July Racing News

July was a very busy month in terms of my track and field. I ran a regional meet at

Time check at the finish

Pretty much the entire meet at Spire

Spire Institute in Geneva , Ohio followed by the Senior Games Nationals in Pittsburgh and followed by the USATF Masters Nationals in Greensboro. Three road trips in one month was a lot, but I got in some great racing. The meet at Spire was a regional affair where I ran the 100, 200 and high jumped. This meet was a prep for the two National events that were looming on the horizon. I stayed with a college friend while in Geneva, he lived 15 minutes from the track and that made for a great visit and saved some hotel cash as well. The meet was about as wet as I have ever been involved. I jumped first and finished the day with the 200, which was the last event on the track. It rained, not hard, but with an unbroken stream the entire meet The rain finally quit during the 200 meter heats. Just wet the entire meet. I did bring my tent and set it up near the HJ area so I could have dry gear to wear. The tent was incredibly helpful, being wet for 5 hours just plain sucks. I did observe something I had never seen before at any track meet. They were running the mens steeplechase and the man leading on the first lap had a problem on the first water jump and went down to his knees before recovering and continuing. The second lap, the same man, had a problem again on the water jump and disappeared completely underwater! Wow! He came up for air and continued along. The next lap, he cleared the water jump nicely and the rest of the laps did very well, the first two were just killers. Maybe he needed to get a wake call in the water first....... 

PPG headquarters

 The next stop on my tour was in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelers! I got a room downtown and we completed at a high school field that was about a 30 minute drive West of the city through the Pitt Tunnel. The Pitt Tunnel is always backed up and crowded and that was a normal bottleneck for this meet, just get through the thing and continue on. One my track friends was also competing--Graham Broyd ( white mustache in the group photo)--from NY. He has a career in finance and used to call on Pittsburgh companies as part of his job duties. He was well familiar with the town and is just full of stories. Being downtown in a vibrate city like Pittsburgh is a great way to see the true culture and be close to the local cuisine. Two blocks from  the hotel was Dunkin, a diner for breakfast and a little place recommended by my step son Adam called Primanti Bros Bar and Grill. Adam had never eaten there, he really wants to eat there, but recommended it as a 'must eat' place. He was right, it is a must eat.

Primanti Sandwich with a  local brew--incredible

The business has a 4 by 6 foot griddle and it is loaded with sandwiches and they also have a deep fryer with 6 baskets. That is all you need to make a really great sandwich. The serve a list of meals painted on the menu board and have Iron City beer as well. I ordered the most popular sandwich they make and was in heaven. Sliced bread, meat, melted cheese, a lot of fries, a tomato, and slaw on this thing and there you are --$9.99. You better be hungry, it is a lot. It was post meet, so I finished it up with two Iron City beers--that is how you can eat in Pittsburgh!! Graham met me for dinner one night near the PPG buiding, which was one of his old customers. It is a gorgeous building with a lot of glass--surprise. Our dinner covered a lot of ground and it was treat a to get to spend some time with him without running gear on. He has stories, just wild adventures he has experienced. As far as the meet, I ran fifth in the 200 with the seasons quickest time in the prelims and even faster in the finals. I high jumped pretty good and finished 4 th. In the 200 meters, I have ran it 3 times in July with faster times each trip. That tells me there is more there and my training is good. I still have some time I lost during covid to recover, but who knows if that is even possible. I will continue racing and see what happens. Prior to covid my 200 meter times had been in the high 27's for several years and now I have it down to the high 28's. No injuries to report, I was healthy and ready for the USATF Nationals next week. 

Senior Games 200 meters

 I flew to Charlotte and rented a car to reach Greensboro. I had driven to the previous two meets. During the USATF Maters meets I am a team member in the SoCal track club and we try to compete for the team titles as well. Since we are based 

Old Man running 

in California, the East coast meets are a challenge to get the amount of members needed to win a meet, but we try each time to win the thing. We have won the overall meet title 21 times in the last several years, so we are a very good track team. I was entered in the HJ, 200 meters, 4 x 400 relay and 4 x 100 relays. That is enough for three days, since everything is just flat out at this level. I high jumped Day 1 and was 5 th and jumped 1.45 meters which is 7 th ranked mark in the Americas. I need to get over 1.5 meters to medal and that is the goal in the next two years is to figure out how I can do that. I did change my run up this year, it is now 20 meters in length and I like that change. I think I may need to go a little more straight at the bar with less curve at the take off point.  In the 200 meters I finished fifth as well with my season best time in the prelims. That time-28.73- is the 9 th rated time in the Americas this year. I was a little slower in the finals, so my limit has been found this year on my top times for the 200. That prelim time was produced during a furious finish to get into the finals. We had three heats, top two from each heat and the two fastest times make the finals. I was in third rounding the curve in heat 3 and was in lane 6. The person I needed to get was in lane 7 , so I could guarantee a transfer to the finals. I needed to get 5 meters and I really put the hammer down and ran second by a tenth. I made it through, but that was an absolute insane finish drive. The guy I beat made it through on time, so it worked out for both of us. It is great to have close racing and that is how you make great times as well. We ran a 4 x 100 relay and finished second by a tenth of a second. Our anchor ran down a really fast quartermiler, but just lacked that final drive to close the deal, it was a hell of a finish. In the 4 x 400 relay, it was the last event on the last day and we just did not have enough to get close at the end and took second again. I was the anchor leg, but I could not make up 25 meters. Our team did pick up the third place award in the meet and that was actually a good result for the amount of athletes we had participate.

Old man jumping 

This section is of my SoCal team mates.  4 x 400 relay is above and the 4 x 100 is to the right side.  One of my team mates took these pictures--Blake Wood--with a very powerful digital camera and they turned out just incredible.  Thanks go to Blake for really getting some great shots at the meet. 

HJ run up