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Reasons Why I Love Running

If your ever down on motivation check out one of these videos, it will change your perspective.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iihSczlwZfY

Just wanted to point out this video for who all haven't seen it, it's amazing. A very fast finish from the 2008 1600m State Championship.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF4_V6bOkk4

Alan Webb in action

www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234026/66551

Crazy great two-mile from German Fernandez

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcVN5PjmaDs

Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating, Christian Smith .. quite a dirty group of 800 runners from Oregon.

www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234918/173892

The greatest high school 4x8 I have ever seen.

It's races like these that make me wish I could be a track announcer. Maybe sometime PCN will let me help out.

THE RACE

Here we go the top ten 4x8s of the Jarrett Felix era are all set to throw down. After the race is over I'm sure people will disagree with how fast some runners ran compared to others so either leave a comment or let me know on facebook. Each split listed will be for the 400m splits. The order for each team is as follows:
Cedar Crest- Jackson to Feinstein to Troxell to Galli
CB West- Manley to Pregler to Bee to Scarpello
CR North- Wilker to Capecci to Salome to Mahoney
Baldiwn- Logan to James to Hobart to Wolfe
CB South- Dickson to Poiesz to Manion to Mallon
Upper Dublin- Pat Reilly to Paul Reilly to Ellison to Palmisano
North Penn- Quintrell to Franks to Bookheimer to Montijo
Henderson- Ferry to Kellar to Khattabi to Lefebure
Wissahickon- Bray to Crits to Kern to Cho
E and S- Rhodes to Perron to Jones to Lee
400m
1 Rhodes 54.5
2 Ferry 54.7
3 Quintrell 55.1
4 Bray 55.3
5 Dickson 55.3
6 Logan 55.5
7 Wilker 55.6
8 Reilly 55.9
9 Manley 56.0
10 Jackson 56.1
800m (1st Exchange)
1 Rhodes 1:52.2
2 Wilker 1:53.2
3 Quintrell 1:53.5
4 Ferry 1:53.8
5 Jackson 1:54.5
6 Logan 1:54.6
7 Dickson 1:55.7
8 Bray 1:55.9
9 Manley 1:55.9
10 Reilly 1:56.1
1200m
1 Perron 55.0 (2:47.4)
2 James 52.9 (2:47.5)
3 Capecci 54.5 (2:47.7)
4 Kellar 54.2 (2:48.0)
5 Franks 54.6 (2:48.1)
6 Feinstein 55.0 (2:49.5)
7 Poiesz 54.1 (2:49.8)
8 Crits 54.1 (2:50.0)
9 Reilly 54.2 (2:50.3)
10 Pregler 55.0 (2:50.9)
1600m (2nd Exchange)
1 Capecci 1:53.1 (3:46.3)
2 Kellar 1:52.5 (3:46.3)
3 Franks 1:53.3 (3:46.8)
4 Crits 1:51.1 (3:47.0)
5 James 1:52.7 (3:47.3)
6 Poiesz 1:52.9 (3:48.6)
7 Perron 1:56.8 (3:48.8)
8 Reilly 1:53.0 (3:49.1)
9 Pregler 1:53.4 (3:49.3)
10 Feinstein 1:55.0 (3:49.5)
2000m
1 Bookheimer 54.8 (4:41.6)
2 Salome 55.3 (4:41.6)
3 Hobart 54.3 (4:41.6)
4 Khattabi 55.5 (4:41.8)
5 Ellison 52.8 (4:41.9)
6 Jones 53.1 (4:41.9)
7 Manion 55.1 (4:43.7)
8 Kern 56.8 (4:43.8)
9 Troxell 54.3 (4:43.8)
10 Bee 54.8 (4:44.1)
2400m (3rd Exchange)
1 Hobart 1:51.9 (5:39.2)
2 Salome 1:53.9 (5:40.2)
3 Jones 1:51.5 (5:40.3)
4 Bookheimer 1:53.6 (5:40.4)
5 Khattabi 1:54.8 (5:41.1)
6 Ellison 1:52.1 (5:41.2)
7 Troxell 1:52.0 (5:41.5)
8 Bee 1:53.9 (5:43.2)
9 Manion 1:55.0 (5:43.6)
10 Kern 1:56.8 (5:43.8)
2800m
1 Wolfe 54.8 (6:34.0)
2 Montijo 54.0 (6:34.4)
3 Lefebure 53.9 (6:35.0)
4 Palmisano 54.0 (6:35.2)
5 Lee 55.1 (6:35.4)
6 Mahoney 55.5 (6:35.7)
7 Galli 55.0 (6:36.5)
8 Mallon 53.3 (6:36.9)
9 Scarpello 55.2 (6:38.4)
10 Cho 55.0 (6:38.8)
3200m (Finish)
1 Lefebure 1:50.8 (7:31.9)
2 Mallon 1:48.5 (7:32.0)
3 Palmisano 1:51.0 (7:32.2)
4 Montijo 1:52.6 (7:33.0)
5 Wolfe 1:53.8 (7:33.0)
6 Mahoney 1:55.3 (7:35.5)
7 Galli 1:54.3 (7:35.6)
8 Lee 1:55.4 (7:35.7)
9 Cho 1:53.5 (7:37.3)
10 Scarpello 1:54.1 (7:37.3)

Tell me what you think, Heat 2 is on the track soon, teams to be revealed soon ...

Greatest 4x8 Race

Alright so my first post was all serious and what not so I thought we could have some fun in the next section. I use what I call the "JF era" as the four years I was in high school. Using only runners from that era, I like to build a team's "all-time" relays. For example, all-time Upper Dublin's 4x8 would be: Palmisano '09, Reilly '09, Reilly '09, and Ellison '10. Cedar Crest would have Feinstein and Troxell from '08, while they would also have Jackson and Galli from '10. Baldwin would have Hobart, Wolfe, James and Logan.

Once you build these teams my favorite part is to pretend the race is actually happening and project how fast each runner could run in ideal conditions with no trials race or doubling happening in the race. It's fun to see how things unfold and which teams have been the best over my era.

So I'm still doing some research now but the hot heat of the 4x8 will be going down soon on this very blog! 10 teams made the hot heat and here is who they are in no particular order:
1 CB South
2 Upper Dublin
3 Baldwin
4 North Penn
5 C0uncil Rock
6 Cedar Crest
7 CB West
8 Engineering and Science
9 Wissahickon
10 Henderson

Think it over, have fun with it, and soon the race flow will be up on this very blog!

Yes this is what I do with my free time .....

Dreams and Records

This is my first post on my very own blog! It's all so exciting! But the pressure is also mounting ... what can I put in my first ever blog that lives up to the expectations I have for it. Which track information do I have that is so important that I should place it on here first?

I was looking back over the old penntrack forums, which I do more than I like to admit, espicially when the forums are slow like they are over the summer, and I noticed a forum that I myself started: Is this the year Wissahickon's State Record Finally Goes Down? I was interested to see if anyone had believed CB South would in fact break the record. We know now the CB South not only broke the record, but smashed it, running 7:33 (#6 All-Time)! After Penn Relays and Districts it was clear that South had the potential to do it. They were already under 7:40, Mallon was already under 1:50! However, when this forum was made it was just after the 4x8 performance at Indoor States, and the posts seemed to exhibit just how far the relay still had to go.

I had listed the following splits that would get South the record: 1:57, 1:57, 1:52, 1:50. That barely got you the record. The doubt of the penntrack community was clear. But CB South never doubted themselves. They worked hard and by the time Penn Relays rolled around we witnessed the greatest high school 4x8 in the Nation's History! 7:36 for CB South! With 4 weeks until states the record was surley broken, right?

Wrong, people still doubted. How much lower could this team possibly go? They had essentially 4 PRs in the race! They won't have the same type of push at states! All the doubts continued to culminate. The time was just so fast. To imagine a team whose weakest leg was 1:55 seemed completely rediculous.

I was at the state championships in 2009. History was clearly on everyone's mind and when I woke up the papers seemd to support my theory: Mallon was on the cover with the state record time in huge font displayed a top him. I walked to the stands, stretched Mike Palmisano and sat down next to my coach and friends waiting to see something amazing.

Dickson led off as always and the pace was quick. Muelners took the race through in 55ish for the first 400 and instantly I knew the record was gone. At the exchange Dickson was at 1:55.7! It was roughly a 2 second PR! Then Manion another 1:55. Poiesz broke away from the pack posting his 1:53.2. One more question remained as you looked at the clock. Could Mallon solo a record setting time? His 1:49.1 said yes he could.

10 teams under 7:50! 7:33 out front! The greatest 4x8 I have ever seen in person! I still have the official results sheet that was hanging on the stadium wall in a drawer in my room. It reminds me of the fortune I had, seeing a truly amazing and unbelievable group of performances. There were doubts from all sides and early on very few people believed the record was in danger. But I can think of 4 people who never gave up hope: Jeff Dickson, Dave Manion, Matt Poiesz, and Tom Mallon.

So I say to you blog readers, if you want to be a great runner follow these runners example. Don't listen to the doubters, set big goals, work hard, and don't stop believing.

-etrain