Run to Win

This week last year, just like this week this year, involved a lot of preparation for and the running of the Beach to Beacon 10k. At least there was not nearly as many doping scandals this week last year as there were two years ago.

• The Beach to Beacon was won by Tom Nyariki last year, edging out Gilbert Okari, who had won for the three years previously. I did get out of my rut of running the exact same times on the same courses two years running, though.
• After the race, I (re)learned an important lesson about how important it is to hydrate yourself after a race as well as before and during the race.
• I went into quite a bit of detail after being asked, “What is a taper?” I also don’t believe that I have sufficiently revisited the topic and will need to get around to writing more about how to decide what sort of taper is appropriate…
• I reviewed the movie Running on the Sun, about the Badwater ultramarathon. It’s a good watch if you have some spare time. Ultramarathoners are an interesting crowd, which I am getting to learn a little more about now that I am associating with a few of them (and may soon join them.)
• With Justin Gatlin out of the sport for another year, I still wonder if we will ever see two athletes under 9.77 in the same 100m race.
• Two years ago, there were a lot of doping scandals. In business news, Adidas announced that they were going to purchase Reebok.

The 9^th annual Beach to Beacon 10k was this morning, and there were some fast times posted. Tom Nyariki prevented Gilbert Okari from winning for the fourth time in a row by running over 20 seconds faster, 27:48 to 28:09. Lawrence Kiprotich was just ahead of Okari in 28:04. Donny Drake won the Maine race in 31:16 after starting back around where I was in the field. Emily Levan repeated her performance from last year, winning the women’s Maine open race and coming through about 10 seconds faster than last year in 35:40.
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This week last year dealt mostly about steroids and baseball’s poster child, Barry Bonds.

• Rafael Palmeiro tested positive last year, proving Jose Conseco right. The Italian police busted up a steroid ring that was supplying steroids to US soldiers in Iraq.
• Barry Bonds had some fun with the media. First, he said that he was out for the year, and then his doctor said Bond’s injuries were minor.
• An attempt was made at the stair climbing world record.
• Adidas bought Reebok.
• At the Beach to Beacon, Gilbert Okari won for the 3^rd time in a row and I ran a repeat of the previous year with a time that was within ¹/₁₀^th of a second from my previous year’s time.

There was also some minor football news last year, and in the article about my Beach to Beacon 10k repeat I described the heat stroke suffered from one of my teammates. Coincidentally, the same woman that will be officiating at my wedding in a week. This year’s Beach to Beacon will begin at eight o’clock this morning.

The 8th annual Beach to Beacon 10k was won by Gilbert Okari for the third time in a row. Last year he was the first male to win back to back. Lornah Kiplagat, who has been winning major races left and right, was the first woman to cross the line. Eric Giddings and Emily Levan were the first Maine finishers.

The weather was great, the field was the largest yet, and the times were quick. There were runners from 20 countries and 42 states.