This year begins a new era for the present and future runners of Choate Rosemary Hall. For the first time in several years, significant changes have been made to this year’s home Cross Country Course. The course has taken on a completely new look. It is now of championship length at 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) and crosses through several parts of Choate’s Campus, from Christian St. all the way to near Farm Hill Road. The course was designed predominantly by Assistant Head Coach Scott Mattoon over the past summer. It is a beautiful course, both demanding and exciting for New England Prep School runners.
Two main changes were made to the course this year. Last year, the runners had to go through a series of loops, which forced the runners to run up Water Tower Hill and “Broadway” twice in the course of a race. This meant many large, looming obstacles for the runners during the race. This year’s course is flatter and requires more careful pacing in the first part of a race. The runners run into the woods, bear right, cross a foot bridge into the fields, and run the perimeter of the two fields. It is very easy for a runner to run much too fast during this very flat stretch, and have little or no energy left for the grueling second half of the race. After the fast first half of running on flat land, the course poses some stiff challenges as runners are faced with two uphill climbs. After these steep climbs, approximately the last half mile of the race is comparatively downhill to the finish line. However, the course has remained the same in some ways. “We start and finish at about the same place as we did last year,” said Captain Chris Krokus ’08. Overall, the changes make for an exciting new cross country course that will test Choate’s Varsity and Junior Varsity Runners, while giving them a distinct home course advantage.
The training regimen for the team with this new course has stayed relatively similar to last year’s. “[The training regimen] is very similar to last year, because we still have to run and train on Water Tower Hill,” said Krokus. “We still do similar workouts on each day of the week.” Many of the team members seem to feel that the course may be slightly easier than last year. As Junior Varsity runner Ryan Rice ’09 put it, “At first, it was harder because I had to adjust to the fact that over half of the course is flat now, but I am starting to adjust and beginning to like the fact that once I hit Water Tower Hill, the hardest part of the course, I’m for the most part done.” Because of this, the new course this year has already been a big part of the early season success of the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams.
The impact of this new Course has been substantial as both the Varsity and Junior Varsity Cross Country teams have yet to lose a meet this year, and have a combined 9-0 record so far. With the team hosting the New England Cross Country Championships this year, the prospects for a great year look good. The new course has helped get the season off to a positive start and it looks to have an long and positive effect on the Cross Country Program as a whole.
Sam Cabot ’08, Christophe Lirola ’08, and Robbie Cholnoky ’09 run across a bridge, which is one of the new additions of the new course. PHOTO/Jose Rivera '08
