This past weekend, I headed back to my old school, for the annual varsity-alumni cross country meet. For several years I had quite an attendance streak going. It helped that I was never more than a couple of hours away. Now I miss more alumni meets than I make.
As I get chronologically and geographically further away from Swarthmore, I need more incentive to attend. This year, my contemporaries and I started discussing the meet a few months in advance. A few of us actually made it this year.
Traditionally, the meet has been held the weekend after Labor Day. Catching the varsity this early in the season is the only chance we old farts have of competing. The week or two difference may not sound like much, but those younguns whip themselves into shape pretty quickly. It would not have mattered this year. The varsity seems quite good, while the alumni turnout was small and for the most part slow.
Not wanting to drive the entire way from home to Swarthmore before the race, I spent the night before at my parents house in Staten Island. This left me some 2:30 to drive on race day. Kay, Claudia and I got to Swarthmore at around 11:00, plenty of time for the noon start.
Previously, the course had always started and finished on the track, but as race time drew near, I saw no signs of anything going on. In the field house, there were no course maps, or signs pointing me anywhere. I'd seen a couple of fellow alumni runners, so I couldn't have the date wrong. At around 11:45, someone said something about the course starting in Cunningham Field. I didn't know Cunningham field, but headed off in the direction it had to be.
I continued to reverse follow some chalk arrows past the field I had theorized to be Cunningham. Finally I crossed State Route 320. What?! OK, so Cunningham field is the Field Hockey Field. For some reason, they are starting the race in this outpost. Everyone was already lined up when I got to the start. The alumni runners were putting their hands in a circle to do a cheer. However whimsical the cheer, I don't do that. I avoided it for four years of college, I'm not going to start now.
Usually, the alumni meet is just a family affair, but this year the team is also running against Lebanon Valley, Allentown and Muhlenberg. Swell.
Collegiate cross country runners always go out too fast, but what can I do? I don't want to lose contact, so I go out at the tail end of the pack. There are a few speedy alumni runners near the front, and straggling alumni runners behind. I'm in no contact with an alum the entire race.
We start off with two loops of the Field Hockey Field. By the second loop, I'm passing a few current Swarthmore runners. Now it's time for the bizarre crossing of 320. The borough police took this crossing seriously, and began blocking traffic as soon as the race began.
We do a grass loop in front of the library, followed by a road section past the dining hall, and back down to the field house. In trail runs and cross country races, I am accustomed to having better speed than most runners around me, so I make up ground on the smooth paved sections. Guess what; these collegians are faster than I am, and leave me on the easy parts.
Next we do a large loop around the soccer fields. Grass is not one of my favorite running surfaces, and this course is little but grass. While I was a student at Swarthmore, things were different. We had as challenging a cross country course as you would find anywhere. It was rocky and hilly, with enough grass and road to allow the field to spread out, and just enough danger to earn the name cross country. Those were different times, before every town had a Home Depot, and every college a major Performing Arts Center. Now we run clement country.
After the soccer field we take the gravel road down towards Crum Creek. Are we really going to run a trail section? Nope just a brief grass section through Crum Meadow. Back up the gravel road, we do the library loop again, though I don't remember how we got there. Then it's back past the dining hall, and back to the soccer field.
Now here's a surprise. We run the soccer field in the opposite direction as last time. The course marshall didn't think to tell me, but she told the two runners that were trailing me by some five meters. As I corrected myself, and passed her I gave a nasty "Thanks a lot!". She said she didn't realize I was in the race. More than seven kilometers into an eight kilometer race, how could someone not know I was in the race? What was the salt crust and pained expression on my face?
Oh well, I've still got some running to do. I catch the two runners, pass the Swarthmore runner, but not the Lebanon Valley runner. I'm guessing the Swarthmore runner took it easy on me. The Lebanon Valley runner looked strong and fast. I'm guessing he's an 800 meter runner, getting himself in shape for his real event.
Afterwards I cool off a bit, goofing around with my friend Chris, and Claudia. Chris didn't run today. It was partly due to a toenail he bent playing floor hockey, but mostly due to the fact that he imagines himself a lardass. We started talking to a young varsity runner who stated he hadn't remembered how tough that gravel Crum hill was. This was too good an opening to pass up. Chris offers, while we were here we ran up The Moose, not once but twice! After carefully explaining where this distant rocky hill was, I added that the course ran even further up The Moose back when Mike Dukakis was a Swarthmore harrier. Ah the naivetÈ of youth. This child asked us if we were teammates of Dukakis's.
After a shower, we headed to the post race festivities. I still haven't seen race results. I have a fear, that sluggish as I was I snuck into the alumni top five. My teammate Mike would have been proud.
Steven Cangemi
Back to Annandale
The results have finally been posted on the web, and my fears have been confirmed. I was the fifth finisher for the alumni. Sad.