May 2010 Archives

RuthAnn Miller published letters from the legend, Steve Prefontaine, that she forgot were in her closet for more then 35 years.  She discusses her story about how she became a pen pal with the famous American runner and displays many of the notes online.

[via runindian.com]

Ever since I got my first pair from my parents as a reward for winning state cross country in high school, I have been hooked. Previously, I never understood why people would spend so much on a pair of glasses, and not I'm part of the club, waiting for my 5th pair to arrive.  They are great quality and I love running with them on. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have 5 pairs so I can just change them almost everyday of the week.

My first pair got eaten by my girlfriend (at the time, now wife's) roommate's dog.  I learned from that and never left my glasses within eating distance. Second one got 2nd and 3rd got knocked off tables and shelves buy my cat, and then eaten by my dog.  4th pair fell off my head while fishing (not to mention a lot of drinking) and are now sitting at the bottom of my friends lake. 

I only buy these on special occasions.  I wait until 6pm.com has a sale for a pair I like for $40.  Works out better then just replacing my lens since that only cost  > $60. And finally, after dealing with months of wearing just really scratched glassed, my new pair will be on their way. I can't wait for 5-10 days from now. I am now off to find a cat proof climbing area to put this new pair.

This weekend was action packed with bad weather, great guest, and even a little party.  But what I'll go ahead and quickly talk about is my long run. I got up at 6 on Saturday to get my run in before everyone else woke up. Essentially I ran a 15.6ish miler in drizzling rain at about 6:25 pace. Felt awesome. 

This could be quite possible one of the weird "running related" videos I've ever seen.  Still don't know really what to make of it. 

Thursday went really well, I was pretty tired from staying up late from the night before so I just wanted an ran an easy 8 with my friend Brian in the afternoon. The weather turned out to be really nice then, actually, pretty much perfect. 

Today I got up and got in an easy 8 this morning because I have a lot of errands to run in the afternoon. Friends and brother-in-law are coming in town so we need to get all ready for that.  So lets hope for awesome weather (not looking good as of now)

Gebrselassie makes no bones the major attraction of returning to Manchester is that the 10 kilometres course is not only one of the fastest in the world and being one of only three holding an IAAF gold label permit, acknowledged as a top notch event.

That status has seen not only the mighty Ethiopian the world's greatest-ever distance runner but many other fellow Olympic and World champions, compete there since the race's inception in 2003 which for the first time this weekend will be televised live by BBC2 from 1000am-1130am and can be watched internationally on a stream appearing on www.greatrun.org.

[via iaaf.org]

This morning is my wife's birthday. So I got up extra early just to get my run in so I would still have time to cook her an awesome breakfast before I had to get to work.  The weather this week has been pretty horrible so I almost expected to miss this morning due to storms. Well, it didn't rain so I went out. The weather still sucked though.  It was about 50 with a strong wind. I got in about 9 miles and made it back in time to make breakfast.  I made what were probably the best chocolate chip pancakes in the world. I'm taking the afternoon off and having an awesome time with Andrea.

The current American record holder in the mile is getting married in a few months. The bride is Julia Rudd, also a runner. They first did the long distance relationship and now both live in Oregon. 

Webb, in a phone interview last week, said it helps to have a partner who understands the sport."It's definitely a benefit for us," he said. "It's something that we both enjoy. It's not just the running, too. It's the focus on fitness."

[via indystar.com]

Liquid Mountaineering is a new sport which is attempting to achieve what man has tried to do for centuries: walk on water. Or to be more precise: running on water. We are developing the sport from scratch. By accident we found out that with the right water repellent equipment you can run across bodies of water, just like a stone skimming the surface.

I really don't know what to make of this. I guess good luck to these guys. I wonder how far Usain Bolt could make it with his speed.

I love ebay. I've been going through a series of buying little running memorabilia. You can find a lot of little autographed cards for less then $5.  I got Frank Shorter's for less then $3.  So I'm working on slowly just building a little collection to have just because I think they are really cool. Plus, it looks good with my Kenyan autographed singlet from Sammy W.  Today I noticed that you can buy Haile Gebrselassies for $75. That might be a little steep for me, but is definitely tempting.  

There was nothing special with my Tuesday morning run. I did my typical loop that I have. It was a little chilly and humid from the storms we have had rolling in.  But again, overall it was just an average easy run. 

Keitany smoked the field with a sensational 1:19:53 to become the first woman to dip under 1:20. Apparently the conditions were just perfect and all the runners took advantage of it. [via iaaf.org]

Video made by Marlon Woods. FSU graduate Walter dix wins the 200 meter dash with a time of 19.89.... 1 Dix, Walter Nike 20.40 19.89 +0.0.

Kara Goucher is about 4 months pregnant, but still ready to go. She is training with also pregnant, Paula Radcliffe.  The two have been meeting frequently, still doing long runs, tempos, and other workouts.  Kara still plans on being able to compete at the 2012 Olympics.

[via nytimes.com]

After a long weekend, I was finally able to get (and really want) to look at a computer and find time to posted about this past weekend.  As you may know, I ran the KC Corporate Challenge.  I got to the course about a hour and 30 minutes before my race started.  I met up with some friends and cheered on some of the ladies we knew that were currently racing.  It was a good day to run, with it being around 50 degrees with a fairly strong breeze.

I started warming up and scouting out the competition.  You never know with this race because any company could have hired some new "fresh out of college" kid.  Finally it was time for us to go.  The course is about a half mile straight down and I just hung with the pack.  This is partly to due with the fact I'm a horrible down hill runner. After the down hill was done with, I started cruising into the lead. I felt really solid and just kept my pace.  I could tell I was slowly making a gap, but nothing to the point where I could be care free. After mile 2 I was still feeling pretty good and was getting more confident that I was going to take this. The last 800m is a ridiculous up hill, which I think I am pretty good at.  I did end up winning with a 15:49ish and second with a 16:02. 

Overall, I was pretty please with the race. I felt really good during it all and had run around 170 miles in the last 2 weeks.  Looks like I'm started to get back into shape.

Tomorrow is the great Kansas City Corporate Challenge 5k. For those who aren't familiar with the Kansas City Corporate Challenge, it is awesome.  A lot of the major companies in the area compete in all different events from bowling, biking, running and more.  Tomorrow I will be trying to defend my title in the 5,000m.  I ran somewhere around a 15:50 to set the 18-24 year old age group. This year, I'll be in the 25-30 group.  It is always a lot of fun and I will try to do whatever it takes to get some more points for Sprint.  The course is an overall lolly-pop with a huge downhill start, which of course makes for a brutal uphill finish.

Another clip of almost the entire race where Solinsky ran his 26:59 American Record.

The sub 27 minute 10k group is exclusive, very exclusive. In fact, there are only 31 people who have done this. The science of the sport blog wrote a great article discussing the characteristics of the average sub 27 minute runner. Congrats to Solinsky for being the first non-African to do so.

Chris Solinsky exclusive interview with RunnerStream at the 2010 Payton Jordan Invitational after he broke the 10,000 meter American Record in a time of 26:59.60.

Chris Solinsky, a 5k runner who had never ran a 10k race in his life, and had never even trained for the event, DESTROYS the American Record in the mens 10,000 meters on Saturday, May 1st, 2010.

Yesterday was a good day for training, although I only ran once. I did my typically mid week long run with a little twist.  After about 3 miles, I went ahead and picked up the pace and cruised for a good 6 miles. After that, I took a mile off to cool down.  I then picked it up for another mile and eventually called it a day with a 2 mile cool down.  Overall it was a nice 13 mile to start off the morning. 

The morning was pretty relaxed where I ran an easy 8 mile loop I have.  The weather was pretty much perfect all day. Got to about 70 degrees eventually but was still around 53 for the morning run. The afternoon run I met up with other alumni from my school for our weekly easy run. We had a small group and ran a nice recovery 8 miler and chatted about nonsense.  

Well, after a very long weekend of late nights and fun, I started this morning with a nice morning 10 mile run. It was really perfect weather so it worked out pretty well.

In the afternoon, I ran with my friend and did an easy 6 with him. After that I ran another 4, 2 of which was with a 7th grader who could run a 5:07 mile.  Wasn't to shabby and it seemed that he had his head on straight. Could be a really good athlete if he continues what he is doing.

Well, I finished my last painting.  If you want my opinion on it...... it sucks.

Last night I went out with a couple friends and had a great time.  Ended up meeting some old friends and then watching some East, Bound, and Down (which is pretty hilarious) while drinking plenty of water before heading to bed at 1:30am.

At 6:15 I got up having felt better days.  I drank some more water and then headed to the course for the Dragon Dash Elementary School 5k.  I did about 4-5 miles as a warm up and then changed into goodwill's finest $12 suit.  I had pin stripe pants, a purple shirt, and an awesome sports coat.  People didn't think I was racing.

After the warm up I was feeling much better and it was time to run.  We took off and I cruised through the streets having a great time.  Big well-known races are great, but every once in a while you need to do a really low key one just to ensure you have a good time. There were a lot of student bands on the course and it was really nice. I eventual won, getting a lot of complements on my outfit as I finished.

The post race "party" was great with Chik filet and other delicious food. The best part was the prize. Little did I know, but the 1st place winner got TONS of stuff. 

$25 GC at liquor store (strange at a school race, but not complaining)
$25 GC for Spin Pizza
$25 GC for Johnny's Tavern
Free Papa Murphys Pizza
$25 Debit Card
$30 GC for Salty Iguana
$25 GC for Jose Peppers
$25 GC at Pizza Shoppe
1 Month Membership at Title Boxing
Free visit to a chiropractor.

The best part is, I think my wife likes every place I got gift cards too.  I'm going to have to take her on a date or two.