Family Records

The spiked shoes on the runner in front of him gripped the cinders and then tossed them out behind. His Chuck Taylors failed to have the same effect as they slid across the black surface. With “FRASER T&F” stitched onto his singlet in blue and gold, and a budding pony-tail flowing in the wind behind him, the runner in the Chucky T’s labored past the spiked runner and crossed the finish line in first place.

His time for the ½-mile: 2:00.0

And with that a family record was born. It was the late 60s, and 2-flat for a freshman was promising to say the least. That runner was my Dad, and as a freshman in high school, the guy could run.

Walter Pett decided to stop running after that year (he claims he hated the coach), but his two-minute half would live on for years to come.

My brother and I have encyclopedic minds when it comes to our track times. (My mile PR’s from 7th grade on: 5:20, 4:54, 4:38, 4:21, 4:17, 4:10, 4:09, 4:08, 4:06, 4:04, 3:59, 4:00.) And because of this, we have a set of family records. Call it the Boylan-Pett Record Book. We have categories for each age group. There’s seventh grade 800, which Will has at 2:19, and 12th grade 3200, which Will has at 9:31. Then there’s every other age group and record ranging from 800-3200, which I have. Juust kidding, Will has freshman year 1600 and most 3200s as well.

Will and I dominate the record books. Only one record didn’t have the name Will or Liam next to it. It was the 800 (or half-mile, since that’s what they ran back in the 60s) for 9th grade: and the 2:00 remained the record after I was only able to run a 2:01 as a relay split.

But this week, there were some changes made to the record book, which is now titled the Boylan-Pett/Pett/Fanta Records. That’s because Annie, my little sister, decided to drop a 63.7 one-lapper as a seventh grader! Yiikes that is moving! Congrats to Annie for moving her skinny little self around the track so quick. I’m looking forward to see what her and her teammates can do the rest of the track season as they have some fast girls rocking the Mid-Michigan track circuit.
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Training went well this week. I’m looking forward to heading out to Minneapolis to run a road mile on Thursday night. Back to some good old fashioned street racing, and I really can’t complain about that. It is shaping up to be a really good field, and I’m starting to get pretty jacked up for it.

Got to actually run some fast stuff in practice on Friday as I did 3x600 with the first two at 1:26.6 and then 1:26.4. Then ran the last one in 1:21 after coming through the first 200 in 28high. Nice to get back to some 800 paced stuff and starting to get sharp for some racing...

That’s all for this week: the picture is in honor of Mother’s Day and my favorite Mom quote of all: “She just shown on me like the sun.” Happy Mother’s Day!

Let’s GO!!

A World Champ and Two All-Americans; What a Bunch of Losers

I spent Thanksgiving in New York this past weekend. My mom, step-dad and little sister made the drive out from Michigan to spend the holiday at my brother’s apartment on the Upper West Side. They had a place rented out for the weekend near Times Square, but I was lodged up near Columbia the whole weekend.

Thanks to two separate dinners, I had my fill of turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green beans and gravy and apple pie and ice cream and cupcakes (only thanks to a trip to Magnolia for the caboose of that list).

The highlight of Thanksgiving day may have been the first (and most likely last) “Boylan, Fanta, DiCrescenzo,Boylan-Pett Turkey Football Game.”

In a backyard football game that took place in Riverside Park, My brother, Will, quarterbacked a team of himself, my mom, and my sister, Annie. My team included my step-dad, Charlie, and Delilah.

To give more meaning to the title of this entry, Charlie is a World Champion Taxidermist. No Joke. The guy is incredible at stuffing animals. If you ever kill a deer or a turkey and want it kept as a memento, look no further than http://www.fantataxidermy.com for all your needs. Then, add in the fact that Delilah and I were both All-Americans in the last track races of our NCAA careers, we had a pretty stacked team.

However, it doesn’t always work out the way that you think it would. In a defensive duel that yielded only 3 touchdowns, my leadership led to nothing but a letdown. On one play I even took out Delilah and seriously jeopardized both of our running careers. We ended up just fine, and I also made the catch.

In the end, with Delilah threatening to “throw the game,” my Mom made the game-winning catch as the sun set on the leaf covered field. 14-7, the World Champ and the All-Americans lose. What can ya do?

There was some running this weekend, but as in all Thanksgiving weekend runs, they weren’t the lightest. The mileage keeps on upping and the workouts will start to pick up soon enough, but for now its miles and miles.