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

For Curtis and Cann, this weekend could mark the beginning of another long stretch of sugar deprivation. According to their newest agreement, they both have to finish in the top 25 in order to regain the right to hit the lines at the ice cream bar.

If they don't come through, it's no sweets until the Harvard-Yale-Princeton indoor triangular meet--in February.

Yes, February...as in four months from now.

So what's the outlook for these sugar-craved harriers?

"Mike has been running pretty consistently, and we are going to count heavily on Brian this weekend," said Crimson Coach Frank Haggerty.

The Harvard lineup may suffer from the loss of Oja, a sophomore, who is suffering from an ingrown toenail.

But despite injuries, losses to graduation, and the team's winless dual-meet record, the harriers expect to improve on last year's eighth-place finish.

"We're looking for fourth or fifth optimally," predicted Curtis.

The Crimson will also have a boost from the return of Paul Gompers, the world junior marathon record holder, who took last season off from collegiate competition. Gompers is heavily favored to win the meet, and has been picked as a strong candidate for the national championship.

"He's [Gompers] going to win Heps," Cann stated confidently, "and he has a pretty good chance at nationals. There's nobody that he can't beat."

When asked what he predicts for Gompers, Coach Haggerty stated simply, "He's a favorite, and he delivers."

But while the men are looking to improve on last year's finish, the women have a different objective. After all, how can you improve on five straight Heptagonal Championships?

"There's no question that a lot of schools are out to get us," Haggerty said, "and a lot of them think that this is the year they're going to."

The women have a young team--five of the nine varsity runners are freshmen--but Haggerty is optimistic about their chances.

"I think we certainly have a talented group of young people," he said. "We may not get the firsts and seconds [individual places] like we have in the past, but we hope to group people in the top 20. That will be the key for us."

With top runner Jodi Dushay out with a hip injury, Toby Warden and Katie Toner will be key figures in the Harvard lineup. Warden, a sophomore, has run consistently this season, and Toner finished 14th at last year's Heps.

"If each person has the right attitude," Haggerty predicted, "we'll do well."

"We're hoping to do as well in as we've done in the past years and keep up the tradition," said Captain Allison Keller. "But there's a lot more pressure this year."