Brought home my first individual Gold medal at the Penn Relays yesterday in 100m. The 100m is the only individual sprint event offered for masters athletes at this, the oldest and largest track meet in the world. Being a Penn Relays Champion has been on my bucket list for a while, since I ran my first 100m race here 12 yrs ago (PR 12.17). Since then, I ran the Penn masters 100m in '17 (Silver - 12.25), in '23 (Bronze - 13.19), and this year ... so this was my 4th attempt. Although quite slow, 13.23, a win is a win. Like last yr, this was without starting blocks, and on a cool and windy day, so conditions not perfect.
The whole experience was a whirlwind... fly out midday Wednesday, return home Thursday after the meet. Didn't get back to Sewanee til after midnight this morning. I'll talk about the trip, stay, and travel more in another post, but first about the races.
The schedule seemed crazy... 4x100m at noon, then the 100m 30m later and the 4x400m 30m after that. I was the only person in my age group and one of just very few in the meet to do all 3 masters events in the meet, all in a space of 1 hour.
But, it was actually good. I only had to warm up once and the 4x100m relay was a really good warmup for the 100m race.
100m
It wasn't the slowest M60 100m win, but close. Actually a few hundredths slower than I ran last year when I won Bronze. At least it was faster than the age groups above, including last years M60 winner. There were supposed to be 8 people in the race but 3 scratched. Former world champion and many time previous winner Don M., may have been injured but was in the race and lined up to my right, definitely something wrong since he finished well back in 4th. I knew Zac was fast but I didn't know the other guys. Last year, I think I lost the race in the last 15m so I didn't want that to happen again, so I made sure I relaxed and tried to maintain what little good running form I had til the end. It paid off. I got a fair start, decent reaction not a great drive phase, due to no blocks and very little practice with starts this season. I felt it stayed quite close through 70m and Gerald finished on the inside was just 0.16 behind me, Zac just 0.03 behind him, less than 0.20 separating the medals. This is the second year we've been required to race with no blocks. Never used to be this way. Afterward I took my spikes off and let my feet rest for a few minutes before having to jog to the start line for the 4x4. During my brief rest, was happy to have talked with Zac a bit and to learn his daughter is also a musician. That's the great thing about this event, the people. Especially to a loner like me who lives pretty much in isolation.
Photo: about 30m into the race
Relays
4x100 - Backing up to the first event, we were told to get there at 9:30. Well, I was 10 min early and ended up waiting almost an hour before Chuck left the table and delivered our packets. By the time we got to our team place in the stands, We had about 30m to sit before going to the field to warmup. When we left to enter the field, we were direct to the massive line at the paddock but it seemed like a ridiculously long line. So we later learned we were to enter at the masters table. So... we walked around the stadium one full revolution before we actually went in, so stupid and unnecessary. My foot didn't need that. I think one of the 100m guys missed his race because he was misdirected also.
Bruce led off and got totally smoked. He was I think tied for 4th in his leg. He looked injured, wasn't sure what happened. Daryl made up a little ground and handed it to Wally in third, well behind Flashpoint (Ron's all-star team) in first. Pony Express Club's 3rd leg was really slow and Wally handed it to me in second but by that time Don M. had nearly a 20m lead on me. I did make up some but the race was over before I got the stick. Anyway, a good opportunity to run at full speed and feel the track. Now I was warmed up.
After the 100m, I was pretty happy and not really looking forward to the 4x400, but like the 4x100, the race was already decided by the time I ran the anchor leg. Ron had 30m on me by the time I got the stick. Scott led off for us and we were down by 20m at first exchange. Bruce made up quite a bit of time on the leading team with a good 62 sec leg and Mark took the stick less than 10m behind. Mark lost almost 4 sec to the leading team, managing only a 65.37 leg (to Jerry's 61.86), so Ron had more than a 5 sec lead and it was over. I ran a respectable leg but didn't kill myself, my 61.19 split was the fastest of my team and the third fastest among all teams (behind Ron 59.80 and Oscar 60.14). Not a bad workout and I was able to sprint to the end with no rigging.
So I collected 3 more Penn Relays Medals, I now have 9 total. 6 from relays, and 3 from the 100m event. Here's the tally: 100m: Gold ('24), Silver ('17), Bronze ('23). Relays: Gold ('23), 3 Silver, 2 Bronze.
Winning the 100m at Penn was a nice consolation after the experience at Nationals and it puts me closer to the end of my competitive season and closer to wellness. More about the travel and the Penn Relays experience in the next post.
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