4 Club Records In 41 Days

In 1978 Henry Rono set/broke 4 world records in the space of 81 days,not for one second do I think my 4 club records in 41 days compares to that but it's a point of reference,and b4 anyone says"look what happened to him afterwards"I will state for the record that as of Feb 14th I was celebrating 21 and a 1/2 years of being sober and from what I gather Henry Rono has been sober for a few years also,God willing all of us recovering alcoholics get another day.

My 10,000m history is a brief one,one race ever back in London in 1987 40.41....hardly earth shattering.
Unlike my 3,000m,2 miles and 5,000m records where I had to brake a previous record there was no club record for 10,000m,all I had to do was finish,that said the prospect of running 25 laps was a little daunting but just as I didn't get caught up in counting the laps down in my 5,000m race two weeks ago I knew tonite I couldn't do that either.
There was talk of rain and thunder storms this evening and not long after arriving at Widener University the rain began,it eased off only to begin again during the second of the three 5,000m races,I hummed and hared about shedding my glasses b4 the race in case the heavens opened again and made visibility difficult.

Seeded 8th of 18 runners I toed the start line at 7pm under a mixture of daylight and floodlights,conditions were cool and comfortable,ideal for a 10,000m.
I was caught off guard by the starter,normally the command is"on your marks,get set" and the gun tonite we got "on your marks ....and the gun and my reaction wasn't as good as it could be the 10 runners on my outside soon collapsed into the inside lanes,I got boxed on the rail going into the turn and didn't get out until coming up the home straight by which time the lead pack of eight had gotten away from me,amazing I was in "no mans land" after a lap....w/ 24 more to go!
I believe my opening lap was 79 seconds and my opening mile was 5.20.

Obviously over 25 laps it's hard to recall lap splits,mile splits when I got over taken, I was more focused on my form as I continued to clip off laps at a reasonable pace.
While I stuck to my guns in not counting off each lap I was delighted to reach 9 laps to go and get into single digits,by now it was dark and the race had a European track meet feel to it under the floodlights.
W/ four laps to go the heavens opened,actually I was glad for the cooling rain,I'd rather it rain w/ four laps to go than say four laps into the race,one drawback was I couldn't see through my glasses so coming through the finish line I couldn't read the clock but my friend and team mate Neil was pacing the infield yelling encouragement and telling me a sub 35 was there for the taking,my 10k road pr is 34.53 my masters pr is 35.11......

W/ 700m to go I began to wind it up,I've no idea what my time at the bell was but remarkably w/ 300m to go I launched into a furious kick,it's not like I had anyone in front of me to catch or anyone breathing down my neck it's just instinct,be it 800m,1,500m,3,000m or 5,000m when it's time to kick I'm like Shane Richie covering a Wham classic"baby I'm your man"!!!
34.43.10 seconds faster than my 10k road pr from 1984 but also 5.58. faster than my pr from 1987 and club record #4 since March 6th.
I don't see alot of 10,000m races in my future,granted I doubt it'll be 23 years b4 I run my next one but there's a reason why it's not ran often and why there wasn't a previous club record for it,I'm still awaiting for the official result,I think I finished 12th out of 18 runners.
Next race I'm dropping down to 1,500m which will feel like a sprint after my recent 5,000m and 10,000m races.