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!!

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