Run to Win

Last month, Arien O’Connell ran the fastest time but didn’t win in the Nike Women’s Marathon due to Nike unnecessarily starting a non-elite group of “elite” women 20 minutes early in the race. After a firestorm by runners throughout the country, Nike awarded her an equal prize as “a” winner. In my opinion, this is fair as it recognized her accomplishments while not taking anything away from the actual winner of the race.

Yesterday morning, however, O’Connell was in for a surprise. Reebok, one of Nike’s chief rivals in the shoe and apparel industry, surprised O’Connell at the elementary school she teaches at with an award ceremony to recognize her accomplishments.

Reebok awarded her a free pair of shoes every month for the next year, a $2500 donation to her school along with a t-shirt for all of the kids in her class, and a trophy inscribed “Winner and Heroine of Non-Elite Runners Everywhere.”

This is a great move by Reebok, and amuses me to no end. It is prolonging Nike’s embarrassment at poorly executed race management, and fosters a lot of good will amongst the running population. And I have to imagine that O’Connell is pretty happy at having won over $1000 worth of running shoes.

(Hat Tip: Shéamus – More Info: San Francisco Chronicle – Photo Credit: Reebok)

Last night, I explained my reasons why I think that Ariel O’Connell did not win the Nike Women’s Marathon this past weekend. After all, she wasn’t the first to cross the finish line.

Thanks to a thoughtful reader, though, it appears as though Nike might be changing their minds. Here’s the reply he received through their help desk system:

Hello,

Nike is announcing today that it recognizes Arien O’Connell as a winner in last weekend’s Nike Women’s Marathon with the fastest chip time, completing the full race in 2:55:11. She shattered her previous time and achieved an amazing accomplishment.

Arien will receive the same recognition and prize, including a Tiffany bowl, the full marathon elite group winner received. Arien was unfortunately not immediately recognized as a race winner because she did not start the race with the elite running group, which is required by USATF standards. Because of their earlier start time, the runners in the elite group had no knowledge of the outstanding race Arien was running and could not adjust their strategies accordingly.

Learning from the unique experience in this year’s race, Nike has decided today to eliminate the elite running group from future Nike Women’s Marathons. Next year, all runners will run in the same group and all will be eligible to win.

Nike has a proven track record of supporting athletes and we’re proud to be able to honor Arien and other athletes who surpass their goals and achieve great accomplishments.

Sincerely,
Nike+ / Nike Running

So Nike is going to own up to their not overly well thought out system and change things next year, and will recognize Arien for the great race that she ran this weekend.

They are not going to take away the win from Nora Colligan, since she did in fact win the race, but are going to have a dual prize to recognize that Arien was the first woman to cross the line that started with the main pack.

I’ll update with a link to the press release when (and if) this becomes official.

Update: Still no official word, but there is an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about it that was published about an hour after my article.

Arien O’Connell undeniably ran the fastest time at the Nike Women’s Marathon this past weekend. She had a tremendous race, she ran a 12 minute PR, and now she has a great story to tell her friends.

What Arien did not do, however, was win the race. Just because she ran 11 minutes faster than her next closest competitor, she was not the first woman to cross the finish line. Nora Colligan was.

Should there have been a 20 minute head start for the “elite” women? Probably not. Should some of those “elite” women have signed up as elites? Probably not. Should Arien have signed up as an elite? Questionable.

The fact remains, however, that there was an elite field, that for whatever reason did have a 20 minute head start, and the rules pertain to the first person to cross the line. Nora crossed it 9 minutes before Arien did.

I hope that Nike and the city of San Francisco use this fiasco to improve the management of their race next year, and should they decide to offer some prize money to Arien for her great effort out there on the race course, that would be great. However, they should not take the win away from Nora since she was in fact the one that won the race.

The elite start is a mainstay of large marathons, usually to allow the women a chance to shine and to make it easy for media vehicles to follow them so that they do not get lost in the crowd. However, the Nike race fails to draw an actual elite group of women to race, otherwise they wouldn’t have been beaten to the line despite a 20 minute head start. How the group that starts with the elite women were chosen for this race, I don’t know.

A quick search on a few of the women in the elite field returns recent marathon times ranging from low to high 3 hour races. With nothing to go on other than an elite designation, Arien is nowhere close to being an elite runner, nor are most of the women that started in the elite corral. If Nike isn’t already, they should base their elite corral on the top women with qualifying times rather than whatever flawed system they are currently using.

Better yet, since the race is predominantly run by women with only 15 men in the top 50 finishers this year, they should consider doing away with an elite start 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the field and just let them race it out the normal way. Give the “elite” runners a chance to stretch out and do some striders and then start at the head of the pack, and otherwise let everybody start at the same gun.

No matter how you cut it, though, Arien O’Connell did not win the 2008 Nike Women’s Marathon.

Update: It appears as though Nike is going to award a separate award in a new category to Arien and will get rid of the elite start next year

(More Info & Photo Credits: Full Results – Race Recap – San Francisco Chronicle)

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment, the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling, and the third part was about selecting proper footwear. This fourth part will introduce you to the 3 current or former professional runners who made up the athlete’s panel.

The athlete’s panel took over the clinic and comprised a little over half of everything that was said. It was very down to earth and full of practical tips and advice from 3 people whose job it was to run. I will provide a bit of a history on each of the athlete’s here, and in the next article I will provide the answers to the specific questions that they were asked.

Matt Lane

Matt Lane was a graduate of Yarmouth High School in 1996, where he had some measure of success on the track but excelled in cross country. He won the North East Regional Foot Locker Championship as a senior in high school, and started his pattern of 4^th place finishes at the national level race.

Matt was recruited to go to Stanford, but wound up choosing to go to William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia for his degree. Right after he arrived, though, the coaches at William & Mary left after the first day. For a short time there were a few interim coaches, but the former Stanford coach Andy Gerard became the permanent coach.

While at William & Mary, Matt won 3 NCAA cross country championships and 8 indoor/outdoor track titles in the 3k and 5k.

In 2000, Matt ran in his first Olympic Trials for the 5000, which he described as just a higher pressure US Championship race. He finished in 4^th place, although he was the 3^rd place finisher who had already run an Olympic “A” Standard. Nick Rogers managed to run the “A” standard before the Olympics, though, which allowed him to continue on to Sydney and left Matt at home.

Matt graduated from William & Mary in 2001 and went to Stanford where he signed a contract with the Nike Farm Team. In 2004, Matt again finished in 4^th place at the Olympic Trials.

At this point, Matt decided to try moving up to the marathon, where he debuted in Chicago with a 2:17:32 and finished in 14^th place. He did not really care for the distance, though, and decided to retire. He has since returned to Maine where he is studying for his law degree.

Louie Luchini

Beginning his track career as a short and chunky shot putter and discus thrower in Ellsworth, Maine, Louie Luchini moved onto the track as he got skinnier and faster in high school. Both him and his brother were state champs and had respectable showings at the Foot Locker championships.

After graduating high school, Louie went to Stanford where he came into his first season injured and out of shape. Every Summer he would become lazy and arrive at pre-season in less than ideal shape, where he’d do all of his training camp runs with the women instead of the men. (They used to call him Louise.)

Louie considered not training over the Summer the dumbest idea that he ever had, but it did not stop him from becoming an All American 7 times with a 13:25 personal best 5000m time.

After graduation, Louie joined the same farm team as Matt, and now runs for the Oregon farm team. He recently competed in the 2008 Olympic Trials, but did not run as well as he hoped with a 23^rd place finish in 29:42.78 in the 10,000m finals.

Lauren Fleshman

The final runner on the athlete’s panel is not a native Mainer and has never lived out this way. Lauren Fleshman is from Southern California. She was a softball player through junior high, but she moved to cross country and track in high school on the recommendation of her coach. She got sucked into the social aspects of the team, and once she began to become more successful as a runner she began to enjoy the training as well.

Every year since she began running she has set personal bests. Her one overriding goal is to constantly improve, and she has now maintained her PR streak for 13 straight years.

She went to school at Stanford, and instantly went from being a stellar athlete on her high school team to an average runner on her college team. If you can call 15 national titles average. She was All American every time she went to Nationals.

In 2006, she won a national title as a professional, and has competed in 2 world championships. She ran in the 2008 Olympic Trials, and despite a sprained ankle she managed to place 5^th in the 5000m finals with a time of 15:23.18.

Now that you have a little background on the 3 athletes on the panel, come back for part 5 where the athletes answer questions such as what they wish they knew in high school that the know now, what they think of the team aspect of cross country, what are some specific workouts, as well as others. It will give you a great insight into the world of professional running as well as offering a lot of good advice that can help an amateur or recreational runner as well. Part 5 will be available at 8:00 am on Friday, August 28^th.

This week last year saw a lot of information on running and running shoes.

• Nick had a great suggestion that I wish that I had done. He suggested that you take before and after pictures for new exercise programs. When you are starting a new program, there may be some aches and pains, so remember to ice early and ice often.
• When in a training program, be sure to include some downhill running. Last year I provided a half dozen benefits to doing so. You should also remember that the best runs come when you least expect them, such as the morning after your bachelor party.
• I reviewed the Vitruvian Running Shoes. In other shoe news, the Nike+ system launched.
• Two years ago, I reviewed Thorlos socks and I got punched by an Olympic Gold Medalist. My wife also did a workout that I would never even attempt, and it was only the first workout of the day.

This week last year was a taper week leading up to my Spring Marathon.

The biggest news this week last year, though, had to be Braxton Bilbrey’s swim to shore from Alcatraz. I fully expect that we will be hearing his name quite a bit in a decade or so when he starts getting up to a competitive level. There are not many people who can set a long term goal that requires as much training for an open water swim like that at 7 years of age.

In running news, the Nike+ system was announced this week last year. Things have changed in the last year for me; I now wear Nike shoes and in the near future all Nike shoes will be Nike+ ready. However, since I still do not plan on purchasing an iPod let alone running with one, I don’t expect that this is a technology that I will buy into.

If you would like revisit a great exercise, Bud Gibson introduced me last year to the bridge w/knee tuck. You balance your arms on a bench and your legs on the swiss ball, and roll the ball to your chest. I really enjoyed this one, and have worked into my exercise routines a few times over the past year.

The Nike+ shoes that integrate with a runner’s iPod are about to become much more widely available. In an article discussing the upcoming future for Nike and it’s financial stability, there was a remark from Nike President and Chief Executive Mark Parker about the future of their running shoes.

The company wouldn’t disclose everything that’s coming but hinted at changes from Nike Shox and in apparel. Nike did say it plans to make all its running shoes compatible with its Nike+ technology by the end of the year. Nike+ allows runners to track their workouts with Apple Inc.’s iPod. “I think there is a real renewed sort of energy and focus around product,” Parker said.

While this is good news for the folks that have an iPod and haven’t wanted to spend the extra $50 on shoes that could use the Nike+ system (and who did not want to find their own way of attaching the sensor to their shoe), I tend to worry a little about it. I have little to no interest in personally using the product, as I have zero interest in purchasing an iPod. What I do have an interest in is maintaining the quality of the shoes without making allowances and adding weight for features that I don’t need. What I also have an interest in is maintaining the affordability of my shoes and not having extra fees tacked on for those features that I’ll be ignoring.

(Sources: Boston.com – Gizmodo)

Looking back at this week last year is a bit late this weekend, due completely to the fact that I have a really bad infection in my right index finger and up until today it was too painful to bother typing anything. I’ve managed to drain a lot of the crud out, though, so I can use the finger a little now; at least enough to catch up on my work. This week last year was concerned mostly with The New Rules of Lifting and my email exchanges with one of the authors, but there was a bit of news, workout tips, and making fun of Olympic Athletes thrown in as well.

• I demonstrated how to do pullups in the continuation of my animated series. I also explained how to do a negative pullups when you are overloading your muscles or are not strong enough to do a full set of pullups yet.
• I learned a new reason to keep myself well hydrated, since thirsty people feel more pain. I also included a recipe for cooking shark steaks after they went on sale in my local fish market.
• I wrote a review on The New Rules of Lifting, which has proven to be one of my more popular reviews. I exchanged a few emails with Alwyn Cosgrove after he responded to my review of his book. I also asked him about how well the workouts would translate across gender lines, since the book seemed to ignore women.
• In lawsuit news, Nike sued Adidas because they thought that Adidas was ripping off the design of their Nike Shox shoes.
• In Olympics news, Lindsey Jacobellis made a fool of herself in the snowboard cross finals when she decided to showboat a jump and fell off of the course. This is just further proof that you should never showboat in the Olympics or in a race with $5000 on the line no matter how much you think you have the bonus money in hand.