coleiolio wrote:
Sub 6:00 :
This is a side question, but how did you like Wayne? I talked to the coaches this fall but ultimately decided to go the D3 route as it seemed the best fit.
It was ages ago (2006), so I don’t know how relevant my experience was. I grew up just outside Detroit and worked a summer parks and rec job throughout college with 4 guys on the team (running before work). I liked the coach at the time, and they were pretty consistently top 10 in D2. (Three of those parks guys have had pretty good high school coaching careers, and the other worked himself down to a 2:17.) When I finished undergrad without a job lined-up, I bumped into the coach at a wedding, he had some scholarship left over, and it got my M.A. started. It was a good team, good people, with cohesion and a sense of purpose.
I didn’t have a great season and am not a cross country specialist (undergrad didn’t have cross; Wayne didn’t have track), but it was a good experience. I started the season top 1-2, but faded quite a bit and also had some injury trouble and was 6-7 by nationals.
Running in Detroit was fine, although there weren’t a whole lot of runners in those neighborhoods back then! That part of the city has changed tremendously since 2006. Definitely more of a commuter school, but with 30,000+ students they were building more of an on-campus life and that’s expanded since. Only took a handful of classes so I can’t say too much about the academic side.