Running Dreams

By wpengine | September 11, 2003

Every fall on some sunny afternoon, I think of cross country season. I remember getting out of school and running the paths behind my high school, mile after mile rolling away under my feet.

It doesn’t happen any more, though. No, I am no longer a competitor on an athletic team. I gave it a try at Cornell as a coxswain on the lightweight crew team for two years, but I couldn’t produce the dedication it took or sacrifice the amount of time that was necessary to succeed there. So instead, I chose unencumbered evenings and the freedom to do just about anything I want on the weekends.

Life without a serious sport definitely has fewer restrictions. My life and actions no longer intimately affect a team hell-bent on winning. I have more free time to watch TV, go backpacking, write for the newspaper, go skiing and take it easy than I ever did in my first two years here.

Without a sport, life is just a little more laid back. I get to enjoy the sunny afternoons with a book on the Arts Quad instead of the trails. And then, every now and again when I have time, I manage to get out and put in a few miles around campus, out past the Vet school on 366 and back down on Fall Creek Rd. towards Forest Home and North Campus. It’s a good way to get out, to get off campus and away from the academic life, without pressure.

But I miss it. I miss it as I’m sure every competitor does. I miss running at big invitationals on cool Saturday mornings and winning Tuesday afternoon dual meets. I miss sitting in a boat, screaming as loud as I can, flying down a 2000-meter course a length ahead of the nearest competitor. And it’s not simply that I miss the competition; I can always win at foosball or dominate a game of beer pong (or not), but it just doesn’t have the same feel.

When I compete in those things, it’s because they’re fun, because they’re easy. I don’t spend time practicing them, preparing for them every day. As much joy comes from the preparation as the accomplishment, I suppose. And I miss that. But at the same time, I know that a varsity sport at Cornell is not for me. I want too many things in my life; I want too much freedom. There’s other stuff I want to do, too.

I will always admire the people that can do it, though. The amount of time and prowess it takes to succeed in an NCAA sport is phenomenal. In my time on the crew, I saw athletes work harder than I knew possible, and I know that other teams do it, too. The wrestlers work 12 months a year to dominate for nine minutes on the mat, and cross country runners will put in a hundred miles a week during the summer just for 26 minutes in eight races. Those kids dedicate more of their lives, in effort and desire, than most people could ever comprehend. I wish I had the drive, or the talent, or whatever it took, to do that stuff. I had what it took to succeed (by my measure) at high school cross country, and I had a great time doing it, but while I made a decent run on the crew, I’ll always regret never winning Eastern Sprints.

One of my goals for the coming year is to take up running again, to get out there every day and put in some miles, maybe even enter a race sometime this winter or in the spring. While talking to coaches and writing about sports is fun, and I love it, writing about competition just isn’t quite the same as participating.

So while I have no illusions about joining the cross country team, I’m going to do my best to get out on the trails and make use of the afternoons this fall. And hopefully I’ll get a little more out of it than better cardiovascular fitness and a good view of Fall Creek. I want to get back in the game.

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Matt James is a Sun staff writer. Long Distance Runner will appear every other Thursday this semester. Matt can be contacted at [email protected]

Archived article by Matt James

Disaster Alert … in Terror Drill

By wpengine September 12, 2003

Local police, firefighters, EMTs and other emergency service personnel will have their skills tested tomorrow morning during an annual mock disaster drill. Held in the Cornell Livestock Pavilion, the drill will simulate a domestic terrorist attack, according to Brad Harzoff ’93, the main organizer and paramedic supervisor for Bangs Ambulance. Approximately 250 people will be involved, including 150 volunteers and 100 emergency staff members. Some of the emergency staff workers will also participate in a simultaneous drill at Cayuga Medical Center. The drill organizers said they chose to hold the scenario at the Cornell campus because it is a common place for large gatherings of people and also to focus on terrorism because of its increased possibility after the Sept. 11 attacks. The organizers will not reveal the exact situation to keep it as authentic as possible. However, Harzoff said that the participants would be dealing with a chemical or bioterrorism attack that would be possible using materials available at Cornell. Emergency personnel hope that they can test their readiness and improve their response time and procedure in case of a real disaster. “We will certainly gain the opportunity … to further enhance [our] plans, to identify any gaps that exist,” said Andy Garcia-Rivera, director of Cornell Environmental Health and Safety. In particular, the exercise will test interagency communication as all of the emergency personnel attempt to work together to build a “unified command system.” Because of the bioterrorism simulation, dealing with decontamination of both victims and workers may pose a major problem, according to Harzoff. “[It] definitely throws a monkey wrench in things when there’s 150 people who have to be decontaminated,” he said. “There will probably be some responders who run into the scene and become victims.” Although personnel will not be administering medical treatment or transporting victims, they will have to “triage” patients, or separate them according to their symptoms. To replicate accurate medical conditions, volunteers will use a variety of props, according to Sara Whittle ’87, a Red Cross volunteer and volunteer coordinator for the event. “[We’re] not going to be using [fake] blood — more like Campbell’s Chunky Soup,” she said. The Cornell University Police Department will also have to deal with perimeter control, with pressure coming both from outside onlookers and from volunteers pretending to be concerned family members. Other police responsibilities will include traffic control, incident command, evacuation and crime scene evaluation. Although the police have never participated in a similar real-time simulation, they believe that this drill will prove useful. “We hope to learn from this where we might be deficient in our procedures and where we might be doing this right,” said Sergeant Lin Hurd. Although Gannett: Cornell University Health Services will not be directly participating in the simulation due to staffing issues, they will be sending observers to evaluate the situation and the facility’s possible role in it. In a real disaster, Gannett would not only provide medical help but psychiatric services for those affected, according to Sharon Dittman, associate director for community relations at Gannett. “We know a big part of our role in a lot of situations we can [foresee] will be counseling,” she said. This simulation is the third emergency exercise in three years in Ithaca and the second one conducted in “real time.” Previous scenarios included a high-rise fire in a local complex for the elderly and a “tabletop” discussion about the possibility of a major chemical spill at an Ithaca College football game. The coordinators began planning these scenarios after 50 to 60 local emergency personnel attended Federal Emergency Management Agency training about three years ago. After completing the Ithaca-specific disaster training, they formed the Tompkins County Emergency Management Group and then took another FEMA class on designing large-scale scenarios. These types of simulations are important not only to test emergency agencies but to build public confidence, according to Prof. Clifford Scherer, communications. “The important message is letting the community know that there are people that are working to be prepared for any possible disaster that might happen,” he said. In a real emergency, public communication must be honest and direct, Scherer added. “Saying ‘I don’t know’ can bring about greater confidence than giving an answer and you’re wrong,” he said. Archived article by Shannon Brescher
S.A. Creates 'Student Voice' for Slope Day

By wpengine September 12, 2003

Last night, the Student Assembly passed a series of resolutions to restructure the organizations responsible for planning Slope Day, a move they hope will give students a stronger bargaining position with the administration over the future of the long-standing tradition. The new resolutions created the Slope Day Programming Board, to be comprised of students, and also augmented the previously existing Slope Day Steering Committee with additional student involvement. Under the new plans, the old Slope Fest organization will be transformed into the programming board, which will be responsible for making choices regarding catering and musical entertainment. The board will meet cooperatively with the University’s logistics committee, an arrangement which the S.A. believes will better address the concerns of both the administration and the student body. The steering committee has changed also; it will be comprised of the heads of the programming board and logistics committee and will now be chaired by a student. “The role of this new organization is to be a student voice that the administration really recognizes, listens to and works with,” said S.A. president Nick Linder ’05. “It’s beneficial that both parties talk rather than one talking and one yelling.” The new resolutions are partly a reaction to last year’s Slope Day, which some S.A. representatives saw as unprecedented in the extent of administration control. Slope Day has long been a contentious issue for students and the administration, with competing demands for both the attendees’ freedom and supervision to limit liability on the part of the University. “Slope Day has always been a changing entity,” said S.A. executive vice president Stephen Blake ’05, who authored the resolutions. “We can’t tell [the administration] what to do. We can recommend and negotiate.” Despite the new measures, some representatives felt that more remained to be done in order to put control of Slope Day back into the hands of students. David Skolnik ’05 urged the S.A. to consider more direct action, reminding his fellow members that many of them had run on a platform of preserving Slope Day. “This resolution is definitely a step in the right direction,” he said, “[but] I think the face of Slope Day has to be changed back to the way it used to be.” Several representatives felt that while the increased regulation of last year’s Slope Day led to less injuries at the event, it was countered by a rise in residence hall injuries as well as an increased pressure on the Greek system, which was overwhelmed by students looking to consume alcohol off the Slope. “The administration has to realize that the liability has been completely put on the Greek system,” Skolnik said. “The injuries have actually increased. It’s become more dangerous being regulated.” But a return to the relatively unsupervised Slope Day of years past may be unrealistic, according to Blake. “If you consider the original idea of Slope Day as unfettered drinking on the Slope, then I’d say that concept has been lost … because it’s simply illegal,” Blake said. “I’d argue that the original concept of Slope Day, the [one] founded by Willard Straight as ‘Spring Day’ that goes back as far as 1901, is a … celebration of the year. That’s the direction that we’d like to point it in.” S.A. vice president of internal operations Dena Ruebusch ’04 praised the S.A.’s intention to revive the concept of Slope Fest, an alcohol-free event to complement Slope Day, which was absent last year. “I think the non-alcoholic piece is a very important part of Slope Day, even if you just put your beer down for one hour and go in there and have a little bit of fun,” Ruebusch said. “Slope Fest was a lot of fun two years ago, and it was definitely missed last year. You can’t just crack down on alcohol and not provide an alternative.” The removal of Slope Fest from last spring’s Slope Day effectively froze a sum of $23,000 which would have gone toward the alternative celebration, although it will now be available to this year’s planners. The funding, which was designated for use only on an event in West Campus, went unused because the University did not have the resources to staff both events. Archived article by Jeff Sickelco