by John Nepolitan
Subject: World XC diary
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 8:38 AM
I have always wanted to do this - write a diary type report from
a major
meet - so here it goes.
I am not sure when it happened, but XC has become my favorite
sport. There
are 2 events I now look forward to every year - the NCAA Division
1 Champs
and now for the 2nd year in a row the IAAF World XC Champs. Every
distance
running fan should get to at least one NCAA XC Championship meet.
You see a
race with thousands of other fans (yes, I mean thousands) That never
disappoints.
As for the IAAF World XC Champs - I guess it helps if you have
a boss who
allows you to take an extra day off - even though this is only the
3rd
Championships I have been to, I am planning on making this an annual
trip if
at all possible. In Dublin last year I was able to pull off the
trip only
missing 1 day of work - leave Friday night and go directly to the
race site
once I landed. Sure it made for a long day, but I was so excited
to be
there it did not matter. Then go to the races on Sunday - which
still
leaves time to enjoy where you are and fly home on Monday so that
you only
miss one day. During this time of year flights are cheap to Europe
so a
fast jump over the Atlantic is possible. This year I was able to
get an
extra day off so I left on Thursday evening which will give me an
extra day
to play tourist.
Going back to my original thought, I am not sure when I first fell
in love
with XC. It was not during high school that is for sure. I was an
average
HS 800 - miler so XC was just discomfort over a longer period of
time. I
guess it was when I started coaching that I found it was a sport
that any
school should be able to have some measure of success in. All that
you need
is a few kids who are willing to work. And XC is more of a team
sport than
track if you ask me, but it is more than that. XC is pure. Times
for the
most part mean nothing, it is all about competition with so many
different
factors involved - type of course, weather, mix of runners on the
line, just
to name a few. Don't even try to compare it to or say road racing
is the
same thing - if you say that then you just don't get it.
So with all that said, over the next few days I will be sending
in not only
race reports, but other little things about the trip that make travel
like
this fun. So as I finish this first report I say - GET YOURSELF
TO AN NCAA
XC CHAMPS(2003 in Cedar Falls, Iowa-N. Iowa Univ) AND/OR WORLD XC
CHAMPS(2004 Brussels - very doable) sometime in your life, you will
not
regret it. I take off for lausanne tomorrow night(Thurs) and cannot
wait.
From: "John Nepolitan" <[email protected]>
World Cross Country Championships
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