Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. Every other Wednesday visit http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com for Cox’s latest blog entry and for more information, also please visit: www.joshcox.com
“I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.
Oh, I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.”
-The Ramones,
I Believe in Miracles“Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be there to help you along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s that name that helped to make you strong.”
- A Boy Named Sue
(A song written by Shel Silverstein made famous by Johnny Cash. A song about a dad who names his son Sue and leaves - the son vows to exact his revenge for his awful name. He finds his dad, fights him, his dad gets up, smiles, and explains why he named him Sue. )“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian literary giant & Casino fiend
Somewhere around 41 miles, in the high hills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains the race came undone. I could no longer run; a humbling experience for a self-assured 22-year-old college senior who, several hours earlier, had thought running a 50-mile race was a good idea. For the first time in my life I wished I were jogging – oh the horror – anything but the “J-word.” But alas, I was doing the S-word. Shuffling. Shuffling is what we runner’s do, we bypass the jog and enter straight into the shuffle. It’s part of the unwritten code – run slow, shuffle, but never, ever jog.
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Liberty senior Josh McDougal, seeking a second NCAA automatic qualifier in as many days at the Liberty Kickoff, fell just short on Sunday afternoon at the Tolsma Indoor Track Center. However, his official time of 7:57.90 set a facility record and earned provisional qualification to the national meet.
The race, which wrapped up the three-day, season-opening meet in Lynchburg, Va., was McDougal’s (Peru, N.Y.) third in the last two weeks. The stretch began with his NCAA National Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 19 and also included a 13:45.16 5K performance on Saturday.
The 3K field included just two entrants, McDougal and Liberty student Sam Chelanga, who placed second in Saturday’s 5K. McDougal pushed the pace from the very beginning, with Chelanga in tow, and the duo clocked 2:34 for the opening kilometer. McDougal then started to break away from Chelanga just before the mile mark, which the senior crossed in 4:10.
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Liberty University senior Josh McDougal, seeking a second NCAA automatic qualifier in as many days at the Liberty Kickoff, fell just short on Sunday afternoon at the Tolsma Indoor Track Center. However, his official time of 7:57.90 set a facility record and earned provisional qualification to the national meet.
The race, which wrapped up the three-day, season-opening meet in Lynchburg, Va., was McDougal’s (Peru, N.Y.) third in the last two weeks. The stretch began with his NCAA National Cross Country Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., on Nov. 19 and also included a 13:45.16 5K performance on Saturday.
The 3K field included just two entrants, McDougal and Liberty student Sam Chelanga, who placed second in Saturday’s 5K. McDougal pushed the pace from the very beginning, with Chelanga in tow, and the duo clocked 2:34 for the opening kilometer. McDougal then started to break away from Chelanga just before the mile mark, which the senior crossed in 4:10.
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Josh McDougal has been named USA Track & Field’s Athlete of the Week after winning the men’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championship Monday, November 19 at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute, Ind.
A senior at Liberty University, McDougal out-kicked Galen Rupp of Oregon in the men’s 10 km race in a thrilling homestretch battle, crossing the finish line in 29 minutes 22 seconds.
Rupp finished just one second behind in 29:23. McDougal is the first Liberty athlete to win an NCAA Cross Country title.
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The coaches’ pre-meet rankings held up as the top-ranked Oregon men and Stanford women won the team titles at today’s NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships at Terre Haute’s Laverne Gibson Championships Cross Country Course.
Liberty’s Josh McDougal took an exciting men’s race over a dry course with temperatures in the upper 50s.
Despite the near perfect racing conditions, the men’s race sent out slowly with nearly everyone still in contention through 3 km in 8:57, and the halfway point in 15:09.
“I wasn’t surprised that the race went out so slow,” said McDougal after the race. “Two years under nearly identical conditions, the race went out slow.”
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John McDonnell (Pictured) of Arkansas and Josh McDougal of Liberty lead a select group of coaches and athletes being honored as regional award winners for the Division I men’s cross country season.
The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced today the men’s coaches and athletes of the year for nine Division I regions.
McDonnell, the legendary Arkansas coach who has won 11 NCAA cross country championships, is the South Central Region Men’s Coach of the Year. The USTFCCCA Hall of Famer led the seventh-ranked Razorbacks to their 18th straight regional title.
McDougal is the Southeast Region Men’s Athlete of the Year. The Liberty senior won his third regional title Saturday in Louisville.
Each of the men’s coaches and athletes of the year advanced to Monday’s NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Mark Wetmore of defending NCAA champion Colorado is the Chick Hislop Mountain Region Men’s Coach of the Year.
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Saturday morning’s results at the New Balance Big South Cross Country Championships must have incited a bit of déj vu among the conference’s coaches. For the second-straight season, Josh McDougal led a 1-2-3 Flames finish on the men’s side, helping Liberty win its third-consecutive conference title. Meanwhile, the Lady Flames earned a narrow victory over Coastal Carolina for the second-straight time, in the meet hosted by UNC Asheville at Jackson Park.
McDougal (Sr., Peru, N.Y.) won the men’s 8K championship by 1:07 on a challenging course, becoming the first runner in Big South history to win four individual cross country titles. Jordan McDougal (R-Jr., Peru, N.Y.) and Jarvis Jelen (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) followed McDougal across the line, enabling Liberty to defeat High Point, 27-58, for its ninth Big South men’s cross country title. Winthrop came in third, with 75 points.
The Lady Flames saw four runners claim All-Big South honors, paced by conference runner-up Piper Newby (Sr., Hayden Lake, Idaho). Liberty held off Coastal Carolina by three points, 36-39, after defeating the Lady Chanticleers by five markers last season. The triumph was the fifth in school history.
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Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years BR Sportswear is closing out their line of high -quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!
Episode 90 of TheFinalSprint.com Podcast features my interview with Liberty University’s cross country and track & field standout JOSH MCDOUGAL.
In the interview, Josh talks about his season debut and victory at the Notre Dame Cross Country Invitational, going out on top in his final year of NCAA competition, his greatest accomplishments thus far, and plans to remain near Liberty when he begins his professional career.
Download the podcast to hear Josh discuss these topics, as well as, thoughts of running a marathon in the future, his predictions for the U.S. Olympic Men’s Marathon Trials, being home schooled during his high school years, being teammates with his brother Jordan, his running heroes, and the importance of both faith and family.
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Josh McDougal
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 10.3 MB | Length: 15:05 MIN
Episode sponsored by: Bill Rodgers Sportswear
After 21 years Bill Rodgers Sportswear is closing out their line of high-quality running apparel. Visit shopfest.com to take advantage of an unprecedented 50% discount on all in-stock items!
Liberty’s Josh McDougal has developed into one of America’s finest distance runners. With 4th, 13th, and 27th place finishes at the NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships, McDougal looks to be the top finisher this upcoming season.
Q. Can you explain how you first got starting in the sport of track and field?
I grew up running a few miles a week with my parents. They were trying to stay in shape, and I was always an active kid so it was always fun to go out and run.
A. When I was 10 my family moved a town over to Peru to be closer to where my Dad worked. One of our new neighbors was the high school cross country and track coach. She saw us out running and suggested we do the Junior Olympic series. That first year we did the JO’s Jordan and I just showed up and ran, no real preparation whatsoever. It was really hard, we both puked after our first race, and Mom and Dad were sure we would never want to do anything like that again. We both loved it though and have been serious ever since.
To read the rest of this interview conducted by our friends at Joffroi Running, please CLICK HERE.
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