When Usain Bolt ran in Philadelphia at the Penn Relays

Watching Usain Bolt cement his legacy at the Olympics on Thursday night reminded me of the one time he brought his superstardom to Philadelphia.

It's amazing to think that it's already been six years since Bolt ran into the Penn Relays history books. Although the 2010 Carnival wasn't his first visit to Franklin Field, it was by far his most memorable.

We didn't know in 2002 and 2003 that one of the sprinters for William Knibb High School would go on to be the greatest of all time.

He was the world junior champion at 200 meters in that second year, but at the time, his only mention in the Inquirer was a quote he gave for a story on volunteers who help with food and travel arrangements for Jamaican competitors:

When Bolt ran for Jamaica in the 2004 and 2005 USA vs. the World competitions, neither the Inquirer nor the Daily News said a word about him.

But when he showed up in 2010, it was unlike anything that even the most diehard Penn Relays fan had ever seen. A record crowd of 54,310 jammed into every open square inch within Franklin Field's century-old (and then some) brick walls. It was impossible to move around the building from over an hour before Bolt ran until an hour afterward.

Whatever sacrifices of time and personal space that anyone made were worth it.

We didn't even have to wait for the race itself to see Bolt bring the house down. His arrival on the infield to warm up for the 4x100-meter sprint produced so much noise from the crowd that the high school runners on the track had to stand up in their starting blocks and wait for the frenzy to pass.

Just before 3 p.m., the big moment finally arrived. Bolt took his place on the track, right in front of Franklin Field's sweeping east stand. Jamaican flags flew all over the horeshoe-shaped seating bowl, interrupted only occasionally by patches of American red, white and blue.

The moment passed in a grand total of 37.90 seconds, a Penn Relays record which still stands to this day.

(Though to be fair, that doesn't count the time it took for the public address announcers to quiet the crowd so the runners could hear the starters' gun.)

Bolt's anchor leg was unofficially clocked at 8.79 seconds.

It is a speck of time in most people's lives - heck, in most people's days. But for everyone who was there, that speck will be seared forever in our memories.

Here's video of Bolt's anchor leg, and Joe Juliano's Inquirer story on the race.