Men’s Cross Country Team

Joining the cross country team was a very tough decision to make, but as the season draws to a close, I without a doubt don’t regret whatsoever.  In high school I ran spring track for three seasons, but I always enjoyed running three or four miles on the treadmill during the off season.  This got me interested in running cross country during college.  However, I was conflicted because I wanted to run but practice and meets would take serious amounts of time away from my school work.  I was very clear with myself that I needed to prioritize grades and professional development in college, and I couldn’t let running get in the way of that.  After much debate I decided to join because running was a stress reliever for me and I felt it would be not only healthy for me, but a great way to meet people and bond as a team.  Practice was twice a day, six days a week for approximately 2 hours each.  The first daily practice, always in the first half of the day, was a speed workout aimed at improving our kick.  These typically involved interval sets, sometimes with hills mixed in and sometimes with longer distances, that went from fast to easy and vice versa.  The second daily workout was always an endurance run at Central Park.  At the first night practice we ran an 8k (4.99 miles) and every practice from then on increased by 1k.  The last endurance run I ran for practice was 18.6 miles.  Let me tell you something: there is nothing more thought provoking than running through a poorly lit section of Central Park in Harlem.  For meets, our race is an 8k over semi-hilly terrain.  In every meet the top five runners from each team, based on the meet results, score for the team.  So far I’m competing for that fifth spot with two other guys and I hope to obtain it at the coming championship and push the team to victory.  The course we run the most, and the course for the CUNY Championship, is the cross country trail at Van Cortland Park.  Overall, I’ve loved my time on the cross country team because it really did help me relieve stress and meet like-minded freshman.