Philadelphia -- Take the train to Madison Square Garden for the Millrose Games.
Head to the other coast for a meet at Oregon's Hayward Field.
If you have to, dust off the passport and go to Oslo for the Bislett Mile.
The reality for Easterners, however -- shoot, North Americans -- is that you haven't been to a track and field meet until you've been to the Penn Relays.
The 100th version of the Philadelphia festival gets in full swing today and concludes Saturday, when more than 40,000 people will cram into Franklin Field.
It only seems as if that many grammar school kids, high schoolers, collegians, club runners, masters and wheelchair racers will compete in a place that looks as if old Ben himself drew the blueprints.
From the stale pretzels to the Jamaican contingent to the unlicensed T-shirt vendors to the 459 high schools entered in the boys 1,600-meter relay Saturday morning, the Penn Relays and the impromptu party on the surrounding streets fulfill the bill. For three days, life is a Carnival.
"There's an aura about the whole thing," said Al Cantello, a local hero in the 1950s who's in his fourth decade as Navy coach. "It's not about Carl Lewis. There would be 45,000 in the stands even if he wasn't there."
It's one of the few venues that qualify track and field as a spectator sport in the United States. Certain collegiate and high school finals are labeled the Championship of America, but the pretension is justified. Reputations are made and undone there.
Even if you don't win, you do come back from the Penn Relays with a story.
Rob Pendergist became the seventh man from Mount St. Mary's to win the Penn Relays decathlon in 14 years yesterday.
Jim Deegan has coached them all, but his Penn Relays tales begin with the distance medley relay of 1987, which was reported only as "The Greatest Race of All Time."
Deegan had opened a pipeline from Africa to Emmitsburg, and his Olympians from the Rift Valley kept pace with world-record holder Arkansas, Georgetown and Villanova.
Charles Cheruiyot, Dave Lishebo and freshman Peter Rono, who 16 months later would win the Olympic 1,500, gave the lead to Kip Cheruiyot, the collegiate-record holder in the 1,500.
Four laps later, Cheruiyot was out-bumped and out-kicked by Georgetown's Mike Stahr and Villanova's Gerry O'Reilly. All three teams bettered the world record, and Deegan still wonders what would have happened had Kip Cheruiyot been in shape.
"We lost because Kip had just spent 10 days on his back at Frederick Hospital," Deegan said. "A chest X-ray showed a spot on one of his lungs, and a doctor bet his license it was tuberculosis. Ten days later, they determined nothing was wrong."
Navy was a footnote in The Greatest Race of All Time. Ron Harris ran the 1,600 anchor in 3 minutes, 57.9 seconds, and all it did was get the Mids fifth place.
"I think I'm a great communicator with young people, but Ron Harris is the only midshipman I've been able to convey the significance of the Penn Relays to," Cantello said. "This guy has been around the world, but he calls the Penn Relays the happiest three days of his life."
The sentiment was passed down from Cantello, who played hooky from Norristown High in 1948 to watch his first Penn Relays.
Hooked on the sport, Cantello grew into a world-record holder and Olympian in the javelin, but he said those deeds couldn't match the thrill he felt in 1953, when he won the first of his three straight Penn Relays titles for La Salle.
"When I pulled in front of my house with the gold watch . . . nothing will replace that," Cantello said.
Not everyone is so enamored with the Penn Relays.
In 1979, Maryland's Renaldo Nehemiah enjoyed one of the best seasons ever by an American collegian. In May, he began his gradual improvement of the world record in the 110 hurdles, but Easterners were more turned on by the show he put on in late April at Penn, leading the Terps to victory in the shuttle hurdle, 800 and 1,600 relays.
"That particular day sticks out in everyone's mind," said Nehemiah, an investment representative who's dabbling in television. "From my standpoint, it was one of the most agonizing days of my career."
It was Nehemiah's last season in a Maryland uniform, as he relinquished his eligibility to concentrate on the Moscow Olympics.
The tension between Nehemiah and Terps coach Frank Costello boiled over the week of the 1980 Penn Relays. Minus Nehemiah, Maryland's ownership of the Atlantic Coast Conference title just had ended at 24 years, and when he walked among his former teammates at Franklin Field, the look on their faces told the end of an era. Before the 1980s were over, the Terps' withering finances left the program without scholarships.
Old home week
The Penn Relays are equal parts social outing and track meet. A few years ago, one of the endless announcements called attention to the infield, where Cantello was posing with fellow Norristown High grads Tom Lasorda and Josh Culbreath.
Culbreath is the coach of NAIA power Central (Ohio) State, and he works for the day his Marauders knock off the Division I powers and win the 1,600 relay at Penn. It would make up for all the close calls Morgan State and Culbreath lost to Manhattan and Villanova in the 1950s.
Culbreath won the 400 hurdles at Penn 1953-55. The next year, he won bronze in the Olympic Games. In 1959, he was on the American team in the first U.S.-U.S.S.R. dual meet, held at Franklin Field.
Another reason Culbreath is in the inaugural class of inductees to the Penn Relay Carnival Wall of Fame are the anchor legs he ran during Morgan State's four-year win streak in the 400 relay. In that circle, he'll be known forever as No. 4. Herman Wade is No. 1. Otis Johnson is No. 2 and James Rogers No. 3. It's the order they passed the baton.
"We always get together at Penn," said Culbreath. "It's homecoming for us. The camaraderie among that group of men is a beautiful feeling."
Morgan State's legacy at the Penn Relays includes the first title awarded to college women, the 400 relay in 1977. Yvette Coleman, a leader at the Medfield Recreation Center in Baltimore, doesn't remember any big fuss over the race, in which she anchored the Bears. She was used to breaking barriers.
"There weren't any women running for Morgan State when I got there," Coleman said. "They took me to one meet in 1975, and I don't even think I competed officially. They put me on one side of the hotel, and all the men on the other side."
The first individual race for high school boys also went Baltimore's way, and it wasn't even the high point of Dave Patrick's weekend.
Thirty years ago this week, Patrick won the inaugural mile for high schoolers at Penn in 4:15.4. The day before, he had anchored Kenwood High to victory in the distance medley, the first win for a Baltimore school at Penn since World War I.
"We were four naive kids [he and John Startt, Walt Carpenter and Charlie Messenger], and our coach had to convince people we belonged in the race," said Patrick, an executive with Eastman Kodak. "It was one of the best team efforts I've ever been involved in."
It was Patrick's coming-out party in Philadelphia. In 1968, he made the cover of Sports Illustrated thanks to a world record for the indoor 880, beating Jim Ryun at his height. On the Main Line, however, he's known as the guy who anchored Villanova to victory in seven Penn Relays races from 1966-68.
Besides Culbreath, the 16 individuals entering the Wall of Fame include four distance runners from Villanova. There's Mark Belger, Eamonn Coghlan, Ron Delany and Marty Liquori, but no Dave Patrick.
:. You go to Penn, you run with fast company.
PENDERGIST PREVAILS
PHILADELPHIA -- Mount St. Mary's Rob Pendergist won the decathlon at the Penn Relays yesterday, defeating Villanova's David Cook by 57 points.
Pendergist, a four-time IC4A pentathlon champion indoors, finished with a total of 7,549 points by winning the long jump and 110-meter hurdles and finishing third in the shot put, high jump and 1,500 meters.