The Penn Is Mightier Than The Sword

St George's Day back home in the motherland,one of these days they'll make it a holiday although I'm not holdong my breath,if St Patrick's Day is a holiday in Ireland,St Andrew's Day is a holiday in Scotland and St David's Day is a holiday in Wales then why isn't St George's Day in England???
W/ two Bank Holidays in May Day and Spring Bank Holiday at the opposite ends of May why not nix May Day and make April 23rd a national holiday? I mean the geezer slayed a Dragon for christ sake we can't give him a day off in his honour???

A slightly later start than usual for my 8 mile recovery run as I had to swing by piggy post office at 53rd and Kingsessing post work to pick up my copy of Seb Coe's autobiography that wouldn't fit through my mailbox.
Having just finished Adharanand Finn's excellent "Running W/ The Kenyans" on Monday the arrival of "Running My Life" couldn't have been better timed I just began reading "My Boy" by Philomena Lynott yesterday so once I'm done w/ that I'll get stuck into Seb's autobiography
I'm building up a nice collection of running autobiographys in my book case:Eamon Coghlan,Paula Radcliff,Steve Ovett,Ronnie Delaney,Jumbo Elliot,Steve Scott and will probably add both Mo Farah and Usain Bolt's b4 years end.

As I swung by Franklin Field about a mile and a half into my run it was hard not to notice they're getting ready for this weekends Penn Relays,barriers are up,banners are up and on the inbound leg of my run over South St bridge I looked up to see flags atop the flagpoles on the upper tier of the famous old stadium.
I was fortunate enough to compete in four Penn Relays Masters 4x400m relays M40 between 06-09,it was an honour to say I'd done so and it should come s no surprize that my fastest 400m times all came at Penn Relays,never underestimate the power of  between 40,000 and 50,000 people in the stands cheering when you run and being a Philly athlete to boot never hurts either!!!!
I declined the invitation to throw my bandana in the ring for a spot on either of the clubs M50 4x400M teams this year,after a shite winters training I feel like I'm just beginning to find my feet now and to alter my schedule to accomodate 400m training while not the worst thing for an 800m runner didn't enter my plans,maybe next year if things go better during the winter I'll consider a return to one of the great sporting events on the calender let alone one of the highlites of Track and Field.
Wishing my teammates and my "extended family" in the running fraternity all the very best this weekend.