The Forde Is As Mighty As The Penn

Penn Relays chapter 3,the 2.10pm time slot meant not having all morning/early afternon to think about the race,after getting up at 8am my morning was kick started w/ a phone message from Scott saying he wasn,t coming...........this was followed by a second message some 20 mins later saying he,d be there,when your lead off runner tells you he can,t run you tend to wake up very quickly!!!!!!
I phoned Scott to see what was up,aside from his dodgy hamstring Scott was battling a cold but ever the warrior he said he,d run,man I,d go into battle w/ Scott anytime because dispite whatever physical ailments he has he always shows up to run,if you were to look up Gutsy SOB in a dictionary there,d be a picture of Scott in his PAC vest I,m telling ya!!!
I arrived at Franklin Field by 11.15am and by 11.45am the team was all present and correct,Scott,Daryl,Rick,me and Chuck,given Scott,s delicate condition Chuck said he,d warm up w/ us just in case Scott couldn,t go,no matter how hard Chuck tries to get out of running the Masters 4x4 at Penn it has a way of pulling him back in,I joked it,s a bit like the priesthood,once you,re in you,re in for life!!!!
Man talk about hurry up and wait,after our warm up we made our way to the paddock,the event was running ahead and Penn Relays waits for nobody, we were scrambling to get out of our sweats and into the holding area when an official asked for our card......uh oh Chuck had it but he wasn,t in the paddock w/ us.......mercifully we filled out one b4 taking our position along the wall,meanwhile Synergy were scrambling to get ready also,if it hadn,t have been for the fact that the relays were going live on ESPN2 I doubt they would,ve gotten to run,as it was all eight teams {Second Wind were a no show}were now waiting for the womens USA vs The World 4x100 to go off at 2pm when the tv coverage kicked in.
Showtime the teams were called to their lanes,somehow we,d drawn lane 5,a plum lane not only for Scott to lead us off but our second leg Rick wouldn,t have to cut in from the inside or outside down the back straight,once that gun goes off it all gets blurry for me along the wall,I couldn,t tell you where Scott was in terms of position or split all I know was he handed off to Rick and I moved up the wall slightly along w/ the other anchor legs,Rick handed off to Daryl and now it was time to position myself in the exchange zone.
As I predicted the other week the race up front was between Southwest Sprinters A&B, Central Park and Synergy,Alabama Express and Mass Velocity were 5th and 6th with Shore AC 7th and us 8th................then for the clutch move by Daryl,coming off the final turn and down the home straight he passed the Shore AC 3rd leg,there wasn,t time for me and the Shore AC anchor to switch places,I took the baton from Daryl in lane 6 and was off,it all happened so quickly but it felt like a good exchange,I had to figure the Shore AC anchor was hard on my heals,it wasn,t Bob Andrews but it didn,t matter there were 400m between me and the finish and 49,000 people in the stands..................."It,s Prime Time Baby"
By all accounts from the "eye in the sky"{chuck} Shore AC,s anchor held onto to me rounding the first turn but going down the back straight I,d shaken him off,Alabama and Mass Velocity looked well clear of me but I was flying,w/ 150m to go I briefly felt like I was swimming but then I looked up and saw Alabama Express,s and Mass Velocity,s anchors tying up......C,MON!!!!!I was running out of real estate but gave it everything I had,another 10 meters I think I,d have caught Alabama Express as it it was I clipped the Mass Velocity anchor right b4 the finish line for 6th......how close was it between 5th and 6th?Alabama Express clocked 3.48.78 we finished in 3.49.38.
The first person person I looked for after the race was Daryl,his move at the end of his leg had set it up for me to close in on 6th as oppossed to being last,Scott and Rick had ran through injuries and illness to lead us off,sadly I didn,t get splits but Chuck said Daryl ran 56 secs and I ran 55 seconds,I,ll take 55 seconds and I,ll take 6th place,only a second slower and a place lower than I would,ve hoped for pre race.
My day wasn,t quite done yet,I stuck around to watch the rest of the races but for once was able to get down to the scoreboard end of Franklin Field by the track,usually the Masters 4x4 is later in the day and by the time we,re done the days events are almost over this year there was an ample amount of time to witness races up close as oppossed from the stands,that in of it,s self was neat but as I was standing there next to Chuck as he was talking to an official I happened to look to my left.........there are very few"oh my god" moments for me these days ......HOWEVER standing next to me was 2 time World Champion and reigning Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner................like I said..........."oh my god!!!!!''
For some reason I,d brought my programme w/ me probably to be able to follow the events but I knew there was a whole page picture of Jeremy near the front,I whipped out said programme and asked the great man if he could sign it for me,he duly obliged and we shook hands as I thanked him and wished him good luck in Beijing,he thanked me for that.......HOW FRICKIN COOL IS THAT!!!!!
I came home still buzzing from my day at Franklin Field and promptly went over to Clark Park to crank out a 3.5 miler,leaving me another 3.5 miler tomorrow to round out my weekly milage at 25 miles,another Penn Relays in the history books,another great chapter in my life.