FoPo a NoGo?

Hello all, Nick Martini here. Im sure my blogging skills won't compare to greats like Kevin, Potter, or Jacob, but i'm here so you'll just have to push through this subpar post. Yes, this is a very delayed blog post from myself, but I am finally blogging for my first time this season, and what better practice to blog about than our 40 minute adventure run through beautiful Forest Park?

 

 

During the school day, the weather outside was frightening; it almost seemed as if we wouldn't be able to participate in this now-traditional practice we have been waiting the whole season for. When T-Bone announced the possibility of the practice being cancelled during Dynasty Club moans and groan were heard from all ends of the school, quite possibily the first time in recorded history where we actually were sad of a practice cancellation. As the day went on, the weather started to clear up and we were ready to run the best practice ever.

 

 

Upon arriving, we met up with our coaches Tom and Mahood, whipped out our camera, and began the journey. For the runners who aren't familiar with this practice, we run for 40 minutes around Forest Park with a digital camera and find monuments and landmarks to pose next to; a great practice, indeed. We started with a few classics, namely the Jewel Box and the Zoo. We tried replicating the past year's picture poses (a la Muscle Man Matt), but also came up with new ones as well. Reluctantly, Mahood and Tom joined in on a few pictures as well which the experience that much more enjoyable. After a few memorable pictures on turtles, on an old jalopy, and through the infamous tunnel, we went to a new location: the boathouse. The initial idea was to get a picture of all of us on a few of the paddleboats, but Tom declinded with his most used word of the season: "Nope" Instead, we got a picture looking like hobos around a bonfire they had going. We decided to go on a new route to a previously unknown playground. On our way there Mike had a run-in with a squirrel, which is his nickname for the season for reasons I cannot even remember. The squirrel was surrounded by a few of our guys and started spinning in place, desperately looking for a way to escape certain death via trampling. Luckily Mike's bretheren handily escaped just as Mike was having a mini heart attack. After many strange looks, we headed back to the central fields after a disaoppointing discovery that we could not go onto the Muny's stage and seats When we arrived, the freshman were in the thick of their race. Coach Williams hasn't tweeted any official results, but Dolan had broken 19:00 and Jimmy Reed flew past the 18:00 barrier; nice work today boys.

 

 

Quote of the Day: "Nope"-Tom Albes

Darn near every time we suggested a picture idea, the famous words were spoken by our beloved Coach Tom. Although we were upset, we all knew deep down that he was just trying to be a good coach and not a buzzkill.

Joke of the Day: Sullivan's picture poses

If you look on The Milk Table's Facebook page, you may notice that Colin Sullivan's pose in almost every picture is the same: standing as straight and unemotional as humanly possible. I had no idea until the pictures were upload, and proceded to laugh heartily for seconds on end.

 

 

Well, that wraps up my first blog post. Any criticisms are greatly appreciated, especially ones from former bloggers.

 

 

-Nick Martini

MCC

Hello again and welcome back. This week was the conference race so I will do my best to update you on pre and post race information. Friday night I had the varsity guys and the coaches over for a team dinner. It was a lot of fun as we competed in an epic washers tournament in my backyard before dinner while tossing around a football and a frisbee. Our neighbor's fence broke in two places when unnamed people tried to hurtle the fence to retrieve the ball. Luckily, I was able to partially fix it with a bottle of wood glue. Hopefully, they won't notice because they already don't like my family.

After dinner we went down to the basement to play Nintendo 64. We decided to play 2 vs. 2 team battles with cross country style scoring. I started out with Plass as my teammate, but I quickly switched to Glenn as my teammate because Plass wasn't too great at Mario Kart. Glenn and I easily knocked off Patrick and Pribe in the semifinals to move into the finals vs. Nick and Matt. Sully had to take over for Glenn when he left. The final race was Rainbow Road with Matt making a late move to beat me and take first place. Sully fell of the track somehow and finished fourth so Matt and Nick won the tournament.

The next morning the varsity team raced early at 9am. It was great weather and our team ran quite well with a lot of perfect races. Nick finished first team-all conference (6th overall) with an awesome time of 16:49. Sully (2nd team) and Matt (2nd team) finished 9th and 10th. I came in right behind them in 11th with a 17:14. Glenn, Plassmeyer, and Austin (2nd team) also ran quite well and everyone medaled (top 20 finish). We finished 2nd as always but it was nice to beat a couple of SLUH's runners. Alex Potter took pictures with the new team camera. The album along with the other are posted on The Milk Table Facebook page. The new camera is awesome! We have a week off from racing before our big District race two weeks from now at Parkway Central.

Rim Rockin

Hello again and welcome back. This weekend we traveled out to RimRock for the annual race in Lawrence, Kansas. It was a blast as usual and we raced well, while sticking to the usual traditions. We started out Friday morning with a jog before school because we left right after school so that we could arrive to the hotel before nighttime. During school the varsity team got introduced at the fall pep rally as the crowd gave an especially big cheer for our young one, Austin Del Roso.

After school we packed up our things and got on the bus for the long car ride to Kansas. Our bus driver was definitely the best driver of my three RimRock trips. We never got lost once and he was speedy and avoided traffic. While snacking on Matt's ginormous box of fruit snacks along with our own candy and snacks the team got involved in an intense card game of 31. Glenn and Austin managed to make it to the finals as I witnessed them cheat the entire time from the back seat as I battled my Calculus homework. I prevailed and so did the two cheaters as MC became angry when he finally realized what was going on.

At the hotel I roomed with Matt. Nick and Austin decided to come and chill in our room before bedtime for an hour as we frantically searched the channels for a Harry Potter movie (its a tradition). Unfortunately we didn't find one but we settled on The Roast of Charlie Sheen, which was quite hilarious.

In the morning both Matt and my alarms didn't go off for some reason so Coach T had to call us on the land line to wake us up. I left my pillow at the hotel by accident as I rushed to get ready. It was my favorite pillow and I miss it a lot. Anyway, we were met at the race by esteemed alumni Jacob, Alex, Drew, and Matt's older brother Andrew. It was great to see them again because we always enjoy the alumni. During the race Nick finished first with a big PR of 16:55 and I also PRed, finishing 2nd with a 17:10. Matt and Sully were right behind me at 17:15 and Austin came in around 17:23. Good work boys!

After the race we took our picture on the big dirt pile. Its another tradition. We decided to go shirtless and race shorts so that we could look the same. The JV gathered at the bottom of the mound as the alumni took the pictures with Dr. Callahan's camera. Hopefully I can get some of those pictures to show you soon.

Quote of the Day:
"Dear Rim Rock, I win.
Sincerely, 16:55" Nick Martini

A Blast from the Past

I'm proud to announce that we have a special post today from our former Bulldog and enforcer, JC Madey. He is a great a runner and a great friend and I hope you enjoy this post as much as I did.
                                                                                                                                               
Although Im no longer a part of the De Smet Cross Country team anymore, I just wanted to say a few words.  These words come before one of the biggest races of the year…RIM ROCK.  And read all of it, I know its long…you have a lot of time to think in college.

I went on my longest run of my young college career (1 hour, 3 minutes).  Granted it wasn’t very long, I encountered a phrase that really hit home to me; a phrase that I believe I like to live by, and one that I did live by during cross country days

First my background: My nickname was the bulldog.  Who came up with it I don’t know, and honestly I don’t care.  The meaning behind it though is what counts.  I gave everything I had day in and day out.  Whether it was grueling tempos, a Bender 40 when it was nearly 95 degrees, or out there on race day, I gave it my all.  That’s what being a Bulldog was about for me.  I knew I wasn’t a talented runner based on my background (baseball….yeah I know I was the TEAM TOOL). When I started I was also out of shape, having never run more than 3 miles in my life at one point.  Even based on the sheer company of teammates I had (Abernathy, Seiler, Potter, Scherping, Matt O’Connor, Waller, Martini) and even those who came before me (Connor Callahan, Gibson, Lawder, Bender, Boyle) I knew it would be hard for me to compete, yet alone make a splash as a top 7 runner.

Going back to my run today, I found a war memorial, for all of those who have fought for this country, in both foreign and domestic wars. In the middle of this memorial lies a quote from Winston Churchill; a quote I believe I lived out“If you’re going through hell, keep going”.

I can’t count you all the times I wanted to stop doing the tempos, take a break on a 141 and back, or just quit running overall (in the beginning  of course).  The point being, I didn’t give up.  Not only this, but I pushed harder.  I knew I would never run a 16:00 5k, I knew I’d never run a 5:00 mile.  What I did know is that if I worked my butt off day in and day out, I could not only make a splash in the top 7, but I could be a top 5 runner.  That I did.  Granted I was only the 5th place runner most of the time, I knew I succeeded.  Saying that, I knew while holding this spot on the team, I had to work even harder.  Many people say that your team is only as good as its weakest link.  I was that last link many times.  It didn’t matter if I had to gruel out an extra mile, an extra set of strides, or my favorite, an extra workout session, I had to get “my moneys worth”

Now where does this tie into you runners currently on the team.  Well for some of you, it Rim Rock Weekend.  I remember last year’s race, and how John Waller went as hard as he could for as long as he could to push the pack and keeping us together (this earned him ROW honors).  This race marks a good test of where you are.  Are you good enough to compete in MCC, Districts, Sectionals, and State.  How far are you willing to push yourself through this race and the rest of the season to make sure your team get to Jefferson City? This is where you can experience that hell, and come through  with flying colors (cough cough…a Bulldog).

As for the rest of you, how far are you willing go to get to a varsity position.  As far as I know, Austin is a literal definition of a Bulldog….Soccer and Cross Country, IN THE SAME SEASON.  He goes through hell every day. But are you willing to take your tempos seriously to get better? Are you willing to take you long runs and recovery days as days to get better?

This is the point where you guys have to make this decision.  Are you all willing to put it on the line for each other for the betterment of the team?  Are you willing to put in that extra ounce of energy you didn’t think you had to get better as a runner?  I promise if you decide to work hard for the rest of the season, this team will achieve great things, from the freshmen to the seniors.  Strive to get better each day, one second at a time, and before you know it, you’ll have your opportunity to shine.  Push as hard as you can, and you’ll get much more right back.

Gentle, I challenge you to go through hell and back.  You don’t win a 110% award for taking it easy.  Challenge yourself, and great things will come.

Good luck at Rim Rock this weekend.  And good luck the rest of the way.

Sincerely

John C. Madey
Class of 2011
Bulldog

Our First 5K

Hello again and welcome back. I again have a lot to cover in a limited amount of time so I will try to touch on the finer points of the last two weeks. First of all I promised Tom that I would describe the dead deer so this will be explained once and then never mentioned again because it gives me the creepers just thinking about it. About a week and a half ago during our first Bender 40 of the year we came across a dead deer in the ditch on the side of Ladue Road. I smelled the deer from a good 200 yards away which was possibly one of the worst smells imaginable. Anyway, the head of the deer was stuffed up the sewer drain hole and the deer was laying on its back with all four of its legs hanging straight up in the air. There was a large hole in the stomach of the deer with a swarm of flies were going inside and out of the animal. It was quite disturbing.

On happier news Monday was our last tempo workout of the year with our workouts from now on switching to 5k pace. During a 6:20 morning practice Austin, Nick, Matt and I finished a 5 continuous mile workout in 29:30. It was pretty awesome as Coach Tom led us to a record pace for all of us. Hopefully that workout will pay dividends in the future as we were able to stay together for the entire workout. Nice work boys!

Thursday was our first 5k race of the year at our home course, Parkway Central. Without Austin, Nick led the back finishing first for De Smet with a 17:25. Collin Sullivan ran an impressive 17:31 beating Matt O'Connor and myself. I came in at 17:39 right in front of MC. Our spread between our number 1 through our number 5 runners was extremely small and hopefully that will help us as we move forward. The pack of Nick, Matt, and I were in good position for two miles, but then we ran out of gas during the final mile as I dropped from 15th to 30th. Don't worry we'll figure it out next week at RimRock. Hopefully Jacob and Potter (whom we saw at the football game) we be at the RimRock race next Saturday and I am very excited to see them again.  That's all for this week, thanks for reading and I'll make sure to try my best to update this weekly from now until the end of the season!

Labor Day

A lot happened this week so I will again make sure to touch again on the more important details. Wednesday was our first race of the season and we did not run very well in the 102 degree heat. Our new sophomore, Austin Del Rosso, was the exception, finishing 9th with a 10:32. Matt and I were able to crack the top 20 with finishes of 15th and 19th. I got dizzy halfway through and had trouble keeping my pace.  We ran well for one mile with Matt, Nick, Austin, and myself in the top 12 , but then our pack broke. We finished fourth to Marquette, Eureka, and Mehlville. That's all I'm going to say about this meet because we definitely didn't live up to our potential. Like I said, we lost to Mehlville.

However, we were able to respond on Friday morning's continuous tempo workout. Our pack of Nick, Matt, Austin, and myself  were able to stay together for five miles of continuous tempos, with a three minute break in between the third and fourth miles. We ran all five miles under 6 minutes and coach told us that we ran 17:32 pace for the first three miles. This showed myself that running is almost all mental concentration, so I hope that our good results in the tempo workout will continue over into our first 5k September 15th at Parkway Central. After school on Friday our practice was canceled because of an excessive heat warning. Our varsity team lifted weights and then Coach sent us home for a three day break over the Labor Day Weekend.

Final Notes:
1.)Nick, Matt, and myself were honored by receiving recruitment letters from Fontbonne University to run for them.

2.) My friend/log run partner/co-worker Claire Minnick finished an impressive 2nd in the girls varsity race.

3.) Today is Kevin Abernathy (Kabes) birthday. Happy birthday Kevin!

4.) Pictures were provided by Alex Potter.

Ready to Rock

Hey guys, welcome back! Its been a long and busy week for me so this is my first opportunity to blog this week. Our biggest new this week is that Austin Del Roso has decided to play soccer and run cross country. He's one of our best runners, if not our best runner so we are all very excited about his decision. Tuesday was the two mile time trial to decide which ten guys get to run varsity in our first meet next Wednesday. Austin won the race with an outstanding time of 10:34. Austin was followed by Matt (10:38), myself (10:39), and Nick (10:42.) Other varsity qualifiers include Sully, MC, Trunko, Husmann, Glenn, and possibly Potter. Anyway, it was about 96 degrees when we ran so I thought it was impressive performance for us.

Last Saturday was the annual pancake breakfast at Coach's house. Liz made some great pancakes including numbers with our individual places on the team, how clever! The lightning that day forced us to run sprints down the sidewalk covered strip mall in front of the Big River Running Store. It was quite an interesting run, and was my first practice ever in four years that was affected by lightning.

Today we headed over to the dreaded Conway Park for four miles of continuous tempos, with a 30 second break in between the second and third miles. Our group of Nick, Matt, Austin, and myself ran amazingly. I'm so proud of those guys. We worked really well together motivating each other through the hard workout. In the last mile, when Matt started to slow down, we showered him with encouragement to stay with us all the way to the finish. We ran 11:55 for  the first two miles and 11:40 for the second two. MC and Sully weren't far behind at 12:12 and 12:09. With that said, I'm pumped for our first meet this Wednesday at 4:45 at Fenton Park in the Nike Kickoff Two Mile Classic. I think we're going to kick some butt.

Before leaving for college, Jacob, Kevin, and Potter (HOF class of 2011) met with myself, Glenn, and Nick about blogging for the upcoming year. Although unfortunately I will not be posting everyday, I assure you readers that the blog is in capable hands and that we will continue through the cross country season. Stay tuned for posts from Glenn and Nick possibly. The alumni and my former teammates parted for college with firm handshakes and they gave us a digital camera for our blog this year. They will be missed for all their hard work on and off the cross country course!

Stay tuned for post meet updates and thanks for reading.