My Experience Running at the Penn Relays

By Elijah Williams

On Friday April 26th the Chestnut hill relay team of Emanuel Preston, Bryce Hunter, Tyheem Bailey, and myself competed at the Penn Relays.

This was my first time running at the Penn Relays, only having gone as a spectator in the past.

When we first arrived at Penn there was already a massive crowd of people gathered inside of Franklin Field

When it was time for us to warm up for our race, we ran into two track celebrities one from the University of Houston Shaun Maswanganyi and other nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis.

We ran the 4x100 and the 4x200 we had our best time of the season in the 4x100 with a time of 43.68 coming in 15th place, in the 4x200 we ran 1:32.24 placed 22nd beating the previous time we ran during the winter track season.

Running the Penn Relays is the most electrifying experience that I have ever had in my life, the energy from the crowd was amazing. Especially when the Jamaican runners were on the track, the crowd was filled with Jamaican fans. Everyone knew when one of their teams was on the track because of the overwhelming noise that filled the stadium.

The exhilarating atmosphere and opportunity to run at a hallmark of Philadelphia track culture is an experience I will never forget.