Sunday, April 18th - Penn Relays 20K

17 miles, hard
65 degrees, sunny

I ran my 5th Penn Relays 20K this morning, the 4th under Coach Groves. In celebration of Groves' 80th birthday and 65th Penn Relays, a team of PSUXC Alumni gathered in Philadelphia to run at his favorite event. It was great toeing the line again with Artie, Munro, and others with a shot of earning yet another wheel for the G-Unit.

I had worried about the short recovery time between Cherry Blossom and this race, and it wasn't unfounded. I was not at my best going into this race, but I had done all the right things this week to regroup. I knew that the only way to contend in this race is to go out hard and try to hold on. Unfortunately, this was the most competitive of my 5 races here, and I wasn't alone. By 5K, I was just trying to hang on to Artie and the eventual winner, with the second place runner quickly catching up. I fully admit that I allowed a mental lapse to allow me to drop off the pace. Could I have hung on and contended for the watch? Almost definitely no. But I could have tried harder.

Instead, I began to let Artie's already small frame shrink over the horizon, and was subsequently passed by my new Philly "rival," Brian Lang. I didn't even try to keep up. I ran a decent effort, but certainly not my best, for 7th in 1:08:44. It was only a minute off my collegiate best, which offered some solace.

Artie had a fantastic day and finished 3rd overall in just 66 minutes, and Dave Moore followed me in 70 minutes, which helped us eeke out a team win over Bucknell. Another year, another contested team title. Thankfully, I was able to redeem myself for allowing another team to win the wheel in Groves' last year as coach.

I cooled down extra long with friend-of-GRC Luke Holman and Brian Lang, and ran barefoot for the first time in a while on the Franklin Field infield. After cleaning up, I stopped by Pat's for the requisite steak sandwich "wit-out" and headed back to DC.