Marathon

Watched the Olympic Mens marathon last night. Great race. The Americans went conservative and finished 9th and 10th. But, a new Olympic record was set in the heat. (86 degrees at the finish) From the start the Kenyans were part of the lead pack that maintained a very fast pace, the lead pack was only about 15 runners. The rest of the field rightfully counted on the heat to knock out the lead pack. One by one they started falling off. By 30k, the lead pack had dwindled to 3 and the Americans had moved up to about 15th place.

Ed Eyestone called the race exactly how it played out. The eventual winner, Samuel Wanjiru was superman today. He put on a surge in the final miles the others couldn't match. Of course the arm chair marathoners on the Striders board thought Ryan Hall didn't give his all. Sheesh. I hate to even read that dribble.

Anyone who runs in the heat knows how much it affects your performance. You can't go out at a pace that is to quick for the conditions, and be around at the end unless you plan on getting some kind divine intervention or something. This race only had one person who had the training, speed and luck to make it happen. The 4th place runner gave a valiant effort, but come up short.

Can't believe NBC gave the zealot who ran onto the course of the Athens marathon in 2004 so much airtime. The sidebar story was cool from the runners perspective. (Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima) I didn't realize the wacko was the same one ran onto a Indy car race. That marathon was a great race to watch. I need to go back and see where the winner of that race finished in today's race, it wasn't the top 10. (Defending Olympic champion Stefano Baldini of Italy, in his final marathon, finished 12th)

My running is coming along pretty well. Friday was a easy 5 miles on the golf course in preparation for a hard workout this weekend. Saturday ran 8 miles with Speedy a little quicker than I wanted especially for the heat, hopefully it won't affect this mornings planned 18 miler. Temperature will be a factor, so I plan to get out running by 5 am and miss as much of the heat as possible.