Off the Track: A Perspective Series by Noah Jacobs
November 20, 2020 | Men's Cross Country
Noah and his trip to Terre Haute
MADISON, Wis.-- Redshirt junior Noah Jacobs shows us a first-hand point of view of life as a Badger track and cross country athlete in this year-long blog series. In his first post, Noah introduces himself and tells us how he acted as an unofficial coach to some of the freshman at the XC Town USA Meet of Champions in Terre Haute, Indiana.Â
Noah and his trip to Terre Haute
In my fourth year in Madison, taking classes toward an economics degree from the University of Wisconsin, and running cross-country and track and field, I received an email saying that Coach Mick Byrne asked me about writing some blogs for our social media. Let me clear the air on this, while I hadn't expected to write a blog, I'm positive they will be just as enticing as the first time you watch all the Harry Potter movies!
A little bit more about me, I hail from Corunna, Michigan, have had a golden retriever named Dharma since the first grade, I have a podcast, and recently watched every Harry Potter movie for the first time. I currently live with Olin Hacker: the teams' grandpa (in his sixth year, my goodness!) and I have learned an abundance about cooking and baking from him (seriously, the guy is a wizard in the kitchen).
This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to travel to Terre Haute, Indiana, to watch a cross country race featuring some of the Badgers. The guys did not disappoint, four guys ran under 24 minutes for 8K (essentially five miles, about 4:48 pace), three more under 24:20, and two more had a PR after that. I ran around, yelled at our guys hoping that my words encouraged them, and probably soaked up every ounce of rain possible, a classic day in Terre Haute!
I drove there with three of our freshmen, Nick Hruskoci, Evan Bishop, and Bob Liking. These guys are awesome, absolutely nerdy. They may have shown that they were rookies on their Badger Instagram Story takeovers but hopefully they'll learn from me!
Each one of them attempted to go to class through their mobile devices during the car ride, while I drove the stallion of a Subaru through the middle of Illinois. I was bored out of my mind. Bob ate some leftover salmon for breakfast, and he didn't even heat it up (large gasp from the crowd!). Evan was made fun of for his clash of clans base being rushed. Nick sang every word to every song that he had ever heard. My final note on the drive is this, Bob has a playlist that he loves to listen to, and honestly, that thing slaps!
We did our pre-meet shake out on the course, a few light strides, and then headed for our hotel. We picked up some Olive Garden to carbo-load and joined our other Badgers at their hotel room to tell some stories, eat some dinner, and play some music. We all sat there as if we were a jury while Jack Meijer pitched a presentation to try to persuade us as to why one of our teammates was lying about doing his homework, and everyone gave their vote to whether this individual was guilty or not guilty.
After returning to our room, Bob, Nick and I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (a great one). Wrapping up the night in a marvelous way, can you believe that Harry saves the day again (I never can!)?
The morning of the race, we watched Key and Peele, and SNL skits to keep us loose, and then it was Bob's time to seize the day. I would like to take credit as unofficial "Coach Noah" since two of the boys in my car ran big PRs. Evan Bishop ran under 24:20 and Bob Liking ran in the 24:40s for the first time ever. Listening to "The Stroke" by Billy Squire on the way to the course had to get the job done there.
After our boys crossed the line, we celebrated a great day of racing with some high fives, a few jokes, and go back to being the boys. What you wouldn't have seen in the results was Jack Meijer, Jackson Sharp, Shuaib Aljabaly, and Olin Hacker running down Olympic Medalist Paul Chelimo in the last kilometer. Now that was great racing to watch!
Another great day to be a Badger, and even though I am injured and unable to race and train with the boys right now, there's no other group I would rather be with.
On Wisconsin!
Noah Jacobs
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Players Mentioned
