Run to Win

I recently watched this video that was compiled by Matt Hart at Coaching Endurance that shows you the past year’s ultra events through Matt’s eyes.

Very motivational; it makes me want to go outside and run right now. (Not that I usually need very much to make me want to do that, heheh…)

Here’s the video:
(Click here to continue reading…)

Aussie Ruth Frith recently won quite a few gold medals and set a new world record in the shot put at the World Masters Championships this past weekend. Her throw was 4.07 meters (13 feet 4 inches.) Ruth turned 100 years old earlier this year, and hopes to compete in the next World Masters championship in 2013. She began competing at the tender age of 74.

Here’s a video with her world record toss:

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(More Info: Back Porch Fan House – Hat Tip: Pete Magill)

The final installment of the 2009 Weekly Back Cove Race Series was this evening, and 113 runners came out to participate. I also got out for my 7^th race this year in the series, and my first one since I broke my foot.

Curtis Wheeler (01:42:14) brought his overall time down by almost 2 minutes with his win in 17:49 today, which left him in a solid lead for the free shoes this year.

Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) was not present this evening, but nobody even came close to beating her in the series standing.

The win for the women tonight went to Nan Lobo, who ran 20:16 and completed 2 races this season.

The community spirit award went to Craig Whiten (02:19:56), who ran all but 2 of the races this season.

For myself, tonight was the first time that I have run in 45 days. I went out a bit quicker than I needed to but quickly settled into a more appropriate pace. My foot felt fine, which is good, although I am going to come back very slow and easy so that I don’t have to worry about injuring myself again.

I have no plans for my running until January, and have canceled everything I had had scheduled for the rest of the year so I can concentrate on getting better and building back my base.

I’d like to thank Stu Palmer, John Rogers, and Diane Fournier for all the work that they do throughout the Summer to put this series on. Without them, these races couldn’t happen.

I’d also like to thank Colin Ingram and Mizuno for their support, as well as Portland Trails and the Maine Track Club.

This year, we had 2864 finishers from 1203 runners, which is over a 30% increase over 2008. There was 1 person who ran every single week, Richard Dawson (02:26:47). There were 157 people who ran 6 races and found a place on the leaderboard, which is 37 more than last year and 104 more than in 2007. 23 people ran at least 13 of the races.

I hope to see everybody again next May when the 2010 series starts! Thank you for coming out.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

After last night’s announcement that there would only be 2 more Back Cove races, 126 runners made their way out this evening in great running conditions for the race.

Shawn Rumery led the way tonight, winning the race in 17:08. Jocelyn Olsen clocked 20:57 for her win in the women’s race.

The top of the leaderboard hasn’t changed since yesterday, but it is now 147 runners deep who have all run at least 6 of the races this year.

There are still 2 runners who have run every single race so far, and only have one more to run to have made all 18 on the year.

Don’t forget that next week is the last week of the race series.

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)

Thanks to Emily for pointing me at the following video interview from FloTrack.
I think that this quote sums it up pretty well:

"After last week in Berlin, I had so much confidence.

I really felt like I belonged there."

(Click here to continue reading…)

Dathan Ritzenhein had the race of his life tonight, running what was until tonight only 0.02 seconds behind the world’s leading 5k time of the year.

Cutting 20.3 seconds off of his personal best (set at the USA Outdoor Championships in 2006), he followed right on the heels of Kenenisa Bekele’s 12:52.32 and Edwin Cheruiyot Soi’s 12:55.03 to become only the 3^rd American to run under 13 minutes in the 5k with his new American Record of 12:56.27.

Bob Kennedy’s American record of 12:58.21 had stood for 15 years. Ritzenhein finished 6^th just over a week ago at the world championships in the 10000m, running 27:22.28, and was the first American in 11^th place in the Olympic Marathon last Summer. His 3^rd place finish was his first trip to the podium on the world track stage.

Congratulations, Dathan! Great run tonight!

(More Info: Men’s Results – Photo Credit: Jean-Pierre)

Can Kenenisa Bekele be beaten in a 5000 meter run?

It doesn’t appear so. This evening at Weltklasse Zurich, the 5^th of 6 meets in the Golden League track series, he outran his closest competitor (Edwin Cheruiyot Soi) by about 2½ seconds to win the race in 12:52.32. That’s almost 4 seconds faster than his world-leading time of 12:56.25 that he ran in Rome earlier this year.

His win means that he’s only 1 race away from splitting a $1 million jackpot for anybody that can dominate their event in the Golden League series. Kerron Stewart is out of the running after her 0.18 second loss to Carmelita Jeter (who won in 10.86 seconds), but Sanya Richards in the 400 (48.94 seconds) and Yelena Isinbayeva in the pole vault (5.06m) are both still dominating their events and could potentially split the jackpot.

Kenenisa has now won 16 straight 5000 meter races. His last loss was to Bernard Lagat by 0.82 seconds at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on July 28, 2006. In the past week or so he won both the 5000m and 10000m races at the world championships.

His next 5000m race is scheduled for 1 week from tonight on September 4, 2009. He’ll be running in the final meet of the Golden League at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels.

(More Info: Men’s Results – Women’s Results – Photo Credit: André Zehetbauer)

127 runners were greeted with overcast skies and temperatures in the high 70s this evening for the 16^th Back Cove 5k. Only 3 races remain in the series for 2009.

The race was led by a couple of first time runners on the season, with Jason Scott leading the way in 18:09 and Jennifer Sporzynski winning the women’s race in 22:19.

Curtis Wheeler (01:44:06) and Abbey Gosling (01:54:10) both retain their comfortable leads in the overall standings. We’re now up to 131 runners on the leader board who have run at least 6 races.

There are still 2 runners who have run every single race so far. Hopefully they can make it to the last 3 races. For that matter, hopefully I’ll be able to run at least one more of them before the end of the season…

(More Info: Full Results – Leader Board – Complete Runner’s List – Photos)