Best moments ever…
Posted by Ethan Barron on Monday, September 14th, 2009
I apologize for the absence of anything coming out of the men’s xc/track & field office lately. We definitely hit the ground running once we touched down from Rwanda. Freshmen arrived, team came back from camp, Alumni Run, Trinity Invite, classes started up. It has been a great 2 weeks, but somewhat of a blur. This morning, I was speaking with one of the Child Development professors and she drew the great analogy of spinning plates. Sometimes it does feel that way. The hectic start to the year is like getting all your plates up and spinning. It’s a little easier to just keep them spinning once they’re going strong.
It has really been a great start to the year so far. It’s hard to put my finger on any exact reason why, but the team as a whole has great energy about it this year. There is a feeling of potential and capability without the added weight of needing to make it happen right now. When you start to get a little weighed down by the “I need to make this happen right now” way of thinking than you stop enjoying the process.
It is easily my top goal this year to enjoy the entire process of the seasons. From Day 1 in September to Day ?? in May, I expect to have a great time. And I get the feeling that the team does too. Everyone is just having an amazing time with running, training, etc. Sure they’re working hard, but it doesn’t really feel like hard ‘work’ when you’re enjoying yourself.
I’ve been spending some time thinking about the evolution of each team over the years and I tried to sit down and think of my Top 5 most positive memories of being a coach. This was a mind-blowingly difficult task. I still haven’t finished it yet. I hope to wrap it up soon because it’s a lot of fun and I’d like to share it. Interestingly, very few of my best memories of coaching actually have anything to do with track and most of them didn’t even happen at practice or a meet. Realizing that, helped keep everything in perspective for me.
Although, it got me thinking about what the best memory of being an athlete was for a lot of students/alum. Did it have to do with a race, a meet, a practice or was it a team dinner, watching a friend, something non-athletic? I’m interested. If any of you are comfortable sharing, I’d love to hear about some of your most prized moments of being a part of the program. Thanks in advance to those who share.
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Bromkaon 14 Sep 2009 at 10:36 pm 15. The really rainy day at grafton where we almost got washed away, improvised the loop and generally just played running hard for an afternoon.
4. Playing whiffleball with the Men’s and womens teams together before classes started senior year. Great feeling of being together.
3. Jumping in the pond in the east fells with a huge group of guys on a fall Sunday run. So perfect.
2. Winning Connie his first XC nescac title. He gave us a speech in the huddle before we got on the bus to leave for home where he got choked up. We did it for him.
1. Driving over the overpass on the highway in wisconsin to arrive at Eau Claire and seeing the first glimpse of the TU flag and the crazies waiting on the side of the road to welcome us to the national meet. My most proud moment of being a jumbo.
McNamaraon 15 Sep 2009 at 4:51 am 2I won’t rank these, but these stand out for me:
- ECACs XC 2003 - didn’t even race but have never been more proud of a team. Depth on display.
- Being willed around the track by 40 rabid teammates - DMR NESCACs 2003.
- Regionals and Nationals in XC each fall. Seeing and hearing the crazies out on the course is so inspiring.
- Triple Crown competition (the non-running kind) after XC seasons. It’s in it’s 9th year!
- The feeling after Sunday runs in October - nothing beats the drained feeling in your legs after a good race/long run weekend as you shuffle up to Dewick with your best friends.
Pete Rodrigueson 17 Sep 2009 at 7:56 am 3Gotta say some of my best memories of Tufts XC/TF have nothing to do with racing.
- Sitting shotgun next to Connie for the 7 hour drive to Pre-Nats at Dickinson in 1998. That conversation ran the range of human existence.
- Watching various members of the office staff try to break in to Connie’s old office (at the front of cousins) through the ceiling so they could do recruiting and other office chores [which would always include a rich and rod fight]
- Hosting a pre-frosh (beener, henn) and then having them matriculate. Then promptly being beaten by said frosh as soon as they were members of the team. [And now, trying to convince my high school guys that Tufts is the place for them]
- Lining up (for any race, really) at Qualifiers, hudled in a group of 7 focusing, joking, getting ready to make a national meet. And having Beener repeatedly utter the mantra for the day of “Bhutros Bhurtros Ghali”
- With Ash Weaver, jogging around the new indoor track while holding the ashes of Jumbo.
Laceyon 17 Sep 2009 at 3:19 pm 4I could easily make a list of top 5 racing related memories and then top 5 other memories, but these 5 are the best combo of it all
5. Freshman year indoor All New Englands…running an all freshman DMR friday night then coming back and running 4×800 the next day. It was the first time I’d ever raced back to back days, and they were two relays to be proud of. It is crazy how many details I remember from this weekend so many years and races later
4. Logan Airport run with Hog, summer 2004. Everyone said it couldn’t be done, so we brought a digital camera to prove it. Getting to the airport was only the beginning of the story which was highlighted by splitting a can of mountain dew from a soda machine outside the science museum with the money I brought for the T in case we couldn’t make it (they were sold out of everything else). We finished at 55 liberty in time to watch the second half of the Athens Olympic Marathon and Deena Castor’s bronze medal.
3. Living in a triple with Doran and Cummings in a room that wasn’t really supposed to be a dorm room, and triple bunking our beds for the entire year, even after Cummings concussed himself falling off the top bunk in the first month. Everything about that year was fun except for when they would play Halo and shout instructions to each other across my desk, which was between them.
2. All New England cross country senior year when it poured rain the entire day. Cresting bear-cage hill the second time and coming down the stretch right with the lead pack, which included one of my best friends from high school.
1. Penn Relays/NESCAC weekend spring 2005. 15k of some of my best racing, an insane travel schedule, and then to top it all off a great “first date” back in Boston on Sunday
JRagson 07 Oct 2009 at 2:25 pm 5I can’t pass up an opportunity to add my two cents after a list of legends like the ones seen above. I’ve barely been around long enough to get a taste for this program, but I’ve had my share of amazing moments.
5) Going hunting at BU - This always reminds me of the quote from Running with the Buffaloes: “We work everyday, and when we go to town, we tie up the horse, spit on the dog, and we leave without a word” When we roll up to BU, we go to town. We’ve put in the time, and now we are methodical and calculating in exacting our payment. I always loved that attitude the distance guys brought to BU meets. Shut up, run an unbelievable time, and get back to work tomorrow morning.
4) Sorensen winning the DMR at DIII New Englands indoors - That race turned the tides and just about sealed the deal for us to take home the hardware on our own turf. I don’t think I’ve ever screamed that loud in my whole life.
3) JB getting choked up after NESCACs - I had just finished a not-so-stellar leg on the DMR to end the meet, and JB took his opportunity to address the team for the last time in his career. As he thanked us and congratulated us for giving the team everything we had for the last 4 years, he broke down in tears, and so did I. I realized I didn’t want to win for me, I wanted to win for the seniors. I would have done anything for the opportunity to hand him the NESCAC plaque.
2) DMR indoor NE’s 09 - Anchoring the DMR at indoor New Englands sophomore year was the first time I realized that I had become a leader on the track. A year prior, I watched Sorensen win us the relay, and now the team and coaches were looking for me to bring home the same result (which we did, thanks to Melnick’s 800 leg).
1) XC Regionals 07 - To this day, I will never know why this was one of the most emotional moments of my life. I had the honor of being 8th man for us, so I was spiking up, but not to race. The whole week leading up, we knew we were ready to put on a performance we had not yet shown in the regular season. Staying loose and doing strides at the starting line, I was unbelievable overcome by a potent mix of excitement to see what would happen, pride in how hard we worked to get where we were as fit as we were, and utter confidence in our mental and physical preparedness. Looking into everyones eyes, it was so obvious we were ready to make some noise. We didn’t win the race, but we heard our favorite phrase, “Where the f–k did Tufts come from?”