Last Chance Recap

Rutgers, NJ. The Outdoor Track

The Res Loop and Bridal Path are clear, the weather is decent, and all is good in the world. Because yes folks, it's finally outdoor season. And as we all know, Outdoor is the season that matters. That's where the races matter and the big bucks are made. And I am excited that it is here. First though, a recap of the 8 last weekend and the indoor season...

There were some good things and some bad things to take out of the 8 at Columbia's Last Chance Meet last weekend.

The Bad: I lost. Now I know you can't win them all, but it's still never fun to lose. Especially to a field that you can beat. I didn't feel like I raced that smart, and even though I felt good in the race, I'm still pissed I got beat.

The Good: I felt good in the race and had a pretty darn good kick. In replaying the race in my mind, I got out really well the first 50 and found myself in 4th behind the rabbit, the guy who won, and Gtown's Ulm (who I was on a 7:16 4x8 with). I thought it was perfect. But Ulm let the pace lag a little bit behind the front two and from 250 to 300 I had to make a surge to get back into the race. I was probably through in 53 high or so and had moved up into 3rd and was close to the leaders. 4-600 was pretty relaxed and I think since we all knew it wasn't a super fast race we were getting ready for our drives to the line and the end. A Dartmouth kid moved up on my outside and positioned himself in 2nd to the guy who won. On the backstretch with 120 to go I wanted to move, but The Dartmouth Kid was there, so I had to wait it out around the turn and then when I tried to slingshot my way into the lead, the leader was ready and held me off 1:49.11 to 1:49.16. I closed the final 200 in 26.8, but it wasn't quite good enough.

It was almost an indoor PR and that was a 1:49.07 that came last year in a perfectly set up race where I closed in probably 28high, so I have to be happy with the way this one ended...other than the fact that I got beat.

As has been the case since my first year at Columbia though, now comes the fun part. Indoor Season, as Gags puts it, is more like our exhibition season. It's a time to get into shape, and you definitely want to run well, but the most important part of indoors is getting ready for outdoors. My indoor season only had 3 races - a win in a 1:51.5 800, a 2nd place 3:43.6 1500 and a 2nd place 1:49.16 800...plus a few rabbiting gigs here and there. I'm in some good shape heading into outdoors. So, Let's Go!!

New Balance Recap

On yesterday's long run with Jeff, we were going by a lady who had one of those water belts on. I was thirsty, so I grabbed one off her, chugged it down, then threw it back at her. True story.

Well, not really, but I thought about it. Instead I kept on going with my run and felt tired from the weekend at the armory. And with that, a recap of the race:

First off, I forgot that the 1500 meter didn't start in the normal spot. So when everyone was over on the far turn, I was a little confused. I made my way over to the actual starting line and felt alright. It was mayhem at this meet; it is a high school meet that has a few elite events added in, and there were a TON of high schoolers on hand. Even so, it made for a pretty great atmosphere for a race...warming up was a different story.

But the race got out alright and since there were only 8 guys, my somewhat slow start wasn't a problem as I found myself in 3rd for the first half of the race...one of the people in front of me was a rabbit. We were through around 1:59.5 for the first 800 and I was starting to get in the racing zone, but after Sean Tully (our rabbit and my NJ-NY TC teammate) stepped off the track, the pace lagged quite a bit. 800-1100 was pretty slow, but then with 2 laps to go, Kyle Miller took off.

I was almost boxed in, but was able to answer his move and try to hang on. He was rolling from pretty far out so I gave him a few meters figuring I'd catch them back at some point, but I was wrong. He clearly was ready to go and had a really good race. By 200 he was about 15 meters in front, and I was clear from 3rd place by about 10 meters. I tried to, but couldn't, muster up much of a kick, and even though I closed the gap some, Miller got me by a little over a second and a half. I took 2nd with a 3:43.6. Not a bad opening 1500.

Overall, it was a good race. It's clearly not fun to get beat (and beat pretty good), but looking at big picture, last year's opening outdoor 1500 at Stanford was a 3:43.9, whereas this year I closed the 3:43.6 in a 57 last 400. I'm still missing some strength after missing the time with the stress fracture this fall, but pretty excited about what we're going to be doing coming up.

I'm rabbiting the Millrose 2-Mile this Friday, should be a fun time. Enjoy the footage courtesy of Flotrack of the race...

Liquid Gold

Footage of the race at Gtown last week...(I'm the guy in the headband.)

I walked out of my room holding a jug of Pure Michigan Maple Syrup, looked each of my roommates in the eyes and said: "If either of you even think about taking any of my Pure Michigan Maple Syrup, I'll **expletives deleted** and then I'll **more expletives deleted**!" Then I walked out of the room.

It was at that point that I knew I had a problem with sugar in liquid form.

It started with my dad being an entomologist. Growing up, there were bees everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. Colonies in the backs had swarms of buzzing drones. At yearly intervals there would be a huge silver spinning vat in the house that was used to extract the honey. I was lucky if I didn't step on a dead bee at some point with the stinger still in tact.

But oh that sweet nectar that my Dad got from those bees. While most kids pulled PB&J sandwiches out of their brown paper lunch bags, I ate PB&Honey. Some kids put brown sugar on their maple syrup, I doused my morning breakfast with silky smooth honey.

On top of my love of honey, my high school's mascot was a Fighting Bee. Everywhere I looked, there was a connection to honey. It was awesome.

Now, my love of liquid sugar goes beyond honey and extends to delicious maple syrup. For a while I was on a Safeway Brand butter flavored syrup craze, but I realized that may be detrimental to my health, so I've gone the good for you sugar route (if there is such a thing).

There is somewhat of a point to this nonsensical post about honey on my "running blog". I look at honey as a healing food. One coach (I won't mention names) I know used to tell his runners that whiskey was a healing power: "Constipated? Take a shot of whiskey...Diarrhea? Take a shot of whiskey." That's how I look at honey. So, if you're a runner and feeling sick, have a squirt of honey...if you're a runner and you're feeling awesome, slurp a little honey.

Bees? Beads!? Beeeees!!! Bzzzzzzz.

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I'm running a 1500 this weekend at the Armory. Hopefully after last week's race I'll be ready to go for it. I think it's going to be a pretty good field, although I'm unsure who is in it. I go off at 1:40pm EST and I think ArmoryTrack.com usually has a video feed of the races going, so if you're not in NY you can check it out there. Haven't said it in a while, but....LET'S GO!!

Aunts and Trips

Halifax Track...Blue!

I think everyone has an Aunt Sue (I guess unless their Mom is Sue, then they have an Aunt Barb (I’m lucky enough to have both…boo yah, double parenthesis)). I bring this up, because this summer brought back a ton of my Aunt Sue memories.

I went on two long (there were plenty of other short ones that included her teaching us how to throw up on the tilt-a-whirl at Boblo Island and other amusement parks) trips with Aunt Sue. One was to Ireland and the other was to Nova Scotia.

On a kayaking/canoe trip in Ireland, Aunt Sue informed my brother and I that she had once been on a river excursion through Colorado with rock star Alice Cooper. On said trip, Cooper tried a backflip off a cliff and ended up with a serious concussion. Aunt Sue then stayed up with him to make sure he wouldn’t fall asleep. To this day I have no idea whether 0% or 100% of that story is true.

Then in Nova Scotia we found ourselves driving along some seriously steep cliffs along the ocean. Aunt Sue was a little afraid of heights. “LEAN!” she would yell at us as the rental van veered and steered along the curving road. Through the laughter, we would lean, as at that point we were 95% sure she was being serious.

The trips were a little different this year. When we were driving from the airport to Halifax for the race last Tuesday, I saw some cliffs near the ocean. I started chuckling. The other runners in the car with me looked at me. I almost told them to “LEAN!”
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The race in Nova Scotia was an odd one. I won 300 Canadian bucks. However, I only ran 3:47. It was an odd race where I got out pretty hard and by 800-meters in I was in 2nd place and ahead by about 25-meters from 3rd. We were out pretty quick but then both the leader and I started to rig. The problem for me was that he rigged less.

I didn’t live a great week leading up to the race, and I think it finally caught up to me with 300 to go. Having slept in the Atlanta airport the Wednesday before and then moving out of my apartment and missing a day of training didn’t equal a great race. But 300 bones, what can you do?

I am hoping for one more race this year. Still waiting to hear back from a few people to see if I can get into one. As always, Let’s Go!

ps - the meet was the Aileen Meagher Invitational. It was about a Canadian sprinter who was an Olympian in the 30s. I was reading the bio of her beforehand and started cracking up at this sentence... “By 1932 she was part of the Canadian contingent at the Los Angeles Olympics. Unfortunately, a leg injury (charley horse) prevented her from competing.”
AHAH...now injuries aren’t funny, but charley horse?? Come on.

Videos and Mad Men

Here are some links to the videos of the races….

The race: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237334-2010-brasschaat-meeting-flanders-cup/346717-m-1500-h02-section-a

And the interview: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237334-2010-brasschaat-meeting-flanders-cup/346890-liam-boylan-pett-after-1500-at-2010-braschaat-meeting

And then, I’m also in the kick of the week video on FloTrack…it’s too bad that I’m one of the guys getting outkicked.

It’s starting to look like I’m not going to get in a race until Dublin on the 21st. I would have liked to get into one more, but not much you can do sometimes, so will just wait around until that one and try to take care of business there. Plus I get to race in Charlevoix on the 24th for the Ryan Shay Mile, so there will be plenty of times to race.

With no races this weekend, it means there is going to be a lot of downtime. To remedy that, we have been watching “Mad Men” the show about the 1960s adtvertisers in New York City. These dudes were crazy. They drink like fish, whore around like they live in Amsterdam, and then make some darn good commercials. We have decided that Don Draper is all that is man. We have also decided that I am pretty much the exact opposite of Don Draper. I don’t know where that leaves me.

Was able to get in some barefoot strides on a soccer field this morning and now probably going to relax the day away. We went to the Heineken Museum yesterday to meet my friends from Columbia Jon and Ana who happened to be in town for the day. It was pretty cool checking out the old brewery and they had a lot about commercials. Overall a fun experience.

Enjoy the vids. Let’s Go!

Old Heineken Brewing Factory

Meltdowns and Comebacks

There was a sweaty train ride, there were a few breakdowns, and then there were some races yesterday in Brasschaat, Belgium. All in all, things ended up okay, but not before they started off miserably.

We trained from Amsterdam to Antwerp. Antwerp was about 10 kilometers from Brasschaat. The train ride was awful. I guess they don’t believe in AC over here, because I was sweating like a pig. Then some lady sat right across from Maggie with two huge bags and wouldn’t move them up to the overhead compartments, it was a disaster. There was supposed to be someone from the meet in Antwerp to pick us up and take us to the track. Sadly/predictably, there was not. After minor freaking out, we found the 640 bus. It dropped us off about a ½ mile from the track around 1 hour after we were expecting to get to the track. Maggie had to warm up immediately. Turned out, we didn’t care about all that jazz and ended up racing our butts off: Maggie PR’d in the 8 in 2:03.6, Elizabeth PR’d in the 15 with a 4:09 (5 second best!), and then I finally raced instead of time trialing and it worked out pretty well.

So I ran 3:41.39 for 5th place in the race. It was supposed to go out in 2:23 through the 1k, but the rabbit only made it to about 700 and the leaders passed the 1k mark in 2:29 or so…leaving me somewhere in around 2:30. It should also be noted that I was an idiot at the start and let myself get shoved around like crazy and found myself in last place 100 meters into the race (they put like 14 or 15 people on the start line of a 6 lane track, it was chaos). But even with all the shoving and everything, I stayed pretty calm and just moved myself up throughout the race. At 400 to go Bumbi took the lead (which he would end up not being happy about), and then we started picking it up. There was still a pack of people because it wasn’t too fastly (I know that’s not a word but it sounds right) paced and it was very crowded on the back straight and around the final curve. I tried to bide my time, but found myself with really nowhere to go even though I had a lot left the last 100. I was able to pass some people, but not quite as many as I would have liked. I wish I would have tried going wide around the turn just to see what could have happened. But you live and you learn and I was pleased with how it went. 3:41 with a 55-56 last lap, gotta like that!

Also, I remembered that it was fun to beat people. I set out wanting to win the race, but I was able to beat some people that I really wanted to. I was finally focused on that for the first time all year instead of trying to run a fast time so that I could get a shoe contract. I sometimes forget that competing is the best part of this whole thing, and yesterday it felt good to beat some of the people that I did. Too bad 4 guys got me, but next time I’ll be coming for them.

Enjoy the pictures, still trying to figure out one more race in between now and the mile I am running in Dublin on the 21st…hopefully it can work out. Gonna be a tourist for a little this week, too bad the Dutch couldn’t win the game last night.

Let’s Go!

The track as we were getting ready to leave

A belgium beer waiting for the bus home.

Brasschaat Race Day

Just woke up and about to have some breakfast before departing for Antwerp Central Station in Belgium for the second race of my tour de europa. After a long week of preparing, its nice to finally get ready for race day.

Will have a pretty big breakfast today and then pack some sandwiches and snacks for the road. I race around 18:05 - they do military time over here - that’s around noon for you folks back on the east coast.

Not much else to report really. We went out to dinner last night at a pizza place to make it feel more like a track meet. For Dutch pizza, I was pretty pleased, but its still no Bee-Pizza, that’s for sure.

Short post today...here’s a link to the race:

http://www.acbreak.be/

On the left hand side click on the “FC/International Meeting” button and you’ll be able to find start lists and later on, I presume, results. A bunch of Americans flew 3000 miles to race in a different country. Pretty awesome. Bumbi, my training partner throughout the year, will be there, so i’m pretty pumped about that. Someone to warm up and cool down with is always nice.

Let’s Go!

Bees?

Beads?

oh, bees.

(they were all over at the track last year)

Layin' Low

The sight of me in my Dad’s house is nothing special. I plop down on the couch in front of the tv and set up shop for hours at a time. Meanwhile, my Dad goes in and out the front door doing lawn work, car work, or just relaxing in the garage so he doesn’t have to listen to the vh1 show I’m watching. One time around Christmas ’08, my Dad was walking out with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

He took a sip on the fly said, “Gaahh,” and smacked his lips approvingly. “That’s a good cup’a joe, Lee.” I peered up over the couch at him. “It’s too bad you don’t drink coffee.”

I groggily responded, “Well, I actually do now.”

He stopped in his tracks, “Well shoot,” he looked down at his mug. “It’s actually not that good.”
--
I have drank a lot of coffee on this trip. I think it is because there isn’t much else to do. Yesterday I had a pancake (crepe) and a cappuccino while relaxing around before my mini-workout. Both were delicious, and I’ve decided I’m going to head back a few more times to make it my regular stomping ground. Hopefully they like me by the end even though I’m not that great at talking to wait-staff in normal conversation.

Was able to do some strides at the track yesterday – 3 sets of 50-100-150 at 15 second 100 pace, then 14.5, then 13.5 for the last set. Do that kind of stuff just to keep the legs fresh and ready to move on Sunday for the race. It has been hot in Amsterdam (no, not comparable to the East Coast right now) so I jumped into one of the Amsterdam Canals after my run. I wouldn’t have done it, but a bunch of little kids were jumping in, so I decided to join in on the fun. It saved my day after the longest and hottest tram ride to the track ever.

Finally race day tomorrow…Let’s Go!

Bikes everywhere!

Anne Frank Huis

Normally, runLBP finds itself more on the fun-loving, light-hearted scale of the web-journal-sphere (I hate the word blog, and even more hate the word blogosphere), but today we went to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and things were put a little more into perspective.

This wont put things down in the dumps either. The Anne Frank Museum was really something everyone should see. You get to walk through the entire office that they were on top of and then past the moving bookcase and into the “apartment.” At first, you think, oh this wasn’t too bad…there are 2 rooms on the bottom floor…then you walk up a ladder-type staircase that leads to the living room/kitchen/bedroom. Then there’s the attic of the attic where you can actually look out and see the blue sky and a chestnut tree. It seems spacious and nice. Then it’s realized that the people were stuck in there. They couldn’t move during the day, had to have blackout shades up in the windows so that no one could see in. It is really intense to be in the spot and look out the window that Anne Frank looked out 60 years ago. It was an important part of history, and I was glad to have seen it.

Check out http://www.annefrank.org/ and you can see a little more about the Frank’s “Secret Annex.”
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I am officially entered in Sunday’s Brasschaat Meeting. I will be running the 1500, and it looks to be a pretty good field. It will be interesting to see how it all goes and hopefully I find myself in the mix. Will head up to a track today to get in some striders and then take it pretty easy tomorrow before heading to the meet on Sunday. I’ll put up a link to coverage of the meet once I find it…Let’s Go!

Top of the Anne Frank House

Shrimp Nuggs, Chicken Nuggs, Macadosh, mmmm.

Orange Shirts for a Red, White and Blue Flag?

Ireland wasn’t bad, but why not head to Amsterdam for a bit? I have no idea why they wear orange jerseys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_national_football_team#Colours, a quick wikipedia search can answer that for us), but I like them. And I love the fact that the town is painted in orange – not literally, but there are flags everywhere and blow up soccer balls hanging above the streets. And now I’m pumped up for the game tomorrow evening, where I’ll definitely try to visit a pub to check it out.

The first race wasn’t a great one, but it was a good rust buster (the common term used by runners when they’re not so sharp, or maybe its just an excuse for not running great), and I’m pretty excited about the possibilities of the rest of the races I could be running in. I ran 3:44.2 and took 8/9th place (still no official results online). I didn’t feel terrible, especially considering that I thought I was going to feel terrible after flying in the day before, but also didn’t feel that sharp and ready to roll. It wasn’t that quick of a pace—probably through 1200 in 3:01—which should have been nice for me, but couldn’t get the gears going once every one else in the race did.

Overall, the experience of the race was great. I got to hang out with my teammate from Columbia, Erison, who won the 400 at the race in 45.9 into a stiff headwind. We enjoyed a Guinness after the race (Erison hated it) while we watched the Spain/Paraguay soccer game.

Now, I’m sitting in our apartment in Amsterdam, and the place is NICE. Its small, but has a kitchen and is right near everything we could ever need (grocery store, all that jazz). I’ll post some of the pictures from Ireland right now (including the girls signing shirts – those girls then proceeded to make fun of me for calling a Lolli-Pop a Sucker, and even if that is the way 12-year-olds flirt, it was disheartening to say the least. Those will be on the blog’s page...) And then tomorrow I’ll probably post TWO times with some Amsterdam updates…the track we go to is real cool.

Let’s Go!

Elizabeth and Maggie: Irish Celebs

Murph-Dogg...

Irish Highs

It’s noon Ireland time. I’m on a bus from Dublin to Cork. I’m running on 2 hours of restless sleep and fumes from the cup of coffee I just gulped down. And like my Dad says: “I have to pee like a racehorse.” (Without fail on every drive home from Fraser to Bath after a trip to my Granny’s he’d be in the driver seat squirming around like a fish out of water situating himself to subdue the urge of the bathroom break he so desperately needed.) I writhe some, but then decide to sit still, thinking that if I move, my bladder will act in the wrong way.

Finally, the bus comes to a stop in a town center to pick up some more passengers. One of my travel partners and I rush through the aisle and ask the bus driver where we can go to the bathroom. He looks around hopelessly, then tells us to try the black door of the pub to our left. I racewalk to the door. I rush through and a man at the jukebox can tell exactly what I need and points me in the direction of the bathroom. The urinal is the wall, one of those ones with water rushing down at all times like a trough. I start going to the bathroom and then hear the music playing over the speakers.

I figured my first experience in an Irish Pub would include sipping on a Guinness and listening to Dropkick Murphy’s. Instead…it’s peeing against a wall while listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.”

And with that, welcome to “runLBP’s EuroTrip 2k10”! Posts will start appearing daily (given Internet cooperation) and you can follow me all around Ireland and Amsterdam and Belgium. I’m pretty excited about it, and definitely pumped to get some more races in.

I’m traveling with two Georgetown girls: Elizabeth Maloy and Maggie Infeld, and we’re going to hopefully have some fun while running fast. I’ll be around until the 22nd and they’re staying over until the 28th or so.

We start out our European season with a 1500 tonight in Cork, Ireland. They have been plenty kind to us so far by putting us up in dorms and feeding us our every meal. They like my name, and hopefully will cheer for me tonight. You can check out results here: http://www.corkcitysports.ie/viewpage.php?memid=133&parent=133

I go off at 3:05pm Irish Time (10:05 EST). Let’s Go!

Party In The U.S.A.

USAs 2010 did not go to plan. I was in a perfect situation to make the final and failed to capitalize. I knew going in that being in the 3rd heat and having Pifer leading the way, I would have a very good chance to run fast. Exactly that happened, but I made some stupid moves and did a little too much forcing/thinking and found myself without anything in the tank as the track straightened out for the final 80 meters.

I was able to handle the 59lows that Pifer was leading us through, but I was forcing the situation a little too much. I didn’t flow out there like I have been doing so much in practice. This made it so that when I needed to move, I had used a little too much energy maintaining the pace and just didn’t have much left in my legs. I was too tense before the race and was really trying to make something happen. A lot of times that leaves you in trouble. I run best when I’m relaxed and having fun, this was a run where I was trying to make too many things go right.

It wasn’t all bad though. I still ran my 2nd fastest time ever, and given a few different moves, probably wouldn’t have tied up. Now, its time to try to go over to Europe and have some fun over on that side of the pond.

And I hope we all know what that means…Another EuroJournal from LBP! I’ll be doing the daily updates while I’m overseas so that you can all check in to see how I’m doing. I’ll be starting up over in Ireland with a race at the Cork City Sports Invitational this Saturday, the third. From there I’ll be traveling with running buddies Elizabeth Maloy and Maggie Infeld and we’re heading to Amsterdam to set up base. From there we’ll be running in some races in Belgium, the Netherlands, and who knows where else. It should be a blast, and even though I’m heading out in a few days, I’m pretty excited about the trip.

Look for a bunch of updates throughout the month of July. I’ll be heading back home to Michigan on the 22nd for the Ryan Shay Mile on July 24th in Charlevoix, so if you’re around, make sure to check that one out!

As Always, Let’s Go!

The PTFL

“With the 27th pick in the 2009 PTFL Draft, the Detroit HorsePower select Liam Boylan-Pett of Georgetown and Columbia University…” (it sucks that in my own fantasy I understand around where I would have been picked in a 30 team draft of last years Track and Field Draft…)

I stand up and button my jacket. I give the obligatory hug and kiss on the cheek to my Mom and Dad and brother and sister and step-dad and cousins and friends (I roll with an entourage); then walk up to the podium, shake the commissioner’s hand and pull the black hat down over my mop of hair, it’s logo – a golden horse with track spikes on it – glowing.

I show up to Detroit a few days later, sign my three-year contract (I get the added bonus of a POWERBAR deal mixed in as well), and get to work. The Horsepower just signed Dathan Ritzenhein as well (they like Michigan talent), to cover the distance events, but I’ll be expected to carry the load from the 8 to the mile.

Little Caesar Stadium is nestled in next to Ford Field and Comerica Park, I run interval after interval and then cool down with a run along the river and a view of Canada.

Then, the season starts, I travel all around the country on chartered jets from St. Louis to Salt Lake City competing in sold out stadiums in events like the 1k one night then the mile the next. I run great some nights; then I struggle the next.

This is life as a rookie in the Professional Track and Field League.

That’s what it could have been. If only I’d have chosen a cooler sport…Or if only track were more popular.

OOOORRRRRR, things could have been terrible. What if I was a kid who didn’t know what to do with a lot of money at a young age? What if I turned into a sports star A-hole who was all about drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll? (Although, I think in the nerdy world of running, I would have maybe only had to worry about rock n’ roll.) Hopefully the PTFL wouldn’t have destroyed me. We’ll never have to find out…
--
I was pretty jacked about my last week of training. I did some 5k stuff on Tuesday (7x800, all around 65-66pace) and then came back on Friday for my tougher workout of the week. I am finally starting to get to do some speed stuff, or as my coach calls it, speed endurance work. This is the stuff that makes me, well…me.

The workout was pretty simple – 3x1k at 75-76 (easy pace for 1ks) and then 2x150 at 19 seconds (~26 second 200 pace). This was all part of the warm-up though…next up was a 500. I was working out with Dylan Sorensen, a freshman at Gtown who has been having a great season, and he led us through. It was a hot morning, but I passed him with 200 to go and ran a 64.3 second 500 –which is a definite PR, and you can never complain about PRs in practice. Then I rested up about 9 minutes and ran a 51flat 400 to close out the workout. I was STRUGGLING afterwards (aching head, cotton-mouth, burning legs), but it wasn’t supposed to feel good.

Getting ready for an 800 in Indy on the 12th as my last tune-up before USAs…getting excited.

Let’s Go!

FOUND

Blink! An eye opens wide; the pupil expands then coils back in, the dark, monarch brown iris twinkling. Gasp! A deep breath beckons as the eye blinks and focuses. Where the hell am I?

To go along with the rest of the blogging/twittering/facebooking/anythingonlineing world, this week’s post is a LOST extravaganza. Writing this, I am on a plane across the country back to DC. I am supposed to land at 7:10…then I am getting picked up from Dulles, and hopefully making it back to my place in time for the finale of one of the greatest television dramas of all time.

(Side note: I enjoy comedies so much more than dramas, while I love Lost, it probably doesn’t even crack my five favorite tv shows of all time…in order:
5. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (crude and hilarious)
4. The Wire (the best overall television show I’ve ever watched, just not funny)
3. Southpark (Cartman may be the best character ever)
2. Seinfeld (Not original in terms of favorite show choice, but classic)
1. Arrested Development (Short lived, but if you haven’t watched the first two seasons, I pity you))

But don’t worry, since this is a running blog, it will only be Lost themed. And how will I do that? By comparing my season of running to Jack’s arc on the Island. (There will be some serious reaching in what follows, but like I have done with the last two seasons of Lost, just go with it.)

When Jack first got to the Island, he wanted what anyone who was on a stranded Island would: off. So, he did whatever he could to try to get him and his people off the Island. Then, he finally gets off the god-forsaken place, and he wants to go back? Meanwhile, some smokemonsters and dead people did some weird things, and now Desmond and Penny might not end up together and I’m pretty upset about that. However, back to Jack.

In Seasons 5 and 6, and the dude was pretty lost (pun intended), in terms of what to do with his life. He was more the man of science that that of fate. He always forced things, and sometimes it worked out well, others, not so much. This was me the first part of the season. I was forcing it, trying to make it work out way too well. I was lost. I didn’t know what exactly I was running for. It is a transition no longer being a part of a team and running on your own. I struggled to find meaning in my races.

Now, Jack finds himself with a mission. He is focused, and he is ready to protect this Island. I’m back on track too. I may not officially be on a team anymore, but in actuality, I am still on a ton of them. The opening eye that Lost so often uses is focusing (which reminds me of another awesome tv show, Friday Night Lights, and its awesome motto: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!).

I’m still a Bath runner, still a Columbia Runner, still a Georgetown runner.

Now I can only hope that I find out what the hell Jack is, and what this damn Island means in tonight’s LOST finale…that is if I even catch it due to this stupid flight.
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First PR of the year! Gotta like that. The race was at Occidental College, just north of L.A. I figured if it was good enough for the President to hang out there a few weekends, it would be good enough for me to race there. Sure enough, it was pretty awesome. Getting ready for the race I was listening to my music and gazing out at the mountain range in the distance. I couldn’t complain.

In terms of the race, I am a little upset that I wasn’t a little more aggressive for the start, but overall it was good. I let the main pack get a little too far ahead of me, and then found myself in too much traffic the last 300 meters of the race. I was still really happy with my last 100 and I definitely think there is a lot more left in the tank. Plus, I was starting to become the Sam Bair III of 3:41s, so it was nice to run 3:40.15 (why couldn’t I dip under!?!).

Now is time to find out the rest of the season, for now I know as much as everyone else…I’ll be sure to update once I know what’s up with my season.

Let’s Go!

Race footage: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&event_id=3423&video_id=26724&folder_id=-2

UPDATE: I did make it back in time for the finale...it was totally AWESOME.

50 Bones

There’s good news, and there’s bad news.

The good news is that I made 50 euros in the race today. First bit of prize money that I have ever made. It was pretty sweet.

Bad news, my watch broke. The band broke so I can’t wear it now. I am desperately in need of some sort of gear deal so that I don’t have to buy a new one.

So the race was better tonight, but still not great. I just didn’t feel exactly like myself. But ran 3:41 for the 8000th time all year (well actually 5th) and just feel like I need to dip under that barrier just to feel a little better about myself.

There was more of a group staying in Ghent tonight, so, drank some beers with them. I may or may not have had a few too many, but it was a really good time. Got to hang out with really fun people who are also very fast and just have a good time. Its funny to see that the faster people over here don’t really like to talk about running, they just like to have a good time. And this doesn’t mean that they aren’t serious about the running stuff, it just means that they like to go out and be happy rather than worry about how fast they ran or whether they are getting into the next race. It was Gent Fest, and it was just people moving from tent to tent and drinking beers.

I had a flotrack interview so check that out here…
http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235261-2009-gentse-feesten-meeting-gentghent-flanders-cup/195004-liam-boylan-pett-1500-gent

Tomorrow, a little bit on the European car system.

HP, Dud City

Not going to lie, yesterday was one of the most uneventful since I have been here. The only event that took place was a viewing of the new Harry Potter movie, and let me tell you, it was highly disappointing. It was a boring movie and in the grand scheme of things nothing really happened. And yes, this was a set-up book for the final movie, but since they are splitting that book into two movies, I don’t have that high of hopes for now. But it just goes to show that I shouldn’t have read the books, because I wouldn’t know what I was missing and I probably would have enjoyed it.

The only real bit of action in the movie came when about halfway through the movie the lights in the theatre turned on. I was pretty upset, and only calmed myself down once the screen showed that they were having a 10 minute intermission. This then made me more upset because I was hydrating for the race and really had to go to the bathroom but it costs 0.35euros to go to the bathroom, so I had to hold it in for an extremely long time.

Get to race a 15 at Ghent tomorrow. The women go off at 8:20 Belgium time, and we are after that, but there supposedly could be 5 heats of the women, so probably around 8:45 is pretty likely for my race time. The Ghent track is in the middle of this forest and is tree lined, its going to be pretty fun to run a race on. There are a few other Americans in the field, including my travel mate for the trip, Matt Debole. It will be nice to have someone to warm up with and everything. Hopefully I can put together a better showing than Heusden.

A lot more athletes are showing up for this one, and Ghent is a little more than just a small crew, so that has been a little exciting, but overall nothing to report.

And sorry for the lack of anything exciting in this entry, just a boring day, I’ll think up something to make tomorrow’s a little more entertaining. Wish me luck for the race…