We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. – Jesse Owens.
How did you get your start in cross-country?
I joined the Brockton High (MA) Cross Country Team my junior year to help with my fitness for the upcoming basketball season, a team I had played on in the 10th grade. Also, the new Cross Country Coach, Harry Allen, was the Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach and I thought, if I showed him I had a good work ethic, it might help my chances of making the varsity squad instead of the JV Team.
Tell me about that first race?
Other than being apprehensive and excited, I don’t remember anything noteworthy about my first race. I had to look in my scrapbook to check the opponent and the results. My first race, held on September 20, 1965, was a dual meet against Brookline High School where I placed 5th, 3rd Brockton finisher. My first ever distance workout was August 15, so I had 35 days of training under my belt.
What surprised you about the second race?
My second ever competition, a dual meet against Durfee High School, was only 3 days after my first race and was our first home meet. Nothing sticks out about the race, as once again, I was the 3rd Brockton finisher placing 3rd overall. Prior to racing cross country, I played team sports, baseball, football and basketball. I believe playing these team sports made me extremely competitive and that competitiveness carried over to my cross country race efforts. I was constantly learning pace, race strategy, etc., but I believe my early success was more about a drive to succeed.
The race I do remember most that first season was the Catholic Memorial Invitational which was the 7th race of the year and the first non dual meet with 23 teams in the race. I had never experienced racing over 150 runners at one time. The gun went off and I sprinted across the big grass field at a pace that was much too fast for my fitness. I ended up stopping and walking 3 times the 2nd half the race and when I reached the finish line completely exhausted, I asked myself , “why am I doing this” and I thought about never racing again. I guess the mind does not have a long memory because I went for a training run the following day like nothing negative had ever happened.
Please describe your training (progression) for the season.
Unfortunately, 25 years ago, when I moved to my current house, I trashed my high school training log – what a mistake because I currently support my high school cross country team discussing my high school training and racing experiences. M weekly training mileage ranged from 28-40 miles a week. Training with teammate, Ed Norris, who won the Class A (big schools) Massachusetts State Cross Country Championship that year, the pace was always very fast (sometimes sub 6 pace). For the most part, the team trained on our home cross country course in D.W. Field’s Park. Sometimes we did a workout where we ran single file on the race course and the last person would speed up to take the lead for a period of time.
Our course, which was on the roads, was adjacent to a golf course and one of the holes had a steep long hill called tower hill. I used to go tobogganing down it in the winter. We sometimes ran sprints up this long steep hill. The first time I did repeat sprints up the hill my calf muscle cramped. When we got back to the locker room, I was told to take salt pills. Sometimes when we trained from our locker room, we ran up the street about a mile and a half and did a fartlek type workout sprinting every other side street, as we progressed back towards the school.
On one of those workouts, I got bit by a dog causing a big hole in my baggy cotton sweatpants. I got a piece of white athletic tape, wrote “dog bite” on it and attached it to my sweats.
Our high school cross country races were 2.5 miles or less and the furthest I ran in training was 6 miles. One factor that affected training was we raced a lot. One stretch, we raced 8 times in 22 days and for the year had a total of 14 races in just over 8 weeks . Almost every week, we raced twice every 3 days and once we had 4 races in 8 days. As a result, we raced ourselves into shape, more than anything else. I never ran more than once a day. This low mileage, high intensity pace worked, as the following year the team tied for the MA State Championship and won the New England Team Title and I won the MA State Class A Championship and the New England Championship.
What do you consider your greatest XC performance?
In high school, I would say it was my entire senior season. In less than fifteen months of running distance, I went undefeated winning all 14 races that included the prestigious Catholic Memorial Invitational held on the state meet course in Franklin Park, the League Meet, the MA State Class A Championship and the New England Championship. To this day, I am still puzzled about how this could possibly have happened after being so new to the sport?
In addition to winning the New England High School Cross Country Championship, I also won the New England Collegiate Cross Country Championship breaking the meet record held by Art Dulong. In the past 110 years, only 3 other runners have ever won both the New England High School and New England Collegiate Cross Country Championships. My senior years in both high school and college, I went undefeated in New England winning a total of 21 races.
Favorite race or venue?
Located about a half mile from my house, my favorite venue was my high school home cross country course run all on the roads in D.W. Field’s Park. After a flat two tenths of a mile, one had to run up a steep hill (Tower Hill) for about two tenths of a mile, after which the course was a gradual downhill with some flat for about 2 miles around a lake which brought you back to once again run the same steep up hill and then to the finish line about 50 yards past the top of the hill.
Being a very good uphill runner, I used the hill to my advantage usually reaching the top first. It was a very scenic course with the lake always to the left and for the most part was tree lined the entire course. When I lived at home during high school and the summers while in college, about 90% of my training was in this park that also included dirt trails.
Any XC memories you care to share?
One of my UMass Teammates, Leo Duarte, was from Martha’s Vineyard Island which is located about 7 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. His family owned a second house on the Island in Vineyard Haven, just up the road from the Ferry Terminal. For two weeks prior to start of the cross country season my junior and senior years, the UMass team had a training camp here. We attached a big sign on the front of the house that read UMass Cross Country. One day a couple walking by came over and said, “We go to UMass. Are you traveling across the country?”
We had wall to wall mattresses, went food shopping as a group, and took turns cooking meals for the group. We trained twice a day on the roads or the beaches and even did sprints up the famous gay head sand cliffs. One morning, we did a six mile out and back run on the beach. Prior to our turnaround, we saw a large number of people up ahead. When we reached this section of the beach, we encountered a nudist colony. We figured out the location of this group and drove back later that day and joined in.
Which brings up my final question, which just came to me, how important is the team aspect of XC?
I recently wrote a Facebook post saying cross country is life.
Much of what I wrote pertained to the team aspect of cross country.
CROSS COUNTRY IS LIFE
My Alma Mater, Brockton High, recently opened their cross country season at the Martha’s Vineyard Invitational on Martha’s Vineyard Island which is located about 7 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. The teams had to take a ferry to get to the Island. In Coach John Fidalgo’s race recap, he wrote that it was the first time many of the athletes had ever taken a ferry. This got me thinking about the many benefits of being a member of a cross country team and it goes far beyond lacing up your shoes and running a race.
Cross Country teaches teamwork, camaraderie, discipline, dedication, motivation, planning, hard work, time management, confidence, following directions, goal setting, competition, taking risks, mental toughness, overcoming injuries, dealing with failure and success, etc., etc. etc.
Hats off to Brockton Coaches John Fidalgo, Cliff Canavan and Bret Gormley for teaching life’s lessons to their teams every day. Your guidance is making a significant difference in so many lives.
