MIT XC, looking sharp by Alina G. '11

Now, I know I’ve had a tendency to bury the lede a bit, (although I’d argue the sample size, n=2, is too small to draw conclusions from), so today I’m going to shake things up and show you what I’ve got up front. And what I’ve got is this pretty amazing flowchart my cross-country co-captain and fellow blogger Maggie drew up:

You see, after every away meet our cross-country team goes to, our coach has us shower and dress up before going out to dinner. Running is a great sport, but no one ever chose to run because they looked pretty coming through the finish line. After a hard day in the dust and sun (August) or mud and rain (November) or sleet and snow (October) (you think I’m kidding, but this is Boston….) there is nothing like taking your hair out of its ponytail and washing off the grime of the day. The showering is the easy part, though-it’s the dressing up that gets tricky.

The guys team has it easy-there are really very few variations on the nice pants/collared shirt/tie ensemble. As long as they remember not to wear running shoes, they are set. The girls team has it much harder. First, there’s the dress/pants/skirt decision, and subsequent coordination of shirts and sweaters. Then, we have to pick shoes to match. We aren’t like the guys, who, if they are anything like my brother (a college freshman), have one pair of dress shoes (the same ones they’ve worn to banquets/dinners/dances/graduation since their feet stopped growing). I only wish I had a pair of shoes so comprehensive (actually, I don’t. But it’s the principle…). That’s where Maggie’s flowchart comes in-it takes all the worry out of pre-meet packing. You can sleep soundly the night before a race, knowing you will always be in style!

The flowchart gets even more awesome, though. One of our alums, Jen ‘09, is a whiz with animation, and she put together an interactive version! So now you, too, can decide just what to wear to team dinners….Just click here to begin!

This Saturday we put Maggie’s system to the test, as we had our first away meet, at UMass Dartmouth. I think our team cleaned up pretty well; the seniors are pictured below, looking classy (we’ve had a lot of chances to practice!). We are at Ben ‘12’s house for dinner, where his mom had prepared a delicious, coma-inducing amount of food (hungry runners love nothing better than home cooking after a race!).

Gihan ‘11, me, Paul ‘11, Anna ‘11, and Richard ‘11. (Anna and I are proudly sporting our taped feet. Our coach has us tape our arches for support before every meet, and we like to keep it on because it keeps our feet happy. I also happen to think it makes a great fashion statement…)