They chase times. They chase titles. They chase the past.
Or maybe the past chases them.
"This keeps me young," said Tyrone Brown, a speedy 65-year-old. "As long as I'm out here running with these guys, I feel young."
Brown and his teammate, Melvin Fields, are like a lot of athletes at this meet: They run in their own footsteps. Theirs just happen to be older.
Brown and Fields, 64, competed at the Penn Relays as schoolboys from Washington. That was in the early 1960s.
They were back on the Franklin Field track Friday, running legs for the victorious Glenarden Track Club team in the 4x100 relay in the 60-plus Masters competition.
Around and around they go - that's how it works in this sport, especially in the relays. They go out. They come back. They start in one place. They finish in the same spot.
Brown and Fields aren't finished, and neither are their teammates. They joined with 64-year-old Mike McDaniels and 60-year-old Kendrick Smith - the baby of the group, according to Fields - to win their event in a time of 51.09 seconds.
"We're still competitors," Brown said. "We still like to race. We still like to win."
One of the best things about the Penn Relays is the way old-timers race around the track just as elementary-school kids prepare to sprint back and forth in the shuttle relays.
That's what happened Friday. The Glenarden team, which is based near Landover, Md., won its event just moments before comedian Bill Cosby began serving as official starter for the Philadelphia Elementary School sixth- and fifth- and fourth-grade shuttle relays.
Around and around they go - a bunch of 60-somethings on the track, running from the past, just as a bunch preteens take the infield, racing toward the future.
"I grew up in the Pacific Northwest," McDaniels said. "I only knew the Penn Relays as something that was supposedly the best track meet in the country for high school athletes. I could never dream of coming here and competing here.
"But here I am. It's mind-blowing."
These guys are still competitors. They join together for relays, but they run against one another in Masters events in the Maryland-Washington area and along the East Coast.
"When I'm running against these guys, I don't know them," McDaniels said. "I don't even look at them."
The men are part of a vibrant track club that is based in the shadow of FedEx Field.
"That's where the Washington Redskins host the Philadelphia Eagles - thank you for Donovan McNabb," Fields said.
As members of the club's Masters program, they mentor young athletes, helping with track-and-field training as well as life skills.
"It's all about giving back," Brown said. "We stay active. We stay involved."
Brown recently set a Masters record for 65-year-olds, winning the 60-meter hurdles in 9.17 seconds. All four men are listed in USA Masters Track and Field rankings in the various individual events.
But there's something special about a relay. There's something special about a bunch of old guys racing as a team, against the clock, against the competition.
Around and around they go - Fields to Brown to McDaniels to Smith.
Around and around they go - chasing times, chasing titles, chasing the past.
Or maybe racing from the past.
And it hasn't caught them yet.
