LappedMiler wrote:
CPD wrote:
I have a lot but probably winning the PENN Relays 10,000m. I won it back to back. I say the PENN Relays because that was the first place I ever read about as a kid that I fantasized about winning.
I'm guessing your winning times were 29:05.07 and 29:36.08 the previous year. (That double winner's initials, in the Penn Relays program I bought one year, are CD...maybe it's you.) Congratulations, now and for the rest of your life! I've only been a spectator at the Penn Relays, and really one of my favorite memories is witnessing the unbridled energy and enthusiasm of the Jamaican fans in the crowd. My cultural upbringing has often, detrimentally, stymied such displays of fun and joy.
As a runner, but not a champion, my two favorite moments are:
1) The finish of my first marathon. I'd gutted it out and overcome adversity down the stretch, and I completed the 26.2 miles five minutes under my target time on a chilly, overcast afternoon. I was so happy and emotional (and cold and zonked), but I stifled my tears of joy (and maybe a couple of pain-related tears, too) when I really felt like letting them flow. To have just let it happen emotionally in that moment of personal accomplishment would have made for the perfect ending, but, nevertheless, it was near-perfect, and over three decades later I can still smile and whoop with satisfaction, not just over the finish, but the entire run.
2) I usually train in the last light of the day, and sometimes beyond. Running one hot summer night as dusk was upon me, with vision limited due to increasing darkness but with safe footing, I felt a sensation of super speed as I finished my run around a farmer's field. The trees in the forest on my left seemed to be flying past. I've never felt as fast as on that evening.
That is really awesome that is me and the times I ran there. I won in 2005 and 2006. My wife said we need to make trip there to purchase a program and let our daughter feel the energy and hopefully understand that track and field is not jogging around a track but excitement and celebration. Thanks for sharring that and your kind words. I am pretty sure going back there will be a pretty emotional experience.