RE: SOCON

I had the priviledge of racing at Navy this weekend. Rain all morning before the 11:00 start, along with rain and high winds all during the race provided less than optimal conditions. More than half of the course was under water (aka a big puddle) and the other half was slick mud. Not to mention the fact that it's a tough dry course (numerous hills, including one dubbed "Big Bertha" that is climbed twice). Anyways, times would have been much faster had the conditions been a little better. Hope that helps for your pointless debate.

The report on the Clemson course.

I arrived at the Clemson course on a rainy Saturday morning. After a brisk warm-up and strides the gun went off. I followed the runners into 20-30mph winds for the first mile all flat, but about 1-2 feet deep in mud. The next mile was down hill on stairs, so everyone was slowing down so they didn't trip. The third mile is on what the call devil's bridge, it’s a bridge going over Clemson’s lake. It is 1.1 miles long and is a 10% incline the whole way. Just seeing this bridge makes you want to soil yourself. I know I did. I was in the top 10 at this time when all of a sudden right before we got to the bridge a man wearing a keg like a camelbak still in orange warm-ups went flying by me. I was later told that, that man was the one, Itay Magidi, an 8:36 steepler, who had started two minutes back of everyone. I knew that name sounded familiar so after translating Itay Magidi from Hebrew to English I found out the runners real name is Jason Rexing. Once I got onto the bridge my ankle was grabbed by one of the many trolls that live under the bridge. So I had to do high knees for the whole 1.1 mile uphill bridge so the trolls did not eat me. The 4th mile was a downhill mile and believe me after the troll bridge I needed a down hill, but to my surprise Iraqi militants had set up bunkers and were shooting at us. At this time a young SoCon runner by the name of Adam Puett directly in front of me was beheaded by a soldier. He then bravely picked up his head and carried it the rest of the race to the finish. The 4th mile wouldn't have been so bad, but the constant diving and rolling to dodge bullets added some time and tired you out a bit. Next was the final stage of the race a flat path and a turn to the finish. But because of flooding we had to waddle a half mile to get to that path. When I finally finished I was very happy I had run close to my PR, and it was nice to see they were sewing Puett's head back on. Put it was very disheartening still to see Itay Magidi (aka Rexing) still running around with the keg on his back and in warm ups picking up teammates while fighting the Iraqi soldiers. That young man just has some energy, and to do this all in trainers, all I can say is wow. With all things considering I'd say the course ran about 5-7 minutes slow. Hope this helps out with things.

bump

No one mentioned the 75 degree change in weather over the coursse of the race at Clemson. Started at 36 degrees (uncommonly cold for this time of year), but rose quickly to well over 110 by the forth mile. Flies were dropping like people. Steam was being sucked from the 3 foot puddles like my last girlfriend from App used to suck beer straight though me from under the bar stool. Clemson definitely had home field advantage in such conditions. Simply unfair of them I think. Really no explaination for the strange weather variance except some major experiment on cow flatulence and methane gas in the adjacent fields. In fact, though I was delirious with fatigue, shrapnel wounds, thoughts of never experiencing my App babe again, and a terrible phobia of trolls (it's a Dora-thing), I swear I saw flying bovine being shot through the air and fired upon like clay pigeons. It's pretty surreal now that I regained consciousness and can reflect from my private hospital bed. I believe Puett is down the hall and should be released after one more visit with the ear, nose and throat doctor. He should experience full recovery and continue the season as WCU first man. Oh, I ran a personal best even though that was the hardest race and course I have seen in my 12 years of college running.

sounds like the last two long posts are from the same person....sounds like that person is bored and thinks they are funnier than they really are....

We're not the same person, but we are probably funnier than we really are. I'm a little bored, but can't speak for the other guy. Our posts are long though... well again, I can't speak for the other guy.

You're still gay.

Happy I am to be through that turmoil at Clemson. I think I have post traumatic stress disorder now. I might get a medical hardship and a 13th year of eligibility. I'll still be younger than most of my teammates though, so I'm not embarassed. Okay, I was a little embarassed during my sponge bath in the hospital when I got a semi... you shuold've seen the nurses face... he was more embarassed than me. Now he was gay.

Sounds like some people are trying to explain why their times are not very impressive compared to the Navy meet's results, given Annapolis's horrible conditions... it's okay, just try to do a little better next time (that means you, UNC-G and WCU)

Looks like most people who were in the top 10 at Navy last year actually ran faster this year.

http://www.navysports.com/sports/mxcountry/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=14905

Here are more past year's results.

http://www.navysports.com/sports/mxcountry/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=13822

http://www.navysports.com/sports/mxcountry/release.asp?RELEASE_ID=13840

Doesn't really look like the Navy course was so RIDICULOUSLY slow this year.

Also, it didn't seem like the "funny" guy was trying to make times from Clemson seem better. Rather, it seemed to be poor attempts at a satirical view of the guy on here making Navy seem like the hardest course in the world.

Who cares about any of these early meets. Most of the teams will be at Furman in 2 weeks and will give a good idea of what will happen at conference. Just insert UTC and UNCG into the results and you can see where everyone stacks up. Shut up and run.

Any idea of what teams will and will not be at the Furman meet? I'm guessing UTC and UNCG won't be from your message. Anybody else opting out?

I think it is going to be a close battle for 3rd place this year between Furman, UNCG, and WCU. All three of these teams seem to have 1 good front runner and a bunch of decent 2-7 guys. It seems to me that most of these 2-7 guys are pretty young at that. Usually younger runners tend to get much better as the season progresses, so we will see how the story unfolds in a month or so.

I agree with you recover. It seems like it is going to come down to a matter of who has the best/most depth out of these three teams. Of course, if it is close I would give the call to Furman running on the home course.

FYI, last year's conditions were very comparable with it being very wet and muddy. Also, isn't it usually the case that people improve their times as years progress?? Just a thought..

Yea, I do agree that everyone improves their time through out the year, but younger runners who have never run to many 8ks before can make dramatic diffrences. I doubt you will see Johnson, Puett, and Jacobs, make as big as jumps as the 3-7 guys. I do agree that Furman is going to have a bit of the upper hand with the home course advantage. I am surpised that UNCG is not going to run at pre-confrence, that will be a good time to see how to race the rolling hills of Furmans golf course.

UNCG did not run the pre-conference meet last year either. Don't only about half of the teams in the conference actually show up for that meet each year?

yeah, and they finished 7'th at socon

are you saying you think they will be 7th again this year because they aren't running the presocon race?