Congrats, Comrades

Sunday, 12/27/09--The Armory. What a great, but long day. We left at 10:40 to meet some of the crew in Trevose at 11:30 so that we could follow them to NYC. Encountered our share of traffic. Got there, thinking we were late, but soon realized they were an hour behind. The hour eventually became 2 hours. Of course I did two rounds of warming up and admittedly was a little concerned about my left hamstring, which was rather sore and a little knotted. I applied icy hot, massaged it really well, stretched it constantly and eventually borrowed "The Stick" from Kevin. This seemed to help. He was taken aback when I said I used a rolling pin at home. Even though it is the one my daughter uses for art, he said he hadn't planned to eat at my house anytime soon! Could you blame him?

Here is the cut and dried summary: My club team, Greater Philadelphia, went to The Armory to attempt to break the American Club record of 8:15.29 in the 4x800 for 40-49 year old age group. We had two relays, an A and a B. I was on the B team, whose job was to push the A team. (I think we had a no-show on the B team and had to pick up a "random" masters runner who had just finished running the 1500!) Anyway, the A team killed two American records, the age-group club record and the overall club record when we went 8:07+. I know the approximate splits, but am waiting for something more definitive. The B team's first two legs held close and steady with the A team. Chuck wanted to front-end the race so we could push them. Our first leg was run by Phil Reilly from the TNT Track Club. He ran against Scott Landis, a rematch from last year when GP went up against TNT. This time, however, it was Scott who outran Phil and put the A team in first. I ran second leg on the B team against Bob, and I was clocked at 2:02 (29,59,1:30,2:02)! Can you believe it? It's not like I've been doing tons of speed work. In fact, I figured that I'd run about 2:10, given my fitness level. But I hung in there with Bob, not giving much to chance. 

Race video: https://share.icloud.com/photos/060Hbdz6aJw0P28m_ehlJs5Aw (provided by Nick Damalas, Jan. 2023)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7BqmFSDYkFVzJ59xMv9IWH0wX83gFIg/view?usp=drive_link

https://share.icloud.com/photos/060Hbdz6aJw0P28m_ehlJs5Aw (A review of the video indicates the following splits: 28.2, 30.4 (58.6), 31.1 (1:29.7), 32.5 (2:02.2) (58.6/63.6)). https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0d9ltsPgajB2fsgCdz4IM0WqA#4x800_race_video_(provided_by_Nick_Damalas%2C_Jan_2023) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7BqmFSDYkFVzJ59xMv9IWH0wX83gFIg/view?usp=drive_link There is something magical about that track! It's fast and furious! I just have to see whether my son was accurate. Even if he was off by a second or two, this will have been my fastest time since college...not that I ran the 800 much then. I figure that I can discern my time from Bob's, Scott's or Phil's ran. I remember seeing the clock after I handed off to Chuck, who ran third. The fourth guy was run by someone whom we "picked up" from the crowd and had just completed the 1500. The B team ran 8:48 and change. The let down will come next week when I run the open 800 on Swarthmore's slow track and without the excitement of a relay or atmosphere of The Armory. Oh well. That's life.

Time for my recovery run!

Saturday, 12/26/09--I wound up going to Penn Oaks to avoid the steady rain. I ran a mile on the treadmill for warm up purposes and stretched really well. I cooled down a mile afterwards.