Penn Relays report

What a day: at the biggest track meet in the world

Silver Medal in the M50 4x400m relay with the Greater Phily Track Club.  

6th in the 100m dash with a PR 12.17.

A visit that started wonderfully and ended up crazy.   First the races...

I ran three events. T'was a nasty blustery cold day ... mostly cloudy in the morning, 50ºs, stiff wind.

4 x 100m relay
My main concern was hurting myself in the first race, where I anchored a non-competitive 4x100m team to a 6th place finish.  No place to really do much warmup once inside the paddock area, and with the cold weather, seemed a recipe for injury.  But... it went fine, except I left a bit late and received the handoff before hitting my stride.  Wanted to be conservative and make sure I got the stick.   Felt great.  Fun to run in that huge stadium.  Great warm up.

100m dash  UPDATED
They've updated the results - I finished 6th and my time is official.  12.17
I was second alternate and knew there was at least one scratch.   I knew my chances were good that I'd run and it was not confirmed until the last minute.   Former World Champ A. Tissenbaum blew away the field with an 11.45.  The rest of us were so close, 5 of us within .12 seconds.  (That'll teach me to lean at the finish).  I really wasn't sure what place I had taken officially but I saw my time flash briefly on the scoreboard: 12.17.   So, all the way home, for hours, thinking the first thing I would do when I got home was check the official results online to make sure.   When I did ... I was shocked and angered.  My name did not appear in the official results... at all.   There was a screw up between the timers and the clerk.   They certainly must have the photo for this race so I sent an email to the masters director who said he'd send a request to the timers.   I definitely saw my name on the scoreboard and saw my time.  I just hope it becomes official record.   I was in lane one.   C. Davis in lane two ran 12.05 and took second - he was no more than a meter ahead of me, half a step.   I'm happy about it, a real good first 100m race of the season... and no injuries!  But... I want to see my damn time documented!  To run a PR and not get official credit for it - that is crime.

4 x 400m relay
I knew this would be crazy - 25 teams in one heat... so I did NOT want to run lead off.   Ray convinced me that it would be best for the team if I did.   So, I agreed.   Better that than anchor.   I did not want the pressure of running anchor.   Sprint Force America - the defending champs - showed up with 2 really fast guys, capable of sub 53.  One of them was to my left at the start, D. Gatling.  It was a mass group start - no one in specific lanes - everyone fighting for the lead.   I was elbowed hard and did not get out well.   I was in 4th position on the first turn and and was really just floating down the back stretch, didn't feel like I was running fast.   So, I took off into the last turn and passed a guy - running in lane 2 on the turn which I knew would cost me time.   I came to hand off to Jeff in third position.    He passed someone, moving us to second.  The rest of the race was between us and Sprint Force America.   We ran away from the rest of the field... beating the third place team by almost 6 sec. Scott and Ray ran killer legs.   Can't wait to see that Penn Relays Silver Medal.  My split was 56.60, surprised it was even that fast considering the start and passing on the turn.

The Crazy
The race finished late.   I didn't get out and to meet my dad until well after 5.  My flight boards at 6:40 and we were a 20m train ride to the airport.   We missed te first train and had to wait til 5:36 for next train.   A couple minutes before the train pulled in, I realized I did not have my wallet.   Frantically searching, looking through my bag and under benches, it was lost.   My dad picked up my spike bag and got on the train.   I missed the train in the confusion.   As a last ditch hope, I asked the train station cops if they had found a wallet, they said yes and described it as mine.  YES!!  But I'd have to take the train in the opposite direction to get to customer service to retrieve my wallet.   Which I did, and then caught the 6:10 train back to the airport.  My dad saved my ass by calling me and telling me of a terminal change for my flight.   If I had gotten off at the terminal that was indicated on my ticket, I would certainly have missed my plane.  I made it by 5 min ... sprinting to the gate.

The Nice

My hotel was simple and cheap, but in a beautiful waterfront location with a great seafood restaurant and Printz Park next door.  I had a great crab cake sandwich and french fries ... something I would never normally eat.  It was awesome.  I ate while sitting by the water's edge.

The Cool
Standing up to get off the plane in Phily, who do I see sitting in front and all around me?  Heh... the MTSU Track Team.   Asa looked at me and smiled ... probably thinking, "this guy follows us everywhere."  The next morning while walking from the train, I look up and see MTSU's coach Kelly looking out of the van yelling to me, "Hey, I see you made it!"  I later saw the team getting ready in the paddock to run just after my event.   It was cool.

GO MTSU Blue!!!   The MTSU Men's 4 x 400m team is in the Penn Relays Collegiate FINALS on Saturday.  To put it in perspective, the MTSU 4 x 400m team could have beaten our masters team by 38 seconds!   They'd almost be able to lap us.

Inventory

The groin strain is definitely related to the pubalgia issue, but it feels fine now.  But, I'm really tired.  I'll know better tomorrow how my body is holding up.  I have the opportunity to run 3 masters meets in the next 2 weeks were I can run all 3 sprints if I want.   The big one is SE Masters on 5/12.