Run to Win

I was in Texas a couple of weeks ago, and the conversation came around to Fantasy Sports (such as football and baseball) and whether that model could be applied to other sports. What do I then discover, then, but that there is one for Track & Field! Last night I wrote about the media coverage for the IAAF World Championships, and while looking information up I noticed that they have created a fantasy league for the event.

I have registered my fantasy team, and I have set up a “buddy league” called “Run to Win” that you can join after registering. The meet starts in just a few days, so if you want to join you will need to do it soon. I will be willing to add a prize to whoever wins our buddy league if anybody is interested in joining in! You need to hurry though, because you must have your team completely chosen and set before midnight the day of competition (local time to Osaka Japan, which is GMT + 9.)

You can make changes and substitutions once per day after the competition begins, but you lose any points of athletes that you drop, and you can not get any points from athletes that you pick up from events that they have already competed in.

The main requirement to be aware of is that you must have a full team chosen before the competition begins. That includes 10 men and 10 women, who are from 20 different countries, as well as 4 relay teams. You must also choose a team captain, who is awarded double points when they score. The full list of rules and official prizes can be found on their help page.

So hurry and join up! Once you have registered, remember to join the Run to Win buddy league. The website to join is at: http://osaka.fantasyathletics.iaaf.org/ifa/start.jsp

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and media influences throughout the month of August. This week, the IAAF World Championships begin in Osaka, Japan, and there will be some decent coverage of the events.

The event kicks off with the Men’s Marathon on August 25^th, and continues through September 2^nd when the Women’s Marathon and the relays are run. There will be 2 sessions each day, running roughly from 10:00 in the morning until noon, and from 7:00 in the evening until 10:30. (Being in Japan, those times are GMT + 9.)

The IAAF website will have the most up to date results available. They list a schedule of events for each day, and have a handy little clock that tells you what time it is in Osaka; Japan is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time and 16 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time.

The IAAF also offers daily radio broadcasts of the events, and will feature video highlights twice a day of the various races.

There are already a few podcasts and interviews available for download, and there will be many more once competition officially begins.

In a partnership with Nikon, the IAAF will also provide a full photo gallery of every event.

Outside of the IAAF website, there will also be numerous blogs covering the event, as well as the websites for the governing bodies of each countries athletics. You can expect that the USATF will provide frequent updates through each day.

For television coverage, Americans can get their fill if they have a cable or satellite television package that offers the Versus channel. Versus will have daily coverage of the events.

I do not currently have access to the Versus channel, but NBC has also come on board to broadcast coverage at the beginning and at the end of the Championships.

For those who live in the middle of the Pacific, there is going to be some great coverage on Sky TV. Looking at the schedule, it appears as though there will be coverage for the majority of the day almost every day of the event.

All television and radio listings above are subject to change, so be sure to check your local listings before assuming that what I wrote is correct.

I hope that you all get an opportunity to watch at least one or two events, whether you do it on your local television station or on the IAAF website or one of the numerous blogs or other sites covering the event. I also hope that there are some good records set, and that the newspapers jump on board to provide some front page coverage. That may be asking for a little too much, though.

Update: The World Champion Sports Network will also be covering the event, and has a $5/month service available for live feeds.

This week last year I was still on my honeymoon, so half of the week was spent wrapping up my shoe care tips that I had written before I left. I did discuss when it is appropriate to eat a midnight snack, though.

• The second half of my shoe maintenance series continued with a discussion on rotating your shoes, which can make it necessary to label your shoes. I suggested that you seek help when first choosing shoes, offered some advice on making sure your shoes fit when you purchase them, and recommended that when you find shoes that you like, stick with them! I described the differences between the eight categories of running shoes and suggested the circumstances under which you might want to replace the insoles of your shoes. The series ended after I got home from my honeymoon with a summary of all of the articles that I had published over the previous week.
• In running news, Asafa Powell equaled his own 100m world record (again). I was right about Justin Gatlin losing his record, but I was wrong when I thought that Asafa Powell was going to manage to run under 9.77 seconds. Nobody has managed to do that yet.
• I reviewed a movie called The Long Run, which is about a coach that tries to live vicariously through his athletes. The movie centers around the Comrades ultra marathon in South Africa.
• Two years ago this week, I predicted the record chase between Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin. The Marathon at the World Championships in Helsinki was also run as the meet wrapped up.

The 1st annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was August 16^th, 2007 at Falmouth High School. This is the second of two articles summarizing the clinic. The first article mentioned each person on the panel, and summarized the first hour plus of speakers. You can read part 1 here.

This second article continues with the second half of the panel:
(Click here to continue reading…)

The 1^st annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 16^th, 2007 at Falmouth High School. There were about 75 people in attendance, and the clinic lasted for about 2 and a half hours. I have split up my notes and thoughts on the clinic into two parts, the second of which will appear this afternoon.

The clinic was put together by Falmouth coach Danny Paul, and sponsored by John Rogers of the Maine Running Company. The panel brought together some of the best local (and not so local) coaches and experts to talk on various topics relating to a high school cross country coach and his/her athletes. The topics covered are also relevant to other coaches and to the athletes themselves, of course.

The panel and the (very) general topics covered were:
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Just a quick reminder that the first Maine Cross Country Athlete and Coaches Clinic is tomorrow evening at 6:00 p.m. The event is being held at Falmouth High School and is free of charge!

Click here for more details.

Dave McGillivray, the race director for the Boston Marathon and the Beach to Beacon, recently shared his thoughts on headphone use. He gave his arguments about why he enforces the USATF rule about headphone use, which boil down to 3 points.

1. He’s technically required to.
2. Safety reasons.
3. Insurance reasons.

(Click here to continue reading…)

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about training and media influences throughout the month of August. This week, Scott discusses the influence that the media exerts based upon what sports they are willing to cover.

Power lifting and strong man competitions get very little media coverage, whether they take place in their own competitions or on the Olympic Stage. Instead, you see sports such as cricket, rugby, and motor racing (in Australia) or baseball, football, and basketball (here in the United States). Golf and hockey are also fairly popular to watch over here.

There are some larger running events that get local or national television coverage, such as the Boston or New York marathons. Track meets and the Olympics are also kind to running. I would still like to see more of it, though. Bowling tends to get more coverage.

Scott recommends that we get our children actively involved in the sports that we would like to see more of. He also recommends that, in the case of lifting, that the athletes lift things that look heavy, and not just the standard weight plates. There are some “World’s Strongest Man” competitions that air over here on ESPN on a pretty regular basis, and they often carry atlas balls or drag cars or trains around. Perhaps that is the start that he is looking for.