Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

November 26, 2013

Have I mentioned how much I (sometimes) love technology? It has given us access to so much of the world that exists outside of our tiny spheres of everyday life; because I have basically grown up alongside it, I cannot imagine a world in which there was no internet and no instant communication. I can’t imagine a world in which we would not have been able to watch our team through the live-stream coverage of the NCAA D2 Men’s Cross Country National Championships in Spokane, Washington, from the "comfort" of Cedarville. Special thanks to Jasmin "Nemo’s Fiancee" Banachowski for allowing our teams to crash in her apartment and watch the race together... and we’re sorry for the mess.

How did we do? Well, our team was ranked 17th coming into the race, two spots behind our pre-season ranking of 15th. I’m in no position to tell you how our guys felt during the race, but at the end of the day, we reclaimed our pre-season position with a 15th place overall finish; not quite we had hoped for, but that is still 15th in the NATION. Not too shabby. Congratulations to Matt "Brooker" Brooker for placing 28th overall, becoming the first Yellow Jacket to ever receive NCAA "All-America" honors. It may not have been the race that he wanted to have, but he has still made Cedarville history. Our top five was rounded out by Joe "Nemo" Niemiec who finished 85th overall, Ben "Tuts" Tuttle who finished 119th overall, Clay "Swat" Watson who finished 139th overall, and Neil "Schniel" Klinger who finished 140th overall. Five guys in the top 150 of D2. Again, not the race that we had hoped to have, but still very, very impressive.

And that’s it. Cross country is over for all of us. The emotions that some of us struggled with last weekend, others struggled with this weekend, perhaps even more. The finality of this race is probably something that will sink in slowly as we finish this semester, and it will probably hit hardest at our end-of-the-year team banquet. But, until then, I would like to finish saying goodbye to my brothers, to Neil "Schneil" Klinger, Ryan "Gustofwind" Gustafson, Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, and Matt "Brooker" Brooker.

While most of us have been running XC for most of the past eight years, Neil didn’t start running XC until his second year here at Cedarville; his freshman year, he was an 800 runner and a long jumper, and in high school, he played football. But, the next year, my freshman year, he decided to come out for XC and give it a try, and what a decision that was. How could we have known that he would become one of the best steeple-chasers Cedarville has ever had? He was not afraid to try something new, to go outside of his comfort zone and challenge himself. And that is the story of Neil; he is a part of Cedarville’s inaugural pharmacy program, balancing graduate school with high level cross country running. Neil still has two more years of school after this; my favorite joke is that it’s taking him seven years to learn how to count pills...but that simply does not give him the credit due for how hard he has had to work at balancing these different areas of his life. Neil, thank you for being you, for not being afraid to do your own thing and to enjoy life. Thank you for the work and dedication that you have put in to both running and school, and I wish you the best of luck and pray God’s blessing on you as you finish up the next two years. You have not chosen an easy path, but you can do it.

What can I say about Mr. Gustofwind? If there was anyone with a burning passion for living life to the fullest and doing as much as possible, Ryan is your man. From mountain biking to rock climbing, from running to working, his passion for everything that he does can feel overwhelming at times, but it certainly has kept our lives exciting. Put him and Neil together, and you have a duo that can do anything that they put their minds to, a dynamo of passion and energy that can hardly be contained. Gus, just like many of us, has dealt with sickness and injury, but seemingly by sheer strength of will and determination has continually bounced back and surprised many people each year. Perhaps that’s the best way to describe Gus: will power. Anything that he sets his mind on, he has accomplished one way or another, be it a running time-goal, loads of schoolwork, or just some "incredible" feat of extreme sports. If you want stories, go talk to him, he’s got a bunch. Thank you, Gus, for your passion for life. Thank you for your energy and your determination in all areas. Thank you for not being afraid to be yourself and to march to the beat of your own drum.

By all rights, Joe "Nemo" Niemiec should not be able to run, let alone run at such a high level of performance. Why do I say that? Well, in high school, he basically tore one of his ankles apart, and it is now held together by screws and by will power. Nemo is probably one of the toughest, most resilient people I know; we’ve all seen him run through injuries that would have sidelined many a runner without Nemo’s strength and will power, leaving us feeling guilty about our own aches and pains. Joe is one of the poster children of progressive mileage, slowly and consistently increasing his volume and speed, and he has the results to show for it. Joe, you have been as close as a brother to me. Thank you for your encouragement, thank you for your strength. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for your friendship. I wish you best of luck, and pray God’s blessing for you and Jasmin.

Finally, we come to Matt "Brooker" Brooker, without whom none of what we have done would have been possible. Matt transferred from Bucknell to Cedarville his sophomore year, my freshman year, and took the team by storm. He approached running with a passion and intensity that Cedarville had not yet seen. Without him, without his passion and his dedication, we would not have been inspired to do what we have done. While some may be said to march to the beat of their own drum, Brooker can be said to march to the beat of his own obscure private indie rock band that no one else has heard of. While his outspokenness and strength of will may seem overpowering at times, it is exactly this that has helped inspire all of us to try to live with excellence, to be the best that we can be in order to glorify God. Last spring Matt’s car was totaled and he had been unable to run for several weeks, right before the NCAA D2 track nationals. To go through that and come out the other side with a greater appreciation and understanding for what it means to strive for excellence, to come out stronger than before, speaks volumes about Matt’s character. I have run more miles with Matt than any other person on this team, and I can attest to how much he has changed since his first year here (for the better), as he has grown and matured in his understanding of his faith and of the world around him. Thank you, Matt, for providing the catalyst our team needed to be where we are today. Thank you for the sacrifices that you have made to be the best that you can be. Thank you for your leadership and for your dedication, even in the hard times. Thank you for showing us what it really means to strive for excellence and to glorify God with our lives. I pray God’s blessing for you and Hannah and your soon-to-be little boy.

T. S. Elliot wrote this poem, "The Dry Salvages," at the end of the Modern Period as he looked back on his life and thought about his journey. The Modern Period was marked by a letting go of the past and an attempt to create new narratives, new meanings for life. None of these new narratives were successful in providing lasting meaning and satisfaction for this generation, and Elliot looks back and tries to understand what happened. He came to the conclusion that in order to go forward, to have meaning in life, we need to look back to where we have come from, to understand "what has been" in order to see "what will be." For him and his generation, it was looking back to a time of faith and belief; for us, it is looking back to see how much we have grown and to see how far we have come in our faith, even just these past four years. Seeing this, knowing the journey that we have taken, we can take comfort and encouragement in the fact that we have come this far and will continue to move forward as we move on from here, as we continue to write our stories and as God continues to work in our lives.

Not fare well,

But Fare Forward,

JJ


November 19, 2013

This past weekend was the NCCAA National Championships; not the NCAA National race, but NCCAA. The Christian Nationals. We may make light of this competition when compared to the NCAA race, but NCCAA’s holds a special meaning and purpose that the NCAA cannot even aspire to. This race is all about running as a larger community in order to glorify God; instead of just our team, it is the whole field of the race striving for excellence. This is a unique opportunity that must be cherished and remembered, just a mere glimpse as to what we can look forward to.

Shout-out to Forrest "Forrest" Thayer, who dipped under 27:00 in order to win the "open" race on Friday night. There’s something about that open race that causes great things; my freshman year, it was Jacob "Dubie" Dubie having the race of his life, the next year it was Matt "Cheeks" Cheney and Ben "Tuts" Tuttle having breakthrough races, and this year it was Forrest Thayer who is now able to say he has run under 27:00, all occurring in the "open" race. The next shout-out goes to Jonathan "Bits" Bitner who executed an astounding PR, he too dipping well under the 27:00 mark in order to take top spot on our team. Next was Tyler "Stumpy" Greenwood, followed by Joel "J-Duino" Dennison, who also dipped below 27:00 for the first time. Good races all around. Rest easy, gentlemen, and enjoy the off-season.

What else can I say? What is there left to say? A chapter is ending, a tale coming to a close, the end of four years is nigh. For some of us, those four years ended this past weekend, for the others, it ends this week. There are eight of us that will be leaving this year, eight of us that have run together, cried together, fought together, laughed together, and have grown together over four years. Each of us has our own story, our own paths that brought us here and that will now take us away, but for four years we were all a part of the same story, each playing out his role in the story of Cedarville Men’s Cross Country. These next two weeks will, among other things, be dedicated to telling a small portion of each of these stories as a part of our team.

First up is Jacob "Walters" Walter, a team captain, whose last name actually does not end with an "s." We say that he did not utter a single word during the first two months of his freshman year (which isn’t far from the truth), but that certainly has not stopped him from becoming an important leader of the team. If I could use only one word to describe Jacob, it would be "consistency." From his freshman to junior year, he consistently put in more and more work, growing and developing at a steady and measured pace, quietly putting in the work while no one was watching (or listening). After last year’s cross country season, it looked like he was due for a big year this year, but that was not to be the case, as he has struggled with injuries that have effectively sidelined him since this past winter. It’s hard to see a teammate struggle with injuries as long as he has, but it’s even harder, and inspiring, to watch him continue to give of himself to the team, contributing in ways that reach far beyond running. For four years he has been a voice of reason on the team, tempering the more "enthusiastic" voices on the team. This year especially he has come forward as a spiritual leader on the team, such as heading up our Monday night Bible study, as he fills a role that goes far beyond mere running. Walters, thank you for being there, for allowing me to voice my frustrations to you. Thank you for graciousness and your selflessness as you struggle with injury and disappointment. Thank you for sticking with us.

Next is Nathaniel "Germany/Dutch" Burrell, who is from either Germany or Alaska, depending on what year you ask him and what mood he is in. He is one of our ROTC runners, one of those few who has the extra burden of juggling school, running, and ROTC. More importantly, though, he has always been the best-dressed guy on the team, if not on campus. His sense of style, along with the class with which he conducts himself, has earned him many a compliment and has added a deeper level of dignity and bearing to our team. He is our diplomat, our experienced traveler. He is able to see things both from our perspective and from a more international understanding of the world, which has certainly helped to broaden our horizons. Just don’t let him tell you any jokes - they are long, and don’t really have a punch line. Thank you, Nathaniel. Thank you for sharing my passion for tri, and thank you for thinking of the small things. Thank you for your unique perspective and take of the world, and thank you for pushing and encouraging those around you.


Last for this week is Jon "JVD" Van Dyke, a relative late-comer to our team, transferring in just last year from a community college in New Hampshire. And for a guy who had never actually run "competitively" on a team before last year...he didn’t do too poorly. A man with "moves" and a style all his own, it didn’t take long at all for him to become an important part of our team. Even though he had a "late" start compared to many of us, his determination and his work ethic have served to help him jump right into racing at a competitive collegiate level.


As for me, well, this was also my last collegiate cross country race, the end of four years of hopes, dreams, frustrations, and learning and growth. Four years ago I set out with high hopes and expectations for how my running career would progress; four years ago I ran the exact same time as I did this past Saturday. I literally ended up right where I started. Or did I? It all depends on how you view the world. If these four years were only about running, specifically running faster, than I am an abject failure, the most miserable of men. If running is only about running and that’s all there is, then I have wasted some of the best four years of my life with nothing to show for it. I’ve been running in circles, chasing my own tail, trying to pull myself up by my own bootstraps. But that’s if running, these past four years, was only about running and nothing more.

What about that which we cannot quantify? We can measure time and distance but we cannot measure the spiritual and emotional journey, the process of sanctification, if you will, that these four years represent. These four years have taught me, among many things, that running is about much, much, much more than just the mere act of running. It is the relationships, the experiences, the people, the journey within oneself and the journey as a part of something larger than oneself that helps give greater meaning and purpose to what we do. Even then, though, without our unique eternal perspective, without our faith, without God, even then our running would be ultimately pointless;
As much as I hate to admit it, the Bard was on to something; if there is no meaning, then life is nothing more than sound and fury. It is only by placing our lives, everything we do, within the larger narrative of God and eternity, that we have meaning and purpose, no matter what those pesky post-modernists might say about meta-narratives and ultimate truth. We do each have a story to tell that is unique to ourselves, our own way by which we understand the world around us, but those stories only hold together as a part of a larger narrative. Our running, our journeys, our "Cedarville Stories," only have meaning if told within the larger narrative of my faith. These four years are only one chapter of our lives, only one chapter of a much larger narrative that was, and is, and is to come.

Fare Forward,

JJ


November 13, 2013

I’m sure by the time this is posted you will all have heard the news. How could you not? With the rise of social media and (nearly) instantaneous communication, we are able to know things as soon as they happen. I can’t remember the last time that I actually had to wait for a significant period of time in order to get results/information. Everything is at our fingertips. That being said, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, this past weekend was the NCAA D2 Midwest XC Regional meet in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Yes, Wisconsin, the famous "cheese" state, home of the "cheeseheads." And the Cheese Castle. Mmmmm. Most importantly for us, though, it is where our post-season fate hangs in the balance each year. This race, not our season rankings, is what decides whether or not we go to Nationals. This is where "the bullet hits the bone," when we begin to "cash in" all of the training that has been done since May; for us seniors, this is when we begin to "cash in" the past four years.

So what happened? What were the results? Fine, I’ll tell you. We got third. Third place in the NCAA D2 Midwest Region. Last year we got fourth, this year we got third. This is the highest we’ve placed so far (out of two years, but that’s still two years we have qualified for nationals); our big "goal" was to beat Grand Valley State, and we came close. If you look at the points, 54 to 114, it doesn’t seem close, but if you look at the time "spread" of our guys and theirs, we weren’t too far off. Not what necessarily what we had in mind, but still better than last year. Special shout-outs to Matt "Brooker" Brooker, who placed fourth overall (whose car was totaled in the spring), to Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, who placed tentth overall (who hasn’t run a 10K in two years), and to Ben "Tuts" Tuttle, who placed eleventh overall (who struggled with low iron levels most of this year).

This race, this success, did not come easily. It required thousands of miles of running, innumerable calories, and many sacrifices to get to this point. All of that for a 30-minute race which could have easily been ruined by a mis-step or a poor night’s sleep. But, if you ask any of these guys if it was worth it... you’ll probably get a resounding "Yes!" This is something that we have been working towards as a team, my class especially, for four years now. Four years ago we didn’t know exactly where and how far this journey would take us...I don’t know if any of us could have imagined that we could even have come this far, and the journey is not over yet!

Perhaps the greatest aspect of being on this team has been the relationships that we have formed with each other over these years; we have become a veritable "Band of Brothers," forged by the common suffering and hardships that we all have faced. This team, for me at least, has become less about the success of a sole individual as it has become about the success of the collective whole; each individual, each of my "brothers," is important in and of themselves, but placed in the context of our team, I believe the saying "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" rings loud and clear. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon wrote:
All of us on this team, even those who have graduated, can share in the joy of our success. This not like "your team" winning the World Series or the Super Bowl, for which you can be happy and enjoy but are not actually a part of. We can all share in the success of this team because we are spiritually, emotionally, and physically invested. Those of us who were unable to go on the trip are still able to feel the nervous anticipation and excitement of those who did go, and we are able to share in the joy of their success because, ultimately, it is all of ours.

Fare Forward,

JJ


November 6, 2013

As runners, we have a special relationship with time. What we do - running - cannot be separated from time. Everything we do is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and, ultimately, years. My high school coach always said that time is relative, claiming that the faster we moved, the slower time would pass. Without getting into theories of relativity and "actual" science, I want to really look at and unpack this statement. I’m not sure there is any longer moment than the last few seconds of a race as your body screams for relief....these seconds pass the slowest as you try to run the fastest, slowly ticking away as you quickly approach the line. Or more accurately, quickly ticking away as you slowly approach the line.

Those agonizing last few meters take the longest, but the clock seems to speed up at that point as we helplessly struggle to the end. But, when the race is over, it was like the blink of an eye. 25 minutes or so....gone. The last 30 seconds....an eternity. It’s the same with days, weeks, months, years. Days may drag but weeks fly by. Months may seem endless, but before you know it, it’s been another year.

Why do I say this? Our season is almost over. We were off this past weekend, our top guys are going to Regionals in Kenosha this weekend, the weekend after that is the NCCAA championship race, and after that is the NCAA National Championship. Right after that is Thanksgiving Break, and two weeks after that is Christmas Break. This season, and semester, is coming to a close. In August, it seemed like we had forever. Now, we wonder where the time went. As a senior, especially, I wonder where the time went and how it slipped. Four years ago it seemed like there was an eternity full of endless possibilities before me, but now, looking back, I wonder how it went by so fast. Eight years ago I started running, and it seems like a blink of an eye.
Perhaps Rudyard Kipling said it best in his poem "If:"
These are probably the most famous lines ever written in terms of running....but I think the best interpretation of these lines actually has little to do with running. Much as Paul uses running as a metaphor in his letters, so too do I think Kipling uses running here. No one really cares how far you can run in sixty seconds, except for a very select group of people. No, what I think Kipling was getting at was something entirely different. What I really think Kipling is getting at is to make the most of the time you have, filling each minute "with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run." We only have so much time here on this earth...

On the flipside, though, noise and activity does not necessarily mean progress. Sometimes we can get so caught up just in doing "something" for the sake of being busy....Sometimes the best thing to do may be to "stop and smell the roses" instead of spinning our tires in the mud.

Talking with fellow senior Jon "JVD" Van Dyke the other day, he mentioned how far he has come, how much has changed even in just the past year and a half....and that was just about running. To look back over the past eight years, to see how my running and my attitude and approach towards it has changed and morphed as I learned and matured, to see the progression of times and training....Really, I can’t look back and reflect on my life without recognizing the influence that running has played in it.

The other day I was asked about my "Cedarville Story" and what I thought were the biggest parts of it. Thinking about that question, I realized that I could not talk about my "Cedarville Story" without talking about the cross country team, about our running and racing and community. I say "our" because there are eight of us who are done after this year: Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, Ryan "Gustofwind" Gustafson, Nathaniel "Germany" Burrell, Matt "Brooker" Brooker, Neil "Schniel" Klinger, Jon "JVD" Van Dyke, Jacob "Walters" Walter, and me. I can’t separate Cedarville from cross country, nor cross country from Cedarville. This team has been our support group, our sounding board, our greatest fans, our best friends, our brothers....I can’t imagine what my "Cedarville Story" would have been without cross country. Our "Cedarville Story" may be coming to a close, but, really, our stories have just begun.

Fare Forward,

JJ


October 29, 2013

Well, we’re the G-MAC Champions. We were last year, too. I don’t know how to say this without hurting someone’s feelings, but...it wasn’t that hard for us. When you are one of the Top 20 DII teams in the nation, are one of the Top Five overall teams in Ohio, and have the sheer depth of our team, it kind of changes things.

This was one of those races that there was almost no way we could not win, barring a disaster of apocalyptic proportions. We were able to put 12 guys in the Top 20 spots, with Matt "Brooker" Brooker, Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, Ben "Tuts" Tuttle, Clay "Swat" Watson, and Matt "Cheeks" Cheney sweeping spots 1-5. However, this was also one of the most difficult races we’ve had this year, due to the fact that there were 20 mph winds creating a perceived temperature of about 28 degrees. As in 28 degrees Fahrenheit, not Celsius. It was a day of man against nature, which I say we fought valiantly against. Considering the weather conditions, many of us ran very well, some setting season bests for this year.

This race was significant for other reasons, too. This was the first "post-season" race of our season, setting the stage for our next three races, Regionals, NCCAA’s, and Nationals (Lord-willing). With a performance last week indicating that our top guys are coming into peak form and a decisive victory this week, spirits are high and passions are hot, even if the weather isn’t.

Speaking of weather, Ohio has decided to skip fall this year and head straight to winter. We awoke last Wednesday morning to a wintry mix of snow, sleet, and rain which continued into Thursday, punctuated by brief periods of sunshine and high wind. On the one hand, it’s nice to finally get a break from the heat and humidity, but on the other hand...it’s going to get a LOT colder before it gets warmer again. It’s sad to see summer go by as the days get shorter and the nights get longer and colder, but there is also much to look forward to. We’ve passed the halfway point of the fall semester and are approaching the end of our season, but there is still a long way to go. But we’re not done yet; three more races and about a month before Nationals.

As I’ve said before, the days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and the temperature is dropping, but we aren’t done yet. To stop now, to give up as this becomes both the hardest and most rewarding part of the season, is kind of ridiculous. While the journey itself should be considered the most influential part of striving towards a goal, the destination is still a major part of the journey. To stop before you arrive, while not entirely negating how far you’ve come and grown, does in a way cheapen the process and the lessons you have learned. The destination adds weight to the journey, just as the journey makes the destination all the sweeter upon arrival.

Robert Frost, too, can speak to this. In a time of artistic innovation and experimentation, Frost maintained more of a traditional approach to poetry, using the traditional forms that many other Modernist poets rejected. He is the Anti-Modernist Modernist, simultaneously refusing to throw away the past while also refusing to "follow" the example set by the other Modernists. A traditionalist and a revolutionary. A hispter’s hipster, if that makes any sense. That’s beside the point. Frost, in his poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," recognized that while we may be tempted to stop and to enjoy what is before us, putting a hold on our journey towards our destination, it is not what we are called to do. In the last stanza of the poem, Frost writes:

We need to remember that while we may be tempted to stop and "smell the roses," we must not linger too long. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the moment, but we must not forget the journey and our destination. Our journeys are made up of these moments, be it glorious victories, devastating defeats, even the cycle of day to day life. We can’t ignore them, but neither can we get too hung up on them.

Fare Forward,

JJ


October 23, 2013

I’ll start by telling you that this isn’t JJ, though you’d have probably figured that out soon enough anyway. This is Tyler "Stumpy" Greenwood, which means no poetry this week.

Fall (or autumn if you prefer) is officially here. The leaves are changing colors and hoodies, gloves, and hats are starting to make appearances at practice. Fall is my favorite season of the year, highlighted by the beautiful colors all around, football (go Steelers!), and serious cross country time. We are entering the end of our season with the NCAA II Regional meet only three weeks away.
As our season begins its latter half, our college is taking a break. Seemingly everyone around us, including many of us, headed home for Fall Break. Meanwhile, fifteen of us including coaches piled into the bus and drove nearly seven hours to Boone, North Carolina for the Blue Ridge Open at Appalachian State University (you know, that school that beat Michigan). It was a welcome change of pace. The all too familiar cornfields were replaced by gorgeous mountains of red, orange, yellow, and green and creeks spanned by a wooden covered bridge.

We got to see all this during the race. It was a beautiful course surrounded by mountains. It took us around a few flat fields before a long inclined trail switching back twice up one of the mountains, down the other side and back to the finish on the flat fields. Needless to say it was a fast course and the conditions were absolutely perfect: low 60's, a few clouds, and just enough of a breeze to negate the extra warmth of the sunshine.

Seven guys were allowed in the varsity race. Matt "Brooker" Brooker finished second overall in 24:28, Joe "Nemo" Niemiec was 16th in 25:14, and Ben "Tuts" Tuttle was 21st in 25:17, Ryan "Gus" Gustafson was 53rd in 25:47, Matt "Cheeks" Cheney was 54th in 25:48, Clay Watson was 75th in 26:05 and Neil Klinger was right behind in 76th in 26:06. The team finished second in a largely Division I field, only 16 points behind host App State. In the open race, I finished second in 26:21, Wyatt Hartman was 4th in 26:37, and Joel Dennison was 7th in 27:01. All ten of us ran season bests and six of us set new personal records. Not a bad day.

As good as the running was, and it was great, the time we got to spend together as a team was just as, maybe even more valuable. I come from a high school team that was together for six years. Leaving that and coming to a completely new team has been difficult at times, as I know it has been for the other freshmen as well. With so many of the guys living off campus it’s been hard coming together as a team. But these last ten days changed that. Starting with the cookout last weekend and then continuing into the trip this week we got to spend loads of quality time together not running, simply being a team.

I was racing up the long hill with a ten meter lead, completely alone. I had just made the second switchback and was continuing my charge when I heard a voice that could only be Jacob Dubie’s yell,

"TTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Watch the race videos on the team’s Facebook page and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. The entire race our varsity guys along with Dubie, Jacob Walter, Daniel Bolender, Coach Scott, and Coach Orchard had spread out along the course and were going absolutely nuts. It was awesome. There’s nothing quite like having people yelling for you during a race.

It was also awesome that Brooker’s parents, Cheeks’s high school coach, and Gus’s mom were all there, too. It’s amazing how well Cedarville travels. We go seven hours from campus and still have a strong support system.

It was a great week for us. We got in a fun trip while some of the guys got refreshing trips home. Hopefully the faster times will move us up in the rankings a few spots, but even if they don’t we have great momentum heading into the G-MAC meet this weekend and into the post season after that. We’re running well, glorifying God, and having fun doing it.

Remember that it’s ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD,

Tyler


October 15, 2013

From the outside looking in, running seems to be a very individual, almost selfish, sport. In a sense, it is. Ultimately, it is up to you to make sure that you run well; it is your responsibility to make sure that you do everything that you need to do, be it run, ice, stretch, strength. We don’t need to work together in the way that a basketball or a soccer team does. We don’t assign positions, nobody necessarily has an assigned "role." Our position on the team is a very fluid concept, changing from one race to the next. At the same time, however, cross country would not exist without teams. Cross country is ultimately a team sport; seven guys run, and the top five guys from each team score according to how they place overall. The lowest cumulative team score wins the race, kind of like a golf score. You can’t win a race on your own (well, technically you can, but you won’t get the team title); it is the combined efforts of seven guys that wins the race.

More than that, though, it is the combined efforts of 23 guys over the course of a year, two years, a whole college career, that wins races. It’s the synergy of running on a team that bolsters individual effort; the community and relationships on a team are what makes victory sweeter and defeat more poignant (but also more bearable). And, sometimes, it’s about more than just running.
The funny thing about these relationships is that, if not for the common ground of running, very few of us would actually know each other. I’m an English major, while most of the other guys on the team are engineers. If not for cross country, I probably would never have known any of them, let alone even talked to them. If not for cross country, I would never have met some of my closest, deepest friends. It’s kind of funny to think about it that way, for something seemingly so trivial as running to be so instrumental in who we know and who influences us.

I think, too, that there is something special about being on a team that shares a common fundamental belief; we aren’t just a team of guys who happen to like running as much as we are a team of brothers in Christ who seek to run for His glory. This really is a unique opportunity in our lives, to live and train in such a community. I was reminded of this by alumnus Scott "Scootsie" Gardner, who visited and stayed at my house last weekend. We were talking about life after college and Scott told me that one of the things he misses the most is the community that we have on this team; he’s still running and training, he’s found a church, but there isn’t the integration of running and faith like we have on this team. I for one know that at times I have taken this team, this time in my life, for granted, and now, as I go through my senior year, I am only just beginning to understand how truly special what we have is.

We got the chance to celebrate and revel in this community this past weekend; Tyler "Stumpy" Greenwood’s family hosted the men’s and women’s teams at their house for a cookout. Good food, "volleyball," pumpkin carving, and campfire songs and stories were all a part of a night that, I feel, truly epitomized the beauty of community. A night such as this spent with brothers and sisters is special; it does not happen often, but when it does, I believe that it too brings God glory. We are made for relationships, both relationships with each other and relationship with God. To ignore one or the other is to miss out on one of the most integral aspects of Christianity.


I love the poetry of Emily Dickinson; it is focused almost entirely on her relationships with God, with nature, with the world, and with others. She was uncommonly aware of the role that relationships play in our lives. In a sense, Dickinson created a "religion" of relationships, using religious language to describe both her relationship with God and with others; she was aware of the eternal significance of the relationships in our lives. The irony of this is that she was, for lack of a better term, a recluse; she died in the house she was born in, very rarely leaving the walls of her home. Most of her relationships were formed through letter correspondence; she did not experience community in the sense that we do. Does that mean she is wrong? No, rather, I think she, more than most other people, was able to look from the outside in and see just how important relationships are in our lives.

Fare Forward,

JJ


October 9, 2013

What a week! October starts and it feels like August again, Homecoming, inaugurations, Spirit Week, canoe races, and All-Ohio. It sounds like a busy week, but in reality, it was a really busy Friday, which had its ups, downs, and in-betweens for all of us.

Last week we thought that fall had arrived on time, as we were waking up to low 50’s and not sweating (much) during the day, but this week we returned to the high-70’s and mid-80’s I had hoped to leave behind; normally, this would not be too much of a problem if All-Ohio had been on a Saturday morning, like every other race, but this race is held on Friday afternoon at the hottest part of the day, and it sure felt like late summer. Hot, humid, bright... all after a day of classes and Presidential inaugurations. Not the most ideal conditions, but everyone else had to run in it too, minus the day of classes. So how did it go?

Well, our course seems to be running slow this year, and the times reflected that, just as they did at Friendship. Our very own Matt "Brooker" Brooker won the varsity race in a time of 24:54, while Ben "Tuts" Tuttle took sixth overall with a time of 25:23. Our varsity squad, however, ended up only taking a "disappointing" fifth as a team. Yes, that is fifth in the state of Ohio, but compared to first, which we are certainly capable of doing... It is what it is. We still have a month until NCAA II Regionals to iron out the wrinkles and fine tune our racing speed. We are disappointed, yes, but we are not discouraged, for we are looking forward to bigger and better things later in the season.

This just seemed like one of those weeks that wasn’t going to shape up; our freshmen engineers were working furiously on their cardboard canoes, Nemo rolled his ankle on a run, people were getting sick, the weather was getting hot again, we are approaching the mid-semester slump... I had to remind myself that I actually like to do this. I like getting up early to go for a run before the sun rises. I like long runs with my closest friends. I like the satisfaction of being exhausted at the end of the day. I like what I do. I like lining up for the start of a race, palms sweating and adrenaline pumping for nervous anticipation. I like the eerie silence of the first mile. I like the feeling of pushing myself harder than I thought I could have. I like crossing the finish line in a hazy storm of lactic acid, trying to pass and not be passed. I like the sweaty hugs and firm handshakes from other teams, a bond forged in suffering.

Leading up to the race there are a thousand places I’d rather be and ten thousand things I’d rather be doing, but then I remember, I actually like doing this. There really isn’t anything else that I’d rather be doing than lining up for this race. This is fun. I think as runners we tend to get too caught up in the performance side of things, analyzing everything we do, over-thinking to the point of frustration. We need to remember that we actually enjoy doing this, and the best thing for us to do might be to just relax a little bit and smile. To relax, to enjoy what we do, doesn’t mean we aren’t trying hard and that we don’t care enough, but it gives us the freedom to not only give everything we’ve got, but also to mess up and to forgive ourselves. Again, it’s the pursuit of excellence over the pursuit of success; there is freedom in one, bondage in the other.

We were meant to be here, to be doing this, even when things get tough, when it’s hot, cold, rainy, windy; when we’re tired, sore, grumpy, stressed, whatever it is, we need to remember just one thing. As "the Boss" put it oh so many years ago,


Yeah, this song has nothing to do with actual running, but I think, taken out of context, we can apply a lot of what it says to what we do and how we live as runners. This is one of the few opportunities in our lives in which we will be able to train and compete with such passion and intensity as we do now; when things get tough, as they inevitably do, we need to remember that, at least for right now, "we were born to run." We need to remember to enjoy this, to laugh and to smile, to relax, but also to work hard and try to be the best "self" that we, as individuals, can be.

Fare Forward,

JJ


October 2, 2013

Well, even after the dominating performance from last week’s race, we have moved back into our 15th place ranking, and with no race this past weekend to redeem ourselves... It’s a good thing we don’t need to measure our success by that standard; it saves us a lot of frustration and worry about our immediate performance over the long-term goals for the season. Also, it’s just a number. A fact. A designation that is meaningless outside of its system. Which brings me to my first point for tonight: It’s not about success. It never has been, and it never will be. What do I mean by this? How can I say that success doesn’t matter? Isn’t that what racing is all about? Well... yes, but also no. Let me explain, as this is perhaps the single most important thing I will write about.

We live in a very fact-oriented, numbers-based world. It always has been. Yes, you could bring up periods of romanticism and faith-based ideology, but success has always been measured by a (somewhat) absolute standard defined by the culture. You can’t really measure happiness, so the next best thing is to try to quantify what "may" make you happy. Usually that "happiness-creator" is some variation of material gain/achievement, something which can be held up as a standard by which to measure our own and each other’s lives. We call this standard success. How much money do you have, how big is your house, how nice is your car, how do you stack up in your chosen field, what is your national ranking? In a world that does not exist beyond the temporal and the material, these standards are what gives meaning to life, something to strive after. But, with that view, what is there beyond success? Once you achieve "greatness," where do you go from there? If your worldview is bound to this earth, there is nothing, and the pursuit of success shows itself to be a hollow, bittersweet victory.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- Percy Shelley

As Christians, though, we know that something exists beyond this temporal realm, that there is an eternity and a Creator waiting for us. In light of this eternal view, we don’t need to pursue "success" in order to have meaning and purpose in our lives. The question is, then, what are we doing, trying to be one of the top teams in the nation? Isn’t that the pursuit of success? Yes, it is the pursuit of success, if that was what we held our end goal to be. But that is not our end goal; we think and live in different terms. "What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." So, we seek to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. It’s not through our success, however, that we glorify God. Success is not guaranteed, no matter how hard you work or how much you want it. If you don’t achieve success, have you not glorified God? Have you failed in your walk with Christ? No! Allow me to say it again: NO! It doesn’t matter whether or not we actually achieve our goals; it is the fact that we week to glorify God with our lives and with our actions that gives us meaning and purpose. We don’t pursue success, but we pursue excellence, because that is what we are called to. From the outside looking in, the pursuit of success and the pursuit of excellence may not appear to be any different; everything will be done identically, perhaps even side by side, but the difference will not show until the end, after the cards are down. It is then that the difference between success and excellence becomes evident.

In the movie "Chariots of Fire," there are two characters that personify this distinction. On the one hand, there is Eric Liddell, who says "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." On the other hand, there is Harold Abrahams who says "If I can’t win, I won’t run!" At the end of the movie, after the Olympics are run, we are shown two images: Eric Liddell, who did not measure his achievement through his success but through his relationship with God, and then Harold Abrahams, seen drinking with his trainer, unable to enjoy his victory, because his "victory" rang hollow. Liddell pursued excellence and Abrahams pursued success; one could go on with his life and the other was left wondering what he had missed.

What does that mean for us, then? To steal a line from Francis Schaffer, how should we then live? As we run, as we train, as we work, as we play, we should seek to glorify God. This will give us meaning and purpose far beyond anything on this earth is able to provide; when we say "All for the Glory of God," that is what we mean. Not "Success for the Glory of God," not "Greatness for the Glory of God," but "ALL for the Glory of God." Let not our name be Ozymandias.

Fare Forward,

JJ


September 24, 2013

I’m not quite sure where to begin for this week, but I think an appropriate introduction would be to talk about our team’s history with national rankings and what they mean to us as a team. When Cedarville was a part of the NAIA, up until my freshman year, the national rankings largely dictated how your post-season would go. If you weren’t ranked highly enough by the end of the regular season, your team would not go to nationals. I’m sure there are many alumni who remember long meetings in the locker room concerning our ranking, usually about how we weren’t being ranked fairly and how bad the system was as a whole.

One of the biggest things I remember from my freshman year was Coach talking about the rankings. I didn’t really have any idea what they meant or how it worked, even now I don’t think I do, but I had the general idea that they were very, very important. But, once we left the NAIA for the NCAA, national rankings ceased to hold such weight and we were free to pursue post-season competition based on our actual merit, rather than perceived merit. So, now that we are in the NCAA, national rankings don’t hold as much meaning as they used to and are more of a tool to gauge how we are competing in general. Coming into this season we were ranked 15th in the nation for D2, which is where we placed last year at Nationals, and ranked 4th in our region, which is where we placed last year.

Funny thing is, we moved up in rankings this week, going from 15th to 14th and 4th to 3rd. Why is this funny? Because last week we only ran seven guys, and none of us who ran were even in the Top 10 on our team. Somehow, though, our second-place finish was enough to impress someone(s), who then moved our team up in the rankings. If this was still the NAIA, we’d be ecstatic, but since this is the NCAA, we just kind of laugh and shake our heads. It doesn’t carry much weight anymore. Oh, how things have changed...

Okay, let’s get down to business. We finally had our first 8K race this past weekend, our very own Friendship Invitational. It wasn’t missing anything; wind, rain, mud, you name it, we had it. If you had been paying attention to the weather, you might have noticed the cold front sweeping the nation, stretching from Texas to Maine. Well, Friday evening it arrived in Cedarville and decided to spend the night. And it rained. And everything got wet, especially the course. With that in mind, we knew that we were not going to run the actual times that we would have liked to, but placement matters more than time when you want to win a meet and everyone has to run in the same conditions. It was not a race against time, it was a race against the field, and lo and behold, we won. By a lot.

The previous two races Coach did not run our top guys, saving them to be unleashed at Friendship. I’m still not quite sure I can comprehend the utter destruction these guys left in their wake. For the D2 race, we placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th for a grand total of 16 points. 15 points is a perfect score, rarely seen at a race as large as ours. Overall, including D1 and D2 schools, we scored 19 points, putting 8 guys in the top 13. Absolutely devastating to the other teams. Congratulations to Matt "Brooker" Brooker, Ben "Tuts" Tuttle, Ryan "Gustofwind" Gustafson, Joe "Nemo" Niemiec, and Matt "Cheeks" Cheney on an excellent race in less than excellent conditions. Also congratulations to all of our freshman on their first collegiate 8K; that extra 3K makes a huge difference in how the race feels in comparison to a 5K. This race is an important milestone for our season; our top guys were able to establish just how dominant they are capable of being against our competition, it served to put many doubts about performance to rest, and our freshmen have survived their trial by fire.

As we lined up to start the race, it hit me that this was my last time ever to run the Friendship Invitational under Cedarville colors, my last time lining up with these men that I have essentially lived with for the past few years....I remembered lining up three years ago, young and naive, little knowing the impact this running thing would have on my college experience and on my life. We still have eight weeks until nationals, two more months, but there is no longer the hope of what future seasons may hold; we seniors march toward November with a grim determination....I pity those who stand in our way. Yes, this is a much different team from four, three, even two years ago. Yes, this is becoming fairly serious. No, we have not forgotten why we run. We run to glorify God, to enjoy what He has given us, and we are determined because of this, not in spite of it.

I leave you with this:

On a flat road runs the well-train'd runner,
He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,
He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais'd.

Walt Whitman

Yes, Walt Whitman, America’s Poet, did indeed write a poem about running, publishing it in one of his many editions of "Leaves of Grass." Why does this matter? For starters, this poem is over 100 years old and it was written at a time when running was looked down upon as a spectacle, an oddity, yet Whitman doesn’t focus on any of that. He passes no judgment on the runner, instead simply telling you what he saw. And what he saw was the timeless image of a runner, which he immortalized upon the page. He doesn’t need to go into any deeper physical detail; he captured the essence of the runner. Any one of us could be that "well-train’d runner;" not much has changed in the past hundred years; running is running, and a hundred years from now, running will still be running (I hope), and that image will still apply.

Fare Forward

JJ


September 17, 2013

Well, we had another race this past weekend. This time we pilgrimaged to Athens, Ohio, to the great Ohio University. It was a perfect early fall morning: cool, crisp, sunny, not a hint of a breeze nor a cloud in the sky. A complete turnaround from a week that started with 90 degree weather; the weather literally turned overnight from late summer to early fall, and no one was complaining. Just seven days earlier we were wringing sweat out of our singlets before the race even started, and now we were wearing our jackets and sweats.

A perfect fall morning, but missing just one thing. Several things, actually. It was another 5K. A full three kilometers too short, ruining what otherwise would have been the quintessential day for a race. But, come November, our legs will be thanking us for not abusing them too much too soon. So, we run another 5K to race without racing. But, this was the last 5K I’ll ever run for CUXC. Granted, I only ran four cross country 5K’s over the course of my collegiate career, but the fact remains that there will never be another. And for many of us not in that top group of guys, that was the last race we’ll run that is not on our home course. And, this may have been the last time that I get to ride in the varsity bus...As I’ve said before, this is a season of lasts, and there’ll be plenty more of those as the season continues.

Shout-out to Colin "Superman" Philips, who led our small but intrepid pack of runners to a second-place team finish this weekend. (Coach again did not run our top guys, and also did not run the top guys from last week; right now we’re looking at getting a solid season opener at our Friendship Invitational. This also means that we only ran seven guys out of a team of 23.) Not only did Collin run faster than he did last week, but he did it on a course that would be considered a "slower" course than last week’s. Yet another freshman showing what he’s got... and we haven’t even actually "raced" yet. Things are definitely looking good for that class. We were also treated to a PR by Nathan "Killer" Kilgore, who eked out a time faster than not only last week’s race but every other 5K he’s ever run.

It’s always interesting to race a 5K during cross country; we’ve been psyching ourselves up to run a five mile race for so long that we almost scoff at the idea of a three mile race. "Three miles? That’s it? Ha! That’s easy." Yeah, that’s easy, up until the race starts and it’s three miles of hurt between you and the finish line. But, it does go by quickly, as it’s only sixteen minutes or so. It reminds me of a poem...

"into the strenuous briefness// Life:// hand-organs and April// darkness, friends// I charge laughing.// Into the hair-thin tints// of yellow dawn,// into the women-colored twilight// i smilingly// glide.// I// into the big vermilion departure// swim, sayingly;// (Do you think?) the// i do, world// is probably made// of roses & hello:// (of so-longs and ashes)."

E. E. Cummings wrote this poem during the early Modern Period in response to the existential despair of those around him; to him, the despair was uncalled for. He acknowledged that life was a strenuous briefness, but he also acknowledged it was full of both laughter and tears, to be embraced as a gift from God and lived as such in light of it.

So, as I run my races, I recite "into the strenuous briefness." It helps put things in perspective; this race may be short and it may be brutal, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a race, and put in that proper perspective, I can enjoy the experience as a gift and glorify God as I do that.

Up this weekend, our very own Friendship Invitational, where we unleash our top harriers to wreak havoc on the opposing teams. Things are still looking good, the weather is great, our boys are running fast, and we are still excited for what lies ahead.

Fare Forward,

JJ


September 11, 2013

"I ran. I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped battery acid. Then I ran some more."

Ironically enough, the most famous quote from "Fight Club" is not actually found in the book itself but is only a line from the movie. Why do I bring up this now cliche quote from "Fight Club?" While this book and movie may not be for everyone (or anyone), I think that this line pretty much sums up what we do.

We had our first race this past weekend, a 5K at Miami University. (That is Miami of Ohio, not Miami, Florida. Kind of a let down, yes, but much more manageable logistically.) We usually race 8K for college races, but three months of running 4.8 mile races almost every weekend becomes somewhat tiresome, so a 5K season-opener is a great way to run fast and get a feel for racing without the lasting fatigue of an 8K. And let me tell you, it was fast. Just so everyone knows, the area around Cedarville is pretty flat. Our course is known as a (sometimes) fast course, but it has nothing on this new course at Miami. This new course is literally a figure-eight around a cornfield and a stable; I don’t think there was more than 100 feet of elevation change over the whole course. As all season-opening races are wont to do, it went out fast, continued to be fast through the two mile mark, and ended fast through the last mile. I hope everyone enjoyed it because, well, we won’t run another race this short.

Coach didn’t run the top returners in this race; these early season races are a great chance for the freshmen and those outside the Top 7 to run and score points, representing Cedarville as best we can, while the top guys prepare to race well come November. We didn’t do too badly this weekend; while we only placed fifth out of the seven teams, the majority of our guys ran PR’s or came close to it. Shout-out to Wyatt "Way-ait" Hartman for going sub-16; not only was that a significant PR for him, but he was also top man that day. Close behind was Tyler "Stumpy" Greenwood, coming in at just over 16, also running a significant PR. The top three was rounded out by fellow freshman Jonathan "Bits" Bitner, who came in around 16:20. Our top three guys on Saturday were all freshmen who also all happened to run PR’s. As I said last week, these guys are the real deal. And believe me, they, and everyone else who put in miles this summer, are only just beginning to see the fruit of their labor.

Speaking of labor, did I mention last week that Brooker is pregnant? By Brooker I mean Hannah, and by pregnant I mean, well, pregnant. That’s right folks, sometime this March there’ll be a little Brooker putting in the miles. Do they make running shoes that small?

Back to "Fight Club." The author of "Fight Club," Chuck Palahniuk, claims he wrote the book because of the lack of male support groups. He saw a need for guys to have an outlet for their aggression and masculinity, which has been, for the most part, suppressed by the necessities of modern society.

On race day, even workout days, you get the feeling that many of these guys are doing much more than racing. This is an opportunity to explore what you are truly made of, to plumb the depths of your physical and mental strength. It might not be anywhere in their thoughts, but you can see it on the faces of every runner who crosses the finish line; agony, sheer physical agony. The hardest part is that it is self-induced suffering; no one is making us do this except by our choice. Does that make us better than those who don’t do it? No, it doesn’t. But I think we do come to grips with parts of our being that would otherwise have been left untouched. And for many of us, we could not do this alone.

This is where the team aspect of cross country really comes into play. In many ways the team is a support group, a place where we can vent our frustrations with life. But it is also a place where we can, in a sense, exorcise those frustrations through strenuous activity. In many ways I do believe that this outlet helps us to balance the various aspects of our life, because, really, what’s any better than a good session of mile repeats? How about a good session of mile repeats with some of your closest friends and brothers in Christ?

Fare forward - Greg "JJ" Johnson


September 4, 2013

Well, it’s that time of year again, the end of the dog days of summer, as we settle in and hunker down in preparation for the next four months of classes. Faces are bright, bodies are tanned, and expectations are high as the great fall migration to Cedarville comes to an end and empty beds are filled once more, the population of the town of Cedarville doubling in size... Oh, and it’s cross country season again, the most exciting, tiring, frustrating, and satisfying four months of the year.

Before I go too much further, allow me to (re)introduce myself. I’m Greg "JJ" Johnson, and for those of you who followed the blog last year, I’m truly sorry, as you’re going to have to put up with my philosophical rambling for yet another season. I’ll try not to repeat myself this year. And for those of you who didn’t follow last year’s blog, well... some things should be left alone. Just kidding. But seriously.
For the past few months most of us have pretty much been living for cross country. Perhaps you’ve noticed the massive pile of sweaty shorts, the stench of rancid shoes, and the bare cupboards in your kitchen during the summer, and that since your son has left the house, it smells nicer, looks better, and you don’t have to go buy food every other day.

The amount of time and energy we spend in preparation for this period is mind boggling. Say, for instance, an average runner runs 7 minutes and 30 seconds per mile, in which case an eight mile run will take about an hour. Say that this runner runs 50 miles a week; that’s just over six hours a week of running. What if said runner runs 70 miles a week? That’s just under nine hours of running a week. How does 100 miles a week sound? That’s 12-and-a-half hours a week spent just running. What if I said 130 miles a week? Can you even comprehend over 16 hours of running a week? That’s over two hours per day spent running. Pair this with at least a full-time job at 40 hours a week, at least eight hours per night spent sleeping, time spent eating/stretching/drills/injury prevention, and life begins to get a little busy. This dedication, this chosen path, brings to mind the lines -

"I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

Really, we have chosen to take a path much less traveled. There’s not very many people more dedicated than a serious endurance athlete, especially those in the hunt for national rankings. Whether we like it or not, what we do has a large bearing on who we are and how we conduct ourselves. At this point in our life, most everything we do is seen in the light of how it might affect our training and racing this season. Is it good? Is it bad? That really is something up to the individual to answer. Our team motto is "All for the glory of God." We say this at all of our races and many of our meetings and practices as a reminder that everything we do should be done for so much more than mere personal gain. Everything we do should be done in light of the knowledge that we are called "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." I feel, I hope, that this was a common theme when I was writing last season, and I surely intend on reflecting on this phrase throughout the season.

But where are my manners? We have six new freshmen this year and I haven’t even mentioned them, let alone introduced them yet; how rude of me. This year we have been joined by, in no particular order, Wyatt "Wyite" (sic) Hartman, Kyle "Kibbles" Gerhart, Colin "603" Phillips, Jonathan "Bits" Bitner, and Tyler "Stumpy" Greenwood. The six of these men have run more miles this summer than any other incoming freshman class in the history of ever. For Cedarville, that is. Impressive? Yes. Exciting? Incredibly. I have a feeling that this class could become quite a cross country powerhouse in the next few years...

Speaking of powerhouses, last season we had the goal of becoming the first team from Cedarville to qualify for and compete in a NCAA D2 National Championship. We achieved that goal, but we are far from content to rest on our laurels. Nope, this year we are aiming for bigger and better things. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, nor do I feel that it wise to talk big before we deliver, but let me tell you that our guys have put the work in this summer to make a big splash in D2...

Now, for me and all the other guys in my class, this is our senior, final, year of cross country (and Cedarville as a whole). That means that this season signifies a great many "lasts" for us. Our last camp week, our last team dinner at Coach O’s house, our last team trip to Young’s, our last concussion video and physical, our last first day of school...You get the idea. Three years ago we came to Cedarville bright-eyed and eager to do great things. A lot of things have changed since then, but we are still eager to do great things and still have a passion in our soul. I’ll have more than enough time to reflect on this in a later blog post.

It’s been almost a year since I wrote the last post for last fall, and many things have happened since then. Let’s see... Matt "Brooker" Brooker got married on the first day of Christmas break to the beautiful Hannah Lamos, Clay "Swat" Watson proposed to Carolyn Case in February and married her in August, graduated senior Josiah "Jo-Z" Bragg proposed to Jamie Atkins right before school let out, Joseph "Nemo" Niemiec proposed to Jasmin Banachowski over the summer, and graduated senior Scott "Scootsie" Gardner proposed to Sarah Pelletier over the summer. I guess it’s that time of life in which you begin to see many close friends begin to make truly life-defining decisions, and I wish all of them the best of luck and pray for God’s blessings on them.

Please excuse me for the length of this first post; we’ve been here at Cedarville for about three weeks now, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what has happened. This year’s camp week was somewhat truncated due to NCAA regulations concerning official practice and the first day of classes. Instead of starting on the Monday before school, we could not officially start until that Thursday. Camp week is camp week though, and we were still able to fit in a team dinner, dessert at Coach O’s house, and even a Young’s trip with the women’s cross team, as well as attending all of the meetings and conferences and watching the infamous concussion video...

Our first race is this weekend, a 5K at Miami University. We haven’t run there since my sophomore year, and they have a new course they would like to show off, so I’m pretty excited for the race. We have done several actual workouts so far this season, and all of them indicate that we have some FAST guys on the team this year. This could very well be a year to pay attention to....Speaking of paying attention, you should follow the "official" unofficial Cedarville Men’s Cross Country Facebook page, which will be periodically updated by our very own James "Birdie" Niemiec with videos and pictures and whatnot.

Fare Forward - JJ


Greg Johnson is a senior at Cedarville University from Dillsburg, Pa. and majoring in English.