Friday, February 27, 2009

Happy B,day Sid Howard

For the second time in three years I was forced to sit out week #4 and the final races of the Thursday Nite At The Races series at The Armory due to a Masters Invitational race in Boston on Sunday.
However this didn,t stop me from making the short 3 hour commute from Philly to Manhatten as I wanted the chance to not only watch some friends,teammates and upcoming opponents race but also wish"Mr New York City"himself the legendary Sid Howard a happy 70th b,day.
While the record book show David Bloomburg is the mayor of NYC there,s little or no doubt that Sid Howard runs NewYork City,I,ve been running here for three years now and Sid is as much a fixture of this city as the Empire State Building.
I wanted to share this story as it was my first encounter w/ Sid and The Armory,in March of 06 I ran my first ever race at The Armory,a Friday nite Mac C,ships,we{GPTC}had gone up to run the 4x400m relay as prep for the upcoming Penn Relays.
I elected to run an open 400m earlier and was placed in a heat w/ three other quarter milers w/ similar times,coming off the final turn some 10 meters down on the leader I showed New York the first signs of my kick finish prowess by catching the leader and outleaning him at the line for the win.
At the end of the meet Sid who,d never met me b4 but knew Chuck came over,shook me by the hand and said"of all the races tonite,yours was the best finish".....we,ve been friends ever since,and thats why I was at The Armory last nite in a non running capacity to wish Sid a Happy 70th B,day.
Big shout out to my friend and team mate Sean Harbison who ran a 4.51 1,500m a nice race my friend and cheers for the ride home,no kipping in my office post meet like last time!!!!

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