Updated All-Time Indoor Mens Performances: The Sprints

I came across the latest update to the top-5 performances all-time recently and thought I would post them for larger distribution to my "dozens of readers".

Of note to me is the 1942 3rd place performance of Lancaster's Barney Ewell!

More Pics of Yore With Some Additional Down Under Content: The Only Fool Here Is Me!

Photos by Greg Reyner.

That's Track Alumni Golfer Todd Leggett tossing the javelin, but we need help identifying the three steeplechasers.  (Some time between '82 to '86.)  Mere moments after posting, the answer was given by Bob Hudson!  (Steeplers - Vinny Accardi, Rick Clellan, Nick K)  My readers are the best.

I have received a few submissions concerning the recent post about recruiting in Australia.  It isn't bad enough that so many swimming and crawling/running creatures can kill you in Australia, but now the plants are getting in on the action!

Australia's Plant of Pain

But let's leave on a happier note.  Here's a cat with an accurate map of Australia on its nose.  I am assured that this isn't a joke.  Tasmania must be on her tongue.

Remembering the Great Philly Snowfall 0f 1983: A Little Piece Of Me Died Over The Weekend

"Maybe they got cold or drank too much."

Owner, Chi Mabel Chan

Those who care at all,, and even those who belittle and malign me for my weekly indulgence in the world's greatest food, should pay attention.

My weekly obsession/celebration of the Chinese dish Kung Pao Chicken (also beef, shrimp and scallops) goes back to the great snowfall in Philadelphia in 1983.   XC skiing in the streets (checking my logs revealed I did manage a 3-mile run that day too!) led to a big hunger and there weren't many places open that day.  We wandered into Joy Tsin Lau and ordered a spicy dish to warm up.  I then managed to eat at that restaurant quite a lot over the next 2 years, not always ordering the same dish.  But I ordered it enough that they still remember me when I return to Philly to celebrate Chinese New Year and stop in for a meal.

But 100 lawyers from Temple University (I am also a Temple grad!) may not share my love of the place now.  A recent episode of food poisoning (and Here) there made world-wide headlines mostly because the owner stated that the restaurant wasn't responsible and that the lawyers simply drank too much.

Gung Bao (Kung Pao) Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

| metric conversion

• 1/3 cup unsalted peanuts
• 1 pound (or a little more) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons vegetable or unroasted peanut oil
• 1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns
• 2 dried red chilies, roughly chopped or crushed
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and very thinly sliced
• 1-inch knob ginger root, peeled and very thinly sliced
• 4 scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the peanuts and gently toast the peanuts, shaking the pan occasionally, until they’re a beautiful golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the peanuts to a plate to cool.
2. Meanwhile, place the chicken, cornstarch, and half the soy sauce in a large bowl and gently toss until all of the chicken is well coated. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Heat a wok over medium heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, remove the wok from the heat and throw in the Szechuan peppercorns and dried red chilies. Stir continuously 20 to 30 seconds, until the chilies start to turn light brown in color.
4. Place the wok over medium-high heat then add the chicken. Fry 2 to 3 minutes, until it just starts to turn golden. Then add the garlic, ginger, scallions, and peanuts. Stir-fry constantly until the chicken is cooked through and tender, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the remaining soy sauce over the chicken, toss well, and serve immediately.

In Praise Of Pappy

I'm just happy that someone else refers to their grandfather as Pappy.  Tyler McCandless's Pappy and my Pappy actually didn't live too far apart.  I spent weekends and a good portion of every Summer near where Tyler grew up.

Tyler McCandless won yesterday's Ukrop Monument Run in Richmond.  He dedicated it to his Pappy, who helped steer him toward his running career.  Donations in honor of Ralph McCandless can be made to Athletes For A Cure.  I just gave in honor of Tyler, who does more to epitomize what a true Nittany Lion should be than just about anyone I know.

Tyler McCandless

Ralph McCandless

Foster Bray at my graduation 1985.

More Olden Photos With Even More On The Last One From Yesterday!

The "dozens of readers"  (I'm working on "scores" now!) of this blog are the best of the best almost without exception.  I am sent a random photo by someone I've never actually met just to make sure both of our technological set-ups are sufficient, and I post it as a preview of more to come, and it becomes one of the most-read posts in a long time.

Turns out I was right.  That is Pete Bortolotti on the left-side of the pic.  And that's Terry Losch of Rapid Transit Sports, the descendant of Greg Frederick's original Athletic Attic store next to him!

Doing it one better was Director of Fun Teddy Quinn's submission of the CDT write-up of that meet highlighting Ricky Garcia's victory in that steeplechase event!

Trackmen dominate Relays

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Rich Bradley | Posted Apr 18, 1983

Trackmen dominate Relays Penn State's Rick Garcia set a new meet record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase race as the men's track team won 13 of the 24 events in the Nittany Lion Relays this weekend at the Nittany Lion Track. Garcia set the record with a time of 8:56.69, breaking the old mark of 8:57.75, which was set by Greg Beardsly last year. In setting the record, Garcia had to beat George Malley, a former American record holder in the event. Garcia finished second in the steeplechase in the IC4As last year and won the race at the Junior Pan-Am and Junior Nationals in 1980, so running against another world class athlete like Malley was no problem. "It was a good, competitive race," Garcia said. "I'd like to run all of them like that." Men's Track Coach Harry Groves was impressed with Garcia and the rest of the team's performance at Saturday's meet. "It's a credit to Rick (Garcia)," Groves said, "to be able to get a pace with this wind and everything. It's really something for the athletes to be able to wait a whole day and then go out and compete in this stuff. Overall, it was a good meet under not the best conditions." Rick Kleban of Penn State repeated as the decathalon champion on the strength of a 15-foot pole vault. Kleban, who said the pole vault is his specialty, scored 950 points for his vault, which led to his final score of 6,574 points. Kleban's 15-foot pole vault set a new relay record for the pole vault event of the decathlon. His total barely topped teammate Jud Cowen, who finished with 6,569 points. Kleban, who holds the Penn State record in the decathalon with 6,830 points, started Saturday in third place, 261 points behind Cowen. Kleban then won his only other event, the 110-meter hurdles, which closed the gap to 117 points. Kleban proceeded to finishthird in the discus — the event before his record-breaking pole vault. His effort netted 320 points more than Cowen's, and put him ahead in the event for good. "This was basically a warm-up meet," Kleban said. "It was an early season meet and it wasn't the best weather, especially Friday. My main goal for the meet was just to qualify for the IC4As." Kleban, who finished fourth in last year's IC4A Championships, said that both he and Cowen qualified for this year's IC4A Championships with their scores this weekend. The IC4As will be held at Villanova University May 21 and 22. The other events, such as the distance relays, were dominated by Penn State. Groves said that he expected the relays to be the most competitive events of the whole meet, but Penn State won three of the five relays and finished second in a fourth. In the field events, Penn State also looked strong, winning four of the seven contests. Lion Mike Valenti won the shot put competition. Penn State's Todd Shenk captured the hammer throw event, Paul Souza won the high jump competition and Ron Campbell took the pole vault. The next challange the squad will face will be next weekend when it travels to New Brunswick, N.J., to take part in the Rutgers Relays. 

 And here's 2 more pics from Greg Reyner's vault! 

That's Gary Black and Mark Overheim.

I want everyone's names submitted in the comments on this one! Florida Relays (1982)? actually 1985!

I Was A Miserable Steeplechaser

Our newest member, Greg Reyner, has sent along another pic from the past.  There soon will be many more.  Here's a pic of a former away-meet roommate, Rick Garcia.  It's a small world.  I ran quite a few miles with Rick, but Greg and I missed by just one year and have not yet met.

Greg notes that he remembers that Rick and Coach Groves "often had words" with each other.  hee hee hee  I suppose he's quite correct in his analysis.

Some spontaneous thoughts about the photo:

• The uniform singlet is hideous!  The shorts are worse.  
• I also only ever got one foot wet during the steeplechase.  I was really and truly shown how to do the water jump by Arthur Lydiard himself.  It was at a summer meet in Millersville, PA. My hurdling technique was atrocious and my times pitiful, but I was really good at the water jump.
• Rick was a very good steepler and made the US Junior Team, if I remember correctly.
• Note the "wind break trees" in the background.  Coach Groves always talked about the wind break that will one day be provided by them.  More than 30 years later, they are almost helping.
• Is that Pete Bortolotti on the left-hand side of the pic?

Put Another Shrimp On The Barby!

Coach John Gondak is en route to Brisbane, Australia for another recruiting trip!  Knowing Hobart's sub-4 miler Ryan Foster (who has never had a Foster's beer!) makes me excited for the results of the trip.

Here's some useful advice for Coach during his travels...

Stay away from these 30 most dangerous animals in the land of the most dangerous animals on the Planet!

Men Ranked 15th in Outdoor Track Preseason Poll

The longest acronym in the world, the USTFCCCA, has the Nittany Lions ranked 15th in the preseason poll.  With a 12th place finish in the Indoor season and the addition of 2 high scoring athletes, Rob Cardina in the Decathlon and Michael Shuey in the Javelin, good things are ahead for us this season!  (The Women are ranked 35th.)  

Click on any of the teams below for a detailed look at all the athletes!  Like every race they ever ran!!

      Team                                                                      Coach

1	Texas A&M	390.50	SEC	Pat Henry (11th)
2	Florida	384.72	SEC	Mike Holloway (13th)
3	Oregon	325.99	Pac-12	Robert Johnson (3rd)
4	LSU	221.08	SEC	Dennis Shaver (11th)
5	Texas	205.35	Big 12	Mario Sategna (2nd)
6	Arkansas	194.57	SEC	Chris Bucknam (7th)
7	Southern California	170.63	Pac-12	Caryl Smith Gilbert (2nd)
8	Georgia	164.29	SEC	Wayne Norton (16th)
9	Florida State	154.23	ACC	Bob Braman (12th)
10	Texas Tech	146.56	Big 12	Wes Kittley (16th)
11	Alabama	145.14	SEC	Dan Waters (4th)
12	Oklahoma State	132.77	Big 12	Dave Smith (7th)
13	Baylor	122.80	Big 12	Todd Harbour (10th)
14	Stanford	119.01	Pac-12	Chris Miltenberg (3rd)
15	Penn State	116.90	Big Ten	John Gondak (1st)
16	Tennessee	115.25	SEC	Beth Alford-Sullivan (1st)

More on PSU's Last Male Distance Olympian

Greg Fredericks with someone familiar in the 70's.


Here's some recent thoughts from Larry Mangan who ran in the 1500M at the 1980 Olympic Trials and got to see first-hand, the last male PSU distance runner to make the Olympic team. I hope he doesn't mind me chiming in occasionally!  My thoughts in red.

I saw a post by someone on FB that bothered me a little bit when I read it, then really irritated the hell out of me as I thought about it a bit longer.  He claimed that he was the only runner to “try to win” the 1980 Olympic Trials 10K (and that he cried after the race), and that struck me as a bit hollow.

 I was track-side at the ‘80 Trials in large part because Greg Fredericks quietly showed up nearly every Monday and Wednesday that spring to do intervals with us.  When he wasn’t there, I assumed he was doing some other workout that crazy 10K guys preferred to do. On the days he did show up at the outdoor track – days that were dreary, cold, rainy, windy and cold (did I say cold?) – we inevitably ran 10x400 or 6x600 or 4x800 or some other workout (ok, those were the only three workouts) designed to separate us from our lunch.  (I had the pleasure to run exactly 1/2 of a workout with Greg that Summer, just before the Trials.  It was a 6 x Mile at 4:20 pace with a 400 jog between.  Several of us would run the first half with him of each mile.  I managed 3 2:10 halves that day...)

 In 1980, Greg was a married, 30-year old father who had a full time job running his own company.  (He had not made the team in the 2 previous Trials, which were supposedly his best chances!)  The rest of us were 20-21 year old bozos who couldn’t find their backsides with both hands. (I can attest to that also!) All through that spring I pushed myself to run with Greg as a training partner, sharing the load and trading lap after lap.  I tried to copy his flawless form and run as relaxed as possible, no matter how fast the pace.  In 1980 I ran a sub-4 mile, and qualified for the Olympic Trials, in large part because of Greg’s (and also because of Mike Wyatt, Bob Snyder, Alan Scharsu and John Ziegler) presence. When Greg passed Alberto Salazar with 2 laps to go in that ‘80s Trials 10K I was moved to tears as well.  That last 800 washed away the frustrations from ’72 and ’76 and was a perfect capstone to a great career. Craig Virgin may have won that race, but Greg EARNED his place in that race and in history.*

Thirty five years later, Greg continues to quietly show up every day to spend time with and care for our Coach.  He also keeps us connected to alumni and friends on a regular basis. He also helps with the Annual Reunion and Golf Outing, even though I can't get him to golf with us!  I don’t think I know of another person who has tried to “win” every day as steadfastly as Greg Fredericks.  I don’t think I know of another person who has been as successful.

*  There may be big news soon on this.  We may have video of that race and the rest of the 1980 Trials!  I'll do my best to bring it to you.

Another Invite For All

It's like a season of Debutante Balls! 

Only you don't need to study your manners or wear stultifying apparel to show up. Coach Gondak and the Program know the value of including the Alumni as much as possible.  Good things are happening...

Artists conception of the next Alumni Reunion Friday night meet and greet!

There will be another Social during the Florida Relays in Gainesville for those lucky enough to be located south of the Snow Belt!*

And don't forget the Penn Relays Social, either!

*The word Ale will guarantee a good PSU Track Alumni turn-out!

Can We Entice Horace Back Onto The Track?

The USATF Masters Indoor Championships were blessed with a world record in the 4x800 relay for those over the age of 90!  I have nothing but praise for these guys.  

But Al Porto and Horace Ashenfelter are both way better golfers than I and Horace still runs every other day.  And Al looked pretty darn spry to me at the Golf Tourney 2 years ago.  All we need to bring the title to 800U is 2 more willing 90 year-olds.  Anyone know any more?

4 X 800M World Record (Over 90yo)

Do Treadmill Miles Count?

In the "golden age" of my running career (hee hee hee), they didn't count at all.  So my lifetime totals are a little short because of that.  Add that to the numerous 15 milers that were really 18 miles, the 10 milers that were really 12, and I have nearly 74,000 total lifetime miles.

Even when I finally got a treadmill of my own in the early 90's, I was really ashamed that I was counting them.  But when I finally got that first kid, all that shame finally eroded.  Today, almost all of my miles are done on my treadmill.  I do realize that the purists out there (I used to be one of them) are shaking their heads with condemnation.  Oh, well...

I just had my 14 year-old treadmill serviced.  I have more than 14,000 miles on the beast in that time frame. It needed a new belt and the lubricant nozzle was somehow missing.  I figured there would be much more wrong with it, but everything else checked out fine.  I have a LifeFitness 9500 HR.  Anyone who ever has run on a treadmill at a club or hotel probably is familiar with this machine.  Really a durable and excellent model.  The only strike would be that it only goes to 12 mph and 15% incline.  (As if I ever have half a chance to run that fast ever again for even 100 yards! And forget uphill entirely.)

The technician servicing my beloved treadmill was great.  Apparently, he is known as a treadmill whisperer or something and has been doing it for quite awhile.  I recently visited his store and am amazed at the newer models of treadmills out there.  And the elliptical machine I will be obligated to one day switch to are quite fine also. They are smaller, less expensive and yet can take even the monumental pounding of a hobby-jogger (albiet a religious, every-day hobby-jogger) like me.

So anyone out there in Central PA with a home exercise machine, I give my full endorsement and confidence in Penn Fitness Warehouse and the head technician, Vitu Chiwaka.

And back to my original question, Do you count treadmill miles?