Qualifying for the Track and Field Club National Championship

Recently, I wrote about getting the sub 4:30 mile.  The chips didn't fall where I had hoped for this indoor season. Will there be other chances? Maybe. Will I have to arrange some crazy set-up to make it happen? Perhaps.
But putting it on the back burner for now, there are others goals. The big one is qualifying for the Track and Field Club National Championship on June 28th and 29th at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in NYC.Mission accomplished.  This was nearly a 13 second chop off the ol' PR of 10:07.63, which I set at Club Nat's in 2011(placed 5th!)  So, first time under 10mins, feel pretty good!  Although I led the race from the starting gun until about 2860m...it's a 3000m race.  Billy Howell torched me like a pack of angry villagers chasing a horrible monster, catching me with about 140m to go and unleashing a nasty kick as I was running out of gas. Kudos to that young buck!  Also, I was on pace to crack the GSTC club record in the steeple through 2k, maybe next time...

 

listen at 3:08, if you were there, you would have felt the raw power of Paziora and Howell!

All in all, a great day, I spent some time chatting with the student athlete Roadrunners and went for a warmup and cooldown with a few of them, hit up the old stomping grounds in the Ramapo Reservation. We had a blast joking about the old team records, chatting about trail racing, other alums we know, and about how Tim Paziora has Creed stuck in his head lately. Thus, Tim and Billy broke into a lightly embellished duet parody sampling of Six Feet from the Edge . I was wildly amused. I felt very welcomed and was glad to have raced at my Alma mater.  If running doesn't work out for them, they might have a career, er um, hobby, lined up in putting together a Creed tribute band!

Ramapo Northeast Challenge
3/30/13	Ramapo

Men 3000m Steeplechase

Finals:
Place	Overall	Name	Year	Team	Time	Score
1	1	Howell, Billy	SO-2	Ramapo	9:50.47	-
2	2	Anis, Mike		GSTC	9:54.76	-
3	3	Broderick, Brian	SR-4	NYU	10:01.88	-
4	4	Paziora, Tim	SR-4	Ramapo	10:13.47	-
5	5	Geurds, Joe	JR-3	Springfield	10:19.42	-
6	6	Black, Jason	FR-1	USMMA	10:41.91	-
7	7	Dittmer, Michael	FR-1	USMMA	10:52.49	-
8	8	Fonseca, Mason	SR-4	USMMA	10:53.82	-
9	9	Hamel, Corey	SR-4	Springfield	10:59.68	-
10	10	McGowan, David	SO-2	USMMA	11:08.48	-
11	11	Konecni, Anthony	SO-2	USMMA	11:25.04	-
12	12	Barrett, Daniel		Farmingdale St.	11:35.89	-
13	13	DiMaria, Patick		Farmingdale St.	12:00.78

March Mustachio Madness, the 800lb Gorilla, and Ben Stiller's devious doppleganging

Every few months, it seems one, two, or even three new studs just pop up out of...well, seemingly nowhere and just join GSTC. I'll often liken this to a stable where I'm just another horse. But I think we've gone past the point of saying things like "We've got some studs in our stable". So, as usual, as fit as I ever may get, a killer 22-23yr old just rolls up and crushes me like it's his part time job, at least it keeps me honest out there.
After Sunday's Miles for Music 20k, where two of our best guy's(both 800/mile types) were not entered and yet we still put 10 in the top 11 and 13 in the top 20 for the men, and on the women's side 6 of the top 10.
It is apparent that GSTC is "The 800lb Gorilla in NJ", to quote 20+yr veteran of the roads, Elliott Frieder, who holds a 2:26 marathon pr.  Elliott and his twin brother Jonathan chatted with Club President/Coach/Athlete-Chuck "Slash" Schneekloth and I about the race we'd all just finished and the general state of road racing in NJ.
So, this was a great effort for March, I'm feeling alright a couple days later, happy to be essentially just as fit as I was one yr ago and not on the verge of an achiles injury again. So, the upcoming spring track season should be exciting when I get a chance to run the 3k steeple!

I run with Gorilla's. Really fast ones.

 And now, some other recent fastness and fun:

Racing the Mile at the NYC Armory, finished 4:36.5 according to the half-assed hand timing they do there. But as you can see I ran so fast I bent the time space continuum. So 4:36.5 is most assuredly incorrect. Had to be at least 3:42, just sayin'. It's probably true. Photo compliments of Ted Shalack.

The Bearded Cat Ninja's exchanging the baton at Road Relays III, it was a lot like Rocky III, except there were no silly bro hugs on the beach like this:

While it is well known that beards are a source of power and have been known to bring their keepers massive clutch PRs, I decided to dedicate March...to the Mustachio! Yeah, I look like Ben Stiller,So, of course, no pr on this day for me. But fear not, the beard shall rise again! April 1st=beard revival!

Differences between Ben Stiller and me: 1) I don't have a mullet 2) I don't shave my chest 3) I'm not into nipple shock therapy. And that's it, otherwise we are one and the same.  Thinking about it now, we might be twins, and I was accidentally placed into a time machine at birth, shuttled 16yrs into the future to 1981 where I was handed over to an unsuspecting couple in Queens, NYC.  Think about it's possible, we were both born in NYC. Have you seen back to the Future? Anyway, I take the bull by the horns, all day every day...

Like the time that I killed the Robot King! This actually happened, robot children everywhere powered down with oil leaking from their ocular receptors(robot tears of sorrow)