Edit: It took exactly four minutes for someone to send us the video. Awesome work, Levi Hoste!

We get a lot of emails about certain tracks. They’re not all necessarily about the “Hayward Magic” out west, but of the “Swarthmore Magic” out east.

On the surface, the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet is your run-of-the-mill final gathering of the season. Want to run an off-event? Swarthmore. Want to try and take one more shot at a PR? Swarthmore.

The meet gained legendary status in '12, when Columbia’s Kyle Merber dropped his PR by nearly seven seconds to run the American collegiate record in the 1500m (3:35.59). While that race that was set up for Nate Brannen to run the IAAF “A” standard, everyone else was towed along to huge personal bests.

- Results HERE
- LetRun’s analysis of that race HERE

Some people say the track was short. Others, like when the creators of Lost were asked about how they ended the show, say magic. It’s probably the latter.

So when Americans want to run something outrageous, like say a seven second PR or the “A” standard, then Oordegem is the place to run.

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	ID	Name	Team	Cat	Result	Info
1	3	9178	Maazouzi Zakaria	MAR	Sen	3:32.89
2	4	9177	Elkaam Fouad	MAR	Sen	3:33.71
3	10	9017	Alemayehu Zebene	ETH	Sen	3:33.73
4	18	9443	McNamara Jordan	USA	Sen	3:34.00
5	7	9436	Heath Garrett	USA	Sen	3:34.12
6	6	9508	Bayer Andy	USA	Sen	3:34.47
7	2	9441	Leslie Cory	USA	Sen	3:34.93
8	8	9440	Leer Will	USA	Sen	3:35.27
9	16	9506	Chris O'Hare	GB	Sen	3:35.37
10	5	9507	Wolde David	ETH	Sen	3:35.38
11	17	9445	Miller Craig	USA	Sen	3:35.48
12	14	9425	Bolas Jack	USA	Sen	3:35.54
13	11	9115	Otmane Belharbazi	FRA	Sen	3:35.93
14	15	9411	Emanuel Lee	GBR	Sen	3:36.55
15	9	9016	Abinet Abiyot	ETH	Sen	3:36.91
16	12	9426	Boylan-Pett Liam	USA	Sen	3:37.31
17	1	9451	See Jeff	USA	Sen	3:43.37
	13	9453	Stockberger Danny	USA	Sen	DNF
	19	9994	Bett Reuben	KEN	Sen	DNF

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	ID	Name	Team	Cat	Result	Info
1	6	9437	Hill Ryan	USA	Sen	3:38.57
2	9	9427	Bumbalough Andrew	USA	Sen	3:39.04
3	7	9435	Heath Elliott	USA	Sen	3:39.27
4	4	9424	Blankenship Ben	USA	Sen	3:39.70
5	5	9505	Stilin Joe	USA	Sen	3:39.72
6	3	9413	Gowell Chris	GBR	Sen	3:41.71
7	10	9008	Rowe Brenton	AUT	Sen	3:42.12
8	11	9401	Bachtiger Mario	SUI	Sen	3:42.76
9	1	9030	Benjamin Pires	FRA	Sen	3:44.46
10	13	9402	Breit Stefan	SUI	Sen	3:45.42
11	2	9459	Webb Alan	USA	Sen	3:46.53
12	12	9387	Velde Morten	NOR	Sen	3:52.10
	8	1193	Marrion Geoffrey	CABW	Sen	DNF
	14	9996	Agache Hannes	BEL	Sen	DNF

Other than the fanfare and congratulations on Twitter, we know very little about the race. Were you there? Email us.

Assorted Thoughts

- How many Americans set personal bests? Eight (Heath, McNamara, Heath, Bayer, Leslie, Leer, Miller, and Bolas. Boylan-Pett's PR is from Swarthmore. Fancy that).

- Anyone find it odd that there were so many Americans in Belgium? 15 of the 29 finishers in the two sections had “USA” listed under their affiliation. That’s not to mention the three UK'ers who train the U.S. (Chris Gowell, Chris O’Hare, and Lee Emanuel, I think).

Sad truth: Most USA athletes headed for meets in Europe will come home poorer than when they left. Very little $$ at secondary meets :-(

— David Monti (@d9monti) July 3, 2013

- It has to be cheaper to fly over three Belgium rabbits to the states instead of everyone going overseas (apparently Danny Stockberger did an excellent job pacing, but he’s American so we’re not counting his travel expenses). Perhaps a Canadian slash American summer track circuit? There are meets, but we would need organization (and money).

Early in the year I said "3:34 or bust". My only apology is that it took me a month longer than I expected. I'm here now. I'm determined.

— J.MAC (@JordanMcNamara) July 6, 2013

Link to the original interview. Congrats, JMac. We never doubted you for a second.

- If Andy Bayer was permitted to run the 5k at USAs, would he have beaten Ryan Hill? More on that Monday.

- Speaking of the third place finisher from U.S. Champs, what are Hill's odds of running the "B" standard of 13:20 and moving on to Moscow? Last summer, Hill ran his 1500m PR (3:38.36) in Belgium. Two weeks later, he ran his 5k PR (13:26.34) in Belgium, too. #TheChase for the standard is going to be close.

- It should be noted that on the women's side, Cory McGee ran 4:09.85. She'll need to drop that 0.85 to hit the "B" standard. #TheChase.

- In the first heat, Alan Webb was second-to-last in 3:46.53. Oddly enough, before the start of the Paris Diamond League, we watched his Paris Golden (not Diamond) League Meet race from ’07. Oh, nostalgia.