for me. After catching about one hour of sleep on the redeye over, we weren’t allowed to check into our hostel until the afternoon, so a tired group of athletes had several hours to kill exploring the city while simultaneously completing challenging tasks such as keeping our eyes open and standing on two feet. We ended up checking out a Viking exhibit at a local museum and visiting a cathedral before collapsing at the hostel for a nap before dinner. Silas, Will, Steve, Henry and I then went next door to sample one of Ireland’s many pubs. A couple of pints later, Steve was feeling sick after realizing they put butter in everything in Ireland and the rest of us were ready for the longest day of the trip to end. Even with the 10 underclassmen sharing a single room (Connor, Brett and I shared a senior “suite”), all the men seemed to sleep pretty well, though I was convinced the train outside our window was going to come crashing through the wall at least half a dozen times.

My, what strong Viking women they have in Ireland...

Distance boys in Christchurch, shortly before falling asleep in the pews.

Asleep in the pews.

Barry surprised us with a workout on Wednesday morning, which we ran at Phoenix Park, which is notable for a) bearing a monument to the Duke of Wellington, who, to my shock, was actually a Dubliner; b) hosting hundreds of deer (they seemed quite content to watch us run while they lounged about); c) being the site of two famous murders of British politicians in 1882 (perhaps better I didn’t find out about this until after the workout); and d) the site of an upcoming Killers concert (somewhat ironic now). We spent the rest of the day at the Guinness Storehouse, which offered a great panorama of Dublin, before checking out the city’s nightlife (hint: don’t wear shorts if you want to go out in Dublin). 

In the Guinness Storehouse.

On Thursday, we made the cross-country journey to Limerick (only a couple of hours by coach), where we were met with much friendlier confines than the cramped rooms of the hostel. The distance boys had a sick suite of their own, and once Will worked his magic to configure a wireless network, we were all set. That night, we had dinner with the Brown team, and after heading to the campus pub for a few pints, we all had several new friends (especially Will). We even discovered a new drink: the Local Fresh Special, a mix of blackcurrant juice and Guinness. Unfortunately, when I ordered it at the bar, I found out that this drink was merely a figure of Henry’s imagination as he, along with a Brown girl (or student-athlete from Brown, as they prefer to be called) had set me up as the victim of a merry prank. After a few funny looks, the bartender called over a young Irishwoman and tried to present her to me as the real Local Fresh Special. Thoroughly embarrassed, I returned to our table, tail between my legs.

Friday saw the karaoke debut of Barry Harwick ’77, and I’m sure that everyone in attendance would say that it was a positive experience and everything there. Rocking “Johnny B. Goode” in a slightly different manner than Chuck Berry and Marty McFly, Barry twisted and turned while “singing” the classic hit. He was probably outdone by Will, who sang “Summer Nights” with his new friend from Brown. Brett Gilson gave the strangest rendition of “Stayin’ Alive” I’ve ever heard and I “killed” it on Mr. Brightside before we turned things over to the DJ for a night of dancing. Despite an overreliance on “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” a good time was had by all.

The next day, we visited the Cliffs of Moher, taking in some amazing views along the way. It’s a good thing Matt Pierce wasn’t with us, because with all the geological features we encountered, he would probably still be there right now. We had a lot of fun staring at cows and being pelted by rain thrown at us by an extremely hard wind. Will even saw someone in a Rams jacket! Saturday night brought back memories of the spring trip, as we plowed through the third season of Game of Thrones while I munched on cheap cereal. We also downloaded the Speech Zapper app and had a good laugh as Silas and Henry struggled through an explanation of how to make their favorite potato dish. Hopefully they don’t end up developing any speech impediments…

Cliffs of Moher.  This place was awesome, even when it rained.

Great views.

We had our first competition of the trip on Sunday, and we all ran in the 1500. Sandbagger Steve was up to his old tricks, letting Brown’s Erik Berg (aka the Turkey Berger) set the pace before dropping him on the last lap for the win. Steve ended up running about 3:50, which, considering the rainy, windy conditions, abbreviated warm-up and toned-down recent training, was actually quite impressive. Will came across a second later for second (a PR!) with Silas, Berg, Henry and me following behind. I couldn’t quite crack the mythical 4-minute barrier (Barry had me at 4:01), but I did unleash my vaunted kick in what was almost certainly a sub-31 second final 200. We enjoyed a banquet last night and flew into London today, where we ate some overpriced Chinese food with the Brown guys (sorry, student-athletes from Brown).

Dartmouth guys chasing after some delicious Turkey Berger.

That’s about it for now. We’ve got a busy few days planned in London before heading home – hopefully I can convince the guys to like England as much as I do (unlikely).

I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice:

Don’t trust Silas;

Never trust Silas;

Don’t trust Silas because Silas won’t trust Steve.

Don't trust this man.

-Jonathan