Blog Roll - Reid Coolsaet

Even a little is still better

Kenya Blog #4

I can’t believe it’s already been another week… This was a good week for running as I got in two workouts and a long run. The first workout I purposely took easy on my foot so I ran my tempo all uphill (110 meter rise) into the wind. Needless to say the pace was slow but the effort was there and I was working hard to keep the pace under 3:40/km. On my second workout I teamed up with Lee Merrien for 40 minutes of tempo around a 4km loop. I managed to average 3:23/km trying to keep up with Lee and I was very satisfied considering this was my second running workout in the past 8 weeks. Larry and I met up with a Kenyan, Rogers, who showed us a great run through the forest on the other side of Iten which was super hilly. I ended up running 25km which finally feels like a ‘long run’ again.

My foot is getting better even as I add on the kilometers. Each evening I’ve been going over to Jan Fitshen’s (2006 Euro 10 000m champ) room to use his therapeutic laser. He was out for over a year with plantar fasciitis and tried everything and finally saw some results with the laser so I might as well try it out. I’ve actually noticed a bigger jump in improvement since using it.

When you run around Iten it’s easy to get lost but it’s also easy to find your way home. That’s because there is only one paved road for miles and miles around and the one side of Iten is bordered by the Rift Valley (huge drop off). If you ever get lost just ask someone to point to the paved road. Once you get there is rises towards Iten, so just run uphill on the path adjacent to the road and you’ll get back.

I didn’t do much this week other than train. Some ping pong, Hearts, hand laundry, reading, Iten market, watching the Kenyans workout on Tuesday and a quick trip to see some giraffes.

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Kenya's Stephen Muange, Ethiopia's Hirut Mandefro win at 3M Half Marathon

The 3M Half Marathon turned into a contest between the distance running superpowers of Kenya and Ethiopia, with a runner from each country taking a share of the glory on Sunday.

Kenya's Stephen Muange held off Ethiopia's Girma Tolla to top the men's field in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 14 seconds. On the women's side, Hirut Mandefro of Ethiopia defended her title, finishing in 1:15:27, six seconds ahead of Russia's Sventlana Demidenko .

The top American runners were notably absent, most competing in the USA Half Marathon national championships held Saturday in Houston.

Muange and Mandefro each pocketed $1,500 by winning the 13.1-mile race, which drew 5,750 entrants, making it the largest 3M field in the event's 17-year history. Tolla and Demidenko each earned $1,000 for placing second.

"There was a lot of humidity," said Mandefro, who trains in Flagstaff, Ariz., at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet. "I had to work hard today to win."

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Blog Roll - Marco Anzures

I am reminded almost every day that the decision to live and train in Flagstaff with McMillanElite was the best choice I could have made in continuing my career, and this week was no different. USA Cross Country Nationals are less than a week and half away, and as the marathon crew made their final preparations to race this Sunday in Houston, I was also priming myself for my competition February 5th in San Diego.

This week I had two key workouts that I set out to make my best yet and build upon my growing confidence even more. Monday I had a very solid steady state effort, which I was super pleased with, but it was Wednesday that was a special day in my mind, for two reasons. The team had woken up early Wednesday morning to travel to Sedona for some warmer weather and work on the track. I was tasked with completing 25 quarters at around 10k race pace, and since many of the guys/gals were racing this weekend or not focusing on XC, this was going to be a solo effort.

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Feets don't fail me now

We were a bit spoiled. Since 2002, every Houston Marathon race day has had nearly ideal conditions. That run had to end sometime.
High humidity, rain showers, temperatures in the 60s and the threat of thunderstorms (race officials even unveiled their plans for evacuating the course) meant Sunday wasn't the best day for a marathon.
But after training for months, what's a runner going to do but tackle the Chevron Houston Marathon or Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
The conditions didn't slow the elite competitors. A course record was set for the third consecutive year when Bekana Daba of Ethiopia finished in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 4 seconds.
Farther back in the pack, runners seemed resigned to a tough day.
"If found on ground, please drag across finish line," read the shirt worn by Pearland resident Vanessa J. Sampson. She finished in 5:22:08, so it didn't come to that.
Some runners weren't going to let sketchy conditions get in their way. Madelyn Herman of Houston knocked 17 minutes off her previous best time to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
"I'm really happy," she said after the race. "The weather conditions were really terrible."

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Blog Roll - Tom Payn

Crazy Racing

As I mentioned in my post the other day I went to watch the Discovery Kenya Half Marathon Championships in Eldoret yesterday and what a race it was! Over 500 starters with probably 90% of them capable of running under 65 minutes. The start was insane, after about 400m there was a sharp left hand turn and how no-one fell over I will never know. I heard rumours that the first kilometre was done in 2.30 and I can believe it. They had to do seven laps of a route around Eldoret town centre, not an easy course either as it was basically on a hill with half the lap going down the hill, the other half up the hill. A group of three broke away from the main pack on the second lap including one of the guys from my camp but unfortunately he dropped out after about 40 minutes with a stitch. The eventual winner was a guy that some of you may remember from a fair few years back named Abraham Chebii (sorry for the spelling), he had a big lead until the last lap where he started to struggle a bit but still ended up a comfortable winner in 62.59. Considering the race was held at 1.5miles above sea level, was on a hilly course, it was quite windy, very hot and they didn't have any water that is a pretty amazing time!! Another one of our guys finished in a very credible 8th position but unfortunately due to some error he was disqualified as the officials believed he had another lap to go and was cheating! How they could keep track of who was finishing and who had more laps to do is beyond me. Below is a short video of the finish.

READ FULL BLOG HERE

Win, win again for Ethiopia

By DALE ROBERTSON

When the two top runners expected for the Chevron Houston Marathon were forced from the field because of visa problems, a changing of the guard seemed possible, if not imminent.
At the very least, a door opened for an American, Brett Gotcher, to have a chance to win, which last happened in 2002 when no elite foreign athletes participated because there was no prize money offered. Gotcher, in fact, was seeded first based on a brilliant showing in his debut marathon here last year.
Still, as long as any East African toes the starting line, an official bib pinned to his — or her — jersey, it figures to be an uphill slog, so Gotcher didn’t hit the road suffering from excessive delusions of grandeur.
“But I felt good early on, (for) about 15 miles,” he said. “I was focused. I did the same training as last year. Right now, it’s hard to pinpoint what went wrong.”

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Chicago registration starts tomorrow

Don't procrastinate if you want to run it. Sign up.

Kiplagat bags the 12km title at Prisons meeting

The fastest man over the 1,500 metres last year, Silas Kiplagat, proved he has still got his kick as he outsprinted fellow serviceman John Mwangangi to claim the Kenya Prisons cross country championships’ 12-kilometre crown at Nairobi’s Uhuru Gardens on Saturday.

It was always going to be decided by a sprint dash as the two athletes matched each other strides throughout the race. In the end, Kiplagat proved yet again that he is still got his kick which helped him to clocking 3:29.27 in Monaco to get himself into the top ten fastest runners ever for the event.

On Saturday, Kiplagat clocked 34:46.2 to win the 12km senior men race ahead of Mwangangi who was second in 34:48.3 while Fredrick Musyoki was third in 35:05.8.

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Meanwhile in Barcelona...

...Peter Kosgei wins a Half Marathon.

Menjo and Fernández excel in San Sebastián XC while Cáceres eyes indoor success

IAAF reports
On a packed Spanish athletics weekend Kenya’s Josephat Kiprono Menjo captured a brilliant win at the ‘Cross Internacional de San Sebastián’ held Sunday (30) while Spain’s reigning European 1500m champion Nuria Fernández bagged the win in the women’s section ahead of Kenya’s Olympic 3000m Steeplechase silver medallist Eunice Jepkorir.

Menjo, who broke the revered 27-minute barrier in the 10,000m event for the first time last summer setting the year’s world best of 26:56.74 in a near solo run in Turku, kicked off yesterday’s 10,000m race very cautiously. By the 4000m point which was crossed in a slow 13:00 time the 31-year-old ace still ran in the company of seven athletes in the guise of his fellow Kenyans Titus Mbishei and Jacob Chesari, Ukraine’s cuurent European champion Sergiy Lebid, Britain’s Scott Overall and the Spanish trio of Ricardo Serrano, Iván Fernández and the world indoor 3000m silver medallist Sergio Sánchez.

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Ndereba running Worlds Marathon

Eurosport UK reports
Double world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba said on Saturday she would seek an unprecedented third women's title this year even though it was not her wish.
"I wanted to give other young girls the chance, but Athletics Kenya insisted I represent the country," the 36-year-old told Reuters on Saturday.
"I have given it a lot of thought and if I'm free from injury, I will go for it."
The 2011 world championships will be held in Daegu, South Korea, from August 27.
"It's been a tough two seasons for me since I injured my toe in London, but now I feel my body is regaining the best shape," Ndereba added. "I will continue to train so that I reach the peak."
Ndereba, who has won the Boston marathon four times and Chicago twice, said her immediate mission was to be in competitive form for an event in April.
"My manager is working on that and I do not wish to comment on what she could be setting up. My focus now is to be ready to compete," said Ndereba, who missed the 2009 world championships in Berlin due to injury.

Houston Marathon

USA Today reports
Bekana Daba set a Houston Marathon record in the rain Sunday — and that included a bathroom stop.
Daba covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 4 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:07:37 set by fellow Ethiopian Teshome Gelana last year. Gelana was unable to defend his title this year because visa problems.

Daba took the outright lead in the 18th mile as steady rain began to fall. With no competitors in sight, Daba briefly left the course in the 25th mile, just before he entered downtown.

"I was a little bit in need of going to the restroom," Daba said through an interpreter. "Somehow, I managed it."

The 22-year-old Daba glanced at his wristwatch as he made the final turn. He lifted his right arm to acknowledge the cheering crowd near the finish line in front of the city's convention center.

Daba shaved seven minutes off his debut marathon in Amsterdam last year (2:14:39), where he finished 12th. He thinks he could've run at least a minute faster Sunday, if he had been challenged toward the end by another runner.

"If somebody was with me, I could've increased my speed," he said. "But I was by myself, alone. I was keeping the pace."

American Nick Arciniaga was second in a personal-best 2:11:30 and Kenya-born Wilfred Murgor was third (2:11:41).

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Miami Marathon

By Susan Miller Degnan for the Miami Herald
The ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon took off in predawn darkness at 6:20 a.m. Sunday, a mass of legs churning down Biscayne Boulevard toward the goal of 26.2 miles -- or 13.1 miles for the half marathoners.
By Saturday evening, when registration had ended, a race-record 21,116 had registered for the marathon and half marathon -- an increase of about 17,000 participants since the event's inaugural running in 2003.
Runners represented 79 countries and every state.
A race-record 4,538 registered for the 26.2-mile marathon distance.
``It's just awesome,'' race director David Scott said about 15 minutes before runners took off from AmericanAirlines Arena. ``The biggest challenge this year has been to keep up with the registration.
``I feel exactly like I did at the end of last year's race. Last year, I said, `Let's do it again in a week.' I'm already looking forward to the next marathon.''
The winning marathoner, Tesfaye Sendeku Alemayehu of Ethiopia, won by a landslide in 2 hours 12 minutes 57 seconds -- 35 seconds off the course record.
The marathon runner-up, Benazzouz Slimani, 34, of Morocco, finished in 2:18:23. Slimani won the ING Miami Marathon in 2009.
Last year's marathon winner, Michael Wardian, 36, finished third in 2:23:41. His time last year was 2:28:39.
Alena Vinitskaya, 37, of Belarus was the women's marathon winner -- also by a huge margin -- in 2:44:39. She was runner-up in two previous ING Miami Marathons.

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Yukiko Akaba wins the 30th Osaka Women’s Marathon

IAAF reports
Surging away from Mai Ito just before the 39th kilometre, Yukiko Akaba won the 30th Osaka Women’s Marathon, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race, clocking 2:26:29 on Sunday (30).

The times were slow due to strong winds that shifted into headwinds in the last half. Thus Akaba, although she won the race, half of the requirement for making the Japanese squad for the World Championships, she was unable to crack 2:26, the other requirement to punch her ticket to Daegu. However, Keisuke Sawaki of the JAAF was quite impressed with Akaba’s performance, thus barring the emergence of a couple unexpected runners running very fast in either Yokohama and Nagoya, Akaba is likely to make the team.

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AXA Raheny 5

Number Rank Name Surname Chip Time
1865 1 JOE SWEENEY 0:23:23
1341 2 SEAN CONNOLLY 0:23:54
21 3 PADDY HAMILTON 0:24:24
167 4 SEAN HEHIR 0:24:29
1367 5 DAIRE BERMINGHAM 0:24:30
348 6 ED MC GINLEY 0:24:37
566 7 MICHAEL CLOHISEY 0:24:52
1040 8 ANDREW AGNEW 0:24:59
2010 9 DAVID KELLY 0:25:10
823 10 KEVIN DOONEY 0:25:16
1212 11 TOMMY EVANS 0:25:16
1192 12 JOHN EVES 0:25:23
662 13 IAN WALSH 0:25:39
674 14 PAUL O' CONNELL 0:25:59
858 15 DAVE BYRNE 0:26:00
545 16 ROB CROSS 0:26:04
1154 17 PHIL KILGANNON 0:26:05
695 18 EMMETT MC GINTY 0:26:07
1908 19 STEPHEN MCKEIGUE 0:26:07

This just in: Houston results

1. Bekana Daba, 2:07:04

2. Nick Arciniaga, 2:11:30

3. Wilfred Murgor, 2:11:41

4. Rob Watson, 2:16:17

5. Jesse Davis, 2:18:47

6. Brett Gotcher, 2:19:30

FULL STORY LATER TODAY. STAY TUNED.

Watch the 2011 Houston Marathon LIVE!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE HOUSTON MARATHON 2011 LIVE

In Pictures: 2011 USA Half Marathon Championship

All Photos by PhotoRun.net

2011 USATF Half Marathon National Championships - Fluid Station 16

2011 USATF Half Marathon National Championships - Men's Leaders at Mile 1

2011 USATF Half Marathon National Championships - Bottle Layout Explained

Mo Farah and Patrick Smyth on the Podium

Mo Trafeh Defeats Ryan Hall at 2011 USATF Half Marathon Champs

Fasil Bizuneh After Race

Mo Trafeh After Winning

Patrick Smyth On His 3rd Place Finish

TOP 25 - 2011 Houston USATF Half Marathon Championshi

Place Athlete Age Time Prize Money
1 Trafeh, Mohamed 25 01:02:17 $12,000
2 Hall, Ryan 28 01:02:20 $6,500
3 Smyth, Patrick 24 01:02:32 $4,000
4 Bizuneh, Fasil 30 01:02:47 $2,000
5 Lehmkuhle, Jason 33 01:02:49 $1,500
6 Vail, Ryan 24 01:02:51 $1,250
7 MacPherson, Scott 21 01:04:03 $1,000
8 Torres, Jorge 30 01:04:18 $750
9 Sayenko, Mike 26 01:04:20 $500
10 Driscoll, Joseph 31 01:04:23 $250
11 Nightingale, David 21 01:04:29
12 Chavez, Michael 21 01:04:49
13 Moen, Josh 28 01:05:05
14 Kormanik, Leo 21 01:05:26
15 Eberly, Joshua 30 01:05:33
16 Neuman, Kenyon 24 01:05:36
17 McCandless, Tyler 24 01:05:38
18 Erichsen, Christopher 25 01:05:42
19 Caccia, Gian-Paul 21 01:06:02
20 Rizzo, Patrick 27 01:06:07
21 Tapia, Daniel 21 01:06:19
22 Reyes, Sergio 29 01:06:20
23 Leon, Craig 21 01:06:28
24 Pool, Kevin 21 01:06:30
25 Briney, Trent 32 01:06:31

USA Half Marathon Champs - Mo Trafeh wins!

1. Mo Trafeh 

2  Ryan Hall

3. Patrick Smyth

NOW LIVE: USA Half Marathon Championships Houston Half Marathon 2011

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE STREAM ON RUNNERSPACE

The Top-5 Bearded Runners Of All Time

by Mario Fraioli

I had the good fortune of spending some time with Ryan Hall this past weekend at the Endurance LIVE Consumer Show & Awards Gala here in San Diego. I almost didn’t recognize the American half-marathon record holder hiding behind the out-of-control offshoot emanating from his chin. The growth was so gnarly it almost didn’t look real.

“I stuck it on there this morning,” he joked.

Ryan’s gargantuan growth of gnarlyness reminded me of my former college rival, Nate Jenkins, who was rockin’ this Paul Bunyan-like beard two years ago in the 3,000-meter final at the U.S. Indoor Championships. I was instantly fascinated, and went on a search earlier this week to see what other well-known runners had full-on facial fuzz that rivaled Ryan’s. My mind was instantly blown! In my research I discovered The Running Beard Movement Facebook Page, a page “created as a place for all bearded runners and those who support them to celebrate and promote the greatness of all forms of running beards!” Trust me, it’s worth three minutes of your time.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Brett Gotcher: "It was really nice last year, being able to come in under the radar, and have very little pressure!"

VIA USA TODAY, By Chris Duncan, AP Sports Writer

Top American distance runner Ryan Hall started feeling good vibes even before he arrived in Houston for Saturday's U.S. half-marathon championships.
In 2007, Hall won the Houston half-marathon in 59 minutes, 43 seconds, becoming the first American to finish the distance in under an hour. Later that year, Hall finished the London marathon in 2:08.24, a record for a U.S. debut.

"It's good to be back in Houston," Hall said. "Just flying in here, I get all reminiscent. I call this the 'Land of Breakthrough,' because that's what it was for me four years ago."

Hall is eager to study the course, learning the turns and testing the road surface, as Houston will host the men's and women's U.S. Olympic marathon trials next year on the same course.

He's also counting on this race serving as a springboard to a big year.

"I come here and I just feel like, 'Ah, yeah, this is comfortable,'" Hall said. "I just feel at peace here. You can only get that by having a good experience somewhere. It goes both ways. I have other cities, where I go there and I can feel my own heaviness, because I've had bad experiences there."

Patrick Smyth and Brent Vaughn, who finished second and third in last year's race, are back in the field. Mo Trafeh, who posted the fastest U.S. half-marathon time in New York in 2010 (1:00.39), also is entered.

"I don't know what (Saturday) holds," Hall said. "But with the trials and everything, I think we're going to see some guys breaking through."

Magdalena Lewy Boulet, the 2009 U.S. half-marathon champion, and Serena Burla, last year's runner-up, lead the women's field.

Burla, 28, is racing again almost a year after having a tumor removed from her right leg. She finished fourth in the New York City Marathon last November.

"Running is something that I've always loved," Burla said. "But also, going through what I faced last year, it just opened my eyes to so many important things in life. You have nothing to lose and nothing to fear, because you don't know when your time is up."

Organizers moved the half-marathon back to Saturday, so it wouldn't interfere with Sunday's full marathon.

American Brett Gotcher leads an expected field of about 9,000 for Sunday's race that starts in front of Minute Maid Park, weaves through a public park and Rice University and wraps up at the city's convention center.

Gotcher became the favorite when last year's winner, Ethiopian Teshome Gelana, and Kenyan Felix Keny pulled out because of visa issues.

The 26-year-old Gotcher finished seventh last year in 2:10.36, the fourth fastest debut time by an American.

"It was really nice last year, being able to come in under the radar, and have very little pressure," Gotcher said. "The way I look at it, if you want to achieve your ultimate goal of making an Olympic team, you're going to have to be in the spotlight at some point. Might as well try to get used to it now."

Another contender is Irishman Martin Fagan, a 2008 Olympian. Fagan holds the Irish record for the half-marathon (1:00.57) and trains with Gotcher in Flagstaff, Ariz.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Ryan Hall: " I’m at peace.”

By DALE ROBERTSON

Ryan Hall has returned to Houston with a new look and his old, sky’s-the-limit attitude. Part of that is him feeling better after a rough patch and part of it is this city, a place he calls “my land of breakthroughs.”

“Whenever I go home, I have a good feeling and good memories,” Hall said. “There’s just a special level of comfort, and that’s how I feel about being in Houston.

It’s like ‘ahh’ . . . I’m at peace.”

You might not recognize him with the bushy, mountain-man beard — he hasn’t shaved since November, much to his wife Sara’s chagrin — but he said he’s back to running free and easy like the guy who startled us so in the 2007 Aramco Services Half Marathon, becoming the first American to cover the 13.1 miles in less than an hour.

READ FULL STORY HERE

Ryan Hall Pre-Race Press Conference - USA Half-Marathon Championships

The 'New' Ryan Hall Looks Forward to Saturday's Half Marathon

by Amby Burfoot

Four years after he blew into Houston to set the still-standing American record in the half marathon (59:43), Ryan Hall is back for the 2011 Aramco Houston Half Marathon with a new look, and a lot of other new things. For starters, he's sporting a scraggly beard that he'll shave before the Saturday morning start on the new 8-mile downtown loop course that will make up the 2012 Olympic marathon trials next Jan. 14.

The other changes are potentially more significant. He and his wife, Sara, have moved from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., to dual locations, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Palo Alto, Calif. In Flagstaff, they have a landlord who's become an unofficial coach–the legendary Jack Daniels, Ph.D., now living and coaching at Brevard College in North Carolina. Hall says he's not exactly self-coached but neither is he coached by Daniels or his father, Mickey, another principal sounding board. Rather, he's evaluating advice from a number of trusted sources.

One, unsurprisingly, is the Bible. Hall is taking a full day's rest from training once a week–something he says he hasn't done for a long time.

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Mo Farah in Kenya

Road to Comrades

‎"70km done and dusted in the route with my brother Sherpherd. Nothing else. We better rest now."

Prodigal Khumalo on Facebook

Success calls for collaboration

RunningTimes reports

With USATF and IAAF overseeing the governance of the sport, decisions related to fair play, rules and regulations are covered. In fact, even the necessary events to advance running and track and field already exist, it’s just a matter of linking and packaging them in a way that is appealing to athletes, sponsors, fans and the media. We have well-established events like Beach to Beacon, Falmouth and Peachtree, but unlike matches in other sports, they have nothing to do with one another, making it difficult to consume and understand the significance, especially for outsiders.

“It’s all right there,” says New York Road Runners (NYRR) president and CEO Mary Wittenberg. “We just have to put it together.” Boston Athletic Association’s former executive director, Guy Morse, weighs in, explaining: “We have to be clear in our expectations and I think cooperation between willing partners is the best, most viable, way to go.”

READ FULL STORY HERE

Osaka Women's Marathon preview

Ken Nakamura reports for IAAF
Organisers have announced that Yumiko Hara and Tomo Morimoto have pulled out of Sunday's Osaka Women's Marathon. Hara pulled her right thigh muscle, while Morimoto came down with stress fracture in left foot.

The course has been modified this year to eliminate some hills around Osaka castle. More specifically, hills around the 15Km point and multiple hills from 24Km to 27Km, which amounts to elevation gain and loss of around 20 metres each, were eliminated from the course. The new course may be half a minute faster than the old one. So, is the event record of 2:21:18 set by Mizuki Noguchi in 2003, a year before she won the Olympic Gold medal, in danger?

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Mekonnen wins Milrose and ends Lagat's 6 win streak

NY Daily News reports

The President of the Boards is president no more.

Since 2001, Bernard Lagat has owned the Wanamaker Mile, winning the Millrose Games' flagship event a record eight times. He so mastered Madison Square Garden's undersized oval track that a once-dramatic race lacked suspense.

But Friday night, at the 104th Millrose Games, there was intrigue. Lagat, an American by way of Kenya, lost his first Wanamaker in seven years, finishing behind Deresse Mekonnen of Ethiopia. Mekonnen clocked a 3:58.58; Lagat finished just behind in 3:59.01.

"I tried my best," Lagat said. "But I lost to a great athlete."

It was a loss that few - not even Mekonnen - saw coming. The 23-year-old entered as the two-time defending world indoor 1,500-meter champion, but he didn't believe he had a chance to oust Lagat.

"I expected that Lagat would win," Mekonnen said through a translator. "And I thought that if he were first, I might make second."

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Girl power at British training camp in Kenya

Fagan targets qualifier time for Worlds

MARTIN FAGAN could be the first Irish athlete to secure a qualifying time for the World Championships in Daegu, Korea, next August when he runs Sunday’s Houston Marathon – although he admits he only recently returned to full fitness following a lengthy period of injury and illness.

Still based in Flagstaff, Arizona, Fagan has struggled to maintain the sort of form that saw him clock 2:14.06 for the marathon in early 2008, which earned him qualification for the Beijing Olympics.

Since then he’s had to contend with a number of injuries, and more recently stomach complaints which seriously affected both his racing and recovery.

Then, late last year, he was diagnosed as suffering from celiac disease. Since he has adopted the necessary gluten-free diet, he has noticed a considerable difference.

READ ON..

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TONIGHT: Bernard Lagat going for 9th Wanamaker Mile win

Course record holder Teshome Gelana shut out of Houston due to Visa problems

Chron reports
Visa problems will keep defending Chevron Houston Marathon champion and course record-holder Teshome Gelana from defending his title Sunday, but that has opened the door for a possible oddity in the race.
An American champion.
The new top seed is 26-year-old Brett Gotcher, who finished seventh in 2:10:36 last year in his first marathon. The third-best time posted by a U.S. runner in 2010 and the fourth-fastest debut by an American in history, it positions him as the Houston favorite with Gelana unable to make the trip. The Ethiopian finished in 2:07:37, 15 seconds better than what countryman Deriba Merga ran the previous year.

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Blog Roll - Rob Watson

I'm going to be honest here, when I first started my training for this marathon I gave myself about a 70% chance of actually getting to the line. My plan was pretty simple, train my balls off and hope for the best. I figured there was a 25% chance of injury and 5% chance of me coming to my senses and realizing that the whole idea of training for, and racing a marathon is just plain silly. Folks, I have just spent the last 16weeks working myself stupid. Outside running I have been about about as productive as a limbless dwarf. And why? What is the reward for this work? The reward is a 26.2mile jaunt through the streets of Houston where I will get to absolutely thrash myself in hopes of making it to the finish line 3 or 4steps before I fall down and die. Running is dumb. But holy hell people, I can't wait to get out there and roll!
6 days out the taper is in full effect. The legs are coming around nicely and things are good to go. Hey, wait a minute. Shout out to the Speed River crew who went down to NYC for the NewBalance games! Milne is the man! yeah! So what were we talking about? Oh yeah, Houston. Well, I was saying that it's going to be a fun time. I have a solid support crew coming down to the lone star state as well. DST and Moults are headed down as representatives from the river. I can't wait to see those guys, I love the River.

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Watson ready for marathon debut

Two-time Canadian steeplechase champion, Rob “Destroyer” Watson, makes his marathon debut this Sunday in Houston. The London, Ont., native has demonstrated great fitness recently, with a second place finish at the 2010 Canadian Cross Country Championships, followed by a course record win at the Hamilton Boxing Day 10 Miler in 48:39. And, he’s working with coach Dave Scott-Thomas, the same man who guided Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis to their sensational races at the Scotiabank Marathon last fall (2:11.23 and 2:12.08, respectively).

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USA Half Marathon Championships kicks-off 2011 championship season

The USA Running Circuit (USARC) gets underway Saturday with the running of the 2011 USA Half Marathon Championships, presented by Aramco Services Company.

Returning to Houston for the first time since his American Record run in 2007, Ryan Hall (Big Bear Lake, Calif.), headlines a field that includes fellow Olympic marathoner Magdalena Lewy Boulet (Oakland, Calif.) and a host of top U.S. athletes competing for a total prize purse of $59,500.

In addition to the national title, athletes will use 2011 as an opportunity to preview the course that will be used when Houston plays host to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon next January.

Joining Hall in his reconnaissance mission in Houston will be Jorge Torres (Boulder, Colo.), a 2008 Olympian at 10,000 meters; Patrick Smyth (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.), the 2010 Half Marathon Championships runner-up; 2004 Olympian Dan Browne (Chula Vista, Calif.); Jason Lehmkuhle (Minneapolis, Minn.), 2008 Half Marathon runner-up; and Sergio Reyes (Los Osos, Calif.) the 2010 USA Marathon Champion.

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Saturday course will prep 2012 Olympic hopefuls

Many of America's best hopes for the 2012 Olympics Marathon — none of them more prominent than Ryan Hall — will check out Houston's U.S. Marathon Trials course Saturday morning while they chase after the $12,000 first prizes that go to the U.S. Half Marathon champions.
In recent years, the elite American half-marathoners have run with the pack in Sunday's Aramco Services Half Marathon, but Houston's organizers and USA Track decided it would be good to set things up logistically this year just as they will be next year.
So 90 men and 50 women are scheduled to head out at 8 a.m. on the same pavement they'll be pounding on Jan. 14, 2012, in hopes of qualifying for London.
In downtown area
The runners will head out Memorial Drive but, before they reach the Montrose underpass — 2.55 miles from the start — they'll make a U-turn back to the GRB, then go through downtown to Allen Parkway and on to Shepherd, with a slight detour over the Montrose bridge. At Shepherd, they cross Buffalo Bayou and return to the convention center via Memorial.

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Blog Roll - Tom Payn

Hand Signals

Something that the Kenyan runners do that I haven't come across before is hand signals. When I first started running out here and was running behind some of the guys I noticed that every now and again they would drop a hand to their side, didn't think much of it to start with but then noticed it always happened before there was a rock in the road, a car was coming or some other obstruction.

Since then I asked them about these "hand signals" and they work as follows:

hand dropped to the right = obstruction coming up on the right
hand dropped to the left = obstruction coming up on the left
both hands dropped = obstruction across the whole road
hands raised above the head = obstruction from above, i.e. hanging branches
I find these quite useful and it saves shouting, especially when I'm out of breath! I guess these came about due to the state of the roads out here as there are rocks and pot holes all the time and it would get annoying having to shout "watch out for that rock" every minute or so.

Looking forward to the cross country on Saturday, will be a good test to see how I have improved in the last three weeks (since the last cross country).

mzungo.org classic - New York City Marathon - 1986

Haile heads Tokyo field

JRN reports
The Tokyo Marathon has announced the elite field for this year's fifth running, to be held Feb. 27. Following through on his pre-retirement crisis promise, world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) will return to the marathon distance after his DNF at November's New York City Marathon.

Gebrselassie faces what is without a doubt the strongest field in Tokyo's short history, including 2010 and 2009 winners Masakazu Fujiwara (Team Honda) and Salim Kipsang (Kenya), 2010 Biwako Mainichi Marathon winner Yemane Tsegaye (Ethiopia), 2010 Hokkaido Marathon winner Cyrus Njui (Kenya/Team Hitachi Cable), 2008 Kenyan XC champion Gideon Ngatuny (Team Nissin Shokuhin) in his marathon debut, recent 2:07 man Paul Biwott (Kenya), 2:07 runner and former teammate of Fujiwara's Hailu Mekonnen (Ethiopia), veteran great Felix Limo (Kenya), top-ranked Japanese debutant Yoshinori Oda (Team Toyota), and, thus far unsuccessful at the marathon in his first two attempts, sub-hour half marathoner Mekubo Mogusu (Kenya/Team Aidem). It will not be an easy task for aging legend Haile to add another win to his legacy.

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Get your kicks: Somnio - The Nada

Blog Roll: Back by 7

My training is spiraling totally out of control together with the frantic pace of life in the past weeks....

I sometimes go to sleep at 2am or maybe sleep 4-5 hours at most, work a lot and also cater to different family commitments. Unfortunately running tries to fight for space in a disorderly manner.

Highlights of the past 10 days:

- 45 Km long run... I was not gone nut, but in the morning I woke up in Dongguan and went for a 35k long run in the fantastic setting of Tangxia Dapingzhen Park

I have never been there for a run and is really a great place: no cars, inside a forest, a very demanding course...
I wanted to run 2h30' and clocked 35k in the process
The park will for sure be one of my future training grounds!

In the evening, I was in HK and a visiting relative asked me if we could go out for a jog and show him where to run near our home... well...OK... so another 10k very easy..

- 23Km MP run.. starting at 21.30... I finished thew workout at 11pm and then collapsed in bed...

- all this mixed up with days of no running and easy runs...
total daily 45Km and I was not even too tired.

Check out his blog here.

Olympic Hopefuls to Test Drive 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon Course in Houston

The Houston Marathon Committee, in conjunction with presenting sponsor Aramco Services Company, has announced that the country’s best distance runners and Olympic hopefuls will compete at
the 2011 USA Half Marathon Championships on Saturday, January 29, 2011, one day prior to the 39th Chevron Houston Marathon. The championships will give athletes a chance to preview the course for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon, which will be held on January 14, 2012.

“We had some very basic information about early versions of the proposed Olympic course in London that proved beneficial to our course design,” said Brant Kotch, Race Director and President of the Houston Marathon Committee. “Of course, the confluence of the already-awarded 2011 USA Half Marathon Championships together with the awarding of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon was just too great an opportunity to pass up.

This preview should bring out the country's strongest Olympic marathon hopefuls en masse.”
The eight-mile loop route will give U.S. athletes a “test drive” of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials course which is similar to the 2012 Olympic marathon multi-loop eight-mile course in London. The national championships will also allow athletes to experience the Houston Marathon Committee’s operating plans for the 2012 Trials.

“Getting a preview of the course while in race mode will be an invaluable experience for anyone hoping to run in the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials,” said 2009 USA Half Marathon champion and 2008 Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet. “There’s no better way to begin to mentally prepare for a race than to actually race it. I’m excited to return to Houston to run another USA Half Marathon Championship.”

The 2011 USA Half Marathon Championships will mark Houston’s seventh and fifth year to host the men’s and women’s national half marathon championships respectively. Last January, Antonio Vega and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan won U.S. titles in 1:01:54 and 1:09:41, respectively.
Houston will host the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon on Saturday, January 14, 2012, a first for a single city to host both the men’s and women’s events at the same Olympic Trials. To-date, 93 U.S. men and 111 U.S.

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2011 Houston Marathon course map

The Return Of Ryan Hall

This weekend, Ryan Hall will be returning to competition at the Houston Half Marathon since his coaching change. In 2007, Hall ran the American record for the half marathon in Houston with a 59:43 (check out the record here). Hall, will face a talented men's field including last year's runner-up Patrick Smyth and third place finisher Brent Vaughn, who ran their debut half-marathons here in 1:02:01 and 1:02:04, respectively. In addition, three-time Olympian and multi-national champion Abdi Abdirahman and 2010 USA 15 km champion Mo Trafeh, who ran the fastest U.S. half-marathon in 2010 with his 1:00:39 (#4 U.S. all-time) will also be in the field.

For the U.S. women, Serena Burla , is the top returnee, and she will face a race a field including three-time Olympian Jen Rhines, 2008 Olympic marathoner and 2009 USA Half Marathon champion Magdalena Lewy Boulet and seven-time national champio and 2010 USA Running Circuit champion Katie McGregor.

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