The Floor is Yours

I spoke a little bit about the Bucks County Speedsters Blue & Orange Track & Field Day in the Speedster Quarterly, and I thought I would do something different this year.  I thought instead of me writing a bias recap on an event that I introduced to all of you; I thought I would open it up to all of you.  We all know that I enjoyed the day and was proud of all of you for not only competing, but for contributing with bringing stuff that we needed and for also cheering each other on no matter what color the clothing.  The only thing I would like to add is that Phil had the funniest moment of all, when he approached me about the starting pistol not firing.  I took one look at the gun and said to Phil “I take it you don’t own a gun?”  He replied with a simple no.  I shook my head and said Phil you have the blanks loaded on the wrong side.  We didn’t have any misfires so Phil must have figured out how to load the blanks.

I would love to hear about your track meet experiences, what made you laugh, what was your favorite part of the day, what you didn’t like, what should change.  I’m curious to know what volunteers and athletes alike thought and experienced.  The floor is yours.  You can either respond to this email/face book post or comment on the bottom of the actual blog post.

Education First

All the tape is down in the house and we’re back to our normal routines including me back to class tomorrow.  I’m excited to be starting back up, because it’s my last semester at Bucks County Community College and also the last semester as a sophomore.  The only issue is that my class schedule this semester will prevent me from getting out on Tuesday nights.  Don’t freak!  Allyson and Harris will be filling in for me.  “Education First” that’s what I would tell my brother when I was his legal guardian at the ripe old age of 21. 

So, tonight’s hill workout was my last one for a little while (don’t miss me too much), but it was still a good one, including some really great quotes from fellow Speedsters.  The first great quote came from Steve and was directed toward “Twenty Questions Tobias.”  Eric is so inquisitive and what he wanted to know tonight was what hill we would be running up and Steve kindly responded “Does it matter they all suck?”  The next quote came at the end of our workout, after I found out that Charlotte had to yell at this group of parents that were standing on the path that we were using.  I too said something to these parents about moving when I passed, they didn’t listen very well.  In any case when I heard what Charlotte did I jokingly said “so much for recruiting anyone new tonight,” after Charlotte got done laughing she responded with “you don’t want them anyway, they don’t listen, you will be yelling at them all the time.”  She made a good point; I had a hard enough time teaching you all proper track etiquette…

Coming out tonight:

Eric, Steve, Charlotte, Sharon, Rich, Kevin, Denise, and Chris Evans who came out to his first hill workout ever and made it look easy.  Nice job everyone and I will see you Thursday after class.

Workout:

1 mile warm-up

5x400 (600)

1 mile cool down

Final Message

One last message before we all travel to New Hope tomorrow for the much anticipated Bucks County Blue & Orange Track & Field Day:

I have heard concerns from multiple runners, from both teams.  Unneeded concerns, like I’ve never done anything like this before, or maybe I’m too old, and even I don’t want to let my team down.  I say bottle up all that nervous energy, swat away those pesky butterflies fluttering in your bellies, crack open a “cold one” and relax.  Seriously!  The sound of “Track Meet” has you all worked up over nothing.  At the end of the day tomorrow not a single one of us will have a deal in place with Nike.  The idea behind Blue & Orange Track & Field Day is to introduce runners who might not have had a track experience in an earlier time.  This is how I sum it up; most of the runners I know outside of Chris Mortensen and Greg Yerkes (ran with them in high school), got started running recreationally (shit Charlotte claims all her runs are recreational), they got asked to support a family member or a charity by running a 5k.  Their first response was how far is that again?  And after they think to themselves how hard can 3.1 miles be, the rest is history.  Am I correct?  How many of you got started this way?  I’m willing to bet the majority.  In any case I came up with the idea so you too could feel what it’s like to race around on a track, to do events you had seen done on television for years, but didn’t think you would have a chance to do. 

I’ll share a quick story with you: My senior year in high school I was part of the 4x800 relay team.  All year I had anchored the relay team, but at one of the biggest track meets of the year, Penn Relay’s (maybe you have heard of it), my track coach comes up to me and says Chris you’re the most aggressive on the relay team (big surprise I know), I’m going to switch you to the lead off leg, if you take an elbow you will give one right back, and you also won’t get knocked around like the other guys.  I agreed and lead off to one of the biggest let down’s in Track History.  The coach was right, there was a lot of pushing and shoving and even elbowing when the starter pistol fired.  And before the smoke could even clear from the pistol’s barrel I had lost the baton.  It got knocked out of my hand and as hard as I tried to get to it I couldn’t.  The sound of 52,000 people simultaneously saying “oooohhh” has echoed in my head ever since 1998.  My last year at Franklin Field as a high school senior is one I will never forget.  So, if the cold beer won’t help maybe my story will.  Just remember you’re supposed to have fun with this tomorrow.  Come on, isn’t there an unwritten rule that any event that incorporates tossing water balloons and hopping around in potato sacks has to be classified as F-U-N…

Check List:

Clothing that is your teams color: Blue team wears all blue and Orange team wears all orange.  Dress the kids in your team colors; paint your nails blue or orange, color the hair, get crazy.

Bring something to sit on. It’s a long day; you will want to rest when you can.

Sun block (we’re hoping for a beautiful sunny day).

Towel, flip flops, sun glasses

Running sneakers (spikes)

Change of clothes

Bathing suit for the after party

And most importantly wear your smiles it’s going to be a fun filled day!

Biggest turnout this season!

Tonight was the last chance to talk the talk, before we all attempt to walk the walk on Saturday.  And I am happy to say that we had our largest turnout this season!  With 25 Speedsters coming out including a first timer and a handful of “wow haven’t seen you in a while” types.  The turnout was so impressive that I almost forgot we had started the dreaded Yasso’s. 

Coming out tonight:

Orange: Allyson, Brian, Cory, Tim, Steve, Renee, Charlotte, Greg, and Steve I.

Blue:  Tom, John, myself, Harris, Paul, Bob, Kevin, Glenn, Dan, Andrea, Matt, Haydee, and Denise.

Also making an appearance:  Eric, Christa (welcome back!), and first timer Nicoleta Brusca (Welcome!)

Workout:

Yasso Week 1:

1 mile warm-up

4x800 (400)

1 mile cool down

I will see everyone bright and early in New Hope on Saturday at 7:30AM.  I hope you’re all getting as pumped as me!  Tim threw some gasoline on the fire in the blue camp when he claimed to the world that he plans to beat me in the 200 meter!  All I could say was bring it!  Good luck everyone and please if you do only one thing at this meet be sure that it’s “fun.”

Blue unofficially (Allyson wants to go through and recount the attendance) won the 10 point handicap with an astonishing 280 points to Oranges 242.  Way to go Blue Team!

A House Divided

A once peaceful, loving, home is now torn between the two people that were once responsible for filling it with love.  This can only mean it’s the week of the Bucks County Speedsters Blue & Orange Track & Field Day.  As Allyson sleeps with one eye open and I suffer with a stiff neck due to constantly looking over my shoulder, we continue to count down the day’s until we battle it out in New Hope.  It’s all in good fun…yeah sure it is as long as no one gets hurt!

Yesterday’s Hill workout brought out 13 runners:

6 Blue- Harris, myself, Amy, Haydee, Dan Schaal (yeah that Dan Schaal), and Denise.

5 Orange-Allyson, Charlotte, Renee, Nick, and Steve. 

 And thrown in the middle of the madness were Dawn and Jay.

We had a great workout, running a 1 mile warm-up, 6x400(400), and a 1 mile cool down.

Tomorrow’s workout will decide which team goes into this Saturday’s track meet with a 10 point handicap.  So come out and represent your team.  We will also practice relay exchanges again!  If you didn’t get a DIG DEEP! sticker last week and would want one please let me know tomorrow and I will get you one. 

Well, now I need to go get the heat pad out for my neck, I hope to see you all tomorrow…