Runnerville

Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon & 1/2 Marathon will showcase perhaps the most dynamic half-marathon duel ever staged on American soil. 2008 Olympic Marathon gold medalist and half-marathon world record holder Sammy Wanjiru will battle head-to-head against fellow Kenyan and three-time London Marathon champion Martin Lel as both men set their sites on the April 25th Virgin London Marathon where Wanjiru broke Lel’s course record by five seconds in 2009 after Lel bested Wanjiru in the 2008 race (picture above). Morocco’s  Abderrahim Goumri, third in `08 London, was to have joined Lel and Wanjiru in New Orleans as a tune up for the April 19th Boston Marathon, but has pulled out with an unspecified injury.

“To draw the likes of Sammy and Martin to New Orleans demonstrates our commitment to attract the biggest names in the world of running,” said Matt Turnbull, Elite Athlete Coordinator for the Competitor Group. “We’re excited to have two of the greatest road racers in history at the start line this weekend.”

The first Kenyan to ever win the Olympic Marathon Gold Medal, Wanjiru set the standing half-marathon world record of 58:33 in 2007 at the City-Pier-City Loop in The Hague, The Netherlands. That record marked the third time he had broken the world record at the distance, the first set at age 18.

“The timing of the Mardi Gras Half-Marathon is perfect for athletes like me who are preparing for a spring marathon,” said Wanjiru. “For me it’s a great opportunity to see where I am before London. Really, I am just looking to come and run a solid race and this gives me a great chance to see where I’m at and what condition I am in.”

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ROAD RACE MANAGEMENT RACE DIRECTOR’S MEETING

HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 8, 2008

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY TONI REAVIS

Today, running has never been healthier, from the number of events, to the size of fields, to the level of charity fund raising.  Yet within that healthy body their exists an overlooked, chronic problem, what Cellcom Green Bay Marathon race director Sean Ryan called the paradigm shift away from competition to participation.  Ironic, too, because it was a competition that inspired the fitness movement in the first place, Frank Shorter’s gold medal run at the 1972 Olympic Marathon in Munich.  Then with Bill Rodgers’ pied piper performances at the Boston and New York City Marathons from 1975 to 1980 the running movement boomed out across the land. Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit came next in the early 1980s.  But following Joan’s American record at the 1985 Chicago Marathon we had unknowingly hit our apogee. Read more…

So, I went to bed Sunday night after the Closing Ceremonies, and just woke up.

Seriously, those late nights were killing my productivity during the day. But as expected, it was all worth it. The action was great, the track and field coverage was decent, and there were some simply amazing moments.

Now that the Games are over, take a few minutes to weigh in on these questions:

How did the Beijing Games stack up against past venues?

How did NBC do with its “no politics” rule?

How was the track and field coverage? Did it do much (or anything) to move our sport forward in the ways we’ve discussed on this blog?

What was your biggest thrill of the Games? Biggest let-down?

Let the opining begin!

New USATF CEO Doug Logan held his first teleconference today as he was introduced by USATF President Bill Roe, who has been serving as acting CEO since Craig Masback’s resignation in January.  Logan will assume his new job on Monday morning when he arrives in Indianapolis from his current residence in south Florida.

“I’m delighted to be in this position,” the 64 year-old former Major League Soccer CEO told the teleconference.  “As the staff will learn, I keep a picture on my desk from 1980 of me dressed in clown makeup.  It’s a reminder not to take myself too seriously.”

Yet he takes over an organization with serious problems and challenges, including a mandate by the USOC to fundamentally change its governance model and streamline its bloated board of directors. Read more…

 Villard Street seemed deserted as we drove home from dinner at the Boulevard Grille on Randolph tonight.  A quick glance showed a few diehards knocking back their final Trials beers at the Villard Street Pub as we passed.  The pub had been the unofficial post-meet gathering spot night after night during the Trials, and now with packing and early morning flights waiting, there wasn’t the same urgency to stop to exchange opinions and race memories.  Strange how quickly the industry packs up and departs after settling in for the ten days it took to select this 2008 Olympic Team.

Read more…

 There is more than a bit of wistfulness in the smoke-tinged air here in Eugene, Oregon for these 2008 Olympic Trials.  Last night after Tyson Gay’s best-ever men’s 100-meters  - forget the wind or the geo-magnetic Allen Belt, ain’t nobody ever ran faster anywhere, anytime  - one of a myriad of reunions took place up in the hills outside Eugene at the home of Steve Dinatale.  Read more…

There has been some debate here and there about the nature of running contracts — the secrecy behind them, and the criteria that affects their size, length, utility and… I think that’s gone far enough.

The CBC (that’s the Canadian version of NBC or the BBC) has an article on 800m World Silver Medalist Gary Reed, and his contract negotiations with Nike Canada.  It maintains that Canadians who come through the American collegiate system cash in on those four years of increased visibility in the US, at the bargaining table.  A silly criterion if you ask me, but enlightening nonetheless, to hear that folks factor that in… or at least, some folks think the shoe companies factor that in.

Having the Golden League on ESPN?  Great.  Having it called by announcers who are watching a cut-up feed on monitors?  Not great.

Today was Day One in the 2008 Golden League, which ESPN, it was recently announced, would be covering at each stop on the tour.  I don’t know what I was expecting from the coverage, but suffice it to say, the telecast didn’t exactly encourage me to settle in and enjoy some track.  Now, I’m not going to get into a critique of the individual broadcasters because we do enough of that already.  Rather, I’m curious about what the viewership thought of the format.  Why do we need ESPN to provide two guys to narrate the Eurosport feed, when Eurosport already provides more than capable broadcasters?  Do Larry Rawson and Dwight Stones really bring that much to the broadcast that we’d rather them than the Euros? Read more…

Trying a new thing here: To help anyone like me who has running-centric tunnel-vision to the extent that you didn’t even recognize that it was Wolf Blizter having brunch at the table next to you last Saturday, we’re going to relate a figure from current events to a figure from the world of running. This way we can all learn one new thing about the outside world, while putting that thing in a context we actually understand. It’s called, If [ BLANK ] Were a Runner! Give it a whirl, after the jump…

You may have heard that the Pope is currently on his first papal visit to the United States. (It IS baseball season, after all…) For those unfamiliar with His Vaticanness, here’s a handy reference to help you along: Read more…

George Vecsey wrote a little something for “that liberal rag” I hear about from time to time up here in New York. In it, he basically nails my sentiments regarding all this Olympic torch hoopla.

These impending - and I choose the word carefully - Summer Games are currently the target of people who rightfully protest policies in Darfur, Tibet, Xinjiang and Chinese labor camps, or laogai.

It frightens me to be in agreement with President Bush on anything, but I have to agree with him that any boycott of the opening ceremony on Aug. 8 would be counterproductive, a slap in the face, for what? Better the president and other world leaders should belatedly learn how to conduct diplomacy and draw attention to Beijing’s poor record in human rights and not use an overblown sports jamboree to cover up for their failures.

These Olympic protesters are like that slightly smelly (but vaguely attractive) girl in HS who would always raise her hand in Science class and then, when called on to explain what a vector quantity is, would stand up and instead launch into a screed about how big business was killing the environment and that we should all come to the Walk-A-Thon the Arbor Club was sponsoring that weekend. One can’t help but think, Hey! If you want to promote your worthy cause, go hang some fliers! But right now, we’re trying to learn about vector quantities! And that’s important, too! Don’t get in the way of that!

Ugh. Don’t be the slightly smelly (but vaguely attractive) neo-hippy girl, protesters. Just don’t.