It Feels Good to Be Back

We've had a great first two days of practice as we get the XC season underway. I've seen many old friends and new faces alike. The preseason, in a weird way, is almost my favorite part of the season. There's no pressure; everyone is just getting back into shape or learning the ropes, depending on each runner's level of experience.

Despite the transition to Red Lion athletics, longtime Tall Oaks coach Paul Shirley is back, and we are thrilled to have him on board for another season. At the same time, Red Lion's coach, Nikki Pizzulli, is still with the team as well. I had heard nothing but good things about her leading up to the season, and I myself have nothing but good things to say about her as we start the season. She is clearly experienced and knows what we need to be doing, and I have no doubt she will work well alongside Coach Shirley this season.

Message received, Mike. We won't let you down this season.
(Photo: Noah Pfenninger ('17))

It has been hot these past few days. But really, even though school starts next week, we're technically still in the middle third of "summer" judging by the calendar seasons, so should we expect anything different? To all our new runners, I promise you, it will cool off. Every degree of heat makes a difference in how hard the human body can push itself.

I also want to thank former Red Lion XC great Michael Collins ('16) for his kind note yesterday. I already sent out a short message via Instagram, Facebook, and Google+, but I wanted to include something about it here in case you have not gotten a chance to see it yet.

I am looking forward to a great season. More to come.

P. S. The sixth and final Laws Series 5K is tonight. Joshua Deitrich ('19) and I were the only runners even considering attending the race; however, we decided it was more important to benefit the team by attending practice instead (Coach Shirley vetoed any attempts to do "The Double"). Given that my "non"-review was basically pointless and did not receive very many page hits, I will not be writing any posts about the final race in the series. Instead, I can only be thankful for your support during the summer runs and for those runners who came out and did the runs with me.

P. P. S. To all my teammates: if you want to contribute to this blog, I have no problem with that. Just let me know and I'll send you an invitation to do so.

Howard M. Laws Summer Cross Country 5K Series: Race 5 ("Non"-review)

The fifth Laws 5K race was held yesterday evening, meaning the reader might expect OTLXC to do a traditional review of the race, reveal how each runner fared, etc. But for once, OTLXC is doing something a bit different: a "non"-review, because no notable TOCS or RLCA runners, to our knowledge, were at the race due to various circumstances.

That concludes this "non"-review. We will resume our traditional reviews with the season finale of the Laws Series in two weeks.