First off this blog will be a little about distance running, a topic I know most people really don’t care about. But let it be known it’s not a running blog about how far we ran, what our average mile pace, was or any of the uber knowledge no one but runners care to read about. This is just a story of how ten Wabash Cross Country runners decided to leave rainy Crawfordsville at 7:30AM for rainy Lafayette to do our team long run of the week.
Boyer ’14 and Murphy ’17 getting their groove thing on
Boyer ’14, Boyce ’15, McManus ’14
Background knowledge for those of you think every run is a “long” run. A long run is by definition, a run during the week (typically a Sunday) that will make up 20-25% of the overall weekly mileage that one accumulates. For some on the team it is 9 to 11 miles, for others its 20 miles on Sunday alone. Also, it is probably one of the most fun runs of the week by far. “But he said some of them run between 11-20 miles? How could that be fun?!” Trust me it is. Its over an hour of running with your teammates and friends and getting to know them, makes jokes with them, and just have a good time. It is fun. The premise of a long run is to not go as fast as possible for the entire distance, but to keep a steady pace and allow the vast distance to strengthen the capillaries and blood flow of the body to increase endurance in a race. 
So here is what happened today. It was raining here in the western part of Indiana and every dirt trail you would think of to go do 11-20 miles on was more than likely too muddy to survive. Being the spirited and adventurous you Wabash men we are, 10 of use decided we still wanted to go up to Purdue as well planned earlier in the week. So a groggy forty-five minute car ride of blissful silence was how we embarked on our journey. As we expected it was raining in Lafayette and would continue to rain over the rest of our time spent there. Now, myself and a few others had never really been around the Purdue campus, and Cole Hruskovich ’14 (of Central Catholic High School) led the way for the fist 11 miles to guide us.
While we had expected to see a number of lovely ladies at that early hour, sadly we were mistaken and no one was going to be out walking in the rain. #WabashProblems. Instead, we spent the morning hitting the pavement of Purdue, running past the fraternities, and down Sorority Row (The Acres). We ran past other runners from the community throughout the workout, and at one point ran alongside one of our senior runner’s ex-girlfriend’s mother… awkward. Now runners are some of the best singers and most knowledgeable connoisseurs of movie quotes for those of you at home who don’t know any runners too closely. Now imagine ten soaking wet men in short shorts and singing Singing in the Rain in the rain. Next imagine the same men jumping in the large puddles as they present themselves in order to further soak the teammates around them. Also, we ran up and down almost a mile of parking structure just for the fun of it.
Best part of our adventure around the deserted campus was our run in of a cheer competition that had yet to begin. The indoor track at Purdue has two garage doors on the side of the building to move in and out larger items; both of which were open. Now, we only wanted a slight break from the rain at first, till we saw the cheerleaders… then we REALLY wanted a break from the rain. SOOO we may or may not have made a short lap around the 200 meter track full of women.
Afterwards all ten of us ran back to our parked cars to drop off the five of us who were done with our run and for the others to ditch their wet clothes and continue running. Of course, we proceeded to have a Brittany Spears dance party before we drove off. A dance party to which a few random cars saw the great talent of dancing so many young Wabash men possess. 
It’s a little hard to fit all the jokes and things said that only young men find funny, but today’s run is definitely one of the greatest positives I’ve had at this school. This is a team that knows how to have fun, but also how be serious and gets shit done when it is time. This is what makes my Wabash great, this team, these guys, and the opportunity to be apart of something truly great.
WAF