The Harvard men's and women's cross-country teams take on runners from around the region today at Franklin Park in the New England Championships for the men and the IC4As for the women.

Both teams are looking forward to this end of the season race as a chance to showcase the improvement they have made during the season. Today's race--the first of three championship races--is an important test for the teams as they head into the Heptagonal Championships next Friday and the NCAA Regionals on November 13.

Harvard Men

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Today's race will consist of 280 men from colleges throughout New England. With a talented field, the race should be competitive, with Dartmouth expected to have some especially strong runners.

With the race being held on the Crimson's home course, Harvard will look forward to the advantage it will have over other teams from knowing the trail well. In addition to competing in home meets at Franklin Park, the Crimson practices and works on race strategies on the course every week. Despite having this advantage, however, Harvard knows that it will still have to run hard to do well.

"Familiarity with the course with help," sophomore runner John Friedman said. "But we will still need good performances from everyone to finish well."

"The race will go out at 4:30 at the mile mark," senior Dave Martin said. "And if you are more than ten seconds back of that you'll be running the gauntlet the rest of the way."

Though the Crimson has not been practicing differently for this race than it has for other ones, the runners believe their hard work throughout the season will show in their performance today.

"The cross country season is so short, you cannot afford to not look forward to a race," Martin said. "The importance of the race means nothing unless you are prepared mentally and physically."

"If you've been shirking all season up until this point, you'll have your rear end handed to you on a silver platter," Martin added.

The team has been doing speed work this week, all in preparation for the Heptagonals, but the workouts should help the cause today as well.

"Our training is aimed at preparing the team to peak at Heps," Friedman said. "But we have backed off slightly the last two days to allow ourselves to be slightly rested."

Also, the team has some unique training routines that entail intensive stretching exercises, called asanas. Many on the team think these special exercises help them to remain flexible and relaxed even in the heat of a race.

"All teams train hard, but I believe that the asanas we meticulously perform after our hard workouts give us a competitive edge," junior captain Ed Baker said. "I feel that these yogic postures not only loosen my muscles but also loosen my mind, allowing me to meditate and focus on my upcoming races."

Along with hard workouts and intense stretches to get them physically ready, the team has been visualizing racing success to get them mentally prepared. Martin, in particular, likes to prepare by imagining himself as a classical Greek hero.

"In terms of preparedness, I have been visualizing the race relentlessly, often shrugging off my schoolwork to do so," Martin said.

Overall, the team is looking forward to a strong performance today to carry them through the remainder of the season.

"We are nearing the most important part of the season," Friedman said. "So hopefully all our hard work will show in improvement over times run earlier this year."

"I am excited about Friday's race," Baker added. "Our team has a lot of potential, as I have seen during some of our workouts, and I think that it's about time we realize this potential in one of our races."

Harvard Women

The Crimson will compete with 250 women from around New England on their 5-kilometer race at Franklin Park this afternoon.

Harvard has been working on decreasing the gap between its No. 1 and No. 5 runners. Last weekend at Yale, the Crimson took the No. 1 and No. 6 places, but its third runner placed only No. 14. In today's race, the runners will try to go out strong at the beginning of the race and work hard to maintain position.

"We have had some good practices at Franklin Park where we have been working on maintaining pace throughout the first two miles," captain Kate Moynihan said. "And we have been working at running in packs, so hopefully all of this will come together for us as a team on [today]."

Like the men's team, the women's squad is using this race as a test before Heptagonals next weekend.

"We are all really looking forward to this race because it will be our last tune-up meet before Heps," Moynihan said. "We really have to work on getting out fast at the beginning of the race at Heps, and this meet will be great to practice that."