Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Running Out of Resources

First I would like to apologize for my delay in writing. If you follow my blog, you know it's one of my 11 goals in 2011 to update weekly, and clearly I have already broken this goal. (Amanda and Marissa may be happy though, because this does mean that at least one round of drinks is on me at the end of the year.) That said, I'm not discounting this goal, and I still want to update weekly for the rest of the year. I feel, quite often, like grad school has swallowed me whole, but I'm surviving and enjoying it, I swear! It's just far more work than I had ever anticipated.

Well tomorrow is officially Marine Corps Marathon registration day, and I am very excited. This will be my second experience with 26.2 miles, and I am thinking it may even be better than my first. Training for Philly was certainly a challenge — blood, sweat, and tears all included — and I expect MCM to top my experience, since it is, after all, the People's Marathon. MCM is the 4th largest marathon in the country, with over 30,000 runners. Plus, I'll have the benefit of training in the area since I live close to the course. This year I will be running with friends and family, making it that much better.

Since my time off from Philly, I've had some time to reflect on how much I've grown to love running. Despite the challenge of working and going to school full time, I've been able to fit running into my schedule (although not as much as I'd like). After a great run, I feel so much more focused than I did beforehand. I love it.

Which is why I've been following a recent story from University of Delaware, my alma mater, about the cutting of the men's cross country team in the name of Title IX. Starting this fall, the team will now be considered a club sport, not varsity. Title IX, most famously known for promoting women's equality in sports, includes a standards that requires varsity sports to offer funding in proportion to the number of male and female students. The university is using this reason to cut the cross country team, and to no longer allow runners to compete at a varsity level, according the university newspaper, The Review.

As I started to read further into this story, I was interested in why it was the cross country program, whose indoor team was also made a club sport in 2008, that is being bullied by Title IX. As a student at Delaware, our football team was the golden standard of sports, despite the fact that it is Division I-AA, and not even Division I. Our basketball team has bordered on atrocious since before I was even on campus, and I still can't recall ever talking to a person who actually attended a game. Jeff Pearlman's Sports Illustrated column cites some of the numbers regarding the football team: 103 total members on the roster, four quarterbacks, 10 running backs, 14 wide receivers, 16 defensive backs, and four kickers. Yes, four kickers. And amazingly, it is the 12-person total roster, with a budget of $20,000 and no scholarships that is cut. Pearlman also cites that the attendance at Delaware Stadium for the I-AA semifinals, in which Delaware played, was only 10,317 — in a stadium that can fill up to 22,000. Football isn't a great "money-maker" for the university, and neither is basketball — arguably the two most popular college sports. So what is the purpose of cutting an entire program of one of the least expensive sports, when the larger, and over-rated programs suffer no consequences?

I wonder if in the the future this will come back to hurt the university. There will be less interest among students as they no longer have an option to run at the varsity level. It's possible that other students may not consider Delaware as a formidable option because the sport they love may run the risk of being cut as well.

As a woman, I understand the reasoning for Title IX, and I am grateful for laws that do promote equality. Women's sports are important. But as a runner, I have serious qualms with the idea to cut cross country. Why couldn't the football team scale back its roster? No, running is not the most exciting or the flashiest sport — but those who do it are incredibly dedicated and do have a deep love for just getting outside and moving. Mostly, I feel for the students who came to Delaware to be a part of a great program, only to lose the opportunity to do so. It may be too late for the men's cross country team, but I do hope that in the future the university finds a better way to enact the guidelines of Title IX.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Update: Is it May Yet?

I'd like to start off by apologizing for my delay in writing. Who would have thought going to grad school full time and working 34 hours per week would be so time consuming?

Anyway, January is officially over which means that I should have made exactly one month's progress on my 11 in '11 list. I'm not sure how you'd measure such a thing, but I think an update should be sufficient.

Already, 2011 has brought a few changes into my life and I think that for the most part they have been positive. As I mentioned earlier, I started grad school -- although started is very much an accurate term for what I've done, since thanks to the snow, two of my classes were canceled during the first week. However, I'm still seeing how much work school will be throughout the next few years. As hard as I worked, and as much as I read as an undergrad, I don't think my experiences compare significantly to what I have to do now. It's amazing how much time it takes to process the material and make progress through my assignments. On the bright side, I do like what I'm doing and I am interested in what I'm learning. I also feel much more prepared going into grad school than I did transitioning from high school to college. I know the effort these classes take, and what professors expect from students. My goal of a 3.7 GPA is still a long ways away (where are you May?) but I'm doing everything I can now to get there.

My blog dedication has overall been pretty good -- right? I've bene updating weekly, with the exception of last week. But I'm going to try my best to update twice this week to make up for it. Like I said, grad school completely steals any moments of free time I may have, and combined with half marathon training, even sleep feels like its become optional. But, my blog posts this month have had some of the highest numbers of hits I have ever had. So I'll keep writing as long as you keep reading.

Before the year even started, I began reading Time Magazine's list of the 100 greatest novels ever written. The first book on the list, The Adventures of Augie March was so boring that I simply had to put it aside for the time being, which I never like to do. But don't worry! I promise to overcome my boredom and cross Augie of the list even if it's the only thing I do this year. I'm determined... just not right now. Since it was before the year started when I began and quite Augie, it doesn't really count yet. I'll see him again in the spring.

And it actually ends up being quite perfect because I'll have plenty of time for reading this spring, since -- wait for it, wait for it -- I'll be spending a lot of time on the plane because I booked my trip to Europe! I am officially traveling through Europe, visiting Paris, Rome, Florence and Barcelona after my classes end. I'm so excited for this trip, and it is definitely the light at the end of the tunnel right now. I think it's going to be an amazing experience. It's always a great feeling to say you will do something for a long time, and then to actually act upon it. So until then, I'm counting the days until I'm standing next to the Eiffel Tower.

So there you have it. My 11 in '11 so far. I hope you're enjoying your 2011 as much as I am.