Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He shared his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted November 29
As I sat at home over Thanksgiving Break, a break away from the bustling streets of New York, the cold fall weather and running down the West Side Highway, I was able to reflect on another season of NYU cross country.
It is hard to believe that the season is already over, that NCAA’s have come and gone, and that I am now half way through my collegiate cross country career. Yet, I have grown in so many ways this past season that I feel like I can handle the next two years and end my career on a strong note.
Freshman year was all about getting used to running in college; the increased mileage, the competitiveness and living on my own. With that year under my belt, I knew what to expect going into sophomore year, and was ready to step up and contribute to this team. But, I quickly learned that this year is about getting the experience of contributing to the team. As a scorer all year, it wasn’t about just me anymore; how I finished affected the entire team scoring and where we finished amongst our competition. That changes everything about racing, making it more exciting and meaningful. I wanted to step into that role and do this team justice.
Along with that role came the actual race, the eight kilometers of pain. Last year, it seemed like the longest race of my life. This year, it felt like a normal race, a distance I was used to and could run without a problem. My body and mind adapted to racing hard for 8,000 meters.
And finally, my experience concluded with running NCAA’s. Even though it is like any other race in the sense of distance, it is unlike any other race. It is the last race of the season, so no one leaves anything back. The screaming fans, the 30-degree weather, the 200 of the best runners in the nation leaving it all on the line made for the most thrilling race of my life. I loved every minute of it and cannot wait to get back.
That is what the whole season is about; NCAA’s. Our teams in the past have established a legacy for NYU where we do not only qualify for NCAA’s, but do very well. They set the standards and we want to maintain them. These standards make our 10th place finish disappointing. Even though we ran our best, we expect more from ourselves; we expect to be on the podium. Yet, we learned a lot from this race and this season. There were plenty of ups and downs, but in the end, we are responsible for our actions. We cannot rely on our legacy and reputation to do the work; we still have to race and work hard in order to live up to our own standards.
We have the potential to be a great team in the next couple of years and we are going to do everything we can to unleash that potential. We return five runners from our top seven next season and will once again be a force to be reckoned with. Might as well give the nation a preview of what’s to come as we prepare for track season.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted November 16
For cross country, the season does not start when we get back to NYU at the end of August; it starts on June 1. This marks the first day of summer training, and we all have one motivation: Nationals. The strong tradition of excellence established throughout the years by this team leaves us with high expectations and pride in the singlet that bears our name. That is why we put in the high mileage in the hot summer months, all working towards one day, one race, five and half months in the making.
It is hard to believe that those five-and-a-half-months are now six days away. Through that time, we’ve gone through the training, the races, the workouts, the long runs, the traveling, and the injuries to get to this point in the season. There have been ups and downs, and through it all we have learned a lot about ourselves, using those lessons to improve as runners.
Now that we are in the final week of the season, leading up to the race we have been training for all year, we are in the best shape of our lives and ready to run what we are capable of. We will take this week easier than the weeks past, tapering to feel fresh once we toe the line on November 20.
This is it. There are no more races after NCAA’s, no way to redeem ourselves. We set our place in NYU cross country history with our finish at this race; the races in the past do not matter. We are excited to leave it all on the course in Iowa on Saturday.
This is what we have been working for, and we are ready to get it done.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted November 1
All good things must come to an end.
This past Saturday at the UAA Cross Country Championship, we saw our four-year winning streak broken. Even though this is only my second UAA Championship, it felt surreal to see another team up on stage collecting a trophy that we usually win. It was the final reminder that we surrendered our crown atop the UAA.
Yet, we did not give up easily. We fought hard for 8,000 meters, running faster and harder than we did three weeks prior at Mets (Metropolitan Conference Championship). We knew it was going to be a battle, and we came prepared. Overall, we had strong individual performances and every member of this team left it on the course. We just came up a little bit short. Today, we just happened to lose our good thing.
However, I didn’t come to NYU to run for a team that only does good things. Of course, I heard about the previous UAA Championships during the recruiting process. But, the stats I was most impressed by were the NCAA appearances and the strong performances run there. Runners-up in 2006. National Champions in 2007. And, a podium-placing fourth last year.
Those aren’t good things, those are great things. Those are the reasons I came to NYU, to accomplish great things. So while we are disappointed we could not add a fifth UAA crown to our collection, we will take this close loss with a heavy heart and move on.
Tomorrow is another day and we have our sights set on accomplishing great things in the next three weeks.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted October 19
After moving from Florida to New York, one of the things that I had to get used to was the amount of hills that I would be running on. Even though Manhattan is relatively flat, we do venture outside the city for practice, seeking out these hills. Whether it is close by at Van Cortlandt Park, out at Rockefeller State Park, or over the river in New Jersey at Holmdel Park, we make sure we run on hills. After having gotten used to these hills and “real” cross country courses that have hills last year, my flat Florida courses seemed to be a thing of the past. This was before I realized that Wisconsin and Florida have more in common than I thought, for this past weekend at the UW-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational, I reunited with a flat cross country race held on a golf course.
Going into this race, there was more to be thought of then just the possibility of running a fast time. With a national caliber field of 35 teams and over 500 competitors, we had to devise a strategy so the race did not turn into a free-for-all.
One of the main concerns with running on a fast course is being overambitious and starting out too fast, risking running out of gas before the race is over. Therefore, we came into the race with the troubling task of getting out fast enough to avoid being buried by other runners, but not going out too fast so we still had enough steam to carry us through the 8k race.
Once the race started, it became a matter of not getting wrapped up in the chaos. From getting out smart, moving up gradually, and having enough left in our systems to finish strong the last 3000 meters, we were able to execute our plans and garner a third-place finish while collecting huge personal records.
While this race was a good showing for us, it still remains a stepping stone as we build up and work our way towards Nationals. We saw our strengths and weaknesses throughout this race and know that just because we beat Washington University on that day, it is still going to be a fierce battle at UAA’s in less than two weeks. Now is the time to fix those weaknesses and utilize our strengths as we move into the championship part of our season.
We cannot wait to welcome all UAA teams to run on a real cross country course as we host the UAA Championships at Van Cortlandt Park on October 30th.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted October 1
Even though we are more than a month into the cross country season, this past Friday’s race at Van Cortlandt Park was our first real race and test of the season. Unlike in the past, when we ran particular races that split the team up in different distances, as in the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational and the Stevens College Invitational, Friday’s Metropolitan Championship marked the first time of the season every member of the team was running the standard eight-kilometer distance in one race.
Friday’s race, however, was more than just a race. It was a test and indicator for the future.
We are hosting this year’s UAA Championship at Van Cortlandt Park, and Mets gave us our first glimpse of the course and an idea of what our racing strategy will be when we hit it again in less than three weeks. We know how we feel across the course. We know the pain of the back hills and cemetery hill, and we know where to make moves during the race to ensure that we run our best. This knowledge gives us a slight advantage over the competition. Also, since it was our first full race as a team, we are able to gauge ourselves collectively and individually. This race showed us our strengths and weaknesses and our first understanding of ourselves as a team. We know where we need to improve to keep on moving forward throughout the season.
With strong showings this weekend and the motivation to keep on getting faster, we are heading in a positive direction as we get into our bigger and more challenging meets left in the season. We are shipping off to Wisconsin this weekend to kick off the latter part of our season as we compete in the UW-Oshkosh Brooks Invitational.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted September 28
Running as a pack is a goal every time we run a cross country race. Running together not only produces a lower score by having each member finish closer together, but it instills a sense of domination over the rest of the field. Additionally, having your own teammates encouraging and pushing you throughout the race is the best psychology tool a runner can have. You are no longer just running for yourself, but for the people around you. This past weekend at the Stevens College Invitational, we ran as pack.
While treating this race as more of a tempo run, we were able to gather all of our teammates and work together. It was a sea of black leading both the 4k and 6k races as the top nine places in the 6k belonged to NYU, while five of the top 10 spots in the 4k race were also claimed by NYU. We were no longer individual runners, but one unit, working and weaving together along the course, leaving our presence known. This race, we practiced what we preached and reaped the benefits. Personally, there were times when I wasn’t feeling great. But, knowing my teammates were surrounding me, I pushed along for them and with them.
Even though we will not finish every race taking the top-nine places, this race was a great experience in running as a pack and witnessing the benefits. We now know the importance of sticking together and pushing each other. I feel like we walked away from this race with the knowledge of how important it is to run as a pack and help each other. This knowledge will be vital as we get closer to our tougher races where every point counts in separating the winners from the losers.
We will next test this knowledge on October 8 at the Metropolitan Championship at Van Cortlandt Park.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted September 21
The beauty about cross country is that you have one race to win it all. One race, one shot, and five guys to accumulate the lowest score possible. This is one aspect that makes cross country different from track and field, where there are numerous events and opportunities to score in each event, with the final tally coming after all events have been completed.
This past weekend at the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational, we got to experience a hybrid of cross country and track.
As the name indicates, there was a long race and a short race. The long race was 8,100 meters, 100 meters more than the normal 8,000-meter race, while the short race was 4,000 meters. Instead of scoring the first five runners, the scoring was split between the two races, with the first three runners scoring in each race. The scores from both races are then combined to obtain the overall team score. Therefore, there was strategy going into this meet in the sense of who was going to run in which race to give us the best opportunity to win. In the end, we put our longer distance runners in the 8,100m race and our milers and middle distance runners in the 4K race.
With the 8,100m race going off first, we had the chance to set the tone early and get ourselves ahead of the pack. It also gave us some insight into where we are early in the season as we get our first real race under our belt. With a strong three-man showing of first, fifth, and eighth by Andrew Zitek, Seb Schwelm and myself, respectively, our combined 14 points gave us the win in the Long race.
Now, it was up to the rest of our teammates in the 4K to run strong and maintain our lead. This is where it started to feel like track. With our race done, there was nothing left we could do but watch and cheer and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, we were not able to hold onto our win on Saturday. However, a loss will teach us more about ourselves then a win. Even though it is still early in the season, we know the work we have in front of us. It gave us an opportunity to reflect on ourselves and this season and the legacy we must uphold. The race on Saturday served as a wake-up call and a motivator. It is not easy to stay on top like we have in past years, and we are ready to get serious and keep NYU the best program in the UAA and the country!
Saturday also gave us perspective on the concept of our team. We had several strong performances that day, including a lot of the freshmen running their first 8,100-meter race. But, if we don’t all perform to the best, then the team suffers. Cross country is a team sport and the focus is on the team as a whole. Every runner counts, and that mentality is going to drive us the rest of the season.
People say misery loves company, but I feel success loves company even more. I want to be able to celebrate with my teammates after NCAA’s and know that we accomplished something together, something bigger than ourselves.
Tomorrow is another day and Friday is another race and we are ready to prove what we are really made of.
Kevin Bonilla is a sophomore on the NYU men's cross country team. He will share his thoughts in this space throughout the 2010 season.
Posted September 12
Even though the first week of classes just concluded, it is still hard to grasp that I am now a sophomore in college. Starting my second year of college doesn’t only mean harder classes, but more responsibility in both the classroom and with cross country. I am no longer the freshman with no pressures or expectations when it comes to running. Sophomore year really is the year where I come into my own on this team and help my fellow classmates establish our own legacy in our program’s storied history.
In order to establish such a legacy and keep the cross country program as one of the best in the nation, it starts with each member of the team. We are all responsible for the outcome of this season and the ultimate goal of bringing a national championship back to NYU. Whether it is our top guy or the guy bringing up the rear, we are all in this together.
We have made it out of the first week of practice, some of us running the most miles we have all summer, and added strong performances at the Monmouth University Cross Country Kickoff to put us at a starting point for the rest of the season.
Summer was all about putting in the miles and building a strong base for the fall. Now is the time to take the endurance we have amassed and mold our bodies into racing form. Championships are not won in September, but we must train hard and train smart in these coming months in order to get to the championship level we know we can reach at the end of November. We have a long season ahead of us, but I could not be more excited for what awaits.
Our next test is September 18th at the Dickinson Long/Short Invitational.
