Picture this: no oreo ice cream, no David's cookies, no Coca-Cola, no Budweiser--for weeks, maybe even months.

Sound like your worst nightmare?

For some of the Harvard men's cross country team, the nightmare is real.

During preseason workouts, six of the varsity harriers agreed to give up sweets, alcohol and carbonated beverages for the entire season in order to slim down to their ideal racing weights.

How are they doing?

"It's been a long season," one runner says.

Just ask Mike Curtis, one of the idea's originators, whose biggest passion in life is ice cream. "To give ice cream up that long is a great sacrifice," he said. "I have to resist make your own sundae and oreo ice cream all the time. I haven't had one ounce in six weeks."

But according to Brian Cann, another of the martyrs, Curtis hasn't been quite as angelic as he claims.

"He cheats!" Cann alleged. "He's had like two cookies."

"Yes, Michael Curtis is human; he's had a few cookies," the accused admitted. "But I'm down to the right weight. Brian, he's gotten heavier," Curtis claimed. "He must have something in his closet that we don't know about."

How about Seth Goldman, John Oja, Rich Glew, and Dudley McClelland, the other runners involved in this enterprise?

"We may have to shave Rich Glew's head because he agreed not to drink Coca-Cola and he's broken it blatantly many times," Curtis threatened, "but basically we're doing pretty well."

For most of the team members, the abstention is quickly coming to an end. Tomorrow the harriers compete in the Heptagonals--the Ivy League championships--at Van Cortlandt Park in New York City.

The men run at noon, with the women's race following at 1 p.m. Nine Harvard runners will compete in each varsity race, with the remainder of the team entering junior varsity competition. The Crimson will finish up the season at the NCAA district meet November 15.

Incentive