Finding runners

I found another runner yesterday! Since Jason is teaching, we live on campus at the boarding school where he works. Shortly after we moved here, our neighbors introduced themselves and I have been running a few times with Shari. Yesterday, I was running on my own and as I came out of our road onto the main road, I noticed a woman running just a bit in front of me. So I ran to catch up with her. Her name is Crystal. Turns out, I may be able to find quite a few people to run with around here if I so desire. Great!

More Olympic results

Women's 5k

1 Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 15:41.40
2 Elvan Abeylegesse TUR 15:42.74
3 Meseret Defar ETH 15:44.12
9 Kara Goucher USA 15:49.39
10 Shalane Flanagan USA 15:50.80
14 Jennifer Rhines USA 16:34.63

Men's 5k

1 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 12:57.82 (Olympic Record)
2 Eliud Kipchoge KEN 13:02.80
3 Edwin Cheruiyot Soi KEN 13:06.22
9 Bernard Lagat USA 13:26.89
13 Matthew Tegenkamp USA 13:33.13

Men's Marathon

1 WANJIRU Samuel Kamau 2:06:32 Kenya (Olympic Record)
2 GHARIB Jaouad 2:07:16 Morocco
3 KEBEDE Tsegay 2:10:00 Ethiopia
9 RITZENHEIN Dathan 2:11:59 United States
10 HALL Ryan 2:12:33 United States
22 SELL Brian 2:16:07 United States

I watched most of the men's marathon on Saturday evening. In only his 3rd marathon, the 21-year old Wanjiru claimed Kenya's first Olympic gold medal in the event (believe it or not!), and in olympic-record fashion. He ran his first late last year. First mile: 4:41. First 5k: well under 15 minutes. No one thought that they could sustain that pace for 26.2 miles in 85+-degree heat. Ritz and Hall knew that they couldn't, so they dropped back and hoped that the lead pack would eventually follow suit, but it never did. Despite sustaining a stress fracture in his foot 12 weeks ago, Ritz ran well. Hall didn't run as well as he has in the past. He ran a 2:06 in London earlier this year and said that he didn't have those same legs in Beijing. I think it was the heat. His previous three marathons were run in ideal weather conditions: two Londons in April and the Olympic Time Trials in Central Park in November. Sell plans to return to his job at Home Depot. This is the first time since the 70s that two Americans finished in the top 10; overall: good showing. Fourteen-Hundred some odd days until London.

Beijing 2008 -- Men's 10K

1 Kenenisa Bekele ETH 27:01.17 (Olympic Record)
2 Sileshi Sihine ETH 27:02.77
3 Micah Kogo KEN 27:04.11
13 Galen Rupp USA 27:36.99
15 Abdi Abdirahman USA 27:52.53
25 Jorge Torres USA 28:13.93

Doggie farlek

I began my most recent run with a "doggie fartlek." (Fartlek means "speed play" in Swedish, and refers to periods of higher intensity broken up by slower recovery, though I assume you know that) I usually run with two dogs. Molly, the labrador, runs off-leash and the doggie farlek involves letting her run ahead and running faster after her until she stops to sniff something/chase a butterfly/etc. then I jog slowly until she tears past me again. This doesn't last too long, though, because she tires herself out and then just runs next to me. I don't know what kind of mileage I'm doing these days, but I'm doing runs that are about 45 minutes long or so. I'm definately not pushing the pace, though. Running is starting to feel "normal" again and I'm itching to enter a race. I've looked though, and races are definately fewer and farther between in this area than they were in Virginia.

Beijing 2008 -- Women's Marathon

1 Constantina Tomescu ROU 2:26:44
2 Catherine Ndereba KEN 2:27:06
3 Chunxiu Zhou CHN 2:27:07
27 Blake Russell USA 2:33:13
*Deena and Magdalena did not finish

Beijing 2008 -- Women's 10K

1 Tirunesh Dibaba ETH 29:54.66 (Olympic record)
2 Elvan Abeylegesse TUR 29:56.34
3 Shalane Flanagan USA 30:22.22 (USA record)
10 Kara Goucher USA 30:55.16
26 Amy Begley-Yoder USA 32:38.28

"Runners' High: Joggers Live Longer"

article

TRR

On August 10th, I did the Torrington Road Race, my first organized run since the Hartford Marathon in October of last year and since my surgery in January. I didn't push it until the last half-mile or so. Most of my miles were +9 minutes, but my last mile was closer to 8 minutes. Concerning my next run, Dan's put a bug in my ear about the 20K in New Haven on Labor Day. I don't know that I'll be able to cover that distance, even at an easy pace, but I'll be better able to gauge my endurance as that date nears.

For the people who still read this blog, is anyone down for watching any of the following Olympic Athletics' events?

8/15 - Women's 10k

8/17 - Women's marathon; Men's 10k

8/22 - Women's 5k

8/23 - Men's 5k

8/24 - Men's marathon