NEW YORK -- On a cold November morning in northern Michigan, the grieving teammates did the thing that had brought them together.

They ran.

It reminded them of those cross country practices in college, when they first got to know Ryan Shay, when they first were inspired by him.

Later at the wake and then the funeral the next day, Shay's former Notre Dame teammates vowed to see each other more often, to not wait for tragedy to reconnect. Soon the talk turned to the most perfect of tributes: to finish a race in the city where Shay ran his last.