On Island Time
Pittsburgh's got it going on!
So here’s the thing: I’ve never been to Pittsburgh. I’ve hardly been to Pennsylvania, really (besides that which can be spotted from the rightmost lane of I-95, that is). Despite living an essentially Pennsylvania-free life until college, where — despite moving even farther south — I somehow wound up closer to PA than ever. One of my best friends was a third-generation Pittsburghian1, I wound up with a statistically improbible number of Philly friends2, and I found out that PA is not considered “the north,” apparently (as a native Memphian turned Virginian, this was news to me).
Since I started following club running, Pittsburgh’s been on my radar for a different reason. Pitt’s club running team is downright stacked in the distance department, and even though the NIRCA season has long ended, this weekend was proof.
The Pittsburgh Track Club — a burgeoning new elite team established in 2021 — put on the first major track meet of its existence last weekend, dubbed “A Night at the Island.” It was an eventful evening, and besides the record-breaking performances in the women’s elite 5000m that you might have read about in this week’s The Lap Count, several Pitt club runners and recent alums were among the field.
As we reported on our Instagram earlier this week, Nick Wolk — who runs for PTC but also still competes with Pitt Club Running — took second in the pro 5000m with a time of 14:25. This bests Wolk’s own NIRCA Nats-winning time of 14:31 as the fastest outdoor 5000m in the league this year.
Committed to more than just his own success, however, Wolk also paced the pro mile and the open 10,000m races. On Instagram earlier this week, we erroniously reported that Wolk had, even though he was only pacing the mile race, still finished in 4:18. This, as it turns out, was actually a timing error. According to the man himself, he dropped out at 600m. Fair enough, considering he had just finished 2nd in the pro 5k and was preparing himself to pace Pitt club running alum Jimmy Lombardi (who had also just run the 5000m) through 5 miles of the 10,000 (he did a good job, too, seeing as Lombardi finished in 34:26!).
Also in the 10,000m was Pitt clubber Nolan Pernia, who finished third in a competitive field, running 32:13 (with a 16:11/16:02 negative split, mind you) and finishing just 2 & 1 seconds, respectively, behind PTC elite runners Alex Archer and Colin Martin. Pernia, it’s worth noting, also won the York Half Marathon just 3 weeks prior. The man’s on a hot streak, no other way to say it.
Caroline Beard took 4th in the open 5000m, one of the only Pitt club runners in the women’s races. The field for the open heat of the men’s 5000m, on the other hand, was full of Pitt clubbers and recent alums, several of whom (including Jacob Montgomery and Nick Cardamone) were on pacing duty. When the dust had settled, however, it was Pitt club athlete Eli Anish who had broken the tape, running 15:25 and winning by 4 seconds. Anish ran a phenomenal race, and his victory is sure to send ripples through the entirety of the compression-shorts-under-split-shorts community.
Nashville Skyline
Meanwhile, down in Nashville, Auburn half-miler Heath Varmette kept momentum high, running 1:55.48 in the Music City Track Carnival, finishing 4th in the open 800m race. Varmette has been a consistent high performer among the Auburn middle distance squad, and this PR places him firmly among the top club 800m runners in the country. It’s a shame we’ll never get to see him race Nicky Alexander or Aidan McCarthy, but he’s sure to have plenty of competition once track season rolls back around next year.
I’m calling it now, though — Heath Varmette will be top 3 at NIRCA Outdoor Nats next year. If I’m right, you all owe me a beer.
An Epiphany Every Time
Not to make this about me, but let’s make this about me for a second, shall we? My own summer build hasn’t been perfect so far, but it’s been coming along nicely enough. I won’t bore you with the details here (if you care about that sort of thing, then join the Reasonably Speedy Strava group), but I did want to share this.
After allowing myself to get nice and out of shape after the track season, I’ve spent the last several weeks devoted to easy runs and strides, trusting that one day, (hopefully) soon, easy running would feel easy again. I wasn’t finishing my runs gasping for air or desperate for a place to sit, but it still didn’t feel… great. I remembered that I loved running, and I trusted that soon I would again, but I was starting to forget exactly why. On Wednesday evening, despite being sleepy, hungry, and a little sore from a 7/3 double on Tuesday, I found it again, thank God. Sitting on my porch afterwards, enjoying a recovery beer (that most coveted of summer beverages), I wrote this. I’m not sure why, and I’m not even sure why I’m sharing it here, but it feels worth putting out there, somehow. If you, like me, are coming back from a break and struggling to find your footing, let this be a reminder — it always comes back.
I’ve heard it said that getting fit sucks, but being fit feels incredible. I’ve also heard it said that you’ve gotta learn to love the process. I do love the process, and I love the feeling of being fit, whatever that’s meant for me in the past. But I don’t think people talk enough about the perfect relief of that first run back after a break where, after slogging your way through so many less-than-easy easy runs, you just feel… nice. When you can finally relax again, and let your legs take you where you need to go without a fight. It feels like setting foot on dry land after weeks in the middle of the ocean. A voice whispering in your ear, saying, “this is why you love this.”
I took the better part of May off of serious training. I’ve been running again for several weeks, but today was the first day where I could really relax. My body was tired (I doubled yesterday, after all. An hour in the morning and a half-hour that afternoon), not to mention it was 90° and humid, but my body has finally relearned the rhythm of recovery that it lost sometime in April. Easy running feels easy again — an epiphany every time.
special thanks to Benjamin Buckless for the PTC pics
A sub-5 miler for Fox Chapel High School, if that means anything to you
And, come to think of it, I’m listening to McCoy Tyner as I write this