Going Pro

March 12 - News & Notes

2012-03-13T05:57:00.003-07:00

Welcome back to another edition of Going Pro! Where I try to bring professional (& the top university) running news and stories to the amateurs... the weekend warriors... to those that rack up countless miles on their shoes but need a little motivation... and those that actually keep the sport going!

I took a two week hiatus from writing the blog for two reasons:
1) I was nearly buried alive with school work and life scheduling that I just didn't have enough time to sit down and construct something worthy of posting.
2) That was easier to do as there wasn't much news to write about for an entire blog piece in those weeks. But you better believe I have some serious ammo now! It's hard to know where to begin.

This week I'll cover:

Dylan Wykes
World Indoor Track and Field Championships
NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships (Involving Canadian domination)
Importance of workout recovery (and smart training)

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Let's begin shall we:

I was looking forward to tell you all through this blog that Canada had officially qualified its 3rd male marathoner for the London Olympics this summer. Alas, I cannot do that. Two weekends ago Dylan Wykes ran the Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan in hopes of making the standard of 2:11:29.

However, stomach problems got the best of him and he had to drop out of the race at 26km. On facebook Dylan posted: "Unfortunately I was unable to finish today as I had some terrible stomach issue that put me on the side of the road several times before stopping for good around 26k. A very tough day. But thanks to all for your support I really appreciate it."

He has also confirmed the he will not try to run another qualifying marathon before the olympics. Instead... he's going after the 10,000m! We wish him all the best! More to come on Dylan in the workout recovery section of the blog.

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This past weekend in Istanbul, Turkey some of the world's top runners took part in the World Indoor Track and Field Championships. Indoor track and field is bit of a different beast... First off, the track is 200m long with banked turns which means double the amount of laps than for the equivalent distance on a normal outdoor track (400m).

Also, the distances are a bit different, for example the 100m is shortened to 60m

110m hurdles --> 60m hurdles
5000m --> 3000m (which is the longest distance)

In anycase, like any world championships, each nation had their own qualifying races sending 3 runners per event (assuming they met the international standard).

The two main events of note were the men's and women's 3000m.

Mens 3000m

On the men's side our old friend Bernard Lagat (USA)was chasing his 3rd consecutive world indoor meter title at this distance. If he was to win he would tie the famous Haile Gebrsellasie with the most championships in history! don't forget that he is 37 years old!!!

He was up against the fastest man in 2010 in 3000m Kenyan Augustine Choge and the UK's Mo Farah, the 2011 world champion in 5,000m.

Mo Farah leading the pack.

As the raced unfolded that passed the mile in a pedestrian 4:14 and 2km in 5:16 (both 2:37/km) until they really ramped it up at the end. With one lap (200m) to go it the 3 men mentioned were neck and neck until the 37-year old unleashed a devastating kick that buried the pretenders. They never stood a chance. Lagat covered the last 200m in blistering ~24s!! That is absolutely outrageous.

After the race someone asked him how he still does it at his age, he responded with: 'I've been injury free and that is the key to staying strong.' So Bernie, is that all I have to do to run 2:35/km for 3km?

Finally as my go to site for running news, www.letsrun.com, said: "Lagat was born to run the 3000m. The perfect combination of speed and distance. Winning the gold in the 5000m in London will be tougher."
Below is the final 60m or so where you can see how no one else was even close to him.

Womens 3000m There is truly only one name to mention when it comes to the womens 3000m:

Ethiopia's Meserat Defar

She has won this event in four consecutive years. Needless to say she was the favorite going in, however Kenya's Hellen Obiri planned on halting the streak.

This was actually the fastest women's 3000m race I've seen! They went through the mile in 4:48 (2:58/km) and became progressively faster as the meters ticked off. With 400m (2 laps) to go they were averaging 2:55/km and then it really got going. Defar started her move running 32 seconds for the penultimate lap, but still have Obiri hanging on. With 100m to go Obiri found something extra, passed the indefatigable Defar and won convincingly - running the last 200m in 29.3 seconds!

The NEW 3,000m world champion Hellen Obiri!

Here's a video of the last 100m where Obiri leaves Defar in her dust. Absolutely amazing to watch.

*One thing of note: All of the male 3000m finalists ran within 17 seconds of the winner. However, the women's final was spread over 38 seconds. As you can see runners getting lapped at the end!

Up next is the NCAA Indoor Championships

NCAA Indoor Championships

2012-03-13T05:56:00.002-07:00

Not only were the world's best on display this weekend, but so were the best collegiate runners in NCAA indoor track and field championships in Idaho.

The main reason why USA produces such high quality runners is... well.. their high quality collegiate athletics system. I absolutely love the NCAA system for many reasons. First of all, NCAA athletes can race all year round if they so choose. In the fall, XC season is underway from August to November. From December to March is indoor track and field and from April to June there is outdoor track and field. This constant racing with the best of the best keeps athletes in consistent competition and at their best. Secondly, it is totally a team event: from the 60m sprinters to the pole vaulters everyone plays a part.

2010, 2011, & 2012 Male Champions - Florida State Gators

Finally, before you can even make the championship weekend of races you have to run as fast, or faster, than the qualifying time which are:

               Women    Men
400m         52.60     46.00
800m        2:04.5   1:47.3
1 mile      4:37      3:57.9
3000m      9:10      7:52.3
5000m   15:57     13:44.6

Insanity.
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I want to share two stories from this weekend for you - two of which are some serious Canadian content:

Story #1) Rudy... Rudy... Rudy...

My 'Rudy' chant should immediately give away which school I'm about to discuss: the famous Notre Dame (and their 'Fightin' Irish'). In particular lets focus on the DMR which stands for Distance Medley Relay. This is a relay race where each person runs a different distance (1200m, 400m, 800m, 1 mile). It's a phenomenal event to watch and is usually the last event on the schedule as so many people and teams are involved.

This year the winners of the men's DMR was none other than Notre Dame. Now why bring this up? I mean someone has to win right? well it's because the anchor (or mile) leg was run by one of the fastest Canadian milers: Jeremy Rae.

Jeremy Rae

Rae is a 21-year old lightning bolt from Fort Erie, Ontario. In the weekend before NCAA championships, he ran sub 4:00 for the mile to qualify his DMR team.
*When I was running at Trent University in Ontario, I remember hearing a LOT of talk about him because he was trying to break 4:00 in high school which has only been done by a handful of people. I believe, if memory serves me correct, that he came pretty darn close!

Congratulations Mr. Rae, you are a national champion.

Story #2) Chris Derrick vs. Lawi Lalang

The most antipated race(s) of the weekend were by far the men's 3,000m and 5,000m. Why? well because the fastest 5,000m collegian EVER Arizona State's Lawi Lalang (from Kenya) was racing against the America's #3 fastest indoor 5,000m runner ever, Stanford challenger Chris Derrick.

Lawi Lalang

Chris Derrick

Lalang PBs:

3,000m: 7:44 (4:10/m 2:35/km)
5,000m: 13:08 (4:14/m 2:38/km)

Derrick PBs:

3,000m: 7:46 (4:10/m 2:35/km)
5,0000m: 13:19 (4:17/m 2:40/km)

Advantage: Lalang.

But would Derrick make it interesting?

Quick note: In both of the events it was a two horse race but we had another worthy competitor, a guy you've never heard of...Canadian Cam Levins. ha! He's only been on the front page of this blog in the last 3 posts. But he ran two incredible races but was simply outmatched by the class of the field in Derrick and Lalang.
First, the 5,000m... It was never really a question who was going to be 1st and 2nd (although Lalang's teammate Stephen Sambu was a close 3rd with Cam Levins in 4th). But who would pull it off?

They were neck and neck until 800m when Derrick decided that he needed to up the ante and he took the lead. Which Lalang battled back for the lead, and with one last push at 300m Derrick made one final surge opening a slight gap between the two. However, with 200m (one lap) to go Lalang pulled away for the win thanks to a 28 second final lap. Winning by 0.23s in a time of 13:25 (4:19/mile or 2:41/km). An absolutely incredible effort from Derrick.

Soooo.... close. Even Lalang didn't know he got him.

In the 3,000m, it was a similar story Derrick, Lalang, and Levins. The lead pack were still together with 600m to go until Lalang and Derrick surged created a gap between the eventual third place finisher Cam Levins (7:49). With 400m to go, Derrick and Lalang exchanged the lead and were neck and neck at the bell (1 lap to go). On the final turn, Derrick went wide to pass Lalang but just couldn't close the game. Lalang was victorious again... by 0.17s in a time of 7:46.64 to 7:46.81 (4:10/mile and 2:35/km).

This is probably how you feel after reading this... much like Derrick did after the two events. Incredibly performances by both athletes.

What do I have to do to beat this guy?

Up next is my two cents on: workout recovery and smart training.

Workout Recovery

2012-03-13T05:55:00.000-07:00

As I assume 95 - 99.9% of people reading this blog are either runners or athletes in trainings (say for a triathlon), you all probably fall into the same trap: over-training + under-recovering.

Probably how you feel all of the time if overtraining.

It's just the way of life for runners in training. We become obsessive and compulsive about our training. We always feel like we should be doing more and feel guilty when we take time off (and we wonder why people think all of us runners are crazy). You may see short-term improvements in workouts and races. But, you are dramatically increasing rate and severely of inuries as well as burnout. There are countless stories of people who have over-trained, lost the love of the sport, and gave it up all together. I personally had this happen to one of my good running friends and part of is always checking race results in his area to see if he has come back, but nothing yet. 'Running OCD' reared it's ugly head again.

With all of that being said I want to share 3 pretty solid articles with you (one of them is the main reason why I'm training full-time now, we'll save that for the end).

1) Our good friend Dylan Wykes offered up his thoughts on what he does after a hard workout to ensure proper recovery. (Note: he has access to a few gadgets that all of us don't, but the concept is there).

Click here to read his blog article. Very interesting.
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2) Ryan Hall is currently on his way to London as USA's 2nd fastest marathoner at the January Olympic Trials. In the recent years he has left his coach and went own his own 'faith-based' program. He went from running 120 miles per week down to 100 miles and with a day off each week. The majority of runners at his level or aspiring to be at his level would a) never settle for 100 miles per week or b) be ok with a day off. So how do he go about making this decision?

He talked to this guy: Matt Dixon.

Hall on left, Matt Dixon on Right

Dixon is a former competitive triathlete who suffered the a serious case of over-training.

Here are some quotes from www.runningtimes.com article:

"Dixon helped Hall see anew the benefits of recovery, encouraging him to incorporate more rest into his training and to eat more post-run to aid recovery"

"Dixon isn’t a 21st century wizard with secret knowledge; he just believes that recovery is under-valued and under-utilized. “Our goal is not to train as hard as we can, but to perform well,” Dixon says. “And to perform well you have to be very fit, but not fatigued.”
Recovery, however, shouldn’t be confused with easy. “Recovery is the thing that enables hard training,” Dixon says. If you’re rested and fueled, you can you push yourself to new heights in key workouts and increase fitness.
I suggest you read the uber informative article, found here.
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3) Hands down the best article I've ever read on training properly / smartly with almost a guarantee of getting faster (assuming you aren't already injured) was written by the co-founder of www.letsrun.com, Weldon Johnson.

The article is called 'Why I Sucked in College'. It talks about Weldon's rise from a fairly competitive 10k runner with a personal best time of low 30 mins for 10k to one of the top 5 American times for the year in 28:06 - 4:31/mile or 2:49/km. Another cool note about Weldon was the fact that he paced Paula Radcliffe, the female marathon world record holder to her first world record of 2:17.18 in Chicago in 2002.

Paula Radcliffe with Weldon pacing

The whole article is essentially one big quote. I can guarantee you there is nothing you will read about training that is more true than this. Some highlights (all of the bold and capital letters are part of the article):

"Running is a very simple activity. It is largely an aerobic activity (and more so the farther you run in distance). The better aerobic fitness you have, the better you'll do. The more you can train and the more consistently you train the better you'll do. Most of us however, especially college runners, are out there running ourselves ragged, pounding away at intervals, without taking a step back to see what we really should be doing."

"The goal of every interval or every workout is not to run as fast as you can. Let me repeat that, THE GOAL OF EVERY INTERVAL OR EVERY WORKOUT IS NOT TO RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN"

" In running however, there are not bonus points for running "hard." The point is to run fast. There is a difference. Don't forget that. Too many people confuse "hard" with fast. The next time you see Bernard Lagat running, tell me how "hard" it looks like he's running."

Happy Running!

Feb 21 - News and Notes

2012-02-21T04:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome back for another weekly installement of Going Pro!

Last time, I introduced you to arguably the two best American runners in Galen Rupp and Bernard Lagat! This week...

I'll be shedding light on the current world 5,000m champion, who is also Rupp's training partner, UK's Mo Farah.
Of course, I'll keep you up to date on the all of the Canadian Content in the week that just passed.

Including a video trailer of a documentary following Reid Coolsaet's journey to the Olympics

Plus, I'll let you know what elites are running the upcoming Boston Marathon & New York City Half Marathon in preparation for the summer Olympics in London.

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The running 'Mecca' of the United States is located in Eugene, Oregon. That's where prolific names like Bill Bowerman, Pre, Kenny Moore, Bill Dellinger, & Galen Rupp made a name for themselves. Currently, the professional runners who train in Eugene run for the Oregon Track Club (OTC) - with the premier athletes coached by the legendary Alberto Salazar (all sponsored by Nike).

Alberto today. The Golden Boy back in the '80s.

Galen Rupp has been training under Salazar for the last ten years and in 2011 he gained a significant training advantage when the UK's top distance runner Mo Farah decided to move to Oregon to train.

Farah doing what he does best...screaming at camermen.

Now just who is Mo Farah you ask? Well with great pleasure I'll introduce you to the 2011 5,000m World Champion. (Not a bad title to have eh?)

The 28-year old Somalia-native moved to England at age 8 not speaking a word of English. At age 13, he entered his first high school XC race, finishing 9th and then won the next 5 years in a row... obviously!

With such a positive start to his running career, he continued his domination through College and eventually turning pro. In 2005, the extraordinarily hardworking Farah moved in with a bunch of other pro runners including many Africans. On this, Farah said: "They sleep, eat, train and rest, that's all they do but as an athlete you have to do all those things... If I ever want to be as good as these athletes I've got to work harder. I don't just want to be British number one, I want to be up there with the best." That pretty much sums up how and why he is the current world #1.

He, like Rupp, is so incredibly impressive because of his range of his running ability. Last week, I told you that Rupp ran 60:30 in his half-marathon debut at last year NYC Half Marathon. What I didn't tell you was that Rupp finished 3rd in that race, Farah won in his own debut in 60:23 (4:36/mile or 2:52/km).

Rupp and Farah in the 2011 NYC Half Marathon

Since last March he has been utterly demolishing competition*, check out these stats:

European XC & 3,000m champion
Broke European indoor 5,000m record in a time of 13:10 (4:14/mile or 2:38/km)
Broke European 10,000m record in a time of 26:46.5 (4:19/mile or 2:41/km)
Broke British National 5,000m record with a time of 12:53 (4:08/mile or 2:34/km)
World 5,000m Champion (beating Bernard Lagat)

*Last week, I told you of Rupp's new 2-mile record in 8:09.1. Well... on Saturday in Birmingham, England, Farah beat his training partners time running 8:08.1 (4:04/mile or 2:31/km) - breaking the European record!! Amazing time and all, however he did not win! He was beaten by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge who ran 8:07.3!

Farah is well on his way to an Olympic Medal in the 5,000m in his home country! He has his work cut out for him to get gold, but he is a strong favorite and certainly has my vote!

Below is the video of Farah's 2011 World Championship victory! Fast forward to 6:00 to see the last lap! You can literally seem him change gears at least 3 times. Also note how in control he is when he is looking around at the start of the last lap!

Up next is the Canadian Content of the week past.

Canadian Content

2012-02-21T04:11:00.000-08:00

Our Canadian honourable mentions this week are a bit less than normal (at least from what I could find / what I heard about). But lets get at it anyways:

First and foremost, I need to give a little love to our local superstar - who I introduced last week - Ryan Brockerville. 'Brock' is one of, if not thee, the top track (and XC) runners for Simon Fraser University (SFU) in British Columbia. This year SFU has begun competing in the NCAA which upped the competition level dramatically.

Brock

This weekend, Brockerville and SFU were down in Idaho at the Great Northwestern Athletics Conference Indoor Championship.

Brockerville competed in the Mile and the Distance Medley Relay (which consists of 4 runners taking on legs of 1200m, 400m, 800, & 1600m respectively.

In the mile Brockerville finished 2nd overall by 0.2 seconds in a time 4:12.7. While his SFU distance medley relay team won by beating their previous meet record by 1 second!
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Back in Canada, there was a big Ontario University Athletics (OUA) meet at the University of Toronto. Some notable performances:

I always find the 1,000m to be an incredible event. As runners everything we do is broken down into 1km splits. I have never run a single kilometer as hard as I possibly could, but I always wonder what I could do. However, I can promise you that it isn't as fast as these guys (and many professional females):

Guelph's Rob Jackson

Men 1,000m:

1 Jackson, Rob Guelph 2:25.77
2 Boulay, Benoit Guelph 2:26.29
3 Holmes, Steve-o Guelph 2:26.36
4 Armstrong, Ryan Western 2:27.27
5 Sayers, Trent Western 2:27.00 2:27.64
6 Stevens, Evan Guelph 2:27.66

Women 1,000m:

1 Jewett, Tamara U of T Varsity 2:52.91

2 Phelan, Jaimie Laurel Creek 2:54.713 Sawyer, Kailee Laurel Creek 2:54.934 Housley, Katie U of T Varsity 2:56.225 Maher, Paulina U of T Varsity 3:05.006 Thompson, Lindsay Windsor 3:07.167 Van Hie, Carrie Trent University 3:10.65
** I had the pleasure to run with Carrie at Trent! Super athlete! Keep up the awesome running!!

Men 1,500m

1 Davenport, Ethan U of T Varsity 3:51.79

2 Bowes, Graham McMaster University 3:54.803 Parker, Kaelan Guelph 3:58.824 Denault, Alex U of T Varsity 3:59.205 Hynes, Brendan U of T Varsity 3:59.50

Megan Brown at it again!

Women 1,500m

1 Brown, Megan Athletics Ontario 4:20.762 Thompson, Carise Guelph 4:31.173 Frost, Nadine Guelph 4:31.394 Hennessy, Colleen U of T Varsity 4:33.115 Malleck, Julia U of T Track Club 4:42.91

More Canadian Results can be found here

Up next is REID COOLSAET'S ROAD TO LONDON

Reid Coolsaet's Road to London

2012-02-21T04:10:00.001-08:00

Speaking of Canadian Content! Hello...

Reid...

Coolsaet.

Canada's top marathoner has long since cracked the 2:11:29 Olympic standard time. In fact, he's dipped under that mark twice: 2:11:22 and 2:10:55 at the 2010 & 2011 Toronto Waterfront Marathon, respectively.

He's just returning from a training phase in Kenyan where he ran countless miles with some of the best in the world - even doing some races against them! On February 12th, Reid raced the Diekirch Cross Country race in Luxembourg on a 10.2km course. In a deep field with both young and experienced runners Reid placed 4th in a time of 31:17 (4:56/mile or 3:04/km).

Over the last year Reid has documented his 'Road to London'. In his non-running, eating, and sleeping hours, he has edited together what looks like it going to be an epic montage of his training.

Check it out here.

Reid Coolsaet's - Road to London

Up next... the 2012 Boston Marathon Elite Field

2012 Boston Marathon Elite Field

2012-02-21T04:06:00.000-08:00

It's almost that time of year again. Ahh... April! Where us in Newfoundland are still shovelling while most marathoners fly across the pond (i.e. Atlantic Ocean) for the London Marathon or south for the Boston Marathon or N.Y.C. Half Marathon.

If you, or someone you know, are making the trip to any of these prestigious races I guess you should know your competition. Keep in mind that this is an Olympic year so those with a trip to London will be cautious in racing a spring marathon, you might not see ALL the big names.

Let's start with the most famous of all

Monday, April 16, 2012

Elite Men

In the order I think they'll finish!
*12 elite men have personal bests faster than 2:08:00 (4:53/mile or 3:02/km)

1. Geoffrey Mutai (Kenya) - Unofficial world's fastest marathoner & 2011 Boston Marathon winner

- PB = 2:03:02 (4:42/mile or 2:55/km)

2. Gebre Gebremariam (Ethiopia) - Winner of the 2010 NYC Marathon, 2nd at 2011 NYC Half

- Always wears sweet hats!

- PB = 2:04:53 (4:46/km or 2:58/km)

3. Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya) - Winner of the 2010 Boston Marathon
- PB = 2:05:52 (4:48/mile or 2:59/km)

Elite Women

In the order I think they'll finish.

1. Aselefech Mergia (Ethiopia) - Winner of the 2012 Dubai Marathon
- PB = 2:19:31 (5:19/mile or 3:18/km)

2. Caroline Kilel (Kenya) - Winner of the 2011 Boston Marathon and 2010 Frankfurt Marathon

- PB = 2:22:36 (5:26/mile or 3:23/km)

3. Sharon Cherop (Kenya) - 2nd in 2011 Boston Marathon (she's in the above picture behind Kilel)
- Winner of the 2010 Toronto Waterfront Marathon

- 2:22:42 (5:26/mile or 3:23/km)

Up next is the NYC Half Marathon Field

2012 N.Y.C. Half Marathon Elite Field

2012-02-20T08:59:00.000-08:00

Last year, the N.Y.C. Half Marathon produced some lightning fast times. As mentioned Mo Farah and Galen Rupp ran 60:23 for 1st & 60:30 for 3rd, respectively, in their debuts. Canadian men also burned up the streets of New York with Dylan Wykes in 62:14) & Reid Coolsaet in 62:42.

This years race on March 18 brings a fresh crop of talent, although the names are far from new to you, or the running world. It seems as though the majority of the American Olympic marathon squad is using NYC Half as a training race.

Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher will lead the way for the women's field.

From left: Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan, Amy Hasting,
and Desire Davila. (The top 4 US female marathoners)

Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhien will set the pace for the men's field.

The remainder of the elite field has not been published yet. Although Half Marathon's rarely get the same 'elite' draw to their events as marathons do. But in any case this is a star studded field! Should be a good indicator of what is to come in London!

Feb 14 - News & Notes

2012-02-14T07:55:00.001-08:00

Welcome back for another rant on Going Pro!

Happy Valentines Day... get ready to fall in love with Track and Field! I wish I could spend more time here with this disgustingly romantic introduction but there are wayyy too many incredible races and results from this weekend to talk about - with a lot of Canadian content!

Also this week,
* why you should never celebrate until AFTER you cross the finish line
* why running a 63 minute half marathon is not good enough

Since I started writing this blog I was wondering when I would get to introducing you all to the top 2 American runners (arguably at any distance): Galen Rupp and Bernard Lagat. What these two men achieved this weekend is almost inconceivable, but given their outstanding careers I'm not even remotely surprised! Lets begin this lovefest....

Galen Rupp

Galen Rupp - Potentially my hero.

The 25-year old Portland, Oregon Native is quite simply the best American runner at the moment (based on his age and his potential over the next 10 years).

Rupp has been coached by the famous Alberto Salazar for the last 10 years and together they have literally set track running in America on fire.

Before we get to what he was up to this weekend, here are some of the ridiculous highlights of his career (remember he's only 25!):

- In high school, he ran 13:37 for 5,000m (4:23/mile or 2:43/km) and 29:09 for 10,000m (4:41/mile or 2:55/km)
- He ran for the University of Oregon during his collegiate career where he racked up a multitude of awards: Winner of the 2008 NCAA XC championship, breaking 4 American records in various distances, and being a 14-time All American.
- In his first half marathon ever, he ran 60:30 (4:37/mile or 2:52/km) - the 3rd fastest American half marathon time!
- Last summer, he became the fastest American, and non-African (i.e. white man), when he ran 26:48 for 10,000m (4:19/mile or 2:41/km)
- By far, Rupp's most impressive quality is his incredible range, from 1 mile in 3:57 to a 60:30 half marathon! I can't wait until he runs a marathon! By then it will take him like 20 minutes!

Before we get to Rupp's result this weekend, allow me to introduce his fellow countryman and fierce weekend competitor...

Bernard Lagat

Bernard Lagat - The man.

The 37-year old Kenyan emigre is, believe it or not, still getting faster.

Before becoming a naturalized American citizen in 2004, he competed for his native Kenya in the Olympic 1,500m event winning the bronze in 2000 and silver in 2004.

Since wearing the red, white, and blue Lagat has been a 2-time world champion in the 1,500m & 5,000m (in the same year no less), 2-time silver medallist in 5,000m at world championships, indoor world championship at the 3,000m, AND has set SEVEN North American records (two of them occurred after the age of 35 making them World Masters records).

Oh right, I was so mesmerized I forgot to mention some of his personal bests:
- 1,500m in 3:26.4 (2nd fastest ever)
- 1 mile in 3:47.28
- 3,000m in 7:29 (4:01/mile or 2:30/km)
- 5,000m in 12:53.6 (4:09/mile or 2:35/km)

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Now lets get to what happened this weekend. First off, these two superhumans didn't compete against each other in person BUT they did race against each other's American Record.

Saturday night at the USA Track and Field Indoor Classic at Madison Square Garen (MSG), NY, Rupp hoped to break Lagat's current 2-mile American indoor record, 8:10.07 (4:05/mile or 2:32/km) set last year .

Just moments before Rupp started his race, Lagat was chasing after Rupp's 5,000m American indoor record of 13:11.44 (4:15/mile or 2:38/km) literally up the road at 105th Millrose Games - which was moved to another NYC location after 97 years at MSG (a bone of contention for the die hard trackies)!

Lagat and Rupp had two very different races. Lagat's 5,000m record attempt had him up against some of the fastest collegiate runners (Lawi Lalang and Stephen Sambu) in the world and the fastest American high schooler in Edward Cheserek. Throughout the race, Lagat exchanged the lead with Lalang on numerous occasions but when it came down to the last 400m there was no question that it was Lagat's race AND Lagat's record. He crossed the finish line 4 seconds faster than Rupp's previous record in a time of 13:07.15 (4:13/mile or 2:37/km)!!

*Note #1: In this race the Galen Rupp's American collegiate record was lowered by 10s by Lawi Lalang, in the process also lowering the 33-year old World collegiate record by 0.2 seconds to 13:08.2.

*Note #2: The American high school record of 14:06 was also annihilated, thanks to a ridiculous 13:57 Edward Cheserek!

Video of this race: (I suggest you watch the introductions and fast forward to the end!)

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Now, back at MSG, Rupp, not knowing that his 5,000m indoor record was just destroyed, set off in basically a solo attempt at Lagat's 2-mile record, as none of the other competitors could come near such a pace. Rupp and a pace maker went through the first mile in 4:06.7 which meant to break the record he needed to run the last mile in 4:03! That would be a huge negative split... Not to mention when you are running entirely by yourself. Rupp didn't disappoint as he ran the last 200m in 28.5s to secure his new...

No video yet! I can't wait to see this!

Absolutely an amazing weekend in racing... Up next is the Canadian Content!

Canadian Content

2012-02-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

I wish I could say that I'm sick of talking about them... but Cam Levins (left) and Taylor Milne (right)were at it again this past weekend.That makes 3 weekends in a row of top notch racing. Saturday past, they both were invited to the previous mentioned world-famous Millrose Games to run the 'Wanamaker Mile' (1,600m) against some of the best milers in the world, including the world championship bronze medalist at 1,500m in American Matt Centrowitz and the top NCAA miler from Brigham Young University (BYU) Miles Batty.

Centrowitz with Batty nipping his heels!

Only a week previous both of these gazelles were setting the New Balance Games track on fire where Milne ran 3:56 for the mile and Levins ran 7:45 in the 3,000m! However, this week they went head to head in the same mile event.

Immediately Milne went to the front - which is more often than not going to end well - and stayed there for 3/4 of the race. Levins tucked into the pack and held the pace with best of them. Just after 1200m, the cream rose to the top. Centrowitz and Batty effortlessly surged past Milne to take the lead. Unfortunately, Milne's front running took a major toll on him as he faded for a 4:00 finish (still incredible, but not what he was hoping for I can only imagine). In the end, Centrowitz seemingly jogged across the line in 3:53.9, with Miles Batty setting the American College record with 3:54.5! Levins ran a consistently smart race and finished with an impressive 3:57.1, given his recent race schedule.

Check out the video here, fast forward to 2:50 into the race and just watch how smooth Matt Centrowitz is. Do you think he was maxed out? I don't think so. Scary stuff

----------
Simultaneously, on the opposite side of America, the University of Washington had their own invitational track meet that brought some of the top collegiate athletes head to head, including many Canadians.

In the Men's 3,000m:
- Quebec native Stephane Colle, attending University of Idaho, ran an impressive 8:08 (4:22/mile or 2:43/km) for 8th in his heat (5 heats in total) finishing 25th out of the out of the 96 collegians who ran

- Newfoundland's own Ryan Brockerville from Simon Fraser University in B.C. ran a impressive 8:20 (4:28/mile or 2:47/km) for 6th place in his heat and 61st overall out of the 96.

In the Men's 5,000m:

Prince George, B.C. born and bred, Geoff Martinson threw down a tremendous 13:55 (4:29/mile or 2:47/km). Martinson was the 3rd fastest 1,500m runner in Canada in 2011 with a 3:37.5 thus allowing him to represent Canada at the 2011 World Championships, making it to the 1,500m semi-final! Check out his blog here.

As for the women in the mile ,

Canada's elite track and field club, Speed River, sent both Malindi Elmore (left) & Hilary Stellingwerff (right) to compete in the elite one mile race with one of the WORLD's best runners Sally Kipyego from Kenya. Both Canadian females had incredible races with Stellingwerff finishing 3rd in a time of 4:29.7 and Elmore in 5th with 4:32.7.

Here's the link video for this awesome race! Go Canada!
(It's not on youtube, so I can't attach the video, sorry)

Why running a 63 min half marathon isn't fast enough...

2012-02-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

This is unquestionably the stat of this week's blog, despite the dominance of Lagat and Rupp.

Alistair Cragg - The 31-year old South African - who runs under the Irish flag since 2003- is one of the world's top non-'East African' (Kenya, Ethiopia, & Eriteria).

The 2008 Olympian holds 4 Irish national records, including a blistering 13:03 for 5,000m (4:12/mile or 2:35/km) and a 27:39 for 10,000m (4:27/mile or 2:46/km).

My point is that this guy can move, especially for a white boy!

Now let me ask you a question... actually two:
1) How would I feel if I said that you had the potential to run a 63:39 for a half marathon? That means a pace of 4:51/mile or 3:01/km. That would be good enough to win about 98% of all half marathon races. I'm sure you would be quite content with such a performance.

Note: before I ask you question #2, a bit of trivia for you: only 17 Americans beat that time in 2011.

2) How would you feel about running THAT incredible time but only finishing 65th OVERALL in a race!?!?

Well that's precisely what happened at a Japanese Half Marathon last week! Alistair Cragg ran 63:39 and placed 65th! In fact, I've never seen a race so deep. 178 runners ran faster than 70 mins for a half marathon (5:20/mile or 3:19/km)!! Just incredible!

Just when you thought you could be satisfied with a performance... back to the drawing board.

Reasons why you should never celebrate early

2012-02-13T18:37:00.000-08:00

Always, always, always... cross the finish line before celebrating! Here's why...
This weekend at the USA XC championships. Molly Huddle, on the left, American 5k record holder) thinks she has triumphed over Sara Hall, on the right, (Marathoner Ryan Hall's wife). However, the celebrations were in vain as Hall surged past her literally at the line. Here's what the photos from the finish line showed:

"Victory is mine...

oh wait...

WTF...

This isn't good...

This completely reminds of this video. Make sure you cross the line first!!!

Feb 7 - News & Notes

2012-02-07T05:28:00.001-08:00

Welcome back to another edition of Going Pro!

This week we have a bit of a hodgepodge: I introduce you all to one of Canada's top runners: Sheila Reid; I briefly describe 5 of my favorite running books; and introduce you the bittersweet world that is Track and Field!

Let's start it off with some news and notes of the week just past:

1) Last week I said, 'remember the name Cameron Levins'. Well, he was at it again this week past at the New Balance Grand Prix indoor track meet in New York. Cam ran the 3,000m against 11 other men - some of whom were the biggest names in the track world, including the silver and bronze medallists from the 2011 track and field World Championships.

O CAMada!

7 days after his 5,000m and 3,000m wins (within 24 hours) he ran yet another personal time for 3,000m - 7: 45.75 (4:10/mile or 2:35/km) placing 5th overall. Some people might be upset with a 5th place finish, however, when you are only 4 seconds behind the 10th fastest 1,500m runner of all time you can live with it!

*World 3,000m record is 7:24.9 (3:59/mile or 2:29/km)... W.T.F.

2) Two weeks ago I briefly introduced Taylor Milne, who ran 2:20 for 1,000m and setting the world's best for that distance this year. At the same meet as Levins - New Balance Grand Prix indoor track meet in New York - Milne took on the mile (that's 1,600m for you metric folk).

Milne ran tremendously well to placed 2nd with what I believe is a personal best time of 3:56.4 (2:27/km). The mile is truly one of the most amazing race distances. What is incredible was that many thought that a runner could never break the 4:00 per mile barrier. However, England's Roger Bannister did just that in 1952 with his 3:59.4 clocking on the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, England. [Which is beautifully captured in the book The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb... see the list of my recommended running books]

Since then, over 1200 men have run sub 4:00, including over 350 Americans and ~50 Canadians (Levins and Milne are in the pretigious club). So to go from a time period where that time seemed improbable to now have up to 3-5 guys breaking it a single race, it's a truly spectacular experience.

3) I'll give you three guesses as to which race distance the following photo finish was for:
800m? 1 mile? 3,000m? 5k? 10km?

Time's up... These 3 men (plus one other just out of the frame), crossed the finish line within 1 second in the Hong Kong MARATHON!! Can you imagine running 26.2 miles and losing by literally one foot! Aye yi yi... But this is the world of marathoning these days. Expect many more of these close finishes as more and more Africans go after the big money that comes with winning marathons.

Seeing how I'm still speechless by this, I'll leave it up to Jerry Seinfeld to explain it to you:

Let's continue on here with an introduction to one of the most amazing female runners to come from Canada... Sheila Reid.

Sheila Reid

2012-02-07T05:28:00.000-08:00

Allow me to introduce you to, in my humble opinion, the most exciting Canadian female runner at the moment... Sheila Reid.

Canada's Sheild Reid Dominating

Sheila dominating... again.

This week... 'Remember the name Sheila Reid'. The 23-year old (her birthday is tomorrow actually!) Newmarket, Ontario native all but owns the NCAA running world from the 1,500m to XC. Allow me to brag on behalf of Sheila... and Canada.

Sheila is in her senior year at the renowned Villanova as an english major, according to the varsity cross country webpage. After a redshirting (which means you can practice with the team but not race/compete under the school's name, and doesn't count as a year of eligibility) two seasons in 2008 she has been crushing competition in almost every race she has entered.

Since 2009:
2 x 1st place in NCAA National Championships (2010, 2011)
     *this year she won by 6 tenths of a second!!
     *254 of the BEST collegiate runners are in this race
3 x 1st place in Mid-Atlantic regional XC championships
3 x 1st place in BIG EAST conference XC championships

While on the track having personal bests of:

1 Mile: 4:35
3km: 8:56.9 (4:48/mile or 2:59/km)
5km: 15:37.5 (5:02/mile or 3:07/km)

The scary thing about Sheila is her potential, she's already running outstanding times at such a young age. After her collegiate career, she'll undoubtedly be scooped up by one of the major professional training teams in the US. If/when she builds a big mileage base - with her track speed - she is going to be a competitive force for the next decade!

Now, for a change of 'pace'... here's my top 5 favorite books.

Must Read Running Books

2012-02-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

I started my running career in March 2009 when I worked at the Running Room in St. John's, Newfoundland. At the time when I applied for a job, I wasn't more than a 'summer runner' who ran 2-3 times a week and did the famous Tely 10 Mile race - leaving myself sore for weeks. I never thought the job would literally change my life, but it certainly has and then some.

Quite frankly, the best part of working at the Running Room was when I got to work with the legendary Art Meaney - the 67 year old who is one of the fastest men in the world at his age group - heck, he still runs his age for 10 miles every year! I can promise you a full write up on this running guru. He was the one who truly opened my eyes to not only my own potential in running but also to the professional world. His knowledge of running history is second to none. It was both inspirational and motivating.

The man, the myth, the legend - Art Meaney

He also introduced me to running books, which truly got me addicted to it the sport. Here is a list of what I believe are MUST READS for any runner as well as some honourable mentions which are well worth a spot on your bed side table.

#1) Duel in the Sun - John Brant

This epic work of prose allows you to run in the shoes of the Cuban-American world record holder Alberto Salazar (now coach of the top US distance runenrs) and Dick Beardsley, the blue collar farm-hand from Minnesota. You get to follow them before, during, and after the 1982 Boston Marathon.

All I will say about this book is:
a) I could NOT put this book down

b) The race was won by two seconds

c) This race single-handedly changed both the lives of both of these two men forever. I kid you not.

#2) Running With the Buffaloes - Chris Lear

This book follows the 1998 Cross Country season for the University of Colorado Buffaloes. You literally feel as though you are a part of the team as you running every workout and race with them. As well, all of the trials and tribulations that accompany the team such as 20 mile runs at 8,000ft of elevation, injuries, cuts, losing, winning, and much more that I'll let you read to find out.

The protagonist of this book is the stand out runner Adam Goucher - the husband of famed US female marathoner Kara Goucher - and his quest to be #1 in NCAA.

Note: Reading this book will pump you up. I suggest reading before a race!

#3) Once a Runner - John L. Parker Jr.

This novel follows the fictional character of Quenton Cassidy, a mile runner at, the also fictional, Southeastern University in Florida in the 1970s. Many people believe this book is based on the collegiate years of famous American marathoner Frank Shorter!

You become intimate with the prodigious Cassidy through his interactions with teammates, relationships, workouts, races, and his eventual big decision to take the 'next step'. Not to mention the most insane workout I have ever heard of in my entire life.

Not spoiling anything here, but my favorite part of the book comes when at a party/social gathering someone asks him "why do you run?"

Favorite quote from the book: "You can remember it [the past], he told himself, but you cannot experience it this way again. You have to be satisfied with the shadows."

#4) Born to Run - Christopher McDougall

At first, I wasn't expecting much from this book as I thought it would be preaching about why barefoot running is superior to 'normal' running.

However, I was blown away with the incredibly interesting storyline that flows through about 70% of the book. The author, McDougall, makes his way to the Copper Canyons of Mexico to find a man named 'Caballo Blanco' (the White Horse) who moved from the US down to live with the ancient, indigenious tribe called the Tarahumura [Tara-oo-mara]. Along the way he discovers how running - barefoot - is the culture with the Tarahumara. Their story is absolutely spellbinding.

The remaining portions talk about the pros and cons of traditional running form, running shoes, and barefoot running in a very easy to understand and humorus approach. A definite must read.

#5) The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It by Neal Bascomb

Bascomb chronicles the stories of the fastest men in the world in the early 1950s: England's Roger Bannister, America's Wes Santee, and the Australian John Landy.

Each of these men have their own incredible saga to follow as they try to find a way to break the elusive 4 minute barrier for 1 mile. Whether it be Bannister's self-coached training at lunch hour while attending medical school, Santee's trouble with the track and field authorities, or Landy's eccentric coach, this book embodies the blood, sweat, and tears of these 3 amateur running heros.

Just wait until you read about the races where they go head to head! Hard to put down!

Welcome to Track & Field

2012-02-07T05:21:00.000-08:00

I'd like to introduce you all to the wonderful world of Track & Field: where dreams are made - and equally crushed - by tenths of seconds and fractions of millimeters. Whether indoors or outdoors, and whether it's the 60m or the 30,000m there is no shortage of drama on the track!

Click for link

Athletics Canada (Link)

Let's walk through an example of dream crushing to get this party started:

Last year in August, the Track & Field World Championships were held in Daegu, South Korea. Essentially, the best 'T&F' athletes in the world - that qualified - squared off at their respective distances. Like most runners, actually qualifying for an event (i.e. Boston) may be equally as satisfying as running it.

With that said, in June 2011, USA held their National T&F Champtionships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon (who some call the 'Mecca of USA Running'). This doubled as the World Championships Trials: the top 3 in each event, that reached the world championship standard time, qualified. I streamed the majority of events as all the top American runners went toe to toe. I distinctly remembering watching the Women's 1500m Final, here's the video:

Here's the lesson: It's better to tuck into a pack of runners than it is to run by yourself (also... pacing doesn't hurt either). Note: this applies to all races and not just on track.

Here's why: Christin Wurth-Thomas is a fantastic runner who decided to put fate in her own hands and immediately (within 15 seconds) took a sizeable lead which only got bigger as the race played out. The other favorites chased after her in a pack hoping they would catch her. With 400m to go, she had a 3 second lead, which doesn't sound like a lot but it's like 30m! However, the fruits of labor were starting to spoil as at 200m she was down to a 2 second lead and in the last 100m Wurth-Thomas went from 1st place to 4th place as she was passed by the 3rd place runner literally 0.1 seconds before the finish line.

Conversely, the beauty of track and field is that EVERYONE has a chance! Check out these truly incredible races (I summarize them as well for those you don't want to watch the videos, but I hope you do):

This 2008 600m race was part of the NCAA Conference Indoor Track Championship where Minnesota State's Heather Dorniden, was running with the lead runner at 400m (one lap to go) where her ankle was clipped by the runner behind her. By the time she got back to her feet the 3 other runners were ~20m or more ahead of her. I can only assume that at this point, 99% of people would have realized that there is no way humanly possible to catch up and would have just stayed on the track or packed it in. Dorniden did neither. With 200m to go you can literally see her closing the gap on all the leading runners, passing 3rd place at 100m, and literally edging out the remaining two for the win! Truly remarkable to witness.

#2) In the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 10 x world record holder [he literally had the WR for distances from 2 miles to 20km] Australian Ron Clarke was the undeniable favorite. His 10,000m world record of 28:15 was a full minute faster than the American Billy Mills, who qualified for the 10,000m final with a time of 29:15.

Quick background on Mills: he was a Native American orphan who grew up on a reserve. His mother died giving birth to him and his father died when he was 10 years old. From articles that I've read about Mills and this race, during his training in the months and years leading up to Olympic final he used daily self-visualization techniques to convince himself that he could win this race - even over such unsurmountable odds. He said during an interview that he "visualized winning dozens of times a day". When the race started he clung to the heels of the indefatigable Clarke. They passed the 5k mark in a personal best times for Mills. Here's a bit of the video of the race and especially the finish, I won't ruin the surprise!

Billy Mills in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic 10,000m Final

Week 3 - News and Notes

2012-01-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

Bonjour & welcome back to another installment of Going Pro!

Last week we focused on the Canadian Men chasing after a trip to London this summer and to break Jerome Drayon's lasting marathon record of 2:10:09.

Before we get to the Canadian Women, I have to update you on two incredible pieces of running news from this weekend:

1) Remember the name Cameron Levins. The Black Creek, British Columbia native who runs at Southern Utah University hit superhuman running status (at least in my opinion) this weekend at the University of Washington's (Seattle) indoor track meet.

On Friday night, Levins won the 5,000m in a outrageous time of 13:42 (4:24/mile or 2:44/km)!!! Then, less than 24 hours later, he ran and won the 3,000m in a incredible time of 7:48 (4:11/mile or 2:36/km) over two of the top American collegiate runners (Miles Batty and Sam Chelenga). I literally run 200m at that pace, or slower, in workouts...with lots of rest in between reps... this is just mindblowing!

This result comes on top of his 4th place finish at the NCAA XC championships in November 2011 where 300 of the top American collegiate runners face-off in Terre Haute, Indiana. Levins is the real deal and is destined for more than just All-American honors status. He'll be the next Canuck setting the track world on fire in the years to come.

*Levins' training consists of 155 miles (or 250 km) per week! No big deal...

2) Friday past (Jan 27), the Dubai Marathon finished with the fastest marathon field in marathon history! Here are some ~~interesting~~... ridiculous... stats:

- Purse: 1st: $250,000 2nd: $100,000 3rd: $50,000....10th: $10,000
The following has never happened before:
- 17 men broke 2:10:00 [4:57/mile or 3:05/km]
- 14 of those dipped under 2:08:00 [4:52/mile or 3:02/km]
- 8 of those ran under 2:06 [4:48/mile or 2:59/km]
- 4 of those went under 2:05


Ayele Abshero winning 2012 Dubai Marathon

Now for THE stat of the 2012: The winner, Ayale Abshero from Ethiopia, ran 2:04:23 [4:44/mile or 2:57/km] at the age of 21 in his first marathon ever! Which is by far the fastest debut ever. With the big money being thrown at the marathon these days, there are more and more young runners moving up to the 26.2 for a pay day!

And if you really want your head to hurt, read what I wrote up about the Kenyan Marathon Squad selected for the Olympics!

Click here for the Canadian women who set the roads on fire.

Part 1 - Megan Brown

2012-01-31T01:01:00.001-08:00

This week the focus shifts to Canada's 'better half' (I've learned that's always the correct response). It's not only the Canadian men who are turning heads, their female counterparts are also mixing things up with their American counterparts. However, the focus isn't so much on the marathon distance but in the 5k to half marathon events. So I'll work my way through the distances, starting at the marathon and working down to the 5km. We've much talent to be proud of as you'll see!

Note: There are many more females than the 3 profiled here, but at some point you have to get back to work. These other talents (Lanni Marchant, Natasha Wodak, etc) will be touched on through the weeks).

Marathon
Current National female record: 2:28:36 (5:40/mile or 3:31/km) set back in 1985 (Houston) by Sylvia Ruegger
*Compare this to the USA record of 2:19:36 (5:19/mile or 3:18/km) by Deena Kastor in 2006 (London )

Lioudmila Kortchaguina

The fastest Canadian female marathoner in the last 5 years has been Lioudmila Kortchaguina (say that 3 times fast!). The Russian emigre became a Canadian citizen in 2005 and dominated the National running scene! Her race times have ranged from 2:29:42 to 2:32:08 (~5:43/mile or 3:33/km) since wearing the red & white on her singlet. I forgot to mention that she was 35+ for all of those times! Who says you don't get better with age!?

In the last two years, only one lady Canuck has broken 2:40:00 (6:06/mile or 3:47/km), that being Krista Duchene at the 2010 Ottawa Marathon, with 2:39:08. Basically, I'm saying that the marathon might not be our next Olympic medal.

In the next few years we have some talent in the half-marathon and 10km distances moving up that could get under that 2:30:00 barrier and really leave their mark!

Half-Marathon - 10k - 5k
Half-Marathon record 1:12:09 (5:30/mile or 3:25/km) by Tara Quinn-Smith
10k record: 31:44 (Courtney Babcock, 2003)
5k record: 14:54 (Courtney Babcock, 2003)

It seems to be there a good few Canadian females testing the elite running waters and are they ever throwing down some impressive times! Let's look at the who's who:

1) Megan Brown - the 25 year old Guelph Native is a University of Toronto Graduate who has a running resume that is astounding. That is also the understatement of 2012.

Allow me to mesmerize you:

- 4 x UofT Athlete of the Year,
- 3 x CIS and OUA XC champion,
- 2 x silver medallist at Canadian XC championships,
- 5th place at World University XC championships
- Won the half marathon in 1:14:08 (5:39/mile or 3:31/km) last year in Montreal.

Megan not only had the aches and pains that come with the long distance running lifestyle but she has struggled with battling Lyme disease in 2008 and 2009. Briefly, Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by the bite of a tick. It can lead to multitude of symptoms and issues that would keep someone, especially a professional runner off her game - and maybe her feet altogether!

Besides being one of the fastest half marathoners in Canadian history, she also has a 5km PB of 15:56 (5:08/mile or 3:11/km) to her credit. From a few interviews I've read Megan trains at about 90-95 miles or ~150km per week! Despite initially plans to run her first 26.2 in 2013, she has decided to go backwards first improve her 5k for a year or two before moving up the distances. A smart choice in my opinion to build another year or two of speed and endurance in her legs.

Megan is already one of Canada's most prolific runners and she's barely even begun to make her mark internationally. I literally can't wait to see what she will do in the next 2-10 years!

Up next is Megan's closest competitor: Dayna Pidhoresky

Part 2 - Dayna Pidhoresky

2012-01-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

#2 on the list is Canada's unofficial female half-marathon record holder Dayna Pidhoresky.

The 24 year old Tecumseh, Ontario native ran a blistering 1:11:45 (5:28/mile or 3:24/km) for 21.1km at the 2011 Niagara International Half Marathon.

-----
Lets take a quite segue (or segway) here as this unofficial vs. official record issue comes up twice this week:
Running records can only be set on courses that:

1. are 'out and back'. The finish line must be within 50% of the total distance from the start line.
2. have less than 1m per km in net elevation drop.
*- Thus, point to point & and downhill courses, such as the famous Boston Marathon, do not count for records. You'll see this when you read up about the Kenyan Olympic marathon squad!
---

Now back to the gazelle known as Dayna. Here's a quick little list of what she has been up in the last 12 months (courtesy of www.runnersfeed.com):

(this should read Oct 17, 2010)

That is A LOT of 1st place finishes. In fact she has been the first overall female in 10 out of 14 races. Not to mention that those times keep getting faster and faster.

The University of Windsor alumni started running, like most pros, back in grade 5 with the elementary XC races the schools put off. She continued on through high schoool and university where she found great success.

She's planning running her first marathon this year, potentially this spring with the hope of breaking 2:30:00 (5:43/mile or 3:33/mile). However she made a great comment in an interview, which I feel most people should heed:
"It seems that anything over 2:29:55 is not worth much in Canada so I would rather wait until I actually have a fighting chance. For now we are focusing on the shorter distances until I have fully adapted to that type of training load. Then we will move forward."

It's been my view that far too many jump into the longer distances without having the proper foundation of speed, stamina, and endurance beneath them.

In any case, Dayna Pidhoresky is a running superstar and I fully expect to see her with a few more gold medals around her neck - along side some, official, national records.

Most recently, in November 2011, Dayna represented Canada at the famous Ekiden Relay in Japan [a marathon relay with 3 males and 3 female runners covering 5k to 10k segments]. Canada placed 10th overall with Dayna running her 5k leg in 16:12 (5:15/mile or 3:14/mile)! Impressive running!

Going her on the trip to Japan was our next female we'll look at today Newfoundland's own Kate Vaughan.

Kenyan Marathon Squad Selected

2012-01-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

Other Weekly Professional Running News

Back when I was aged 10 to say... 22... I used to play EA Sports' NHL 94 - 97 on Sega Genesis religiously. The best part about it is that I would always go and trade the best players from the league onto my team. I believe this was called 'stacking my team'. When it comes to running Kenya is already the pre-stacked team - involving no trades. Just take a look at this:

Kenya Selects Tentative Olympic Marathon Squad.

Final selections will be made on April 30th.
*WARNING: The personal best times listed may cause headaches.
I would NOT want to have the job of choosing the 3 of these men! You might as well pull names out of a hat!

Men (with personal best times)

Patrick Makau - 2:03:38 (4:43/mile or 2:56/km)

Marathon World Record Holder

Winner of....everything!

Back to back in Berlin and Rotterdam

Geoffrey Mutai - 2:04:55 (4:43/mile or 2:57.5/km)

FASTEST 26.2'er EVER...unofficially!

He won the 2011 Boston Marathon in a wind-aided time of 2:03:02
Winner of the 2011 NYC marathon

Emmanuel Mutai (No relation to Geoffrey) - 2:04:39

Winner of 2011 London Marathon

2nd place 2011 NYC marathon

2nd place 2010 London

Abel Kirui - 2:05:04

Broke the 25,000m world record on track (but came 2nd place in the race to...

Moses Mosop - 2:05:37

25,000m (72:25) & 30,000m (86:47) world record holder

Unofficially the 2nd fastest man alive as he placed 2nd at 2011 Boston in 2:03:06

**That was his first marathon ever...

Wilson Kipsang - 2:03:42

Officially the 2nd fastest marathon ever with a 2:03:42 in the 2011 in Frankfurt

**Note: ALL 6 of these men (& many others) have personal best times faster than the American marathon record (2:05:38)!!!

Part 3 - Kate Vaughan

2012-01-31T00:59:00.000-08:00

Although I have followed the professional / elite running scene quite closely for the past two years and watched them in action from the sidelines, I have never had the privilege of actually running with someone at that level. Over the last year, I took a more serious approach to training and managed to chop some seconds off of my times. Not only was I running faster but I was running along side of and inevitably being defeated by Kate Vaughan [Note: two of her victories over me were by 2 seconds! One of these days I'll catch her I swear!]

Kate in orange, Me in red at 2.5k. Kate ran 26:42... me 26:44!

Kate and I both in orange (I tried to be fast by
association... but I got rocked by 20 secs)

Despite giving me grey hairs, it has been an absolute pleasure getting to know Kate personally as well as racing and training with her. Running seemed to come naturally to her when she ran the 1,500m in 5:19 in grade 12 on, from what I gather very limited - if any, training. She competed for the Memorial University XC squad during her post-secondary academic years to many noteworthy finishes as the Atlantic University Champtionships.

In 2009, she ramped up the training and made some huge jumps, taking off well over a minute on her 5km and 8km times, hitting 17:25 and 27:43 (5:34/mile or 3:28/km) respectively, 35:05 for 10km (5:37/mile or 3:30/km), and 59:00 for 10 miles (5:56/mile or 3:41/km). She was selected for her first National team for the North America, Central America and Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Championships in Florida where she placed 12th ! In the fall of 2009, she placed 8th for females at National10km Road Championships in Toronto!

2010 truly became her break out year where she really turned heads on the national scene. Once again she had a banner year of PBs in every distance. from 16:55 for 5km to a blistering 56:36 for 10 miles (over two minutes faster than 2009). Once again she headed to Toronto for the National10km Road Championships where she moved up to the 4th overall female (out of 1300) running 35:00 on a hilly course. A month later she was racing at the National XC championships and placed 6th behind the previously mentioned Megan Brown and Dayna Pidhoresky! This placing cemented a spot on her second National Team with another NACAC Cross Country Championships! The race was in Trinidad & Tobago in April 2011.

2011 might be the biggest year of Kate's life so far. Not only did she get married (to the ultra-talented runner Peter Bazeley) but her success in 2010 brought Kate a shoe/gear sponsorship from Saucony and an upcoming trip with the National team! Despite being relegated to the elliptical for the winter months to nurse a knee injury, Kate got back to her record setting ways on the roads: 16:44 for 5km and 26:42 for 8km (5:22/mile or 3:20/km). For the second time in the year, she wore the Red and White on an international scene as she was selected as an alternate for the Canadian Ekiden Relay team in Japan with Dayna Pidhoresky. However, she wasn't done there for 2011. On her way back from Japan she touched down in Vancouver to race at the National XC championships where she booked her trip to her 3rd NACAC XC championships with a 6th place finish!

2012 has already started off strong with a 9th place finish at the Houston Half Marathon (2nd non-professional female). I can't wait to chase Kate again this year on the roads as she is destined for some big results!

Canadian Marathon Men

2012-01-24T03:09:00.001-08:00

Welcome back for volume 2 of Going Pro!

To make this a little more 'reader-friendly' I've broken this post up into 5 different posts. This way, you can read it at your own leisure. You can click the link on right to get each one or at the bottom of each post will link to the next one in order.

This week I'm going to focus on some CanCon, or Canadian Content in the professional running scene. Although Canadians fly under the radar compared to their counterparts south of the border, we are undoubtedly making our presence known. Allow me to bring you up to speed on some of the Canadian who's who. Also of note is the red, white, and red layout of this blogpage... O Canada!

(Next week will be a look at the Canadian women's scene and how Canucks are doing in the American college ranks - you'll be pleasantly surprised! Not to mention some crazy news coming out of running giants Kenya and Ethopia!)

Marathon Men

Jerome Drayton

I could tell you to play a song right now while reading this following spiel, I would suggest: Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream" as that is precisely what is happening. In 1975, at the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan (the then-unoffical world championships), Jerome Drayton set Canada's marathon record with a then (and now) staggering time of 2:10:09 (4:58/mile or 3:05/km). There are two things to note about this record:
1) It was less than one minute off of the world record of 2:09:12 set by Ian Thompson of the UK in 1974
2) The record STILL stands today! Which is where I will begin.

Let us not forget about the other small event happening this summer: The 2012 Olympic Games in London. Canada will be sending it's own squad to tackle the 26.2 miles (or 42.2km eh?)

Running down both of these dreams are the following contenders:

1) Reid Coolsaet - 31, from Hamilton, Ontario.
Sponsor: New Balance
Hairstyle: Awesome.

I would like to tell you that I met Reid in September of 2009 but that would be a lie. For in the fall of 2009 I ran XC with Trent Univeristy in the Ontario University Athletics conference. My first race ever was an 8k at Canada's running Mecca: Guelph University. About a mile into the race - well back in the 3rd to 5th pack - I get passed by someone at Mach 3 speed with a piece of straw hanging out of his mouth. While I was sucking air into burning lungs and weasing like an asthmatic geriatric at 6:15/mile, Reid cooly said 'excuse me gentlemen' and went on his way. So you're probably saying, 'WOW, you were ahead of Reid Coolsaet? congrats!', however that would be incorrect as he started the race late and still ended up place in the top 3... I did not.

Reid is Canada's premiere marathon runner. He has a running resume as long as the number of miles he runs per week, which is somewhere well into the 120+ miles/week range (I'll confirm this in a future post). He's won the Canadian 5,000m championship at least 5 times, represented Canada at the Commonwealth games and the 2009 World Championships. He ran his first marathon in 2009 and debuted with a solid 2:16:53 (5:13/mile or 3:15/km). He has quickly cranked up the training over the last two years and in the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Reid went after both a trip to the Olympics and Jerome Drayton's record. 2:10:08 (or faster) was the goal as that would satisfy both conditions and make him $37,000 richer - $1,000 for each year that Drayton's record has stood. When 26.2 miles were covered on that September Sunday, only one of those goals was met. Reid qualified for the Olympics but feel short of Drayton's record with a time of 2:10:55 (43 seconds off of the record, less than 2 seconds per mile). It is of note that this time would have placed him 5th overall in the USA Olympic Trials!

Reid is currently training in Iten, Kenya. Check out his own blog at http://reidcoolsaet.com

Next up in this list of Marathon Men is Eric Gillis

-------------------

p.s. I'd like to give a 'shout out' to Alex Coffin from New Brunswick for his promotion of the sport see, www.alexcoffin.com. He tracks the progress of Atlantic Canadian runners and posts rankings of how they do in their races. Not to mention, at 30+ years of age, he placed 11th overall at the AUS championship with a 10k of 33:19!

Part 2 - Eric Gillis

2012-01-24T03:09:00.000-08:00

2) Eric Gillis

31, from Antigonish, Nova Scotia
Sponsor: New Balance

Blog: http://www.nishrunner.blogspot.com/
*Ran XC at St. FX in the Atlantic University conference

(I believe our very own Colin Fewer et al had a few battles against Mr. Gillis)

Best quality: Ability to grow an epic beard! Running skill is secondary.

Eric is unquestionably the happiest runner in Canada. In same 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon mentioned earlier, Eric was also hunting for Olympic glory... and he got it... BY ONE SECOND in a time of 2:11:28!!! Yes that is correct, he ran 42.2km and it all came down to one second. If he so much as looked the wrong way for a step and he'd be watching the Olympic Marathon in August!

This is not Eric's first Olympic appearance. He ran in the 2008 Beijing Olympics 10,000m final where he placed 33rd with literally the best runners in the world!

Don't get the wrong idea that just because he made the Olympics under the wire means he doens't have any jets. This guy can fly. Last year at the Virginia Beach Half Marathon, Eric blazed a 63:34 (4:51/mile or 3:01/km)!

He and Reid Coolsaet are close rivals but from what I gather they're also close friends and have been training partners over the years under coach Dave Scott-Thomas in Guelph. But you have to see these two guys battling it out at the finish in this past year's Sporting Life 10km in Toronto. Coolsaet is on your left, Gillis on your right! I won't tell you who wins, but I'll tell you the times are:
1st place: 28:08.0 (4:31/mile or 2:31/km)
2nd place: 28:08.3 (roughly the length of a nose)

2011 Sporting Life 10k Finish

Next up in this list of Marathon Men is Simon Bairu

Part 3 - Simon Bairu

2012-01-24T03:08:00.001-08:00

3) Simon Bairu - 28, has quite an interesting family history. His mother is Ethopian and his father is Eriterian which apparently is like a Catholic marrying a Protestant in Northern Ireland 40 years ago... not cool. So they had to move to Saudi Arabia (and Greece for a stint) where Simon was raised. His family moved to Saskatchewan as refugees when he was 4.

Sponsor: Nike! Simon trains in Eugene, Oregon with some of the most elite American runners who will be mentioned in future posts.

Website: http://www.simonbairu.com/

Simon was also the first professional runner I have seen race in person. Although I didn't personally eat his dust during my racing days in Ontario, I did watch roughly 60 other men get utterly annihilated by Mr. Bairu in the 2009 Canadian Senior XC championship at Guelph. I still to this day remember one incredible thing from that race: Bairu had a tremendous lead and had to be in a boat load of pain going at that pace but he had absolutely ZERO expression his face. There wasn't a single non-running related muscle that was flexed. Everything was in pure control. A beautiful thing to watch.

The following stat speaks volumes for this man running ability: at a Stanford University Invitational track race in 2010, Simon set the 10,000m Canadian record in a time of 27:23.6 (no, there are no typos there). That is 4:24/mile or 2:44/km pace. Unbelievable. This is 30 seconds faster than Coolsaet or Gillis! Oh, and I forgot to mention that Simon ran XC for Wisconsin in the NCAA (American College sports league). He won the individual title in back to back years in 2004 and 2005.

So where does Simon stand in the Marathon world? Does he have a shot at London? Well on paper he does, he has a 62:47 and 62:08 half marathon (4:44/mile or 2:57/km) to his credit. With that kind of half marathon performance he certainly is in range of both a ticket to London and a shot at Drayton's record. However, the late 2011 summer/fall wasn't favorable to his training as he backed out of the Scotiabank marathon with some fatigue issues after he dropped out of the NYC marathon and was brought to the hospital via ambulance!

Simon ran in the Houston Marathon (the day after the USA Olympic Trials) with the sole focus of being the 3rd Canadian male to qualify for the Olympic marathon. He went through 13.1 miles in 65:11 which put him on pace for 2:10:22 well under the Olympic standard. However, the marathon reared its ugly head again for Simon and the wheels fell off during the last 7-10k leaving him with a disappointing time (relative for him) of 2:19:52. I can surmise that when he knew he wasn't going to make the Olympic standard time he lost a bit of the motivation to keep hammering the pace.

However, he like Ritz might use this result as a catalyst for a serious look at doing damage in the 10,000m in London! Either way I'll be watching.

Last, but clearly not least, in this list of Marathon Men is Dylan Wykes

Part 4 - Dylan Wykes

2012-01-24T03:08:00.000-08:00

4) Dylan Wykes - Last but certainly not least. In fact, I'm putting my money on this guy to be Canada's next Marathon record holder.

Age 28 from Kingston, Ontario.

Sponsor: Mizuno

Website: http://www.time-to-run.com/dylanwykes

Non-running skill: Nerd. To the best of my knowledge, he recently completed his Masters in Epidemiology from Queen's University!

The reason why I say that Dylan is going to be the next big thing is because he's already THE big thing and is still getting faster, which clearly isn't easy at that level! He's just so versatile it's scary - from the mile (4:01.15, indoors no less) to the marathon (2:12:39) he is 'mastered' (ha!) all the distances. His 2:12 marathon came during a big victory at the California International Marathon in 2010.

The same weekend as the Olympic Trials in Houston, Dylan ran, and WON, the Rock N' Roll Arizona half marathon in a reeeeeeediculous time of 62:38 (4:47/mile or 2:58/km) - 6 mins ahead of 2nd place! Which has him eyeing a berth on the Olympic marathon squad. He'll be racing for such a privilege he so clearly deserves in March in Japan (on which I'll be undoubtedly be updating you on). He has every bit of 2:10 for a marathon in him by the looks of the way his training and performances are going. I'll be shocked if he is not the 3rd man running 26.2 miles in London in August. You heard it here first.

*The last bit of last bit of news for this week is about Taylor Milne setting the 1,000m world's best mark this year!

Part 5 - Canadian Taylor Milne Sets 1,000m World Best

2012-01-24T03:07:00.000-08:00

Canadian Taylor Milne Sets 1,000m World Best

How fast could you run 1km? I mean it's only ONE kilometer. You marathoners do 42(.2) of them. So if you had to do one, as hard as you could, what do you think you could pull off? 4:00? 3:00?

Well 30 year old Taylor Milne (pictured right) ran 2:20.94 setting the bar absurdly high for his 2012 competitors! The 1k world record is 2:11.96!!! Can you imagine running 2:20 for one km and still losing by 9 seconds! He's looking like a strong candidate for the 1500m in London

Taylor has also broken the legendary 4 min mile mark and has the 2km record in a time of 5:01.57 (2:30.75/km)!

USA Olympic Trials

2012-01-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

Hello and welcome to Going Pro!

What is Going Pro you mayask? Well, that's an excellent question. First off: NO, I am not consideringbecoming a professional runner, as I think I have greater odds of landing ateaching position in St. John's! The main purpose behind this(hopefully) bi-weekly post is to introduce, interest, and engage runnersof all backgrounds to the professional running scene - especially in NorthAmerica. Whether you don't run, want to run, or are a complete beginner,recreational, competitive runner or even a marathon veteran (as we have many ofthose here hailing from NL!) there is something in this for you to learn.

I wish to attempt to bridge the gapfrom amateur to professional running. For example, in Canada, hockey is theparamount sport. Every single kid who laces up his/her skates initially has onegoal - to play in the NHL. We are inundated with professional (AHL/NHL) games,news, highlights, biographies, NHL greats reaching celebrity status coming totown to sign autographs, etc, etc. For a sport such as hockey the professionalgame is almost as part of one's life as the current game the kids are playing.Conversely, in Soccer, why is that Canada, a country of 30+ million people, isranked 72nd in the world whereas countries such as Netherlands with only 16million people is ranked 2nd in the world!? One of the major reasons for thisis that Netherlands has a well established professional league (analogous toour NHL) that all youth strive to be apart of when they pick up the sport!

When it comes to running it's bit ofa different story. There is no dissemination of the news, sights, sounds,personalities, or highlights of the professional running 'scene' to the masses.People are aware of the local 'elites', 'age group aces', and what goodlocal standards are (i.e. 'Hey buddy, what's your Tely 10 time?') but I feelthere is much to learn and enjoy from getting immersed in the professionalenvironment of the sport you put so much blood, sweat, and tears into 365 daysa year (366 this year don't forget)!

Anyways, enough of that ranting. I'mgoing to do my best to tell you the who's who, the what's what, and put all thejargon into layman's terms. I am by no means some sort of running guru that hasthe stats of every runner as there are many other websites for that (I wouldsuggest www.letsrun.com, www.flotrack.com, www.trackie.ca).However, I am a huge fan of the professional aspect of our sport and wish todisseminate some of the bigger and more interesting news in an easy to readway!

I figure the best way to get thisball rolling to mention some of the bigger names in the sport currentlywhich were all apart of the most recent, and 2nd largest event this year nextto the Olympics. Just this weekend past, on Jan 14 in Houston, Texas USAheld their Olympic Marathon Trials - the next day was the Chevron Houston Marathonand Half Marathon where our very own Peter and Kate Bazeley had some remarkableperfomances.

To qualify for the mens raceyou needed to have one of the following credentials to your name on a certifiedcourse:
Marathon: 2:19:00 (5:18/mile or 3:18/km)
Half-Marathon: 1:05:00 (4:57.5/mile or 3:04/km)
10,000m: 28:30.00 (4:35/mile or 2:51/km)

The women were looking at qualifyingstandards of:
Marathon: 2:46:00 (6:20/mile or 3:56/km)
Half-Marathon: 1:15:00 (5:43/mile or 3:33/km)
10,000m: 33:00.00 (5:18/mile or 3:18/km)

*Note: incase you didn't know all ofthe above paces are FAST!

So, Saturday at 7:00am & 7:15amCST, the gun went off for the Men's & Women's Olympic trials, respectively.161 men and 226 women toed their respective lines with a similar, simple goal inmind: be on the podium (top 3) and you'll get a trip to the London 2012Olympics representing the USA for the Marathon. In reality there was only ahandful of legitimate contenders, some pretenders who thought they could runwith the true elites and then fizzled and DNF'd, and the realists who werehappy to be a part of history.

On the men's side, the real battlewas between the following gazelles:

1. Ryan Hall - Age 29, from California is America's poster boy for the Marathon. He is USA's half marathon (59:43) record holder and unofficial marathon record holder (2:04:58*) - *this was run in the 2011 heavily wind-aided Boston Marathon. Although he has never won a major marathon he is always in the mix and loves to set an early quick pace to make sure people earn their position. In 2011, Hall decided to become self-coached deciding to train VERY differently from the normal elite training mentality. Instead of double/triple days he only runs once per day and takes one day off each week!

2. Meb Kelfezighi - Age 36, Born in Eritrea, emigrated to USA in 1988. USA's most successful current marathoner as he was a silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Marathon in Athens, Greece as well as the winner of the 2009 NYC Marathon (the first American to win the race in 27 years)! Only 69 days prior to the Olympic trials Meb ran the 2011 NYC marathon in a personal best time of 2:09:13 for 6th place. During that race he had such bad chafing/blisters on his foot that he was unable to run for 3 weeks afterward due to infection!

3. Dathan Ritzenheim - or RITZ, is a 29 year old phenom from Michigan. Ritz burst on the scene a sensational high school runner winning the cross country national championships in consecutive years as well as running 13:44 for 5k! He was the second US athlete to break 13 minutes in 5k with 12:56 (2:35/km) and was 9th place overall in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon in 2:11:59 with a convenient personal best of 2:10:00!

*Also note: if you Youtube the video “Why do you run?” there is a scene where a cross country guy wins a race and almost dies when he crosses the line…. That’s RITZ!

4. Abdi Abdirahman - or Abdi, age 35 from Somalia. He emigrated to USA during his high school years but oddly enough he didn't start running until Colleg (thus breaking the myth that all Africans are fast because they run to/from school/everywhere as children). Abdi has been to 3 consecutive olympics before this race for the 10,000m and has every intention of being in London.

On the women's front it was onlyreally a 3 horse race from the gun:

1. Shalane Flanagan - 31 years old from Boulder, Colorado. Unquestionably USA's current top female distance runner. She would make the olympics from the 5k to the marathon if she wanted. She holds the current US 10k record with a 30:22 (3:02/km) and a pedestrian 5k time of 14:44 (2:57/km)... oh and in her marathon debut in NYC in 2010 she ran 2:28:40 for 2nd place (the best finish for an US female in 20 years)! She is the class of every US field and she is in a league of her own!

2. Desi Davila - age 29 from San Diego, CA literally came out of nowhere 3 years ago. In fact I remember reading a Running Times mini-biography of her talking about how she could be the next big thing and here I am about to tell you that his 5'3", 98lb woman went from a 2:37 in 2008 to 2:22:38 in 2011 at Boston (*wind-aided)! This girl is an absolute machine and WILL BE the next big thing.

3. Kara Goucher - America's running sweetheart. At age 33 she has quite the running resume. She's been 3rd at the NYC marathon (2008), 3rd at Boston (2009), 3rd place in the 10,000m 2009 World Championships and oh ya... ran a 2:24 marathon 7 months after having a child! Or perhaps you could be impressed by her taking 5 minutes off her half marathon time in 9 weeks (74 mins down to 69 mins). If you were a betting person, you'd want to put a few dollars on Kara to place top 3 in most races!

4. The one... the only... Deena Kastor - You've all probably seen the epic documentary 'Spirit of the Marathon' which cronicles the lead up to the 2008 Chicago Marathon of both professionals, Boston Marathon hopefuls, as well as those who want to test the limits of their bodies at whatever pace they can for 42.2km. In the movie, we all fell in love with the petit lady who not only won that Chicago Marathon but also won the 2004 Olympic Marathon Bronze medal in Athens. Although she is currently 38, after having her first child last March, she still ran 72 mins for a half marathon leading up to these trials. She is the current US half-marathon (1:07:34) and marathon (2:19:36) record holder. No matter what race she is competing, women are always looking over their shoulder for Deena. However, if she doesn't place top 3, it could be her last seriously competitive marathon.

Within a few hours the 26.2 mileswas covered and the Olympic Trial record books were re-written. Both the men'sand women's records were broken and the quality of the times was never better.In the men's race, as expected Ryan Hall separated the contenders from thepretenders almost immediately ensuring that if someone was going to take hisOlympic berth they were going to have run be ready to run a 2:09 marathon. Thelead pack of 5 (including the 4 names mentioned above) went through 13.1 milemark in a blistering time of 63:25 (or 2:06:50 marathon pace)... However, asexpected that pace began to slow and the winds began to pick up. When all wassaid and done it was MEB who pulled off an absolute phenomenal upset for thewin just 150m over Ryan Hall in ANOTHER personal best time of 2:09:08... just69 days after his last marathon PB!

1st - MEB - 2:09:08
2nd - Ryan Hall - 2:09:30
3rd - ABDI - 2:09:47
(4th 7 seconds back.... RITZ - 2:09:55)
*This was the first time more than one runner broke the 2:10 mark in theOlympic Trials!

The women's race went out much more conservative and there weren't any realbattles! Things shook down as expected but the times were far faster thananyone had expected. A lead pack consisting of Shalane Flanagan, DESI, and Karalead the entire way with hopeful Amy Hastings holding for as long as she could.However, Shalane Flanagan was the class of the field and pulled away from theother true contenders with about 2k to go, leading to her smashing the OlympicTrials record by 3 minutes!

1st -Shalane Flanagan - 2:25:38
2nd - DESI - 2:25:55
3rd - Kara Goucher - 2:26:06
(6th - Deena! - 2:30:40... A disappointing result for her in her own mind buthopefully not the end of her career!)

Finally, I’d like to touch on Peter andKate. Peter recently ran the Chicago Marathon in 2011 and it didn’t turn outquite as well as he hoped. He ran a very impressive 2:49:38 but it was well offof his intended goal. So Houston became a ‘revenge/redemption run’ for him. Notonly did he run like a metronome and hold a 5:55/mile pace for 22 miles beforeslowing only slightly, he took 13 minutes off of his old mark in only 3 monthswith a time of 2:36:33 (which translates to 5:58/mile or 3:42/km)! Peter was 33^rdoverall out of ~3800 runners and 14^th in his age category. Hisbetter half, Kate Bazeley (Vaughan) is Newfoundland & Labrador’s running queen(no longer a princess I guess). She toed the line for the Half Marathon andplaced 9^th overall for females, 3^rd for her age category,and was the 2^nd non-professional runner (only 5 seconds back) in atime of 1:18:44 (6:00/mile or 3:43/km)! Congratulations to both of them forbeing superhuman!

So that's it for this installment. Next time I'll recap the Canadian MarathonOlympic contenders and any other news/names/results of note! Hope you enjoyedit!

Mark