Mixed bag of Penn Relay's
Another Penn Relay's down. The OD 5k race did not go so well. Another 14:56. It seems that is all I can run these days. I got my feet tangled at the start, had to dodge around runner who almost went down, and split a ripping fast 75 putting me into dead last place. Great start if I may say so. I went through the mile in 4:44 after trying to work trhough some traffic, then nailed a 4:36 mile, then fell apart at the seams, again, giving me a crawling slow last mile that has been the norm of my last 4 5k's. Don't know what is up. It was 5.5 hours in a car the day of the race but that is no excuse. I had great traveling companions in Dan and Yvonne and did not have to drive at all so that is a crap excuse. I spoke with my coach after the race we will try a new approach when the spring season gets here in earnest. I unraveled as bad as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are right now. I am listening to them blow a 1 run lead in the top of the ninth by giving up 4 runs.
On to the good news, the corporate dmr. To let you know in advance, I love relay's. I never really got to run them in high school because I always did the mile and two mile indoors. I never ran outdoor track in high school because of tennis. My sophmore year in college I asked my coach why I never ran any relay's at all, he responded "You are an open runner." That was all I got out of him. He rarely said more than absolutely required. My senior year I was able to run the mile in the DMR indoors at Dartmouth and an anchor leg of a 4x 800m relay indoors at UNH in challenge cup action. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it even though I had run the mile previously in both meets. I think he put me in them more for a workout than to actually have me race the relay but I ran hard and to win. we actually won the DMR at Dartmouth. Wow, I just went way off track, where were we. Right last night's DMR. Well, the Vanguard A team with Tom Parlapiano and Steve Holman scratched on thursday because their master Jim Norris pulled a hamstring and could not go. That pretty much left it between us and GE A, who won last year's corporate DMR. This year our team was completely revamped with Joe Otto leading off with the 1200 (3:12) running in front for 1100m until GE passed him in the last straight. He did not mind being used in such a fashion, someone has to lead. Joe pased it to our secret weapon, Yvonne Mok, who laid down a killer 63.x 400m leg. It was against the extremely tough Alison Chiu who ran about 55 high and was moving. You may recognize her name because she has been on a few Austrailian national teams so she is get down fast. Yvonne then handed off to our resident master racing stud, Steve Sergeant, who flew down on his own dime last minute to complete our team, for which we are all very grateful. Steve, down about 9 seconds, smoked a 2:02 800m closing the gap significantly on Jim Watts. Steve and I had an excellent hand off with no momentum break which gained us a second on GE immediately. I was then about 2 seconds down and I ran as hard as I could to close the gap immediately to try and draft off of the leader, Joe Herington. I had the gap closed down about 150m in but the effort was significant. I spent the next 1.5 laps trying to gauge how strong the leader was and whether I should got at 600m or 300m. I did not feel bad about using him in such a way because the tactic was already employed by his own team in the 1200. I was unsure of my own legs because I was feeling flat due to the 5k the night previous. A fact Duncan reminded Joe of everytime we looped around by yelling, "stretch him out, he is not fresh." Thanks Duncan. I decided at the 800m that 600 would be too early and it would have to be the 300m. Right when we hit the backstretch on the bell lap I pulled out and started to go, but Joe responded and responded hard. We were also lapping people so we were going into lane 2 and 3. I believe Joe was using that to his advantage, as he should, to keep me weaving a bit and force me to go the long way around. With 120 remaining I kicked as hard as I could and suprised myself with speed I got to the track putting a second into GE on the last 120m. My last lap was a 60.x with 4:25, 26, or 27. I head those three splits so it was right around there. Raytheon finally broke the curse and took a win at Penn Relay's. Thiw will most likely was my last relay at the famed carnival. New blood is coming into Raytheon this spring and I know he will be a better miler than I. Justin will be healthy and hungry for his own victory and it would take and act of God for me to be a better 1200m guy than him. I am getting old but am no where near the required 40 to be the master's leg. I don't plan any drastic procedures to tranfer me into the female demographic which will be a spot safely in Yvonne's hands for some time now. Thanks to all my teammates and traveling companions. It was a hoot.
Please forgive the mistakes in this post. There is no way I am going back to proof read this stream of consciousnous garbage. Hopefully you will get the idea. Post a comment if your brain hurts reading this.
That's all I got.