Rudyard Kipling was a 4:30 Miler

It is tough being at home when Penn Relays is going on. As you can see from my Penn Relays post earlier this week (and be sure to check that out), it is one of my favorite weekends of the year. However, sometimes you have to pay attention to the bigger plan and hope that you’ll be able to see Usain Bolt in person some other time.

Also turns out that I had some work to do this weekend. I am closing in on the end of the semester, which for me means the end of the line and hopefully a Master’s Degree at the finish. But I am working on my capstone project, and yes (surprise!) it is running based. I am doing a little piece on the mile and what it means to me and what it should mean to others. Part of it looks like it is going to be published so things are looking good on that front.

I bring this up because I have been reading any book I can find on distance running, and especially the mile. I would bore you with quotes that I found interesting, but then I was glancing back through Once A Runner, the book that many claim is the best running book ever written. In all honesty, it captures the essence of the sport and I think does a fantastic job. One section at the beginning of the book is introducing the protagonist, Quenton Cassidy.

On the third floor of Doobey Hall a battered oak door held two three-by-five index cards neatly thumbtacked one atop the other.

The top one said in Smith Corona pica:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling, 1892

The other card read:
Rudyard kipling was a 4:30 miler.
-Quenton Cassidy, 1969

Now I laugh at this quote because here I search long and hard for quotes that will help my piece out and then this Cassidy character tells me that they all mean nothing unless the guy who wrote it is fast.

But Cassidy is full of it, because Kipling can write. Sometimes that’s better than running fast.
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Had another good week of training and getting pumped to head out to Stanford to race this coming weekend. Should be a nice 1500 heat and hopefully I can get another good race in. It’s all still leading up to hopefully being ready to go come USAs…so just gotta keep on the grindstone and get in some races in the meantime.

Workouts this last week were strength based with some 800s on Tuesday and then some split 800s (5-3) on Friday at more 1500 pace effort. Probably wont back off too much this week and then pop a nice time out in some Cali weather…definitely looking forward to it.

Let’s Go!

20 Bucks

Mayfield Drive between Maplegrove Ave. and Forestdale Rd. in Royal Oak, Michigan was home to many an athletic endeavor for my young self. This was the block in front of my cousins’ house. Whenever my brother and I visited, there was bound to be a sporting event. Whether it was road football (I was like the Randy Moss of Boylan Backyard Football with glue-like hands), street hockey (where my cousin Joe once turned into Dominik Hasek and allowed him and my brother to win a huuuuge upset over the neighbors Jeff and Matt), or wiffle ball, we got after our sports.

But one sporting event stands out on that strip of road: The famous races against my Uncle Gerry. They started when we were fairly young. We would line up at the neighbors driveway under one of the humungous Oak Trees and race to the stop sign at the corner. We wouldn’t beat him. He had an amazingly quick start and then would pull away from us. The catch was, if we ever beat him he would give us $20. That was a lot of dough to a 9-year-old kid.

Then something started to happen. We started getting bigger and faster.

At the same time, Gerry’s first step slowed a little. So, he did what any Uncle would do who didn’t want to just give $20 away. He shortened the race and started to “improve” his start.

We moved about 10 feet up from the driveway, then 20…soon it was only a 25-yard race. He would also false start pretty much every race we ever ran. He would be called out, return to the starting line, and we would re-start the race. He would false start again, and the process would be repeated. Soon enough we would just let him false start and accept that we were going to have to come back from three meters down in a 20-meter race. (ed.’s note: my Uncle Gerry would, and certainly will, vehemently deny any false start accusations.)

My brother, Will, was the first to beat him. A few years passed and he tried to avoid my cousin, Joe, and I since it was clear he was in trouble. We eventually talked him into it at Uncle Gerry’s lake house in Empire. Yeah, he got a false start, but we still caught him. And, yes, Uncle Ger gave us the 20 bucks.

Now it’s hard to compare $20 to $10,000, but the Puma Mile on Friday night kind of reminded me of those races down Mayfield. Mainly because that mile on Friday night at Mt. Sac was one of the funnest (yes, I know that’s not a word) races I’ve run in a while. Also, some girls got a head start.

I’ll let you watch the race and the interview on your own and take what you will from those. But know that I was pretty broken by that loss. I threw what I had on the track, and it just wasn’t quite good enough. Sometimes that is how it goes.

But also know that I needed that race. I hadn’t raced like that in a while, where it was all out there, nothing held back. I “Let’s Go!”ed and it felt good. The best races of my life have been the ones where I just ran, nothing else. Didn’t give myself time to think, just tried to win a race. I did that again on Friday night, and even though it wasn’t worth $10,000, it worked out in different ways.

And I do think that was one of the best races I have raced. Now I just have to make sure I can pull out a few more of those the rest of the year.

And as for my Uncle Gerry, he may have twenty more dollars to give away, my little sister just ran her first track meet as a 7th grader…and she’s ready to roll. Let's GO!!

Race footage: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236734-2010-puma-mt-sac-relays/326815-m-mile-h01-2010-puma-mile-trackside

Post-race interview: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236734-2010-puma-mt-sac-relays/326898-liam-boylan-pett-runner-up-at-2010-puma-mile

Headbands

As some of you may know, I do like to wear a headband when I race. I also like to wear a headband when I am busy doing super awesome LBPjams in my living room. But some of you may not know why I wear a headband for competitions. Well, this entry will have some answers.

In the past I have mentioned how basketball players have an affect on me. Cool basketball players especially. This has been true for an extremely long time. Growing up, I was sure I would be the next Isiah Thomas. Then, I realized I was white and probably not going to be taller than 5’10”, so I adopted the hope of being Dan Dickau instead. Even so, my basketball skills dwindled as I decided to run more and more. (I know, hard to believe after seeing some of those nerf hoop dunks.)

But just because I wasn’t going to play bball in college didn’t mean that I was going to stop trying to be like a basketball player.

It so happened that my sophomore year of high school my cross country team had a fairly good shot at winning the State Championship. My brother had left for Columbia, but we had some older guys on the team who stepped up in a leadership role. Jimmy Watkins was our team captain and he and I were watching the basketball playoffs the summer before that cross season. The Charlotte Hornets caught our attention. The entire team wore headbands. And as Sports Illustrated put it: “their headbands, a symbol of solidarity that they adopted for the postseason.”

We were in: Headbands it was.

And so, we rocked headbands as a team that year. All seven that toed the line each race. Bright white ones that turned brown and yellow as the season wore on. A stench would surround our pack as we huddled together for the pre-race chant. And a stench would follow us as we made our way through the finishing chute after the race.

In the end, we didn’t win our state title. It was the year that my appendix burst three days before the state finals. The team ran valiantly for a 9th place finish without me (even with a terrible finish from me we would have been 2nd). But I’ve worn a headband ever since, and I don’t plan on stopping soon…
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Had a nice week of training in the HEAT of DC. Friday was the big workout this week and was able to have one of my better 5k type workouts that I’ve ever put together.

400-66.2, 800-2:12, 1200-3:17, 1200-3:21, 1200-3:15, 800-2:04, 400-60(31-29)

That was the workout…hopefully the track fans can understand what it means. The first number is the distance run and the second is the time it took. I was sucking wind by the end, but I’m definitely in some good shape.

Have the Puma mile this weekend out at Mt. Sac. Flotrack will be showing it live, so be sure to check it out (10:45 Eastern Time). http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view/236732-puma-mile-2010

LET’S GO!!!!

Easter With the Fam and April Fools Runion

Sorry for the delayed post on this one. Yes it is Tuesday. And yes I did promise posts by Monday, but it was Easter Weekend and my family was in town, so you’ll have to give me a break. It was a big week last week, so there is a lot to update on.

I had a race, a tough workout, and some serious PowerBar eating, so all in all it was a pretty good week.

The race wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done for what we were trying to accomplish this weekend. I was supposed to make sure that it went pretty quick from the gun. This way I would get some lactic acid buildup and remember what it felt like to rig home the last hundred of a race. So, this meant that I was going to straight lead a race for the first time in a loooong time. The problem is, my first step isn’t crazy quick, and I was out the back the first 100-meters. But I could tell people were settling so I rolled through the next hundred and found myself in the lead at the 200 mark.

Yikes, it wasn’t that much fun to be in the lead. You notice the wind more, you notice the speed more, its tough. But it was definitely something I needed to do. I came through 400 in 54low and then rolled around the 600 in 1:21low. I tried to hold off the field around the turn and a runner went by me with 120 to go. Now normally in that situation I would throw in the towel. But I fought my way through the last 80 and even started catching the leader with about 40 to go. Alas, the track ran out of room and I found myself in 2nd, but a 1:49.82 opening 800 leading the whole way will have to do for now.

And looking at what else what down this week in terms of training I was pretty happy with how it all turned out. Tuesday was a 5xmile workout with the last mile at 4:30, so I ended up being pretty tired heading into Friday’s race. Got in my 72 miles for the week and now in the midst of another big week. With Some big races in Cali coming up, we’ll cut down the mileage a little bit, but the season is still very young, so there’s a long way to go.

As a special treat, enjoy this April Fool's Runion! article. It’s a nice little piece I drew up back in the day. Remember also to check out the Runion! archives to see any of the other pieces.

Let’s Go!

Addendum: For footage of my Stanford 1500 Opener, check out:
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2010&pg=1&event_id=57&video_id=22793&folder_id=1430&offset=3#video
Thanks to Columbia grad John Sun, for the email!