University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldogs Ready To Run
September 03, 2020 | Cross Country, Track & Field, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Summer training for distance runners is a grind. Whether you're here in the Athens area putting in miles, back home elsewhere, or doing so in the Rocky Mountains as several Georgia's runners were, a 70- or 100-mile week is still a physical and psychological challenge. You're getting up before the sun, and often before work, and doing your long run, followed by a short one late that afternoon. And then doing it again the next day.
"Spending your whole summer running 100-mile weeks, it's taxing, especially when you don't know what's ahead," men's senior cross-country runner Taylor Scarbrough said Monday.
The good news for Scarbrough and his Bulldog teammates is that now they do know what's ahead, or at least that there are meets on the schedule. The Georgia cross country teams have a home meet scheduled for Sept. 17, followed by three races in October, including the SEC Championships on Oct. 30, in Baton Rouge, La.
Of course, all of those events are contingent upon good health and coronavirus numbers trending in a good direction.
"I have a lot of hope that we're going to get it done," Georgia distance coach Patrick Cunniff said.
Back on Aug. 13, the NCAA canceled all fall championships because not enough conferences and schools would be competing this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. There was an NCAA Board of Governors-mandated 50 percent participation threshold set for hosting national championships, and as conferences across the country postponed or canceled fall seasons, the number of teams competing in fall sports dropped below that mark.
One of the conferences that hadn't canceled its fall seasons was the SEC, so there was hope for some kind of a fall season. And cross country is unique because its NCAA regional and national meets couldn't be moved to late winter or spring because most of the runners also compete in indoor and outdoor track and field.
With the SEC's announcement last Thursday that women's soccer, volleyball and cross country will be able to conduct fall seasons, altered and abbreviated though they may be, Cunniff and his runners could start looking ahead to something specific.
"It's like, we know what we're training for now, we have goals in mind — we're just even more motivated now that we have a tentative schedule," senior Michael Hans said.
Samantha Drop, along with her twin sister Jessica (who has completed her cross country eligibility), spent part of their summer training in Boulder, Colo., logging hundreds of miles above 5,000 feet of elevation. Drop said the month they spent there was "more of a trip to get away than to do really hard training," but the results were the same: arriving back in Athens in excellent condition.
"I was ecstatic" about the chance to compete this fall, she said, "because I feel like during this whole quarantine we've been training but we didn't really know what we were training for — so I'm excited to have an end goal."
When Tiffany Yue wasn't training over the summer, the senior was working on applications to medical schools. And often when she was training, she was thinking about the essays she had to write for those applications.
"When I was in the depths of writing those essays, that's basically what was consuming me all the time, just thinking about what I wanted to write about and how I wanted to say it," said Yue, who is interested in working in global health once she becomes a doctor.
For Cunniff, just having his runners back in town and being able to work with them again has been gratifying.
"That's definitely the first huge step, and everything else on top of that will be either the gravy or the cherry on top, depending on your personal preferences," he said.
Georgia's training has been adjusted in order to maintain the social distancing and safety protocols. Instead of gathering each morning for a pre-run meeting at 6:45, the team has a 6:30 Zoom call. After that, the runners go do a long run in small groups, typically just with their roommates. There are also afternoon sessions, either on the track or in the weight room, and those have been adjusted to maintain safety.
The races will be different, as well. Teams from the SEC, per its guidelines, may only compete against other SEC schools or against non conference opponents that adhere to SEC COVID-19 testing protocols. Georgia typically competes each fall in the Paul Short Run, in Bethlehem, Pa., a massive race that last year had 45 teams of 10 runners each, but that kind of mass gathering isn't possible now.
Georgia's season will feature smaller meets against a lot of high-quality competition, Cunniff said. In a typical season, the plan is to build up from one race to the next, to culminate in peaking at the SEC Championships and then the NCAA South Regional. It will be a little different this season, he said.
"You have to be a little bit more ready to go," Cunniff said. "Use the NFL analogy: no preseason but once you start playing, every game counts. We're going to have to make some of those same adjustments. We don't have a couple to play around with."
But for seniors like Yue, who came back this fall just to put on the Georgia singlet again and race for the Bulldogs, any chance to compete is an opportunity worth savoring.
"I've just been trying to take the time and enjoy being with my teammates and being out here doing this," she said, "because I know I don't have a whole lot of those days left."
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Staff Writer
Summer training for distance runners is a grind. Whether you're here in the Athens area putting in miles, back home elsewhere, or doing so in the Rocky Mountains as several Georgia's runners were, a 70- or 100-mile week is still a physical and psychological challenge. You're getting up before the sun, and often before work, and doing your long run, followed by a short one late that afternoon. And then doing it again the next day.
"Spending your whole summer running 100-mile weeks, it's taxing, especially when you don't know what's ahead," men's senior cross-country runner Taylor Scarbrough said Monday.
The good news for Scarbrough and his Bulldog teammates is that now they do know what's ahead, or at least that there are meets on the schedule. The Georgia cross country teams have a home meet scheduled for Sept. 17, followed by three races in October, including the SEC Championships on Oct. 30, in Baton Rouge, La.
Of course, all of those events are contingent upon good health and coronavirus numbers trending in a good direction.
"I have a lot of hope that we're going to get it done," Georgia distance coach Patrick Cunniff said.
Back on Aug. 13, the NCAA canceled all fall championships because not enough conferences and schools would be competing this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic. There was an NCAA Board of Governors-mandated 50 percent participation threshold set for hosting national championships, and as conferences across the country postponed or canceled fall seasons, the number of teams competing in fall sports dropped below that mark.
One of the conferences that hadn't canceled its fall seasons was the SEC, so there was hope for some kind of a fall season. And cross country is unique because its NCAA regional and national meets couldn't be moved to late winter or spring because most of the runners also compete in indoor and outdoor track and field.
With the SEC's announcement last Thursday that women's soccer, volleyball and cross country will be able to conduct fall seasons, altered and abbreviated though they may be, Cunniff and his runners could start looking ahead to something specific.
"It's like, we know what we're training for now, we have goals in mind — we're just even more motivated now that we have a tentative schedule," senior Michael Hans said.
Samantha Drop, along with her twin sister Jessica (who has completed her cross country eligibility), spent part of their summer training in Boulder, Colo., logging hundreds of miles above 5,000 feet of elevation. Drop said the month they spent there was "more of a trip to get away than to do really hard training," but the results were the same: arriving back in Athens in excellent condition.
"I was ecstatic" about the chance to compete this fall, she said, "because I feel like during this whole quarantine we've been training but we didn't really know what we were training for — so I'm excited to have an end goal."
When Tiffany Yue wasn't training over the summer, the senior was working on applications to medical schools. And often when she was training, she was thinking about the essays she had to write for those applications.
"When I was in the depths of writing those essays, that's basically what was consuming me all the time, just thinking about what I wanted to write about and how I wanted to say it," said Yue, who is interested in working in global health once she becomes a doctor.
For Cunniff, just having his runners back in town and being able to work with them again has been gratifying.
"That's definitely the first huge step, and everything else on top of that will be either the gravy or the cherry on top, depending on your personal preferences," he said.
Georgia's training has been adjusted in order to maintain the social distancing and safety protocols. Instead of gathering each morning for a pre-run meeting at 6:45, the team has a 6:30 Zoom call. After that, the runners go do a long run in small groups, typically just with their roommates. There are also afternoon sessions, either on the track or in the weight room, and those have been adjusted to maintain safety.
The races will be different, as well. Teams from the SEC, per its guidelines, may only compete against other SEC schools or against non conference opponents that adhere to SEC COVID-19 testing protocols. Georgia typically competes each fall in the Paul Short Run, in Bethlehem, Pa., a massive race that last year had 45 teams of 10 runners each, but that kind of mass gathering isn't possible now.
Georgia's season will feature smaller meets against a lot of high-quality competition, Cunniff said. In a typical season, the plan is to build up from one race to the next, to culminate in peaking at the SEC Championships and then the NCAA South Regional. It will be a little different this season, he said.
"You have to be a little bit more ready to go," Cunniff said. "Use the NFL analogy: no preseason but once you start playing, every game counts. We're going to have to make some of those same adjustments. We don't have a couple to play around with."
But for seniors like Yue, who came back this fall just to put on the Georgia singlet again and race for the Bulldogs, any chance to compete is an opportunity worth savoring.
"I've just been trying to take the time and enjoy being with my teammates and being out here doing this," she said, "because I know I don't have a whole lot of those days left."
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Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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