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Haverford Alumni Run 3 Miler

September 3, 2022 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: mid 80s, sun, moderate humidity

Comments:
Perfectly satisfied. Took a 1pm train and then the commuter line up to Haverford. relaxed for half an hour under a tree on Founders'Green. Changed and jogged out to Featherbed Fields with about 40 minutes to go before the men's race. Thanks to the email chatter, there were 15 or so old goats from the 90s there and the chatter was good. Took another short jog with a few and did the bare minimum of drills and 2-3 striders. Tom said "Set and go" in his usual understated way, and we went. Apparently Tripp went with the 46 current team members and young alumni in their 20s, while the rest of us started off at a completely different clip. I got some teasing as I tried to bridge the gap and for the first mile I was with Seeks (sp?) from the class of '12? who nicely chatted with me until I told him to "go have fun up ahead." First mile was 6:06 which and I suspected I'd gone out a little too eagerly and should dial it back a bit. Karl passed me going into the "hill" at about the 2k mark. I admit I wasn't too upset about being passed by a sub 4 guy, even if he claims he hasn't run in weeks. Second mile was 12:31 (6:25). Karl never got more than 20 meters ahead. I admit I didn't feel like working my tail off to go up to him knowing he could just pull out his speed when I got to him. In the third mile long loop, I did pass one young alum (maybe before the hill?) and I was unintentionally gaining on Karl. I made an effort to close coming in the last half mile from the observatory and could tell Karl heard my spike passing the track. By the time we rounded the final bend and had 120m to go, I was on his tail and we were both closing hard on a young alum. We crossed the line with Karl half a step behind the young guy, and me one step behind a former world record holder (in the indoor 4x800m relay). If I remember correctly, I was 47th with a time of 18:41 for three miles (6:06, 6:25, 6:10). I had worked hard and stayed focused, even if I didn't dig in deep. I'm still confident Karl wouldn't have let me pass him (at any point). Staggered a cooldown to cheer for the other old men and stood around listening to Tom and others for half an hour before jogging a bit more with Tripp. Substantial blisters on the pads of both feet from the spikes. A shower and then a nice time hanging out at Tuomi's backyard for a few hours with the old goats before staying the night at Balcer's. Hard to believe my first alumni race was exactly 30 years ago and that I ran sub 16 for 5km off of soccer training (If I remember correctly).