PRTC Weekly: 2/10/2020 (OTQ Kick-Off and Frostbite)

OTQ Kick-Off is HERE

The OTQ kick-off is TOMORROW at Yard's. Doors at 6pm, panel at 6:30pm. Get tickets here or at the door. Get to bed early so you're sharp as a tack and ready to sip delicious beverages and absorb wisdom.

Frostbite is Saturday. Online registration closes Wednesday. According to the email they sent us today there "probably" will be registration available day of and they're "close to" running out of shirts. I know living dangerously is exciting, but don't risk it. Register here.

If you are racing, there is some info here. Also, probably a good idea to start planning car pools. I don't own a car, so would appreciate a ride.

Beer of the week: Sophisticated Anxiety- Foreign Objects 
Album getting me through this thing this week: the sound of bad network TV at Pasqually's

-ChrisMateer 

Race Results

Boston:  You're probably sick of Chris Hatler by now but he called and let me know you just gotta deal with it. Hatler smoked the 3k at BU's David Hemery Valentine Invitational, setting a club record in the process. Hatler ran 7:53.18 to finish 17th in a world class field. 

Greg Morgan also raced at BU, blazing a 4:07.32 mile. Based on his Slack comments the last 400m was pretty painful. Regardless, a stellar time for February. 

Results

2020 BU David Hemery Valentine Inviational
Mile:
Greg Morgan 4:07.32 (61st...how's that for depth?)

3000m
Chris Hatler: 7:53.18 (17th)

Full results here.


Haverford: Opting for a shorter commute, Henry Woods and Ethan Hermann brought their youthful exuberance to Haverford Saturday. Both competed in the mile against an onslaught of local liberal arts students. Highly educated and highly competitive. 

Henry took 3rd overall in 4:28, while Ethan finished closed behind in 4:32.

Results

McElligott Invitational 
Mile:
Henry Woods: 4:28.82 (3rd)
Ethan Hermann: 4:32.17 (8th)

Full results here.

Williamsburg: Refusing to be contained to the indoors, Dylan Gearinger traveled in Williamsburg, Virginia to compete in the 41st Williamsburg Colonial Half Marathon.

Despite unseasonably cold temperatures (in the 20's) at gun time, Dylan made quick work of the field. Dylan won easily in 67:55. 2nd place was over 2 minutes back.

Results

41st Williamsburg Colonial Half Marathon
Dylan Gearinger: 67:55 (#1 baby)

Full results here.
 

Question of the Week

New feature.

Question: What was your first run with PRTC (that you remember)? Include as much detail as you wish, ideally including your first impression of people who are now your friends and teammates.

Responses included with no editing below. I attempted to put them into chronological order.

Paul Matusak: Sunday, April 27, 2014. Ran 14 miles @ 6:25 pace with the "Penn Running Club". It was the old "short loop" plus a fraction of a mile to bump it up to 14. Geraint, Nate, Justin, maybe a few others. Geraint and Nate talked me into joining after I met them at the Danny Curran invite two weeks prior. At Danny Curran, if I recall correctly, I took the field through 3000m in 8:57 but struggled the last 2000m to finish 15:02, Geraint got me by maybe 7 seconds (14:55?) and I finished a few seconds ahead of Nate. That was Geraints PR (and I believe still his) -- pretty neat considering he ran 10 miles that AM before the evening race. Not to be outdone by Geraint's double, I doubled back in the 10,000m maybe 45 minutes after the 5000m to win in something that was probably between 32:20 and 33:20.I don't know how the end of the PRTC Sunday runs go these days, but back in 2014 they could get pretty quick in a hurry. Always a little friendly competition involved. I guess they were OK people too, I mean they had to be since we voluntarily trained together at least 3 times a week and I'll be hanging with them all weekend in Atlanta for the marathon trials.

Sean Clark: I was running a river loop in January 2016. It was bitterly cold with biting wind and I was cursing out loud because it sucked so much.Paul ran up beside me and asked what I was training for. Between cursing at the wind, I told him just some random races. He suggested I run with the club and that they'd be at the Frostbite Fiver Miler, a yearly staple of mine, a few weeks later. It was sorta intimidating.Anyway, I ran Frostbite a few weeks later, crushed Paul, Pat, Kevin, and got out-kicked by Charlie. I no longer felt intimidated and decided that this would be a good group to run and occasionally drink beer with.

Pat: My first run with PRTC was a 4xmile tempo workout that my old roommate arranged for me to complete with Paul Matuszak.  I knew Paul only as the shaggy haired dude in a (handwritten with sharpie) philly runner tshirt that I battled the entire second half of the Broad street run the year before.  Despite every spectator seeming to know paul and cheer for him by first name, I did ultimately pull away over the last two miles (not the only time that has happened at the BSR).  Anyway, Paul and I met at Fairmount Running and warmed up to the SRT.  During the warm up Paul explained that he was hardcore marathon training but would never actually complete one because he had stomach issues that prevented him from running more than 5 miles continuously and that he relied on coffee and cigarettes in a bathroom pre-race to get him through 5ks.  Paul and I agreed that we would complete the miles at 5:20 pace, no fast and no slower.  As soon as we hit our watches Paul led us through a 74 second quarter, at which point I dropped off and did not see him until the end of the workout.  When we got back to Lloyd Paul fist-bumped me and said great workout before inviting me to his bachelor party later that year and promising to send me the link for the PRTC google group as soon as he got home.

Cody Amengual: I guess my first PRTC run would be meeting up with [Chris Mateer] at the South Street Bridge - grossly out of shape - in the Fall of 2017 to try and start getting fit again. While there were a few of those runs, I would like to highlight the out-and-back where a hobby jogger tried giving us the business with some spicy 5:50 pace work; little did he know he was messing with some SUNYAC Legends. After wiping the floor and disposing of the poor lad, we reminisced on previous races and rivalry, which fed my fire to get back into it (only took another year). The true integration to the team occurred in June/July of 2019 when I met at 6:30pm for summer Tuesday's at Lloyd. I threw myself into some challenging progressions and got dropped so hard, but we've come a long way since.

Ethan Hermann: The first run i vividly remember with PRTC was a 6x1k workout with Harsha, on a warm and beautiful tuesday evening in september of 2018. I was an 18-year-old working out before I went home to do my economics homework, working out with a guy who was over twice my age and had a family to go home to after the track. We nailed the 3:20 Ks, and while the workout didn't really take a lot out of me, it was the first time in a long time where i felt like I worked with someone through a workout as a team. It was refreshing and relieving, to find that feeling in my new home of Philadelphia. To this day Harsha not only remains one of my favorite people to run with, but he also serves as one of the people of PRTC who really made me want to stick around for a long time - the kid

Kurt Palumbo: My first run with PRTC was on a Sunday. I had anxiety leading up to the run because I knew it was going to be fast, but part of me thought, “maybe it won’t be that bad. Even really fast people need to run slow, sometimes.” We set sail and at first everything seemed great. My stride was comfortable, I felt relaxed, and my first split at one mile read “7:30.” “Great!” I told myself. After this initial period of relaxation, I soon realized that my cadence had increased and I felt more taxed than usual. I thought to myself, “I’m no professional, but this feels like a lot of effort for 7:30 pace.” That’s when I knew. My GPS watch split the second mile. It read “6:24.” I thought to myself, “Oh wow, you’re actually going to die today.” I should have known better than to try and keep that pace going, but I felt like I needed prove my worth to the team. My body had different plans. I eventually slowed down and my splits continued to get progressively slower as I pushed through the run. By the end, I was alone, defeated, and humbled. Needless to say, I’ve had good and bad runs since then, but it’s always inspiring to see such talented runners, around me and know that *once in a while* I can keep up.

Ivan: It was a dark Tuesday night in January 2019. Everyone was fast.

Lexi: My first run with PRTC came just a few hours after I moved to Philly. Tait and I got into town on a Saturday afternoon and knew that we wanted to link up with the club as soon as possible. I was four months pregnant at the time, and I woke up in the middle of that first night in Philly with some inexplicable pain (classic pregnant lady stuff). Around 5am, I asked Tait to take me to the ER. On the walk to the car, I threw up all over the sidewalk (classic South Philly stuff), and this somehow cured me, because I had recovered enough to meet up with the Sunday morning Lloyd Hall group a few hours later. My first impressions of the club were so positive that they kept me coming out to the 630am SSB runs even when I was way too pregnant for it to make any sense. Thanks for being my friends, guys!

Editor's note: Lexi wins

Sarah Heins: I wanted to answer your question for the PRTC weekly—so this is technically about my second (not first!) run with PRTC, but it was really special in showing how welcoming PRTC is, and how every single person in the club not works to make it a community. On that second run, I arrived at Lloyd for the long run on a 90 degree Sunday and didn’t know anyone at all, but when we started off running, one very friendly guy in a bright yellow singlet-who I now know is Steve Hallman-introduced himself and started answering all my questions about PRTC. Instead of catching up with the other group of men running ahead of us, he stuck with me for an entire 18 miles at 7:30 pace. I was so happy to have someone to run with, and even more surprised by it when I found out how fast Steve is! knowing that someone so speedy would run at my pace with me to make me feel welcome just shows how all people of various ability levels all run and support each other here