Elasticity

In and out of focus, time turns elastic

I don’t recall it exactly, but I’m pretty certain back in the day – you know, six or seven years ago now (wow, has it been that long?) – Decker and I were talking about music, and Big Geoff was trying to get me interested in the band Phish. For some reason, I never “bit” in terms of my interest in Phish (get it?).

Well, thanks to my sharing nephew in New Jersey, I now have a lot of Phish music on my iPod. This morning on my bleary-eyed jog, the Phish song “Time Turns Elastic” came on and got me through a little more than a mile (remember, I’m slow; it’s a long song). Great song! I love this song! As I was listening to these lyrics, I could not help but to smile and to think of the night before in the Armory.

In and out of focus, time turns elastic

In and out of focus: Standing down on the other side of the Armory from the big scoreboard, my eyes strain to see the times. Trusty sidekick Schab with his young eyes is able to spot clearly what I see a bit more fuzzy – the times on the scoreboard. (Side note: At the urging of my wife, I finally got a complete eye exam a few weeks ago, my first ever in my 46.5 years on this planet. The verdict: I still have 20-20 vision, but could probably use over-the-counter reading glasses for small print. Or, I can just ask Schab to be my long-distance eyes at the Armory)

Time turns elastic: Ah. Finally, the point of this post. In the 5km races last night, we had three Marist Alums running, representing three different generations of Marist Distance: David Raucci (Class of 2010); Justin Harris (Class of 2007); Mike Nehr (Class of 2002). In stark contrast, the current Running Red Foxes were a triumvirate of freshmen – Kenny Walshak, Ryan Scrudato, Kevin O’Sullivan.

The freshmen ran great in their first collegiate 5ks – and in Scrudato and O’Sullivan, their first 5k track races ever. All ran personal-best times. Walshak PRed by 21 seconds and nearly broke 15:00 for the first time. His time meets the USA Junior standard, but Kenny made the mistake of being born a few weeks too soon (or too late?) and just misses the age requirement for juniors. Ah, well.

Meanwhile, our alums still proved to be track tough. David is in heavy marathon training, but still had enough wheels to break 15:00. He looked smooth and strong throughout. Mike battled hard in the seeded section before succumbing to cramps. Too bad. The Babylon boys were running well together (Side note: In separate conversations later, you could see a mutual respect was forged; Kenny said to me: “Too bad about Mike (cramps), he’s a tough runner.” Mike said this to me: “That Ken is a machine out there.” Nice.)

Jut was the big question mark. Sure, he is a professional triathlete these days, and we’re very proud of that. He’s always very, very fit. But even he was unsure of how his current fitness level would translate to the track for a 5km. He was in the slower section with Scrudato and O’Sullivan. I was hoping they would cruise at 5:00 pace for as long as possible. After some uneven early laps, Jut settled into 37s and eventually stepped out with a great negative-split effort.

Time turns elastic. Instead of 2011, it was back to the mid-2000s. We’re at the Armory. Jut’s wearing his Marist jersey. He’s running hard. He’s running tough. He’s looking at me from behind his glasses, wanting to hear that his splits are where they should be: 37, I say, right on, looking good. An almost imperceptible nod, and Jut increases the pace.

Just race. He puts his head down and races harder. Generations of Marist Running blend into one, once again, at a nearly deserted Armory.

In and out of focus. My eyes are bleary from nearly 12 hours in the ancient building, with a van drive home still to come. But after a long day, we don’t mind at all.

In and out of focus, time turns elastic

Here are the Alumni Racing Team splits …

5. David Raucci 14:58.92
35, 72 (37), 1:48 (36), 2:22 (34), 2:58 (36)
3:34 (36), 4:09 (35), 4:45 (36), 5:22 (37), 5:57 (35)
6:34 (37), 7:09 (35), 7:45 (36), 8:20 (35), 8:56 (36)
9:32 (36), 10:08 (36), 10:44 (36), 11:26 (38), 11:56 (30)
12:32 (36), 13:09 (37), 13:46 (37), 14:23 (37), 14:58.92 (35.92)
1km: 2:58 ; 2km: 5:57 (2:59); 8:56 (2:59); 11:56 (3:00); 14:58.92 (3:02.92)

10. Justin Harris 15:16.81
35, 74 (39), 1:53 (39), 2:30 (37), 3:07 (37)
3:44 (37), 4:20 (36), 4:57 (37), 5:33 (37), 6:09 (36)
6:46 (37), 7:23 (37), 7:59 (36), 5:36 (37), 9:14 (38)
9:50 (36), 10:27 (37), 11:04 (37), 11:41 (37), 12:18 (37)
12:55 (37), 13:32 (37), 14:07 (35), 14:42 (35), 15:16.81 (34.81)
1km: 3:07; 2km: 6:09 (3:02); 3km: 9:14 (3:05); 4km: 12:18 (3:04); 15:16.81 (2:58.81)