January 2011 Archives

Bekana Daba run 2:07:04 at 2011 Chevron Houston Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Leg speed is a huge asset in marathon running, our example today is one Bekana Daba Tolesa, aka Bekana Daba. Read on, sports fans! 

The Chevron Houston Marathon continued its streak with a course record in three years, this time from Bekana Daba , who dropped seven minutes and thirty-six seconds off his personal best, running a fine 2:07:04, which also is the fastest time in the world for 2011! Nic Arciniaga, improved his time by fifteen seconds, running 2:11:30. (Note that some folks are referring to Daba as Bekana Daba Tolesa). Daba ran huge negative splits, 1:04:17 to a 1:02:47 return!

Mamitu Daska won the women's race in 2:26:33, giving Ethiopia its fifth straight women's champion at the Chevron Houston Marathon.

   Mamitu Daska wins 2011 Chevron Houston Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net. 

Stephanie Rothstein, a young American runner with a gluten and dairy intolerance, went from a 2:40 marathoner to a 2:29:35, making her, along with yesterdays half marathon winner, Jenn Rhines, as two very tough candidates for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team at the marathon.

Five new athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials today: Jesse Davis, Kristen Fryburg-Zaitz, Emily Harrison, Nicole Hagobian, Natasha Lebeaud and Sara Patrick. 

In fact, this was the fifth year in a row that either a men or womens course or state record has been run at Chevron Houston marathon.

In the humidity and rain, without lightning and thunder, 6,728 runners started the marathon today and 9,114 runners started the half marathon. And, as country singer Steve Earle noted, " and the rain came down..."

Ryan Hall leads at five miles, Aramaco USA Half Marathon Champs, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Shorn of his beard, Ryan Hall got down to business on a challenging course, and was caught by Mo Trafeh, with less than a straightaway to go. Trafeh won in 1:02:16 with Hall in 1:02:20 at the USA Half Marathon Champs, sponsored by Aramco. Patrick Smythe, in third, also was quite impressive in this event!

      Mo Shows em: Mo Trafeh wins Aramco USA Champs, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Jenn Rhines, the classic middle distance runner, from the mile to the marathon, and a three time Olympian, dropped a 5:20 mile between miles ten and eleven and used that tactic to distance herself from Selena Burla, who finished second for the second year in a row. Great stories here, watch my Monday column on the significance of this race!

 

Lukas Verzibicas is one of the most talented prep athletes in the U.S. That is a fact. Lukas also   won the 2010 FootLocker Cross country and the 2010 Nike NXN title as well, making him the most recognized prep cross country. He is also a junior triathlon champion. Verzbicas is coached by his father, and his mother was a world class runner over 3k.

I tried to speak with his father at the adidas Grand Prix about his training and really just got generalities. Lukas was much more conversational, he was amazing running his 4:04 mile that day.


Well, seems that Lukas was considering Stanford, University of Portland and Oregon. World from our friends at EME News and Oregon LIVE is that, the worst kept secret of the week, was the Lukas would announce that he will matriculate at Oregon next fall!

This young man has wheels. He has been compared to the late Steve Prefontaine. His stature and racing style remind me of, however, Jim Ryun. Tall, thin, aggressive, and fast, Verzbicas loves the triathlon scene as well as running. It actually may be why he does so well. Stay tuned on this one!

And on the 2012 Decathlon wars, Ashton Eaton won the first round, with a strong victory at Millrose this past weekend. The meet had a new production team for the TV, with a strong commentary by 1984 5,000m fourth placer Tim Hutchings. The issue has been that the crowd was the smallest in many years, and with little or no promotion before the event, one should not be surprised. Time to move the Millrose Games to the Armory. 

Usain Bolt has announced that he will be competing in the Rome Golden Gala meet on May 26. At the Houston Marathon press conference on Friday, Ryan Hall, the fastest active American marathon, who has had a quixotic last couple of years of racing, was sporting a beard which Ryan had started about three months ago.



Described as Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford portrayed this Western icon in the early 1970s), or just plain, "hairy", Ryan seemed bemused about all of the concern about his beard, his lack of a coach, and his conversations with his creator.

Ryan told the assembled media that his training has gone well, and that he was testing himself on his way to Boston (about eleven weeks from this weekend). Hall does wear his faith, which seems quite genuine, on his proverbial sleeve.

In this day and age, a cynic might find room to berate Hall, however, I believe that his faith is one of his core strengths. How he races on Saturday is the key.

14 of the 16 publishers in the Running Network LLC met in Houston over the Chevron Houston Marathon weekend to discuss recent and upcoming challenges in media. They will also be covering the U.S. half marathon championships on Saturday, and the Chevron marathon and Aramco half marathon on Sunday!  

It is late on Thursday night in Houston. The official marathon and half marathon weekend in Houston begins tomorrow with the press conferences at 11 am. Ryan Hall is here, so is Jorge Torres, Jason Lemkuhle, Sergio Reyes, Dan Browne & Patrick Smythe. On the women's side,
Magdelena Lewy Boulet, Jenn Rhines, Katie McGregor, Colleen de Reuck and Serena Burla, Terra Moody and Zoila Gomez are all running the half marathon.



They will get a chance to race the new Olympic Trials marathon course under tough conditions on Saturday. Will this give them just that little bit of extra assistance to put one or more of them on the Olympic team for 2012? Only time will tell.

The 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials will be a war of attrition. No one is guaranteed a place on the team, and quite frankly, no one is that far ahead to be considered a definite for the squad, on the men or women's side. This may be the most open Olympic Trials marathon since 1984.

This is not a bad thing. The truth is, many of our men and women have been focusing on the 10,000m and the half marathon, which is where they need to be. The marathon is not an easy event, especially at the rarefied paces that elite men and women run the races these days.

The good news is that we have athletes, on both the men and women's sides, who can play with the world's best. Meb Keflizighi has been our best championship marathon runner for the guys. Why? Because Meb understands that the race starts at 22-24 miles. On the women's side, Deena Kastor's 2004 run is still, well, the standard. Kara Goucher, Shalane Flanagan and Magdelena Lewy Boulet have all run tough marathoners, got dirtied a bit, and have run some good times, but, to be in the top three in a World Champs or Olympics is a totally different story. That is what the next year is about. Who will take the time, to not only do the miles, and the tempo runs, but get their heads and spirit in the right place?

First, making the U.S. team will take a supreme effort, and then, eight months later, an effort that could not earlier be imagined, or one will be so agonizingly close....the road to London will begin this coming weekend, and not be answered until the middle of January 2012.

The Reggie Lewis Center will come alive on February 5, 2011 for three amazingly competitive hours. Now in its 16th incarnation, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix is an example of how to orchestrate a grand night of athletic competition!

The meet has been known for great high school miles and this year, there will be team scoring, which should make it more interesting (using a cross country type scoring method).

Also note the Lukas Verzbicas, the 2010 FootLocker XC Champ, the 2010 Nike NXN champ, and the adidas GP mile champ, will be running in the invitational mile-think he wants to run fast? More to come!

The 2011 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon was the first marathon in four years where Haile Gebrselassie did not run. Two good races, the men's left some observers with questions about what Eliud Kiptanui and his manager, Volker Wagner, were planning, an honest effort in Dubai, or a WR attempt in a later race. It may have just been that Eliud Kiptanui was human that day... Thankfully, the women's battle gave many writers much to write about. In this photo gallery, we thank PhotoRun.net, who jumped from Mumbai, India to Dubai, Qatar, and then to NYC to cover the sport that we love! Thanks to Chuck Bartlett for producing the photo galleries!

Related articles

• 2011 Millrose Games Preview: USA vs. Jamaica Sprint Challenge Highlights Meet (bleacherreport.com)
• Track and Field 2011: On The Road To World Championships, 2012 London Olympics (bleacherreport.com)
• London 2012 Olympics: IAAF president Lamine Diack warns Britain over Olympic Stadium plans (telegraph.co.uk)
• IAAF president Lamine Diack: It would be 'outrageous' to tear down London Olympic stadium (sports.espn.go.com)

Related articles

• Coe backs West Ham stadium plans (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Crystal Palace plans move from Selhurst Park (AP) (bogartkick.com)
• Coe backs West Ham stadium plans (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Crystal Palace plans move from Selhurst Park (usatoday.com)
• Crystal Palace unveil stadium plan (independent.co.uk)
• (note that quote of Lord Coe taken from BBC.com coverage of BBC 5 sportsLive report).
  

RnR AZ Embed



On January 16, 2011, over 30,000 runners and walkers enjoyed the 2011 P.F. Chang's RNR Marathon & Half Marathon. Besides winning the men's marathon in 2:17:32, Josh Cox went on to the local track, and finished 13 1/2 laps. The results of that additional run gave him the American record for the 50 kilometer run. Breaking his existing AR of 2:47:17, Josh ran 2:43;45, for a new AR. What may be more remarkable, is that Cox was seven agonizing seconds short of the world best! Just how good is Josh Cox? RBR, after consulting with a few road running experts, will still its proverbial neck out and say that Mr. Cox has a 2:10 marathon in his future. While you are contemplating that one, enjoy the plethora of photo memories from the P.F. Chang's RNR Arizona weekend! Special thanks to PhotoRun.net and Chuck Bartlett, RN website guru, for making the gallery!

Related articles

• PF Chang's Marathon: Who Could Pull off the Marathon Win? (bleacherreport.com)
• PF Changs Marathon: Josh Cox Looks to Run to Record-Setting Win (bleacherreport.com)
• Phoenix Massage Envys Support P.F. Chang's Rock 'N' Roll Marathon Athletes (prweb.com)
• Us News Online: Pf Changs Marathon, And The Cancer Research (current.com)

                   Mara Yamauchi, 2010 Virgin London Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net

Britain's Mara Yamauchi, the second fastest active British women marathoner, with a personal best of 2:23:12, run at London in 2009, has continued to have bad luck. With a hamstring injury that needs to heal, Yamauchi has withdrawn from the 2011 Virgin London Marathon.

Yamauchi has, since the 2009 London race, had a tough time. In 2010 Virgin London, it took Yamauchi six days to travel from New Mexico to London, and she subsequently finished tenth in the 2010 Virgin London race. She ran the 2010 ING NYCM marathon in November of 2010, only to fade badly and finish in 2:31:28 for 13th.

This injury means that Mara will still need to reach the Olympic A Standard, of 2:31, to make the UK team. Depending on the hamstring, it either means a fall 2011 or a spring 2011 race!

Somnio is a footwear company based in Santa Cruz, California. They are all about making the running shoe experience personal to the runner's own experience. Having spent a day with them, I can say that their approach is unique, and that if the consumer does not fall in love with the footwear, their custom insoles should win one over. RN Footwear reviewer Cregg Weinmann found the link and well, we hope you enjoy.

The 104th Millrose Games will be happening on January 28, 2011 in the fabled Madison Square Gardens. The iconic track makes the races more of a survival of the fittest than really fast racing. It is all about the competition, as track & field should be!




    Fabiana Murur capturing the World Indoor Champs, 2010, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Andrew Howe, the silver medalist in  2007 world championships in the long jump, will be venturing for only his second time to the European indoor. In a thoughtful interview in La Gazeetta delle Sport, Howe spoke about how well his training is going in Doha, Qatar, how he wants to do well in Paris at the European Indoor and how he has some decisions to make regarding the 2011 Outdoor World Championships--we he long jump or run the 200 meters?

Howe is a talented athlete, who has had his share of injuries, but the obviously talented young man, with a little bit of luck, could make 2011 a memorable year for his country, Italy, his sport and for himself.

                   Eliud Kiptanui, 2010 -real, Berlin Marathon, photo by PhotoRun.net

All things  London 2012 have become interesting. Weeks agao, it was the outrage over the London 2012 marathon course. Now, the ticket plans for London 2012 will be announced later this week! Details below!

The IOC is standing by its 2008 ruling about banning athletes who receive a suspension for drug  positives of two years or more from the subsequent Olympics. That means LaShawn Merritt, the 2007 World Champ and 2008 Olympic champion at 400 meters will be unable to compete in London, due to his ill advised use of Extenze, a male enhancement product. The afore- mentioned product is considered by many, the reason for his positive tests just under 17 months ago.

While RBR applauds the IOC, USOC, USADA and WADA's robust protection of the Olympic brand name in regards to banned substances, the concern is where common sense should come to play. Testing and protocols done with just the hint of peer review, minute numbers used in controls and testing, which may or may not stand up in an international court of law, and the concern that, for the four groups mentioned, to stop the biggest players in the use of banned substances, one must get as dirty as the players to catch cheats must cause some thinking readers just a hint of alarm.

RBR does not have answers, and believes that a vigorous defense of sports is important. RBR's fear is that, weathly athletes and sports federations will be able to, too soon, develop protocols that can engineer human DNA. Sport has become much too complicated. Putting a line in the sand for the start and a line in the sand for the finish, asking all to line up, and say, Go! looks better and better each day. 

The release from Brooks running was sent to us on Wednesday night. On my walk, I considered what the importance of Brooks taking the top position in November 2010 really was. What is significant about the release is that we have an illustration of how
highly competitive or  nip and tuck the specialty running business is at this time. In 2009 and 2010, ASICS and Brooks shared the top two positions in running specialty, with Saucony, Mizuno, Nike and New Balance right behind them.

Brooks Running continues to astound. Strong product, Strong marketing, Investment in the brand, Custom service and communications, human capital. For any brand to have success, all of the above have to be part of the mix.

Watch the battle for run specialty get even more tight in 2011, as none of the top brands are going to want to give away any sales. In the end, as we have said before, and the top running specialty stores know too well, it comes down to selling one pair of running shoes at a time.

Nike introduced this category buster at the CES show, January 7-9 in Las Vegas. If Garmin never thought that they had a bullseye on them, they will now. Using technology from TomTom, Nike has gone to the front of the row with this product, and the consumers will be buying them as if they were the next coming. The Nike+SportWatch GPS is no longer a whisper-it will knock its competition over the head.

I have used all of the Nikeplus products since their launch in 2006, and the evolution has been fascinating. With products from Timex and Nike, Garmin now has, not only real competitors, but a competitor like Nike who can spend what they will on marketing such a product.

Like Apple, the Swooshvolk in Beaverton knows that design sells and cool design sells even faster. Using digital assets to get the word out, Nike included not only a press release, but also video and photos of the new product.

The Nike+SportWatch will be available in the US and UK around April 1. Watch for a review here as soon as we can get product.

Related articles

• Mo Farah heads for Albuquerque following win in the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross-Country (telegraph.co.uk)
• Mo Farah wins the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross-Country (telegraph.co.uk)
• 'Fly Mo' soars after tucking into Haggis (independent.co.uk)

Superb publication from Australia, Inside Athletics should be on your desktop, check out this  link (http://www.insideathletics.com.au/magazine) to get subscription information. Nicely designed, well-written, and full of photos of some of the top Australian athletes. I particularly liked the emphasis on some of the new athletes. Inside Athletics uses the same digital publisher as American Track & Field. We hope that you enjoy it! 

In another innovative event at the BUPA series, team USA men took 2nd in the first BUPA Great Ediburgh International Cross Country Challenge. Team USA finished three points down from Team Europe.

Mo Farah, the European champ at 10,000m and 5,000m, won by nine seconds over Galen Rupp...

Mark Hoffman of the National Coaching Senate sent this on to me before the holidays, and
I forgot to post it. This looks like a very worthwhile event. RBR encourages all coaches, to go to their state coaching clinics each and every year and try a nearby state once in a while too! Coaching effectively is about always keeping one's eyes and ears open for new and innovative techniques and perhaps a new approach to a present conundrum. 

Face it, big guys rule! First, Chris Solinsky breaks 27 minutes for the 10,000 meters, and then he runs sub thirteen minutes for 5,000 meters three times in one season. Now, rumor has it that 2010 European Champion at the discus, Piotr Malachowski, runs a seven minute personal best in the 10k road run at a race in Brzozie, Poland! Is he considering a move to the 10,000 meters? Inquiring minds want to know!

Well, Haile seems to be over his injuries. Breaking the course record and putting 29 seconds on the fastest 10,000 meter runner of 2010 (Josephat Kiprono), Haile Gebrselassie ran 28:05 to start off the New Year of 2011 in style! The race was the 55th running of the Sao Silvestre race in
Luanda, Angola! 

Happy New Year to all! 2011 will be an amazing year in our sport. European Indoors in March in Paris and World Cross in March in Spain. The second Samsung Diamond League in 2011 and the World Outdoor Champs in Daegu, Korea! It will be track geek heaven!

In this column, Alfons Juck, our intrepid man about the world, looks back at 2010 and gives you his moments and big performances ( I will give you mine this coming weekend). I agree with the Juckster on many of his comments. The one we do completely agree is the 2.05m high jump AR for Chaunte Howard, and then, her 6.90m long jump! I have to admit I was worried that she would get hurt that day, but Chaunte proved me wrong! What a day!