Your friend has just run the Shamrock’n Half Marathon and you ask her how it went. “I was a few minutes slower than I was hoping,” she says. “But the course was a little long. My Garmin shows 13.3 miles so if I take off that extra two-tenths of a mile, I’m exactly where I should be.”
This, of course, is nonsense. Every race, and every race day, has its own idiosyncrasies. While your GPS watch may be a wonderful training tool, and amazingly accurate, what it shows during a race cannot be used to check the accuracy of the course measurement.
Although it will happen occasionally that a course is measured inaccurately, or marked incorrectly on race day, most are remarkably close to their specified distance.
Garcia, who placed 15th at the nationals in San Diego in 2009, decisively won this year’s West Regional girls championship at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on December 3rd in 17:46.
Coming in a bit back at the Nationals, but still quite respectably, was Vista Del Lago’s Clare Carroll in 27th position, at 18:18 on the hilly 5k course.
Complete results for the girls is here. The boys results are here.
Hitchings nearing the finish at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville
This morning, Sacramento’s Jenny Hitchings won the Huntsville, Alabama Rocket City Marathon.
After a near miss earlier this year in Eugene (2:46:10), Hitchings was aiming for an Olympic Trials qualifying time at last weekend’s CIM.
Fairly early in the race, she was off pace and knew it was not going to happen, so she dropped at the half-marathon point. Later that day, she joked a bit with me about finding another marathon to run the following weekend, before the qualifying window closes.
I have heard it said that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Is this still true?
Last weekend’s Las Vegas Zappos.com Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon is getting a lot of press and discussion on the boards this week, but it’s probably not the kind of news they were hoping for.
The place to be on the Friday afternoon before CIM is the Convention Center. There is something magical about being at the Expo when it is only filled with volunteers and vendors. It’s fun seeing the booths decorated, and bib numbers and goody bags being set out in expectation of the crush of nervous runners that will begin pouring in when the doors open.
Good luck everyone! It looks like its going to be a perfect day.
Many years ago, a co-worker of mine was seriously mauled during a run by two dogs. He survived, but suffered serious injuries and endured a couple weeks in the hospital and a long recovery.
After that experience, he recommended that his running friends always carry pepper spray, and insurance information. And for a long time, I did.
I never needed the insurance information, but I did use pepper spray a couple of times and I was glad to have it. I’ve been more slack lately, but after reading this story about a dog attack in Southern California, I might get more serious about being prepared again.
They were running on a dirt road that ran parallel to Lake Wohlford Road just south of the middle school when the dogs —- five of them, possibly pit bulls —- appeared. They dragged Richard to the ground and he started screaming, she said.
It looks like the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is taking a closer look at masters athletes, having suspended nine already in 2011.
The Associated Press has a story on the USADA’s new focus on masters athletes. As a masters athlete myself, I am personally pleased to see this new scrutiny of my fellow competitors.
Obviously, there are other opinions. Some athletes feel that it doesn’t matter what masters athletes do because there isn’t any money in masters athletics.
All the same, if I’m out there busting my butt in the hunt for an age group placing, I’d like to assume the other guys I’m racing against are all playing from the same rule book.
Since I’m not above naming names, I took a peek at the USADA’s press releases for 2011 and extracted the following list of master track and field athletes who were sanctioned for some doping violation. Read the rest of this entry →
The average weight gain during the holiday season is 8 – 12 pounds. Yikes! That’s probably not the gift you want to give yourself this year. If you’re getting to the point where you’d rather nap than exercise maybe these tips can help.
I especially like tip #2: “Sign up for a fun-run with your family. For a list of events check out SacramentoRunning.com.”
