Namban.org Forums

Dubai Marathon — Insane!

2012-01-28T12:57:07+00:00

Dubai is the richest marathon in the world. $250,000 first prize.

4 men under 2:05, 10 under 2:07, 17 under 2:10.

2:05:42 was 8th.

3 women under 2:20.

http://www.letsrun.com/2012/abshero-dubai-0127.php

Martin Fagan – sad end to his running career.

2012-01-16T02:38:09+00:00

Very good article on Fagan being recently caught using EPO.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/0116/1224310310398.html

Probably a good indication of the real pressures on the 99.9% of athletes who are very good, just not great. Glad I don’t have to make a living from running.

Galen Rupp 26:48

2011-09-18T09:32:55+00:00

Galen Rupp, recent Oregon graduate and now coached by Alberto Salazar (along with Mo Farah), broke the American 10,000m record with an amazing 26:48. This makes him the 16th fastest person in history.

The record had been 26:59 by Chris Solinsky, run in May 2010. At the time, Solinsky had been the first white guy under 27:00.

The meet was in Brussels. The 10,000 was won by Bekele in 26:43, fastest time in the world this year, who came back from 2 years of injuries and a non-finish at the World Championships.

Sammy Wanjiru Dead

2011-05-16T02:44:40+00:00

What a terrible, terrible tragedy. I am stunned.

I was in Kenya for a couple of business trips late last year and early this year, and in one conversation with a young professional Kenyan from our client we got to talking about marathoners, and of course, Sammy. He told me that Sammy’d been charged with threatening to kill his wife. He speculated (stress, speculated), that the wife’s family was behind the whole situation to wrangle money from him—a typical reaction to success in Kenya, apparently. So it is quite likely that these domestic troubles are behind this in some way. How tragic. He was such a young man who had enormous success thrust upon him. It must have placed all kinds of pressures on his life, which is now so sadly ended.

Rest in peace, Sammy. You excited and delighted us with your dynamic and powerful running. It is hard to believe you won’t be racing again.

80 year old man runs sub 3:30 marathon WR

2011-04-13T04:14:51+00:00

Surprised that Brett has not posted this as yet.

Here’s the article:

Ed Whitlock goes sub-3:30 in Rotterdam Marathon for M80 WR
Ed Whitlock went from a WR in the mile to a WR in the marathon in three weeks. Today in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Ed ran 26.2 miles in 3 hours, 25 minutes, 40 seconds. As Race Results Weekly reported in its last paragraph: “Race director Mario Kadiks did manage to have a world record on the day, however. Canada’s Ed Whitlock, 80 years old, ran a spectacular 3:25:43 (3:25:40 net) to smash the world 80-84 record of 3:39:18 set by Australia’s Robert Horman at Brisbane in 1998.” So how did you do on our prediction poll? Pretty good. About 43 percent of you said he’d run 3:25. Ed is pretty good, too. (Age-graded as 2:08:15.) Congrats on mind-boggling us again, Ed. “

http://www.trimes.org/2011/04/12/no-to-procrastination-ed-whitlock-smashed-the-m80-84-world-record-marathon-3254014-minutes/

CNN Video on Eri Okubo Running the LA Marathon

2011-03-29T00:33:32+00:00

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/22/japanese.marathoner.cnn?hpt=C2

A runner with a bank robbing problem – new film

2011-02-21T22:55:35+00:00

Looks great, even though I can’t understand the German.

From IMDB
“Austrian-German co-production, Der Räuber (The Robber, 2010), based on the real events. Tells the story about a long-distance runner, who had this extraordinary talent for long-distance running that he could have made a good living at, but instead, he specializes and excels in bank robbing.”

View trailer

This is getting ridiculous

2011-02-07T01:17:24+00:00

A Belgian runner has set a new world record by completing 365 marathon races in a year.
Link

Am sure Yoshida-san could go one better than this?

The First Marathon

2011-01-29T01:58:33+00:00

In case you missed it, yesterday was the anniversary of the first Marathon run.

Lead: The victory of the Greek forces at the Battle of Marathon helped set the course of western civilization.
Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: The ever-expanding Persian empire collided with the Greek city-states and their colonies on the Aegean Sea. A powerful Persian invasion force landed at the Bay of Marathon, twenty miles northeast of Athens, in the fall of 490 BC. As usual the Athenians were arguing. This time the debate swirled around who would command their army against the Persians—ignoring the fact that the Persians were at the gates. Finally, one of the generals, Miltiades (mil ‘tee a dees), was able to break the impasse and force a vote for a preemptive strike on the Persians. Apparently there was evidence that some Athenians were sympathetic to the invaders and, if the city waited too long, these seeds of betrayal would sprout.

Miltiades moved his outnumbered army down to the bay and waited. When he received word that the Persian cavalry was temporarily absent from camp he attacked, using the elements of surprise and superior weapons and armor. The Greeks won the day but, not willing to admit defeat, the Persian navy sailed around the Sunium Promontory in a race to attack Athens before the Athenian army could straggle back. According to legend, suspecting treachery, Miltiades sent a messenger from Marathon to Athens, a distance of about twenty-five miles, who announced the Greek victory and the looming threat of the Persian navy. The runner then died of exhaustion. This tale may be the basis of the modern marathon footrace.

The victory of the Greek forces at Marathon—and a decade later at Thermopylae and Salamis—meant that Greece would remain free of Persian domination and helped insure that Greek political forms and philosophy would continue to be among the primary sources of western civilization.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Mara out of London

2011-01-21T10:51:54+00:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/20/mara-yamauchi-london-marathon