......In W/ The New

If it's late August in Ft Washington it must be the annual Greater Philadelphia Track Club Track Pentathlon......you know the event were seemingly sane people subject themselves to a 3,000m 200m 1,500m 100 400m or 800m race every half an hour.....yeah that's the one!
Having won the very first event back in 2010 I have competed in all but one of the Track Pentathlons since in 2013 when I was just starting to train again after my achilles injury and frankly 5 events when I was less than fit wasn't a plan,last year I finished a creitable 4th and looking at this years field I felt there was a decent chance of finishing in the top 5 and earning some prize money......

I didn't help matters I only managed two hours sleep the nite b4.......getting to bed at gone 4am lnowing the alarm was set for 6am is NOT text book prep but I did what I did for a reason.......that somewhere down the road I'll feel at liberty to explain but for now just know my reasons were GOOD bordering on GREAT.......................

Up by 6am and out the door by 6.30am to make the 7.11am train I was painfuly aware of the pain behind my eyeballs from a lack of sleep but armed w/  a "can do" attitude a LARGE cup of Earl Tea tea { IF Earl Grey ever ends up on the banned substance list I'm SO screwed!!!} and some bangin' tunes on my phone I made the 50 min train ride to Ft Washington and the track of Germantown Academy.

After picking up my race # and saying a few hellos I did a brief warm up w/ my good friends Mark Williams and Peter Brady who have become two of my best friends on the running circuit in the past two years,they were also two of the five other athletes I expected to be duking it out w/ over the upcoming 5 events.

Into my spikes,Bandana on it was "Showtime".....no turning back now!
3,000m
5th in 10.12.8 and 82.76 points
I retract my previous statement re the 3,000m should be the 5th and final event......get that sucker out the way from the getgo!
Somewhat of a shocker two time defending champ Nick Berra dropped out three or four laps in w/ a hamstring injury,obvs I wish Nick a speedy recovery but as Nick along w/ Peter and Mark plus two previous champions Lorraine Jasper and Bruce Rash plus multi event specialist Vicki Fox were my compitition that was oneless threat to keeping me out of the prize money.

200m
4th in 28.66 and 78.76 points
Given I average 32/33 seconds in my 200m repeats this was a nice bump in my times.
One of these years I'm gonna make good on my threat of learning how to use the blocks for the sprints and even work on my 100m and 200m starts......#Usainbolt

1,500m
4th in 4.42.6 and 86.00 points
Prehaps my strongest event which was reflected by my points score at this stage I was trying to maintain my third place spot behind Mark & Peter and ahead of Lorraine,Bruce and Vicki.
W/ the 1,500m over it's pretty much gravy......

100m
4th in 14.25 and 77.54 points
Thanks to Joe Manion next to me in lane 1 who ran a 14.06 I was able to  stay close and notch a decent time.....decent for a middle distance runner trrying to sprint!

800m
3rd in 2.20.6 and 83.40
It's always easy to lift myself for the 800m it's my second favourite event PLUS it's the final event of the Pentathlon.
I knew I couldn't live w/ Mark and Peter who were locked into theit 5th private duel of the day but I put some daylight between myself and  other three 2 lappers

Post event we did a mass cool down....a very easy mile and a half b4 the results were announced
6th Lorraine Jasper in 403.77
4th Vicki Fox in 405.23
4th Bruce Rash in 405.23 *
3rd Kevin Forde in 408.46
2nd Peter Brady in 417.65
1st Mark Williams in 420.65

* First ever tie in the 6 year history of the event

I'll take 3rd.... I DAMN sure took the $100 prize money!
I need to check my times and scores from my 4th place finish from last year to see how they stack up and while 3rd dosen't make up for missing Lyon and Worlds it's another solid showing from the old man of the field representing all the Grey Beards out there!
Till next year?