The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good:  Casimir Loxsom's 800M split was the third best in the field at the New Balance 4 x 800 M extravaganza in Boston over the weekend.  That was the best in the field except for the 2 dueling it out over the final leg for the victory and the new Indoor World Record of 7:13.11.

The Bad:  Cas's team, the Brooks Beasts came in third in the field to the US All Stars with Duane Solomon and the NJ/NY team with Robby Andrews.

The Ugly: The lead off leg for the Brooks Beasts was an atrocious 1:54.6 by Matt Sherer, who has been mostly rabbiting races for the past 3 years. Cas never had a chance.

 

The yellow headbands on the Brooks Beasts stood out everywhere but the finish line!

Watch more videos on Flotrack


Here's some of the splits, (but not all of them).

1. Eric Sowinski             1:46.66
2. Michael Rutt               1:46.66
3. Casimir Loxsom        1:47.03
4. David Torrence           1:47.42
5. Duane Solomon          1:47.98
6. Robby Andrews          1:48.28
7. Brian Gagnon             1:48.59
8. Kyle Merber               1:50.72
9. Matt Sherer                1:54.65      

Hey Joe!

PSU Track Alum (Golfer) Joe Kovacs just beat the #1 Shot Putter in the world (Ryan Whiting, another honorary PSU Track Alum (Golfer)) and the Olympic Champion, Tomasz Majewski in the same meet.

I don't understand much about shot putting, and with my PR of about 12 feet, not many will listen to my ramblings about it.  But I do know how much toil and effort over a long period of time it takes for someone to crack the 70 foot barrier.  Congrats, Joe.

So here's video of Joe's toss and Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe"*



*The lyrics and over-all tenor of the song have nothing to do with Joe Kovacs, it's just a little bit of old-time music goodness for the elderly among us who actually were alive for Woodstock and its aftermath.

My Dog Spott Missed Me

Three days in a cold, cold house will do that to a canine, I suppose.  But I can certainly say that he likes me and was quite happy to have me back.  Feels good in these strange and difficult times.

But back to running related things:

Photo from Greg Fredericks. Exactly 26.2 miles on mine, (never worn again!)

1. My PR Marathon was at Penn Relays in 1979. I knew I could easily set my PR so I decided to wear a new sneaker from Nike, appropriately called "The Sting".   My last 6 miles were a slogfest as always and my right foot was uncharacteristically burning.  Not enough for me stop, but enough to slow me a little further and allow about 5 teammates to fly by.  When I finished, I made the mistake of taking off my shoe and discovering a bloody mess contained within.  Without investigating further, we wandered back to the hotel for a shower before the van trip back to State College.  In the shower, a flap of skin and more flopped off the front of my right foot revealing more of my anatomy than I figured was good.  The entire ball of my foot was just a flap with "bloody meat" underneath.  It started to hurt quite a bit, but I put the flap back in place and we went on our way.  Two days later, I awoke in the middle of the night with pain and a red streak to my mid thigh.  Apparently, that's how long it takes Staph and Strep to wander up one's lymphatic vessels.  I hobbled and hopped to Ritenour (Wait an Hour!) Health Center and got some antibiotics.  I never missed any classes and my log states 3, 1, 3, 8, 8 and 8 for my mileage the rest of the week. Today, it would kill me...
2. There are some cool looking maps being put out showing all the running spots in every city.  These are generated by everyone submitting their runs to RunKeeper and are then superimposed on Google Maps.  These Philly Spots are quite familiar in my 4 years there.
3. I have harped on the forefoot vs. rearfoot striking thing many times before. (Don't get me started on mid-foot striking!) Just run the way you run fastest.  Don't monkey with things to that degree. When Alberto Salazar passed the 2 guys running with nearly perfect form*, what did it matter?
4. I once talked about a Junior High Basketball teammate (in the comments on this post) who went on to become the most pure shooter Coach Keady of Purdue ever saw, including Michael Jordan.  When Michael heard that at Coach Keady's retirement speach, the whole ensemble moved from the auditorium to the gym where Curt Clawson did indeed beat MJ in a 3-point shooting contest.  (Michael apparently bet $15,000 on the feat also, and ponied up the cash at the end.) Well, Curt Clawson has now gone up against another foe in a 3-point shooting contest, President Obama!  Curt is running for Congress in Florida.  I may make my first ever political donation to Curt, just for the gonadal fortitude it took to feature an ad against the President during the Super Bowl! Sign the petition to have the President and Curt shoot it out!

The Schuylkill River figures most in Philly Runs.

*Both Greg Fredericks and Craig "Surgin" Virgin have nearly perfect running form, and yet I think Alberto beat them both at the 1980 10,000M Trials.

Party Like a Rock Star

The electricity is back on. 

And the sweet, sweet crackling stream of electrons along a wire of good conductive material is just what the doctor ordered. The temperature is already up to 58 degrees!  It seem all of my menagerie has survived the conditions. God bless them all.

But the Hotel room is already paid for, so I'm staying there tonight to party like a rock star!* So I'll have to get to my already thought out posts tomorrow.  And then I'll start on the Podcast #2: The Rock and Roll One. Don't forget to listen to the first podcast and let me know what you thought.  Give me suggestions and critique, please.  I want this to be interesting, worthwhile and work better than the computers at my work!

*Those who know me won't be worried.

College Dual Meets

Would you like to see the return of college dual meets? Jesse Squire at the Daily Relay shares his thoughts on the excitement of duals in the 60's and 70's along with the move toward invitational meets in the 80's and 90's. I never participated in a dual meet in college, only in high school. They certainly could be exciting especially the State College vs. Altoona rivalry.

Also, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix takes place tomorrow at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, MA. This is the meet with the well publicized 4x800 meter relay featuring Casimir Loxsom. It can be viewed live on NBC Sports Network from 4:30pm-6:00pm.

One more thing. Former Steeler offensive lineman Alan Faneca dropped 100 pounds and ran the New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in 3:56:17. Fastest marathon for an NFL lineman? Imagine the opposite, a skinny distance runner trying to block a blitzing linebacker for 60 minutes.

Ahhhhhhhhh! No Electricity or Internet is a Nightmare

A brief note as to where I have been.

I'm in a cold, cold Hell.  I'm one of those people without electricity you are hearing about on the news with power out.*  And it's worse than that Halloween extravaganza 2 years ago.

So I have a post in my head about reliving Groundhog's Day over-and-over again coming when I can get the time between work, shuttling home to fuel the generator and stopping by the Hotel room to check on the kids and grandmom.  And there's another one about the time I lost the bottom of my foot wearing a ridiculous new shoe in a marathon that will have to wait also.  Turns out Greg Fredericks had a pair also.   He survived unscathed.

Stay tuned.

*And there's no internet at work.  It's amazing how bad practicing medicine is without internet now.  Nothing can get done correctly.  The patients don't care and the only person to blame is the doctor.  I'm lower on the totem pole than ever before right now.  And I have to get to the house to fill the generator...

It's Rabbit Season



But before I go there let me give mention to some of our alumni performances at the Penn State National. My apologizes for neglecting to mention yesterday.

Fawn Dorr - Invitational 200 meters (5th in 24.28), Invitational 400 meters (4th in 54.19)

Karaleigh Foster (fresh off a stint of training in Arizona) - Invitational 3000 meters (6th in 9:25.82)

Mark Fuller - Open mile (19th in 4:27.38)

Kyle Dawson - Invitational 5000 meters (9th in 14:41.36)

 

And of course our alumni continue to deliver a fast pace. The master's of setting up a high level race they are. It's a useful asset to have when our boy's and girls in blue are looking for a fast time.

 

Kevin Fuller pacing the 800.

 

Brian Fuller pacing the mile. I love the flotrack guys comment at 2:02 "They bring in Owen Dawson, I like it. That means it's gonna be a show."



Kyle Dawson pacing the 3000.


Watch more videos on Flotrack

P.S. Flotrack's coverage of the meet was great as was their commentary during all of the races.

How To Download the Podcast

I finally figured out how to download the podcast for use on your gizmo of choice.

 I chose to host the podcast on the totally free Internet Archive and use a Creative Commons License. That means I reserve some rights to the material. That means you are free to disseminate and spread the word (and the podcast itself!) to others. I only reserve the right that it cannot be used for commercial purposes and attribution is required.

 So, to download a MP3 of the podcast, go to the Internet Archive symbol (the building with columns) on the streaming ribbon in the post or on the right sidebar.  That will give you several options including sharing to your Facebook or Twitter feed (go ahead if you like, it will really spread the word!) and going to the Internet Archive full page.  Click on the Go to Full page thingie (the building again with the columns).  That will take you to the page for Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golf Podcasts (only 1 so far).  On the left side there is an option for downloading a zip file (VBRzip) of the entire podcast.  You may need a readily available unzipping app and then you are done!  Easy squeezie, lemon sneezy, or something...

I'd also appreciate some people giving a review of the podcast on the full page at Internet Archive.  Be honest.  You won't hurt my feelings.  I'm nothing if not a realist.

That's:

1. Click on the Building Symbol on the podcast ribbon on the web site post or on the right sidebar.
2. Click again on the Building Symbol to go to the full podcast page.
3. Find the area on the left side for downloading and click on the zip file VBRzip for the MP3.
4. Unzip the file and transfer it to your gizmo of choice and listen at your leisure.

The First Podcast: The Sub-4 One

I think I have everything in a suitable form and have learned a lot along the way.  An old dog CAN learn new tricks.  By no means is it perfect, but it's better than some others I have listened to.  And it stars Coach Groves and Greg Fredericks. It is 35 minutes long, but ones in the future should be between 20 and 30 minutes.

The music is by permission from our House Band, the Velveteen Playboys with PSU high jump record holder Paul Souza.  The sax solo at the end is by Robert Gay.  If you haven't heard them yet, you are in for a treat.  Paul will be our guest for the next podcast to discuss his 18 year coaching career, rock and roll, and the upcoming Track and Field/Rock and Roll tour coming this Outdoor Season.  We'll hear more of them next time!

I can't thank them enough, as well as Matt Groves, who somehow shares my vision for the blog and what we can accomplish with it.  When I say I want the largest and most active Track and Field Alumni Group in the world, I mean it.  In discussions with others during the weekend, I am even more convinced that in all the phases of my life, PSU Track Alums are the most interesting, accomplished, and intelligent people I have ever met.  Each of us has more in common with even alumni from PSU Track from decades apart than we do with many of our peers outside of Track.  Except for maybe the tattoos...

Hope you enjoy it.



Penn State Track and Field Alumni Golf by David Foster Baskwill is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://psutafalumnigolf.blogspot.com.

Penn State National Recap

More quality coverage from GoPSUSports and Flotrack. Full results here.

Another Penn State National in the books. Plenty of alums were back in town for the meet. This weekend has become an unofficial reunion of sorts. It was great seeing similar faces returning to the scenes of their youthful glory days.

The performance of the meet goes to what else but the men's DMR on Friday night. The quartet of Brannon Kidder, Brandon Bennett-Green, Za'Von Watkins, and Robby Creese threw down the second fastest time ever in the world by any team on an indoor track. Their 9:26.59 is just .62 seconds shy of the world record held by the 2008 Texas Longhorns 9:25.97. My completely unofficial splits were 2:52.9 for Kidder, 46. 8 for BBG, 1:48.7 for Watkins, and 3:58.0 for Creese. They were running with the lead from the get go but Stanford did kept it interesting and provided the necessary competition for a fast time. Congrats to them as well. Best part is they are just getting started, there will be few more chances for fast DMR's.

Watch more videos on Flotrack

For those who couldn't be there or if you just want verify my splits.

Photos courtesy of Steve Shisler

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday was just as exciting. Besides the podcasting which went extremely well. We all seemed to know what we were talking about (a first for me). I am going give an honorable mention performance of the meet to Wade Endress. The Altoona native won the "slower" heat of the invitational mile in 4:04.51 (a big breakthrough and PR). Brannon Kidder continued the sub 4 tradition in the "fast" heat with 3:59.55. Owen Dawson 4:01.36 for third.

 

The fast times wouldn't have been possible with out the ace rabbiting done by Kevin Fuller, Brian Fuller, and Kyle Dawson. Kevin took the hot heat of the 800 meters through a 52 second 400, Brian the first half of mile in 1:58-1:59, and Kyle paced the 3000 through one mile in a saucy 4:15. No real surprises as they always get the job done when it comes to pacing.

 

P.S. co honorable mention performance of the meet to Ryan Foster. He is filling the big shoes left behind by Jess Riden perfectly. The job of running a big time track meet can be thankless job and Ryan certainly deserves a lot of credit for directing a good show. If you saw him at the meet he was indeed a busy busy man.



 



An Update on the Podcast Thing

The Penn State National weekend was a great success, both on the track and in the field, and in the Podcast Booth.  I conquered my fears and actually did it.  (Those fears were real.  I was as nervous as a schoolgirl on school photo day all week!) The consensus from everyone there was quite positive, and Coach Groves seems eager to expand on the subject of training in future episodes.

I spent yesterday with wonderful people watching 6 hours or so of track and field action.  And during the break I actually convinced Coach Groves, Greg Fredericks and co-blogger Matt Groves to join me in creating our group's very first podcast.  I'm calling it The Sub-4 One in honor of the theme of sub-4 minute miles (8 in a row!) at the Penn State National Event.  We discussed what it takes to dip under the magical barrier with Coach and Greg, with some second-hand help from questions via email from Larry Mangan and Ryan Foster.  Ryan was at the meet, but waaaay too busy to join us.  He probably put in several sub-4's running around yesterday.  I also got to get a few words with Coach Gondak and Owen Dawson, just after running a 4:01.3 mile on the track.  I missed Coach Alford-Sullivan as the meet ended after my official bed-time.  But I'll get some quotes from her in future podcasts.

Now you may wonder, Where is this Podcast?  

Well, it's not done yet. Your humble blog host is flying by the seat of his pants and needs to learn the next tricks of the trade.  But the recording is officially made and the other various tracks and even music is now assembled.  I will go to the book (Podcasting for Dummies!) and learn how to edit and host the podcast so my dozens of readers can download and listen to the wisdom of Greg and Coach. Keep checking back....

New Alumni Record!

While most of our focus was on the Penn State National this weekend I'd like to slip in mention of a new 800 meter indoor alumni record from Casimir Loxsom (called it!). He ran 1:50.14  at the Carmel City Hilton Garden Invitational in Winston-Salem, NC, .73 seconds faster than the old time of 1:50.87 from Owen Dawson in 2013.

Full live results

Event 39  Men 800 Meter Run Camel City E
=======================================================================
    Name                    Year School                  Finals  Points
=======================================================================
Finals                                                                
  1 Symmonds, Nick               Brooks Beast Tc        1:48.64       
  2 Rutto, Eliud                 Mid. Tenn. State       1:48.98       
  3 Wieczorek, Mark              Brooks Beast Tc        1:49.66       
  4 Loxsom, Casimir              Brooks Beast Tc        1:50.14       
  5 Bojanowski, Thomas           Wake Forest            1:51.18       
  6 Hazouri, Brandon             Samford                1:51.64       
  7 Hendershot, Nathan           Samford                1:51.95       
-- Roberts, Logan               Unattached                 DNF    

Reaction from the Penn State National will be posted later. Podcast and all!