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!!

Degrees

So this is going to be a short post. My final project in my Master’s program is due May 3, so I have to make sure it is perfect. My project is a lot about running, though, so you all will get a little treat to it…mainly because I had no idea what to write about this week, so I’m just going to cut and paste something in.

I wasn’t extremely pleased with my race at Stanford this week, but there was a lot to learn from it. Namely, that I need to be able to handle being tired and head into a race still with my head on straight. I am racing May 13th in Minneapolis for the USA Road Mile Championship and then May 22nd at Occidental College for a hopefully fast 1500… That’s all the updating for now. Enjoy the opening to my Capstone Project (thesis type project for journalism students at Gtown)…

Traveling Stoll Road in Bath, Michigan, the distance between Upton and Center Roads is one mile. Starting at Upton and going east to west, the first three hundred yards is flat before a steep hill leads to a mailbox marked 7804 that signals the first quarter mile. A field opens up to the south while tall pine and walnut trees hug the north side of the street as the dirt road flattens out for another two hundred meters. Long blades of crabgrass droop over the shoulder of the road as the fuzzy ends of the yellow foxtail weed find themselves caked in brown dust. A slight downhill begins as three ranch style houses appear behind the giant Oak Trees lining their front yards. Power lines carry long black ropes down the hill and continue onward towards Center. At the halfway point, one smaller electricity post stands alone, away from the larger ones lining the entire street. One measly, black cord extends from the post. It makes its way to another lonely pole, drooping in the middle to form a sad smile. Below the lowpoint of the smile is a creek that cuts under Stoll perpendicularly. Extending from Potter Lake to the southwest, largemouth bass sometimes follow the creek outward. A young fisherman sits atop the steel cylinder tunnel that runs below the road with his legs dangling back and forth above the clear water. If he hears anything other than the buzz of horseflies and gnats, it is the faint crunches of gravel. Quick, rhythmic steps tread over the dirt road and the crunch becomes more and more audible. The fisherman turns around to see a runner approaching him. A sun worn mop of frizzled, curly hair bounces on top of his head with each step. Sweat beads flow from his hairline down his hollow cheeks and fall from his chin down to his chest. Sweat soaked shorts swish with each step as droplets splatter in dark brown splotches on the road behind him.

“One fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine,” The voice inside my head counts off as I pass the electrical post to my right that marks a half-mile to go. “They’re on pace now, just over halfway there.”

I wave my arm at the fisherman and only slightly disrupt my running motion before switching my concentration to the approaching hill. Up I run past the farmland to my left. To my right is the Jerome’s, an old farmhouse with black shutters outlining each of the windows. Robson Road branches off to my right and I only have a quarter mile to go.

“Two fifty-eight, two fifty-nine,” The announcer in my head reads off. “400 to go and these guys are getting going now.”
I steady myself and pick up the pace, bouncing a little higher with each step as I arrive at the crest of the hill and begin a slight decline for the last 200-meters.

“Less than half a lap to go and Boylan-Pett looks like he’s going to get under!”

I hunker down and veer to the right side of the road, picking up the tempo even more. Down the last hundred I float, covering ground as smoothly as possible.

“Three fifty-seven, fifty eight, fifty nine…”

I pass the stop sign to my right and click my watch.

“He just did it ladies and gentlemen! Liam Boylan-Pett has broken four for the mile!...”

I snap out of the track world in my head and glance at my watch. No three on it. Not a five or a nine either. Forty-five minutes and six seconds, it shows.

The imagination of an aspiring high school miler lets you break four even on easy runs.

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!

POWERBAR

Jackpot! So in some awesome news, I am now a member of PowerBar Team Elite. What this essentially means is that I get to replenish after workouts with PowerBar. I’m pretty syked about it as it is my first official sponsor and who wouldn’t love some free energy bars and drinks? Plus, I’ll get to put a cool little logo on my jersey and rock some PowerBar gear around at meets. You can check out my PowerBar Profile.

Also, opened up the season this weekend out in Stanford. It was a good opening race, and definitely showed that I come June and July I can be hoping to do some serious damage out there. I ran 3:43.92 and ran a tough race. I thought I was going to win the thing with a hundred meters to go, but when I told my legs to go, they just didn’t do it. I think the training made it so I didn’t have any pop in my legs. But the good thing is that its only March and there is a loooong ways to go before I need to get really going and flying around the track.

Right now I can’t find a video of the race on Flotrack, but they did post a nice little interview of me. There is some talk of a personalized headband, so we’ll have to see what we can do about that the rest of the year.

(Also, in great news, Michigan State made the final four…I’m extremely jacked up about this one. Izzo is an amazing coach…if he coached runners I’d definitely call him up. Winners are winners.)
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Training was good last week. Ran a pretty tough 300-250 workout on Tuesday where we were alternating between 3k and 1500 pace, then didn’t really rest up before Friday’s race. With a few more weeks of training and a few rest days, I’m going to be ready to pop a big one….Let’s GO!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack