Big Millrose Games Shout Out!!!

And a gratuitous, lightweight retroactive "daddy brag" too. 😁

Huge shout out to Empire Elite Track Club's Eric Holt, running in his first Wanamaker Mile at the 115th Millrose Games in NYC tonight.

The Millrose Games is the longest running and arguably the most prestigious indoor track & field meet in the world, and the Wanamaker Mile is it's flagship event, with international stars, world and Olympic champions and the top ranked athletes in the nation on the start line.

Eric Holt competed for a crosstown rival against my son Kevin when they were in high school. He went on to run for Albany, putting up a decent body of work on the NCAA level, but never really hitting the upper echelon.

He kept at it after college and endured years of being told to pack it in and get a real job, and that he'd never break through and be 'top-level' competitive as a pro.

He kept going anyway.

Then about two years ago, he hooked up with a great coach from another high school from our area with tons of experience on the pro level, who had just started a new pro racing club and took him on, and magic started happening.
He just started improving and hacking seconds off of his personal bests, which culminated last summer with him just barely missing the Team USA squad that competed at the World Championships by about two tenths of a second in the 1500m.

He's still not quite "there" yet as a pro, but he's nipping at it now, and has a tremendous opportunity to get himself a little bit closer to the dream in a few hours.

This starting line photo from 2013 shows Eric on the right in blue as a high school senior and one of the top HS distance runners in the nation, and Kevin in the middle in green as one of the top HS freshman distance runners in the nation, squaring off for the first time ever outdoors in an early season mile race. (Eric 4:19 for 1st, Kevin 4:34 for 5th. Kev got his ass kicked by Eric a lot that year. 😏)

Wishing hardcore, Level 5, ‘NY distance pride’ love & luck to Eric Holt at Millrose tonight.

Bring the noise, Speed Gods.