The Longer the Wait, the Sweeter the Prize

By Danielle Kennedy

Even a cold and rainy Saturday morning doesn’t stop Dan Muldoon from running. 

He hates running in the mornings, and to make matters worse, it’s not even 8:30 a.m. and his shirt is already soaked with a mixture of rain and a cold sweat. 

Muldoon is doing a Fartlek run at Long Branch Park, alternating between an easy and hard effort.  Although he is a senior captain, Muldoon isn’t leading the group of Liverpool High School Cross Country runners.  Instead, he trails about 30 feet behind them.  He’s the caboose, the quiet leader that won’t let anyone fall off of the pace.

Long Branch Park (c) Danielle Kennedy

If you need a lesson on how to be patient, just ask Dan Muldoon.  Some may believe that waiting for a single moment is irrational; he just says it yields delayed gratification.  He knows what he wants and he works for it, but he’s not scared to wait for it.  He looms quietly behind his teammates, goals and competitors.




He wants, he works and he waits; his eyes never losing sight of the prize.  And when that moment is right, he breaks the reins and goes for the win.  He wants to outlast everyone and his teammates and coach have learned to count on that.

“Dan works hard and is always there when it matters,” head cross country coach Tracey Vannatta said in an email.  “I don’t think he is into big speeches, but the guys know he is in 110-percent when the gun goes off.”

The Beginning

Dan Muldoon started running Cross Country when he was a seventh-grader at Liverpool Middle School.  He wasn’t very good, the 10^th runner on the team at best, but he wanted to stay in shape so he stuck with it.  By the end of his freshman cross country season, Muldoon went from being at the front of the JV running squad to the back of the varsity squad.  At the 2012 Section III Class A Cross Country Championships, Muldoon was one of two freshmen who qualified to race for Liverpool that day, finishing as the teams sixth runner and 23^rd overall in the field of 125.  He scored points for the team, but Vannatta was certain that with the proper training he would develop into a top runner.

“When Dan was a freshman, I immediately picked him out as a runner that was going to make a difference for us,” Vannatta said.  “I feel we have a solid trust in each other, and that is why we succeed.”  

 

Going into his sophomore year, Muldoon didn’t just want to train and compete in the company of the best.  He wanted to be the best. 

To do so, he started by investing in his coaches and his teammates.  He ran more miles, incorporated healthier foods into his diet, and followed closely on the heels of senior captain Drew Henry.  Finishing ahead of Henry at the 2012 Sectional meet, Muldoon earned himself an individual ticket to the NYSPHSAA Cross Country Championships alongside his teammate, freshman Ben Petrella.  The two finished 51^st and 15^th overall in the Class A race. 

One week later, the two led the team to a sixth-place finish out of 28 teams at the New York State Federation Championships, where Muldoon finished nearly 50 seconds ahead of Henry.  The pieces were finally starting to come together, just as Vannatta had predicted.   

“I obviously got physically stronger,"Muldoon said. "I mentally matured, and it was just a combination of a lot of things that just had to do with experience and getting older.”

The Competitive Edge

In the winter of 2012, Muldoon decided to join the swim team, a true test to see how fit and strong he really was.  Because he was coming off of cross country season, his swim training got a late start, but head swimming coach Mike Ferrell said that in his first race in the 200-yard freestyle, you would’ve never known.   

“He took it out as a competitor,” Ferrell said.  “That set the theme of Dan and swimming: He just goes for it.” 

Once he got going, he didn’t stop. 

Seniors of the Liverpool Cross Country team
(c) 2014 Danielle Kennedy

Muldoon’s motivation in the pool carried into his third cross country season.  As a captain, he led the team to a second-place finish at the 2013 Sectional Meet, first place at the Federation Championship, and third at Nike Cross Country Regionals.  For the first time the Warriors received an at-large bid for the Nike Cross Country National Championship in Portland, Oregon.  Going into the meet, the men were ranked as the No. 7 team in the country but on race day, they only managed to finish 20th.
Muldoon said that although he was the first finishing scorer for the team, he was still disappointed.

“If I come in third but our team still does amazing, I don’t really care that much. Like nationals, I came in first [for our team] but we did awful so I was upset that we did bad.  People don’t understand that cross country is a team sport.”

When he arrived home from nationals, he wasted little time getting back into swimming shape.  Ferrell said that while Muldoon may have come back in great running shape, it still took six to eight weeks to acclimate to the resistance of the water.  But by the end of the season, he had impressed Ferrell once again.  In just one year, Muldoon shaved his 500-yard freestyle time down from 6 minutes and 2.50 seconds to 5 minutes and 44.46 seconds and competed at sectionals in the butterfly and backstroke. 

“This reflects a very steep learning curve, attributed to cognitive attention to details, intrinsic motivation, hard work, and natural athletic characteristics,” Ferrell said in an email.

But Muldoon’s successes don’t just come from natural athleticism.  In fact, his impressive speed rating wasn’t the only reason his teammates voted him team captain for two consecutive seasons.  He’s an A student, enrolled in AP Statistics, Pre-Calculus through Onondaga Community College, AP Economics, and an English class through Syracuse University.  He’s also a varsity club representative and senior class president. 

But when the gun in a race sounds, Muldoon isn’t thinking about combinations or transformations – the only limits he sees are the physical and mental battle between what he wants and how badly it hurts to go and get it.    

“I drive myself off of getting mad when I’m running, so I try and get myself mad.It just helps me push myself and get past the pain factor.  It makes me mad that I have to race, even though I want to. After the race, I’m glad I did, but at the start of the race, I’m angry that I’m about to race.” 

Liverpool, CNS, Auburn Duel Meet at Long Branch Park
(c) 2014 Danielle Kennedy

Racing next to his teammates also gives him that competitive boost. 
   

Senior Connor Buck says that when he’s racing alongside Muldoon and Junior Ben Petrella, the three push each other to run faster.  While they can’t read each other’s minds, a few words of encouragement exchanged under a free breath helps keep the group going.  When one falls off of the pace, a quick hand gesture commands a short surge to “just go” and move up with the rest of pack. 

But more often than not, Muldoon is just a few feet behind.  He says he’s patient, but Buck says it just makes the rest of the runners, and even Coach Vannatta, a little nervous.

“He’s a little too patient sometimes,” Buck said.  “But if he says he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it.  That’s just how Dan is.” 

“I definitely like to go out slower and reel everybody in,” Muldoon said.  “It’s a way better feeling to know that you’re catching them instead of them catching you.  I’ve had races where I’ve raced well and went out fast for cross country, but mentally, the whole time I was racing, I was worried I’d get caught, and I think that’s the reason why I actually ran fast.” 

“Dan is a hard worker but has a fear of getting injured from doing too much of anything,” Vannatta said.  “This is a healthy fear but because of it, he is not the one pushing the training paces and mileage limits.”

But for Muldoon, mental training is more important than pushing paces or crushing mileage goals.  A strong mind, he noted, holds more value in some cases than a strong body.  Throughout the course of the 2013 season, Muldoon proved this to be true. 

He finished first at the team time trial in August and was the team’s third and fourth scorer for the first two races of the season.  When championship season arrived though, Muldoon was the first scorer for the team when it mattered most.  He was the team’s first scorer at the Manhattan Invitational, New York State Federations, Nike Cross Country Regionals, and finally, Nike Cross Country Nationals.   

Where’s He Headed Next?

This season his sights are set on leading his team to beat rival Fayetteville-Manlius at the Section III Championships, be a top-five finisher at the state meet, and finally, help the team earn another trip back to Oregon.  Four years ago, Muldoon would’ve only dreamed to be the catalyst for a trip to NXN’s – now, it’s his reality.   

“I’ve learned that a lot of things with running, and I guess life in general, is more mental than it is physical,” he said.  “If you mentally think you can do something, then you physically probably can. I guess that I’ve learned to push myself further than I have before.”

Back at Long Branch Park, the workout is almost over.  What was a tight pack 20 minutes earlier is now just a string of boys running in a line about 50 feet apart from each other.  But up front, Petrella, Buck, and Muldoon have regrouped and pulled away.  They finish up and run into the parking lot to stop and wait for the rest of the guys.  They exchange high fives and "good jobs." 

 It’s still cold and wet but a faint steam floats atop the sweaty group and slowly disappears.  When everyone is ready they throw on their sweatshirts, put their hoods up and begin their cool-down jog towards Onondaga Lake.