Run to Win

This week last year touched on a whole range of subjects, from weight lifting to drugs to accidental cheaters and how purposefully bonk during a workout.

• I shared my experience of lifting weights after breaking my ring finger. It had had a week to heal, and while there were no rings that were going to fit on it at that point, I managed to lift and control the bars all right. In other weight lifting news, I found a new animated push-up demonstration.
• Continuing on the sleep theme, I suggested that you never go to bed hungry. You won’t sleep well, and you’ll have trouble getting up and being useful in the morning.
• I also wondered why they only make belts sized for people larger than myself? I still have to spend way too much time finding a belt that isn’t at least 3 inches too long.
• Brian Morrison unfortunately had a little help maintaining forward motion in his last quarter mile of his Western States 100 Mile win. Even more unfortunately, he was disqualified for it and the win was given to Graham Cooper. A race of 99.75 miles was lost due to just a little too much trouble in that last 0.25 miles. That has to be rough. In other large sports event news, Jan Ullrich was barred from the Tour de France following suspicions in the Spanish doping scandal.
• In the performance side, I discussed research about whether or not bonking during training was a worthwhile pursuit or not. Bonking is the process of running out of fuel during a workout.
• I pondered whether or not to pony up the $100 after the Endurance 50 registration opened. I wound up getting hurt and being unable to run, so I’m glad that I decided that it wasn’t worth it for me.
• Two years ago was centered on marathoning, such as a book review and a website review, my list of marathon candidates for Autumn, and my discovery that I was near meeting the requirements to join the 50 States Marathon Club. I also won the Literacy 5k, which I believe has since folded.

Brian Morrison of Seattle was disqualified after winning the Western States 100 Miler because he received help maintaining forward motion in the last quarter mile of the race. Graham Cooper of Oakland was then awarded the first place accolodes.

The Western States 100-mile Endurance Run Board of Trustees released the following statement regarding the disqualification: “In his last quarter mile in the stadium, runner number 320 (Brian Morrison), consistently staggered and fell on the high school track. Several times he was lifted, carried, and thereby assisted to maintain forward momentum. It was not a single episode of helping a runner to his feet, but instead a series of material forms of assistance. The actions of runner 320’s crew and others was not given for bad motive; indeed by facilitating his arrival in the medical area, their action likely prevented a life-threatening seizure.”

Congratulations, Graham Cooper. Probably not the way that he wanted to win, and I would hate to be in Brian Morrison’s shoes right now, but it is still a win. Of course, I would not want to be in any of their shoes right now, because (a) I am not in the sort of shape I’d need to be in to run a 100 mile race and (b) the just over 50% finisher rate due to the high heat made for one hell of a brutal race this year.

(Source: Tahoe Daily Tribune via Trail Running Blog)