The Pride of Attleboro

I decided the Bishop Feehan girls XC team needed their own story.

Lincoln-Sudbury and Newton South are justly celebrated for their outstanding XC programs and the monumental rivalry between the two programs over the years, but the Feehan girls triumphed over both on Saturday, winning the Northeast regional Championships of the Nike Team Nationals.

'Rocks' top runners in Northeast

The Feehan girls, state champs in Mass. D2, have yet to lose a meet -- any meet - this year.

On Saturday, the Shamrocks, or 'Rocks', were led by Viviana Hanley's 6th place finish (19:15), and placed five runners in the top 50. That was good for 114 points, seven points better than LaSalle, and sixty points ahead of Lincoln-Sudbury.

Coach Bob L'homme said, "We don't really have that superstar... It just goes to show you that it really is a team sport."

Massachusetts XC Runners at H.S. Regionals

Shrewsbury's John Murray (#452) in a dual meet earlier this season

He was 3rd at the CMASS championships in Gardner on Nov. 16th, then 13th at the State Meet in Northfield five days later, running 16:46. Good performances, surely, but honestly who could have predicted that Shrewsbury junior John Murray would run 16:11 on the windy and challenging course at Sunken Meadows and take 10th in the Footlocker Northeast Regional meet. (The meet was moved from its traditional venue in the Bronx due to construction at Van Cortland Park.) His amazing and unexpected performance earned Murray a trip to the National Finals in San Diego and was the biggest surprise yesterday among Massachusetts runner competing at NXN regionals and Footlocker Northeast Regionals.

On the girls side at Sunken Meadow, Mass State runner-up Carolyn Stocker of Westfield finished in the agonizing position of 11th, missing a trip to San Diego by one spot. Groveland's Alanna Poretta was also close, finishing 15th. After her 8th-place finish at the All-State meet last Saturday, Newton North's Margo Gillis placed 48th, running 20:27. These results were all in the Championship race. In the Junior Girls race, Weymouth's Jill Corcoran placed 2nd in 20:36. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she played soccer all fall.

Footlocker Northeast Regionals - Web Site with Results

Meanwhile in Wappinger Falls, NY, the Bowdoin Park course was the site of the Nike Team Nationals Regional qualifying meets for the NY and New England regions. The Mass. State Champs, Mansfield (running as the Mansfield Turtles for some reason), placed 9th, with State champ Patrick McGowan placing 11th. Brookline H.S. placed 15th, led by sophomore Chernet Sisay's 17:14. Interestingly for those of us who follow the private schools, Sisay was not the top soph from Massachusetts in the race, that place being occupied by the Bancroft School's Sam Fujimori, who ran 17:08.

Top individual from Mass. was Westborough's Byron Jones in 7th (16:12), who passed about 15 people in the second half of the race and was closing in on one of the top five qualifying spots for the nationals.

In the girls championship race, Lincoln-Sudbury's Andrea Keklak (8th, 19:18) and Kathy O'Keefe (10th, 19:22) were top finishers from Mass., leading their teams to 6th and 7th place team finishes.

EDIT: I can't believe in my first version of this post that I neglected to mention the Bishop Feehan girls team (running as the Rocks TC), who merely WON the girls championship race to qualify for the National Finals in Portland, Oregon. Congratulations to the Mass. D2 and Northeast regional champions!

NXN New England Regionals - Results

Barringer at NCAAs: Did That Really Happen?

Monday, Nov 23 was the first day of my vacation, and I watched the NCAA Div I Cross-Country Championships live, with a computer nearby to supplement the dreadful coverage on the Versus network.

In spite of the nitwit commentators and lengthy commercial breaks in the middle of the races, it was a pretty exciting meet. By now I'm sure everyone knows that Liberty's Sam Chelanga dominated the men's race, that Stanford bombed despite a strong 3rd-place finish from Chris Derrick, that Coach Blackburn's alma mater, Villanova, won the women's race, and that prohibitive women's favorite Jenny Barringer suffered a mid-race mental breakdown and struggled home in 163rd place.

Watching Barringer self-destruct was surreal. I kept asking myself, "is this really happening?" From her post-race interviews, it seems that she was asking herself the same thing. Predictably, some have bashed her for her catastrophic mental lapse, while others have risen to her defense, citing her courage in a) finishing the race, and b) being so willing to talk about it afterwards.

I don't think I fall into either one of those camps. For me, too much analysis from the outside doesn't help me grasp the reality of it any more clearly. I feel a certain amount of sympathy for any runner who has a psychological problem severe enough to interfere with their ability to do what they have trained for years to do. But at the same time, trying to explain it away doesn't seem right either. It happened. The reality is that until the next race, Barringer will be the runner with the Olympic resume and American Records who fell apart in the middle of a race that we all expected she would win easily.

As a coach, I keep wondering whether Barringer's race might serve as a kind of illustration of the importance of being in the right place mentally for a race. I'm not sure how many runners will relate to her experience, though. She had sky-high expectations for herself, but by her own admission had a lot of other important high-stress things going on in her life -- an engagement, application to Law School, and who knows what else. Obviously, Barringer is a strong-willed, over-achieving person as well as a great runner, any maybe she was just trying to do too much.

Some journalists have placed Barringer's collapse into context by citing feet-of-clay moments of other great runners -- Keninisa Bekele dropping out of the World XC race, Jim Ryun stepping off the track in a mile race, Suzy Favor-Hamilton collapsing in a 1500. They might have added the example of Fernando Mamede, the 10K world record holder who stepped off the track during the Olympic final in 1984. Great runners are not without their insecurities. Most of the time, they overcome those insecurities and perform like gods, but not always.

Running is such a simple sport, and yet it depends on the human psyche, which contains its mysterious dead-ends and dark corners. As a fan of the sport, I hope that Jenny Barringer gets back to a place where running can be simple again. It's tough -- shocking, actually -- too watch a strong runner suddenly go slack from the mental strain of trying to meet all of her self-imposed expectations.

NNHS Alumni etc. Results - 11/26/09

Turkey Trots have become as much a Thanksgiving tradition as turkey, it seems, and with college kids home from break there were there were numerous opportunities for racing yesterday. Being a vegetarian myself, I didn't partake from the menu of 5Ks, 10Ks, and 4-Milers in and around the Boston area, but there were plenty of NNHS and NSRP alumni out on the roads.

In Brighton, almost 1200 runners came out for the Boston Volvo Village 5K. Dan Chebot finished 5th in 16:17, and more importantly, took top honors in the Chebot family competition, ahead of Ben (17:02) and Jesse (19:16), not to mention Alan (22:36) and Terri (28:30). Seb Putzeys (14th, 17:01) had to use his famous kick to hold off Ben. Noah Jampol was not far behind, running 17:36. I also noticed Tom Davis is the results at 17:55, but I suspect either that's not THE Tom Davis, or he was pacing Jen Davis, who finished in the same time.

In Somerville, more than 2200 runners gathered in Davis Square for the Gobble, Gobble, Gobble Run. This 4-mile race has become quite a competitive affair, and it was impressive to see two NSRP regulars in the top ten. Tyler Andrews (a product of that running factory, Concord Academy) placed 4th in 21:14, and won his age group. Terry McNatt (a product of Wisconsin via MIT) was 9th in 21:32, and was second master. NNHS alum John Blouin was not far back, running 22:37 for 19th.

Liz Natale to be Inducted into NNHS Hall of Fame

Liz Natale, a 1982 graduate of Newton North and perhaps the most accomplished female distance runner in Newton history, will be inducted into the Newton North/Newton High Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies this Friday, Nov. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Needham Hotel in Needham.

Thanks to Josh Seeherman for the following summary of Ms. Natale's H.S. and post-H.S. accomplishments:

Prior to her senior year at NNHS, Natale was several times a runner-up in Class A and State mile and two-mile races. As a sophomore, she ran 10:59 to take second in the outdoor state two-mile.

As a senior, Natale won the indoor and outdoor Class A titles in the mile, running 4:56.8 and 4:55.3, respectively. After her H.S. indoor season, Natale won the open New England championship, running 4:52, and then ran a 10:31.8 in the Eastern States Championship at Harvard, still a Newton record.

After graduation from NNHS, Natale ran first at Tennessee and then at Texas. At Texas, she was a six-time All-American in indoor track, outdoor track, and cross-country. In cross-country, she finished as high as 5th in the NCAA championship meet. In indoor track, she finished 3rd and 4th in the 3000m indoors, and was NCAA runner-up in the 3000 outdoors. At her indoor conference meet in 1986, she won both the mile (4:50.94) and two-mile (10:05.31). Her all-time bests include times of 4:15.68 for 1500 (still a Texas record), 9:01.34 for 3000, and 15:55.9 for 5000m. She also ran on the 4x800 relay team that ran 8:27.90, a record that still stands 23 years later.

2009 Mass. All-States

After last week's rain and mud for the EMass meet, the weather could hardly have been nicer for the All-State meet at Northfield.

Bay State teams and runners acquitted themselves well on the mountain. In the D1 Girls race, Newton North's Margo Gillis was the top finisher from the BSL, placing 8th in 19:42 (41 seconds behind Lincoln'Sudbury's Andrea Keklak who won her first individual state title). Other BSL runners competing as individuals included:

29. Katina Russell, Needham 20:21
38. Courtney Shea, Walpole 20:32
52. Molly Barker, Weymouth 21:04
73. Sarah Bowhill, Framingham 21:33

Meanwhile, Wellesley, in their first run at D1 and led by Priyanka Fouda (27th) and Jessie Kaliski (28th), placed 10th as team.

In D2, Milton placed three runners in the top 30, led by Mairead Kiernan (12th, 20:07) to earn 3rd place.

The last time the state meet was held at Northfield, a runner from Mansfield won the state title in what was considered a bit of an upset. Yesterday Mansfield's Patrick McGowan did what Ryan Collins did in 2006, winning the individual title in 16:06, leading the Hornets (133 points) to the team title.

Brookline finished third in the team standings with 153 points. I think it's interesting to note that Brookline's top six (or top 7) scored fewer points than any other team, attesting to the Warriors' depth. Other BSL runners in the race included Weymouth's Steve Solowin (15th, 16:53) and Wellesley's John Williamson (49th, 17:30).

In Boys D2, Arleigh McRae won the individual title, and favorite Pembroke put five runners in the top 25 (four of them underclassmen) to easily win the team title.

Doug Brecher in Globe West Article

Thanks to my Western-suburb-dwelling training partner Terry to this article in the Globe West Sports Section highlighting Doug Brecher's accomplishments this season.

Brecher Finishes With Late Season Flair

"The Newton North High graduate was named the New England Small College Athletic Conference’s runner of the week in men’s cross-country for his 26:48 clocking at the ECAC meet, and he earned his second All-New England honor with his career-best finish at the NCAA event, running the 8K course in 26:10.14 in a field of 323."

Mind Over Mountain

Every three years, the runners of Eastern and Central Mass (well some of them) trek out to the boonies to run the State Meet at Northfield Mountain. For teams with expectations of qualifying for the state meet and doing well there, preparation for that race can begin months ahead of time, usually in the early days of September.

I know that was the case for the Newton North girls the year I was assistant there. We began doing hill repeats (up AND down) with the idea of preparing for the terrain at Northfield. In October, we traveled to the Bay State Invitational at Northfield, but only some of our runners competed. The rest ran sections of the course for a workout.

It was all for nought, however, as we finished sixth at EMass and didn't qualify for the trip out to the mountain.

Is such preparation necessary? Well, if you think it is or if you think it isn't, you're probably right. The course is challenging, of course, but isn't -- or shouldn't be -- so intimidating that you psyche yourself out before you even start up that big hill. I've said before that I think what makes racing at Northfield challenging is the unusual sensation of considerable hill-induced fatigue quite early in the race. If a runner can handle that sensation, and not get too upset by it, there's no reason to think it will ruin their race.

Personally, I ran exactly one race at Northfield, and actually it was a 10K -- two loops of something similar to the current course. It was quite some time ago when the USATF-NE decided to hold the New England Cross Country Championships there. It was hard, sure, but it was great footing, wide trails, and a lot of fun, I thought.

I had the advantage of having no pre-conceptions about running the mountain, so I didn't feel like there was any reason to get psyched out. It might have helped to do some preparation, but maybe it was just as well that I didn't worry too much about it. Just another race, and every race is hard. That's what we're prepared for, right?

You Might As Well Jump

For many years, Tom Derderian, Greater Boston Track Club Coach and author of a history of the Boston Marathon, used to end most of our conversations with a farewell and a cheerful warning. "Take Care of Your Bones!" he would say, as we parted.

That seemed like really good advice, but how, exactly, was I supposed to take care of my bones? Drink more mile? Run on grass and trails? Avoid falling down stairs?

Recently the New York Times tackled the question of what exercises are (and aren't) associated with good bone health.

The Best Exercises for Healthy Bones

According to the article, there is still considerable uncertainty about what exercises help promote bone density, and what exercises and activities can have the opposite effect:

"...scientists actually seem to be becoming less certain about how exercise affects bone. Until fairly recently, many thought that the pounding or impact that you get from running, for instance, deformed the bone slightly. It bowed in response to the forces moving up the leg from the ground, stretching the various bone cells and forcing them to adapt, usually by adding cells, which made the bone denser... But many scientists now think that that process doesn’t apply to bones."

The article goes on to make a surprising suggestion that should be welcome news for anyone who does plyometrics on a regular basis:

"...the current state-of-the-science message about exercise and bone building may be that, silly as it sounds, the best exercise is to simply jump up and down, for as long as the downstairs neighbor will tolerate.." assuming, of course, that your bones are healthy to begin with.

Of course, there's the rub. The exercises that promote bone density may also be the ones that are more stressful, and therefore are more risky when over-used.

NNHS Alumni etc. Results - 11/15/09

Three former teammates from Newton North competed in different regional cross country championships on Saturday.

Doug Brecher, running in his final cross-country race for Bates, finished 27th in the DIII New England Regionals in Cumberland, Maine, earning all-region honors. Doug's time was 26:11 for the 8K course.

After eight H.S. races, Franklin Park hosted the D1 New England Regionals, and David Polgar competed for BU. David finished 163rd, running 35:04 for a very muddy 10K.

Meanwhile, Chris Barnicle competed for New Mexico in the Mountain D1 Regionals, placing 13th with a time of 30:45. New Mexico finished third in the meet, and earned an at-large bid to the National Championships.

One other NCAA result of note:

Brookline grad and NSRP stalwart Mike Burnstein (Washington Univ.) led his team to a 3rd-place finish at the DIII Midwest Regionals, placing 16th in 24:53.

On a completely different note, I was scanning the results of the Newton Half-Marathon, held Sunday, Nov 15th, and came across a familiar name. Scott Zeller (NNHS '04) finished 9th in 1:23:46. Scott was a talented runner, who had a PR of 4:36 in the mile while running only indoor track (he played tennis in the Spring). It's good to see he's running again!

A Sea of Mud at Franklin Park

There was a glut of cross-country racing yesterday, with the EMASS H.S. Championships, and NCAA DI and DIII Regionals. I was in Groton with Concord Academy at the NEPSTA Championships, so I couldn't witness first-hand the mud-fest at Franklin Park.

Luckily, Henry Finch stayed out all day an captured hundreds of photos from the high school races in the morning and the NCAA New England DI Regional in the afternoon. You can see his photos here.

It was the kind of day that those who race will remember for a long, long time -- a battle with the elements that can make you swear off cross-country forever or get you hooked for life.

In the D1 races, Newton North had two individual qualifiers for next week's State Meet at Northfield Mountain. Margo Gillis finished 2nd to Sudbury's Andrea Keklak in the D1 Girls race, running 19:44 to Keklak's 19:26. As a team, Newton North finished a very strong 11th.

 11.   307  NEWTON NORTH                 (  22:39  1:53:14)
===========================================
  1      2  Margo Gillis                      19:44
  2     59  Jaya Tripathi                     22:53
  3     73  Devika Banerjee                   23:08
  4     75  Susannah Gleason                  23:14
  5     98  Rebecca Traynor                   24:15
  6   (105) Shoshana Kruskal                  24:29
  7   (108) Melissa Weikart                   24:34

In the Boys D1 race, Dan Ranti finished 18th overall in 17:29 to qualify for the State Championship meet. The top ten individuals NOT on qualifying teams qualify as individuals. North's Jake Gleason was the 15th individual, missing the qualifying standard by less than ten seconds. Here's another Henry Finch picture of Jake just before the two-mile mark:



The Newton North boys finished 12th in the team standings.

 12.   313  NEWTON NORTH                 (  18:16  1:31:16)
===========================================
  1     18  Dan Ranti                         17:29
  2     33  Jake Gleason                      17:47
  3     46  Ezra Lichtman                     17:59
  4    101  Mike Weinfeld                     18:53
  5    115  Mike Goldenberg                   19:08
  6   (116) Sam Fogel                         19:08
  7   (140) Justin Keefe                      19:27

NNHS Alumni Results - 10/31-11/1/09

Chris Barnicle placed 4th in the Mountain West Conference championships, held Saturday in Orem, Utah, as his New Mexico team won the men's team title over 7th-ranked BYU. Chris blitzed the course in 23:51.

Boston University senior David Polgar was third man for the Terriers at the America East conference meet, running 26:57 for 28th.

On Sunday, Doug Brecher returned to racing after battling an infection for several weeks, running the NESCAC championships and placing 44th in 27:58. Newton South alum Andrew Wortham was 68th in 28:28.

Noah Jampol ran in the unseeded race at the Centennial Conference championships, held on a muddy course at Gettysburg College. Noah placed 30th in 31:38. Johns Hopikins teammate Alex Long (Newton South) was 33rd in 31:44.

Josh Seeherman ran in the Pacific Association USATF XC championships this past weekend. He writes:

"4.25 miles, good dirt footing and one large 280' hill... Among open men I was 60th out of 76, and ran 26:08 or 6:09 pace. I had a bit left due to unfamiliarity of the course, but nevertheless - good grief the Top 12 were under 22 minutes..."

Meb the Champion

It was 2004.

After years in the doldrums, U.S. male distance running was beginning to show signs of life. But when it came to marathons, it seemed hard to believe that any American could stand on the podium, let alone win, a major marathon against the best in the world. Kenyans seemed to have a permanent franchise on the Boston Marathon, and Americans were a rare sight among the top ten in any big race.

The 2000 Olympics, for example, had been something of a low-water mark, as the U.S. sent only one entrant to the marathon, Rod De Haven, and he finished 69th.

And then, four years later in Athens, Meb Keflezighi won the Silver medal. It was as if he lighted a lamp for U.S. runners and lifted it up and said, "Believe!" Of course it was not just Meb; there were lots of runners who had begun to believe that maybe we just needed to accept the challenge, work harder, care more. But it was Meb who crossed the line in Athens in second place, and made it all real. Later that year, he would finish second again in the New York City Marathon.

The word "champion" can mean the winner, but it comes from the Medieval latin word for warrior, and it also means one who does battle for another's honor.

Three years later at the U.S. Olympic Trials in New York, Meb seemed like a former champion. He struggled through the race with an undiagnosed stress fracture in his hip and finished 8th, six minuted behind Ryan Hall. On this nightmare day, he also lost his friend Ryan Shay, who collapsed and died at the five mile mark of the race.

The injury almost ended Meb's career, but he made a comeback in 2009. Leading up to New York, here's what LetsRun.com had to say about his chances:

"Meb is 34 and his marathon PR is 2:09:21 on a flat course. Meb's prep half may have been faster than Hall's but Hall's was a tactical affair. And in my book, despite Meb's Olympic silver, Hall is a better marathoner than Meb (Meb's silver says to me that he may be a better hot weather marathoner). So if they both have good days, expect Hall to be the top American, but it would be nice to see a resurgent Meb mix things up."

On Sunday, against perhaps the strongest NYC Marathon field ever assembled -- a field that included five men who had run 2:06:17 or better -- Meb endured all the surges, and then broke Robert Cheruiyot in Central Park. He won in a personal best 2:09:15. In the final stages of the race, he pointed to the USA on his singlet to remind everyone that he was running for his country, as well as for his friend and for himself. It was his first ever victory in a marathon, and the first victory by an American man in New York since 1982. Behind Meb, Hall finished fourth, with Americans taking six of the top ten spots.

On Sunday, Meb became a champion as the winner of the race. In truth, he was our champion all along.