All My Friends are Runners: Dually Noted

Chapter 4: Dually Noted

I have a love-hate relationship with the concept of dual meets. Dual meets give everyone on the team an opportunity to race, unlike extravagant and expensive invitationals. It’s a simple race, usually in familiar territory with familiar faces and reasonably sized fields. When you are still finding yourself in the sport, they are perfect. But once you get to be an established varsity guy, some of the novelty wears off. You are racing all sorts of random courses that feature sidewalks or backyards and you’re never quite sure if it’s a 5k[1]. My freshman year at Cheltenham I broke 19 minutes when I was still trying to crack the 20-minute barrier. That course was about 2.9 miles.

Our Coach, Paul Vandegrift, was not a big fan of dual meets. For my first two years of school we technically had a home course, but we had no idea where it even went. In fact, my freshman year we were racing Methacton and Upper Moreland at a tri meet (or double dual meet if you will, but I won’t) at our home course. Essentially our entire top 7 got disqualified for going the wrong way on the course. Our top guy, Joe Dorris, was winning the race before he got on the track, went the wrong way and had to double back about 300m[2]. Amazingly, we still won the meet by a point[3].

The one thing I do enjoy about dual meets is the rivalry. When you are racing a good team and not simply coasting by with a workout (most of my dual meets Junior and Senior year), things can get really exciting. Our rival was Wissahickon, a school so close by that we actually did a ton of training runs on their home course. Wissahickon had crushed us the previous year and the older guys did not like them one bit.

In 2005, Wissahickon had qualified for the state championships out of district one. They gave everything they had at the state meet and were leading the team title competition during the early stages of the race. Ultimately, they couldn’t quite hang on, but they did finish 3^rd at the state championships. A better day from 800m stand out Jordan Hill and they would have been the state champs rather than West Chester East[4].

In 2006 we traveled to Wissahickon’s home course with hopes of revenge. We knew we were going to have our hands full dealing with Edward “Teddy” Miller and Nick Crits, two excellent runners returning from the previous year’s state squad. However, we felt like we had the depth through seven guys to get the victory. Wissahickon must have known that as well. At the start of the race, Miller and Crits shot off with #3 man Scott Kern, taking things out very hard in hopes of breaking away from our pack.  They were hoping to steal the top three spots and clinch a victory.

In a typical Cross Country meet, the top five runners are considered “scorers” and the sixth and seventh runners are considered “displacers”[5]. The meet is scored by taking the total place of each team’s top five runners (i.e. second place is “two points”) and the lowest score wins. The 6^th and 7^th runners can displace another team’s runners, therefore increasing that team’s score. In an invitational meet, there are usually dozens of teams competing, so it’s not always easy to see a clear winner. However, in a dual meet, because there are only two teams and fourteen places on the line, the points are very easy to see. Thus, we know if one team takes the top three spots in a dual meet, it is mathematically impossible for them to lose the meet (assuming their 4^th and 5^th runners finish the race)[6].

So needless to say there was a lot of pressure on our front runner, Joe Dorris, to beat one of those top Wissahickon guys. To the excitement of us JV guys watching the race, Joe came through, finishing 2^nd, and the pack behind him did their job. It took a hard effort from seven guys, but we got the highly coveted dual meet victory over our nemeses.

When you have rivalries like this … I guess dual meets are OK.

….

I most enjoyed the final two races of my first season of cross country: Suburbans and Districts. I always found it interesting to have all the different runners you saw in dual meets thrown together in one big invitational. All those guys that you just barely edged out or that just edged out you would be back and revenge and rivalry could be renewed[7].

2006 was the last year we had our league championships separate from the other Suburban One teams. We raced at Ursinus College, a reasonably hilly course that I really liked but, unfortunately, only competed at once. 2006 was also the last year that there were three races at conferences: the varsity race, the junior varsity race and … the freshman race.

As my teammates constantly reminded us, Upper Dublin had a winning streak going in the freshman race. Paul Reilly and Derek Cruice had won each of the previous seasons and, since I had been our top freshman during all of the races this season, it was up to me to carry on the tradition. No pressure.

The four of us freshmen lined up against a small field of other freshmen who, like us, were entering their first race where they had a realistic chance of placing high. I knew one of the best freshmen that I had seen, Jimmy Stevenson from Methacton, would be running in the Varsity race and there would probably be additional talented runners in similar situations on other squads. That gave me some hope.

It’s important to remember that often times nerves get the best of runners. Especially young runners. Especially young runners with blue eyes and glasses. And in that race, as you probably have guess by now, nerves got the best …. of Jack Mao. The first 200m Jack sprinted out to the front of the race, a bold move considering he had been last on the team in his previous races and had chosen not to compete in most invitationals. He pulled me with him[8] and when he died off after that first stretch, I found myself suddenly in first place, leading a race for the first time in my brief high school running career.

I have found this rare experience of leading a race (and trust me the emphasis here is on rare) to be one of the most exhilarating experiences in the sport. When you see things open up and charge to the front there is a brief moment where all the pain is lifted off you and a rush of adrenaline takes over.

It hit me hard that day and the rush was instantaneous. The crowd cheering and the vivid image of me crossing the finish line and continuing our freshman race tradition spurred me through a nice down-hill and up towards the mile. We went through the mile and I heard the split: 5:58. Well, that was a bit of a snap back to reality. Considering just a couple months ago, I considered breaking six minutes in the mile a matter of life or death (literally), this came as a bit of a shock.

You can imagine how things went from here. I got passed up the next hill, fought valiantly to keep the lead and the love of the crowd, spent too much energy and fell to sixth over the course of the race. Although I didn’t win, that race will hold a special place in my heart. It may have been just some silly freshman race, but I got my first ever taste of victory. Even if it was just a sample-spoon-full[9], it was the initial exposure that would eventually turn me into an addict.

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[1] If I didn’t know it was a 5k, I couldn’t accept it as a PR. Seeing as I never measured any courses, I feel like I should have a hard time justifying any cross country PR ever.

[2] Not that it mattered that much. Like I said, he was already disqualified.

[3] I think Sam Kaiser, who was basically a non-factor in the varsity equation for his whole career, ended up providing the key displacement. Pretty cool moment.

[4] WC East won the title 104 to 105 over Craig Miller’s Manheim Township squad. Wissahickon finished with 137 and beat out Coatesville, the heavy favorites going into the race. East and Wissahickon took 3^rd and 4^th at Districts but turned the table on younger squads Coatesville and Henderson (1^st and 2^nd at districts) at states. I wasn’t around for this, but I gotta imagine it was one of the wildest championship meets in recent history.

[5] Admittedly, there’s gotta be a better word than displacers

[6] No, I was not pushing my glasses up my face during the typing of this sentence, but admittedly, that’s the kind of phrase you would say right before you push your glasses up your face

[7] Sean McAnay of Upper Moreland ended up probably being the best of my rivals. It’s eerie how close we were each cross country race. Also shout out to Luca Merone who is equally likely to be not reading this.

[8] Should I have mindlessly followed Jack Mao out at suicide pace? No, certainly not. But when you’re a freshman and somebody you know you’re better than takes it out, there’s a pride thing that takes over. Maybe hubris is the better word? Or maybe stupidity? Whatever it is, I had it then and I basically still have it now.

[9] You know like, when you got to Rita’s and want to try a flavor and they give you a really small spoon with a little bit of water ice on it? That was how much winning I got to taste. And no this probably won’t be the last Rita’s Water Ice reference you get.