For some runners, there is life after Yale

Interested in investment banking after graduation? Marketing, perhaps?

Or how about running? In the post-Yale world of cross-country running, there exists a league for one- and two-year male Ivy League graduates who ran cross-country in their undergraduate years.

Typically, the organizers of the league send out letters to new graduates who ran cross-country while they were undergrads, asking if they would like to participate. If the graduate shows an interest, the organizers ask that he stay in racing shape through the summer and run a few road races in the fall to show that he is fit. This year, two former Bulldog runners, Chris Gansen, ES '97, and Weldon Johnson, DC '96, managed to make the team despite the crude and often rustic conditions under which they trained.

The main race in which the team competes, called an "ekidon," takes place in Japan. This year's ekidon was run last Mon., Nov. 3. "It's really cool," Gansen said of the event. "There are support trucks and helicopters all over the place, and it is broadcast live all morning to about 35 million people." The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun provides travel, food, and housing expenses.

The ekidon is a point-to-point, 65-mile relay comprised of eight men and three alternates. Each runner runs between six and twelve miles, with most legs averaging about eight miles in distance. The course commences in Nagoya, Japan, at a Shinto shrine, and ends at the Ise shrine, approximately 65 miles further south. As each runner finishes his leg of the race, he passes on a sash, or "tasuki," that is worn on the shoulder of the runner. The race is the Japanese equivalent of the American NCAA cross country championships, but Americans are invited to increase the television appeal and "international flavor" of the event.

Differences between the Americans and their Japanese competitors are acute. "They trained from age 18 to run these types of loger road races while we trained mostly for five-mile cross-country races," Gansen said. "I was also led to believe that even though they are at universities, training definitely comes before schoolwork." The Japanese competitors' training distances are nearly double those that Americans run in their college careers.

Courtesy Karen Rosenberg

One problem with the league is that its members are scattered all over the country. The league relies on them to keep a strict regime of training on their own since they cannot practice as a group. Logistically, this is quite agreeable for some, but it is much more difficult for others.

Many of the runners live together in Boston, and Johnson lives near a Princeton cross-country alum in Washington, D.C. These people have a fairly easy time training together, but the story is not the same for Gansen.

Gansen is currently a law student at the University of Iowa, which is not only isolated from the rest of the team, but is also a much harsher climate for training. "The other guys have an easier time training together," Gansen said. "I just found some guys in town here who run and worked out with them until I was fit enough. The problem is, it has already snowed and it's usually below freezing by around 6 p.m."

The isolation also meant that Gansen was unable to compete in either of the qualifying races, the New Haven Labor Day 20k and the Ro-Jack 8k in Massachusetts in early October. The team's coaches live in Boston, so they never saw him run a single race.

Now that he's on the team, however, it provides a new kind of unity. "It promotes Ivy League camaraderie," Yale cross country coach Steve Bartold said. "People that competed against each other are now teammates. It gives people something to look forward to after graduation."

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