THE CULTURE OF RUNNING IN EAST AFRICA
Posted: February 16, 2012 in Journal Entries, Travels with ToniTags: Abebe Bikila, Belay Wolasha, Haile Gebrselassie, Mamo Wolde, Mike Long, Rich Jayne
Take away that they have grown up at an altitude higher than the New York Yankees salary cap, and cut through the air like double-edged blades, and a simple reason the Kenyans and Ethiopians kick everyone’s butt in distance running is, well, what are their options? Go to any East African village famous for producing championship runners and you’re not likely to find many currency manipulators, arbitrageurs, or Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme artists. And that just might be the corollary to why America has never produced very many world-class distance runners. We produce world-class most everything else. Something’s gotta give.
A post-industrial society is not running’s ideal sporting seed bed. Instead, as the numbers fully attest, running is much better suited as a mechanism for attaining solace, contemplation and general fitness. On the other hand, an agrarian society, especially one formed at high altitude, is running’s most fecund sporting petri dish.
You spend a few hours a day tending the animals and crops, walking along high-country dirt roads for transportation, eating fresh, unpolluted food, and dreaming big dreams in the black night air of winning thousands of life-transforming dollars at races in far flung capitals – like every fourth guy in the village seems to have done – and maybe running tops your to-do list tomorrow, too. By the same token, find yourself drowning in a pool of debt after spending eight hours a day scouring mortgage refi offers before scarfing down a stuffed-crust pizza or two per week, and your chances of feeding oxygen to working leg muscles at high speed just might deteriorate a tad.
“Anything is Possible”
During one of my visits to Ethiopia I saw a mural on a building in downtown Addis Ababa of Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia’s premier runner. Alongside the likeness of Haile was his motto, “Anything is possible”, writ large in Amharic, one of the principle languages of the country.
"Anything is Possible"
Read the rest of this entry »
CONVENIENCE
Posted: February 12, 2012 in HomeI could really use some ice cream.
Wait till the next commercial, and I’ll go over to Store 24.
Think they’ll deliver?
From across the street?
Down the road to convenience, no path is too short.
You’re diseased.
Thank you. Ask for Chunky Monkey.
END
BOSTON VS LONDON MARATHONS 2012
Posted: February 9, 2012 in News, OpinionTags: Boston Marathon, Caroline Kilel, Dave Bedford, Emmanuel Mutai, Geoffrey Mutai, John Hancock Financial Services, Mary Keitany, Virgin London Marathon, World Marathon Majors
Again in 2012, the two springtime World Marathon Majors, Boston and London, will be staged six days apart. Boston’s 116th annual sets off from Hopkinton on Monday April 16th for Copley Square, while London’s 32nd annual begins in Blackheath headed for The Mall along St. James Park the following Sunday April 22nd.
Today, 27-year Boston Marathon sponsor John Hancock Financial Services announced the professional field for the annual Patriot’s Day race, while London’s race director Dave Bedford released his women’s field back in early December before travelling to Iten, Kenya to announce his men’s field on January 20th.
Both events are loaded, as the crème of Kenyan and Ethiopian running look to make one last impression on their Olympic selectors before final Olympic squads are chosen for the return to London in August for the Games.
Boston’s field features defending champions Geoffrey Mutai (2:03:02, CR, WB) and Caroline Kilel (2:22:36) of Kenya. London parries with defending Kenyan champions Emmanuel Mutai (2:04:40, CR) and Mary Keitany (2:19:19). Boston will line up five sub-2:06 men (see below), London counters with ten.
London also has the edge in terms of depth on the women’s side with ten sub-2:23 women to Boston’s five, yet Boston brings together five champions from 2011: Kilel (Boston) and Georgina Rono (Eindhoven) of Kenya, Firehiwot Dado (New York), Aselefech Mergia (Dubai 2012), and Mamitu Daska (Frankfurt) of Ethiopia. London may have fewer current champions, but is Kenyan top heavy with defender Mary Keitany going up against 2011 Berlin champion Florence Kiplagat, and her 2011 World Champion namesake (though unrelated) Edna Kiplagat. Read the rest of this entry »
‘BRING BACK THE MILE’ Expands Website
Posted: February 7, 2012 in NewsTags: Bring Back the Mile, Ryan Lamppa
After a successful splash launch, bringbackthemile.com has expanded its website with a State Federation Petition requesting that the Mile be brought back to the State Championship level around the nation. The expanded website also allows for anyone to share photographs, videos or their written stories through the I Am the Mile sub-campaign. The website also features an ever expanding database of Mile news, history, trivia and athlete bios.
The initial launch on January 19 not only created “buzz” on the web and beyond, but generated almost 14,000 YouTube views of the Bring Back the Mile trailer and extended video as well as 1,000-plus Facebook fans and a Sports Illustrated “Faces in the Crowd” feature.
“We are heartened by the response that we have received since our launch,” said Ryan Lamppa, Bring Back the Mile Founder. “People have a love and a passion for the Mile, and our website bringbackthemile.com will be the Mile home on-line. Our front page feature is the high school state federation petition drive to replace the 1600-meters with the Mile at State Championships.
“In addition, a special thank you to the Bring Back the Mile Support Team including Olympians and Milers Jim Ryun, Marty Liquori, Carrie Tollefson and Leo Manzano and our Partners who have offered their support and feedback to get this national campaign launched,” Lamppa added.
The Mile holds a special place in track & field and beyond because no running distance, or field event for that matter, has the history, the appeal, the “magic” of the Mile. The first sub-4 minute mile by Great Britain’s Roger Bannister in 1954 is regarded as the greatest individual athletic achievement of the 20th century, and no other event has produced an equivalent of the sub-4 minute Mile standard in the sport, in the media and in the public’s mind.
Unfortunately, the Mile has lost some of its luster over the past decade, and the Bring Back the Mile mission is: To return the Mile to prominence on the American sports and cultural landscape by elevating and celebrating the Mile to create a national movement.
Visit www.bringbackthemile.com or contact media@bringbackthemile.com for more information.
The Bring Back the Mile Support Team media@bringbackthemile.com
GEOFF HOLLISTER & CHICAGO MARATHON SOLD OUT
Posted: February 6, 2012 in NewsTags: Joan Benoit Samuelson, Galen Rupp, Alberto Salazar, Nike Oregon Project, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Geoff Hollister, "There is No Finish Line", Carey Pinkowski, Tom O'Hara, Athletics West, Joseph Campbell, Millrose Games, Fire on the Track
Geoff as we knew him best
The sport of running lost one its true guiding lights today as news of Geoff Hollister’s passing was announced in Portland, Oregon. Hollister succumbed to cancer just days after his 66th birthday following a several year battle with the disease. Full story here
Among his many other talents, Geoff was instrumental in bringing Alberto Salazar out to Oregon, and this past weekend at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Al’s home town of Boston, Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project athletes Galen Rupp, Mo Farah, and Ciaran O’Lionard all wore specially designed singlets in honor of Geoff. Galen, who grew up in Eugene and attended the University of Oregon, like Geoff, was especially touched.
“He was so passionate about the sport,” recalled Galen last Friday, Geoff’s 66th birthday. “He brought so many new ideas, like Athletics West (the Nike-sponsored track team of the late 1970s). He really knew how to advance the sport. I’ve known him since high school, and he was always so good to be around.”
I’d known Geoff for over 30 years, too, and we’d reconnect every August at Joanie Samuelson’s Beach to Beacon 10k in Maine, where his laugh and embrace of life were always in full engagement. Though he’d long retired from Nike, Geoff kept busy in recent years using his arts background to produce documentary films, from the award-winning “Fire on the Track”, the tale of Steve Prefontaine, to last year’s “There is No Finish Line” showcasing the saga of Joanie’s rise to Olympic glory, and her continued influence on runners of all ages, genders, and abilities.
One of the original “Men of Oregon”, as writer and fellow Duck Kenny Moore dubbed the men who ran for legendary Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, Geoff Hollister lived a life that exemplified Joseph Campbell’s dictate to “follow your bliss”. May we all be so fortunate. Read the rest of this entry »
DIBABA RETURNS TO COMPETITION AFTER LONG LAYOFF
Posted: February 3, 2012 in At the RacesTags: Jenny Simpson, Meseret Defar, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Shannon Rowbury, Tirunesh Dibaba
Boston, Ma. – The 17th New Balance Indoor Grand Prix goes off tomorrow evening in Boston’s Reggie Lewis Center, showcasing some of track and field’s top talent before a sold-out, often frenzied audience. Six world records and 28 national marks have been set in this meet, and more will be in jeopardy tomorrow night.
Tirunesh Dibaba
Among the athletes returning to The Reggie is Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, aka “the Baby Face Destroyer”, who rose to world-class status at the tender age of 17, has eight world championship gold medals in her collection, and came into full flower with her double Olympic gold in Beijing 2008 in the 5000 & 10,000 meters. But since that career peak, it’s been a rough road for the 25 year-old Dibaba. After marrying Olympic 10,000-meter silver medalist Sileshi Sihine in October 2008, Tirunesh has been sidelined with a recurring bout of shin splints. In that time she’s missed two World Championships, Berlin `09 and Daegu `11, and now, as she enters the all-important Olympic year, she is taking her return to competition very slowly.
Tomorrow night in Boston, rather than butt heads with countrywoman and rival Meseret Defar, American 1500m World Champion Jenny Simpson, and 2009 World Championship 1500m bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury, herself returning from an injury-plagued 2011 campaign, Tirunesh will run the two-mile against a decidedly less glittering field.
“I have only had a few months training now,” said Tirunesh through translator Elias Kebede. “My goal is to run a very good time, and also be competitive.”
When I asked Shannon Rowbury why she decided to contest the tougher 3000m rather than the JV two-mile, since she, too, is coming back from a down year, she said, “the best way to know where you stand, especially early in the year, is to jump in against the best. That way you know exactly where you are and what you need to work on.”
While Tirunesh did get the better of fellow Ethiopian Gelete Burka at a 10K in Madrid January 4th in 31 minutes and 30 seconds, an athlete of her stature, freighted with the weight of expectations, lingers in a more defensive posture when revisiting the oval after a long absence. Read the rest of this entry »
HAVE RUNNERS CHANGED? PART2
Posted: February 1, 2012 in Guest Blogger Yesterday we opened a dialogue with the question, HAVE RUNNERS CHANGED? Throughout the day we received responses, including the following via e-mail:HAVE RUNNERS CHANGED?
Posted: January 31, 2012 in Guest BloggerTags: Running USA, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
Thirty years ago most avowed distance runners still retained vestiges of the sport’s flinty, outsider’s origins, a congregation of self-inflicting pain seekers bonded by the depth and quality of their gut-wrenched racing performances. How hard you trained and fast you ran were blistered badges of pride held up against society’s more traditional conventions. Revolutions of the local high school track held greater import than the arc of one’s career track. Today, those times and that image have long given way to a spirit of tempered inclusion where running serves as a universal bond of health and community involvement. Or does it?
Running USA staged its annual conference this month in Houston in connection with the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. As a member of the Running USA board of directors, I had occasion to reach out to members of the running community to voice their observations (anonymously, the avoid recriminations) about the state of the sport. The following perspective comes from a former race director, club organizer, and current running world vendor.
“Here in our little world, I have been involved with our running club for over 20 years, and I’ve seen a marked difference in engagement by the runners over this time. New runners don’t know common etiquette. It used to be that you could call out for help of any kind and lots of runners would raise their hand and say ‘I can do that’. Now it feels like there is much more of a ‘so who’s going to throw the next great event for me’ type of attitude.
Likewise, I’ve been involved with a local trails organization, a terrific ‘professional’ non-profit with a true working board and paid staff. It raises millions of dollars, creates both wooded and urban trails, raises non-motorized transportation issues within the community, grooms cross country ski trails, etc. They seem to have a lot of hands-on support from the biking and hiking communities, but they traditionally don’t get a lot of hands-on support from runners.
I don’t think our area has a lock on selfish runners (sorry for the negative bent here) as I suspect we are just a microcosm of the national scene. My point here is that runners just don’t seem to be as engaged outside of their next run or when they are out of Gu packets, yet any cyclist always seems to know what Lance had for breakfast yesterday. The numbers (and dollars) are with the numbers of runners at races all over this country (a positive), but I don’t think any solution will be found for running’s ills until we find a way to truly engage the masses.
It starts with a goal and a direction. There are lots of great ideas out there, but as we consider these great ideas every discussion should include the question, ‘h