It's a rainy Friday here in Philly! I am up here alone (while Shu Wen works away in North Carolina, finishing up the semester). I came up to run in the Penn Relays 10K, my first track race in about six years. And of course, it was a perfect opportunity to visit my sister and Chris, who I do not get to see nearly often enough.

The race was last night on a cool cloudy night with light winds, which is pretty close to ideal for a 10K. Results are posted at: Penn Relays OD 10000
and a 30-min long video of the race can be viewed at: http://www.flocasts.com/flotrack/coverage.php?c=32&id=2133

I was pleased with my run, it being my best time at the distance (30:11, a 20 second improvement from my senior year best at Princeton in 2001), and also my first track race in such a long time. The atmosphere at this track meet is really terrific; many people in the stands cheering even late night distance events (my race ended the night and started at about 10:45 pm, so I had to get coffee a couple hours before to make sure I'd be awake). I just love the energy of the Penn Relays and all the people. It's a terrific tradition in the city of Philadelphia. This year was the 113th running. My old college coach (Pete Carroll) was on hand, and he brought many of the track runners from Swarthmore to watch, and they cheered hard. My brother-in-law Chris is quite a supporter as well. He hollered at me every lap. Our track club - Carrboro Athletics Club - had a pretty good night generally, with a second place finish in the steeplechase (Alex L'Heureux) and Trish Nervo running the women's 10K, and finally a traning partner (Devin Swann, from Raleigh Running Outfitters) running 14:27 in the 5K. We have our best runner (Jason Jabaut) running the 1500 Saturday. Hopefully he will do well!

I got to see some college buddies at the race (Jess and Brian) and on Wednesday during the day and for dinner (Imo Akpan, Maggie Thomer and Sam Picard). That was great too. I like being in Philly to catch up with these people and enjoy the peace of my sister's house in Narberth. Tomorrow I will do some yoga with Christine at RYAH where she teaches, and enjoy my limited time with her and Chris a bit more.

I head back to Chapel Hill tomorrow night and the semester will close soon thereafter. Shu Wen is finishing up a term paper and I have a final, and some grading to do before we leave for Chicago May 8 for a week with Mom and Dad and a trip for a 25K race in Grand Rapids, MI. I think the two of use are looking forward to finishing up the semester and turning our full attention back to our research questions, even as there is uncertainty about what we will be doing and when.