Cross Country

After missing much of 2013 season with illness, Lennon returns to Syracuse cross-country

During the heart of the cross-country season last year, Dan Lennon wasn’t running with his teammates. He wasn’t in the training room or practicing by himself, either.

Lennon was in his bed, unable to leave for about a week. He often felt like he was going to pass out. Usually, he’d throw up two or three times a day. It was good if he didn’t feel completely exhausted.

“He had been training hard and he had expected a lot from himself at that point,” said Betsy Lennon, his mother. “He had been training hard and then to get sick like that — he was pretty down.”

Lennon didn’t know what the sickness was, but his season was over. The junior spent the next few months resting, eating healthier and working out to bring his body back to where it was, and it’s given him extra motivation already this year.

He finished sixth overall at the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational at Pennsylvania State University on Saturday and is hoping for an All-American-caliber season.



“I think I must’ve just been working a little bit too hard and not eating enough or not getting enough sleep,” Lennon said. “But I’ve been taking care of that a lot more this season. “

It all started the morning of the Wisconsin Invitational in October, one of SU’s biggest meets of the year.

Lennon had just one race under his belt on the year — a 20th-place finish at Boston College three weeks earlier.

“I woke up and I’m like ‘This isn’t going to be a good day,’” Lennon said. “I had the warm-up for the race and I felt like I was going to throw up right there.”

Lennon decided to run despite feeling nauseous, a decision he regretted. He finished 281st out of 287 runners.

After being out for over a month, Lennon attempted his first workout since being sick in November. Head coach Chris Fox told him if the workout went well, he’d try running him in regionals.

It didn’t.

“I couldn’t break five minutes in the mile,” Lennon said. “It was horrible. I couldn’t even believe it. It was a terrible feeling. Everything bad that could’ve happened, happened.”

From there, he waited. Lennon didn’t try to work out again until December. He started slow with an hour on the stationary bike and 15 minutes of running every day.

During winter break was when it all came together. He was eating healthier, running two times a day and making sure to nap in between runs.

“It was difficult, but I just remember thinking, ‘I need to get back to where I was,’” Lennon said. “‘I need to be there for cross next year.”

Lennon contemplated skipping the track season to get back for cross-country, but was running full workouts again by January. At the Penn State Invitational on Feb. 1 he placed second overall in the men’s indoor track 5,000-meter race.

He then finished sixth in the 10,000-meter event at the Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Championship.

Heading into this year, Betsy Lennon said her son was dedicated to maximizing his last two years of college running. Fox said Lennon will be successful if healthy, and can be anywhere from the first- to the fourth-best runner on the team on a given day.

Lennon has increased the amount he stretches, and also bakes and grills his chicken instead of frying it, thanks to a cookbook his mother made him to take to school.

He’s also more conscious of the sleep he gets this season, staying in bed on his own terms.

“Now that he’s back this year, I think he’s kind of been on a mission to prove that he was supposed to be there last year,” junior Martin Hehir said. “He’s head and shoulders above where he was, so we’re really excited.”





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