Hobby Jogging: 9/18/11 - Raleigh, NC - The Magnificent Mile

With the last three weeks of my training being 24.5 miles, 17.5 miles and 16.5 miles, I wasn't expecting much today at The Magnificent Mile. The past eight months in general have been a drag due to severe shin splints. When will it end? Hopefully soon. Anyways, enough with the sob stories. The Mag Mile is a great race and as much as I knew today would not be a PR day, or anything close to it for that matter, I still wanted to hop in. How often do you get a chance to run a mile road race?

The Mag Mile also serves as the USATF State Road Mile Championship and is the first race of the Second Empire Grand-Prix Fall series. Maybe my shins will heal miraculously and I'll be ready to run strong the rest of the series. Hey, stranger things have happened!

Warming up the "kick"

Got in a good two mile jog of the course (forwards and in reverse) with John Simons beforehand and did some hard strides. I was as ready as I was gonna be. After announcing what seemed like half the field, we were off. The legs were moving, just not that fast. I got out good, but spent the entire race reeling people in. When I circled the capital and hit the halfway mark in 2:35-6, I thought the A-goal of 5:10 was within reason, but when I hit the 3/4 of the way marker in 3:58, I figured that was likely out of the picture. My legs just weren't ready to run that pace. I kicked home the last 400 as best as I could and saved one more sprint in the last 50 yards, to pass a local high schooler, to finish in 5:16, 4 seconds faster than my B-goal of 5:20.

What can I take from the race? Reassurance that it takes consistent training to perform and a good rust busting performance. Nothing exciting, but a good way to go through the motions of a pre-race warmup and all the things that come with that. Hopefully that'll help in the near future!

Charlie's Angels 2, Full Throttle

My friends and teammates faired great and it was fun to watch. John was a bit up on me in 5:03 (1 second off my 5:02 from 2009), Joe had a big breakthrough in 5:38 (20 seconds faster than he ran in '09) and Erin came in an impressive sixth overall in the Women's race in 5:23. All star blogger, Shelby Van Pelt, ran a strong 6:00 as well (although I know she wanted that 5:59). Performance of the day went to my friend from Winston, Molly Nunn, who ran 5:19 for fourth, one day after winning the Run for Green Half Marathon in Davidson, NC, as she prepares for the Wineglass Marathon (and an attempt at the Olympic Trials Qualifying Standard of 2:46:00).

After the races, we all got together and did a nice three mile cool down through Raleigh. The shins felt better here. Hopefully a sign of what's to come! Until then, it's run when I can, soccer on Tuesday and hopefully get to Winston early enough tomorrow to register for the Boston Marathon!

Also, congrats go out to The Athlete's Foot Racing's Joe Moore, who won in 4:20 and to TAF-ers on the road, Bobby Mack (14:03) and Sandy Roberts (14:13), who finished sixth and eleventh respectively at the USATF Road 5k National Championships in Providence, RI.

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Road Rage: Anthony Famiglietti is back for the USATF Road 5k Champs in Providence

Have you seen this man?

It's been a while since Anthony Famiglietti has competed. What better place to return than one where he has won before? Fam won the 2008 USATF Road 5k Championships and will start his drive towards qualifying for a third consecutive Olympic team with another run through the streets of Providence, RI tomorrow, in search of another National Championship at the CVS Caremark Downtown 5k. He's written a blog post about his return as well.

Fam's recently been training in Davidson, NC (right outside of Charlotte) and recently returned to the roads with a tune-up win at the Sunset 5k in Salisbury. Fam also attended Appalachian State for two years (before transferring to Tennessee) and leads a charge of runners with NC ties at Providence. USATF 8k Champion, Bobby Mack, will be among the favorites as he continues to have a breakout season. My friend, Sandy Roberts, will be making his USA Running Circuit debut. Both Mack and Roberts run for The Athlete's Foot Racing, out of Raleigh, NC (my team). Also out of Raleigh is Duke Law student, Lauren Bonds. Bonds has had a great past few years and will be representing Adidas Raleigh TC. All will be skipping out on the Mag Mile tomorrow (NC USATF Road Mile Championship in which Mack is a multiple time winner). Finaly, Stephanie "Pezz" Pezzullo, trained in Charlotte for a while, before relocating to Flagstaff, AZ.

Robert Cheseret, who is Bernard Lagat's brother, will be defending on the Men's side, as he kicked down Ben Bruce last year in the final steps to take the National Championship. An excellent field will challenge for the win, as many have traveled to Providence for the shot at the $30,000 purse. Aaron Braun and Ben True will be favorites, along with Fam, Mack and Cheseret, as Braun is currently 1st in the overall USA Running Circuit standings with True a close second.

Conquering one barrier at a time
(TrackAndFieldPhoto)

Sara Hall will look to improve on her second place performance from 2010 on the Women's side, and has a Fam connection as well, as she's spent some time with him working on her steeplechase technique. She'll likely choose that event to try to qualify for the 2012 London team. Hall is currently ranked fifth in the USA Running Circuit standings and could make a big jump with a win in Providence. An injured Molly Huddle won't be defending her title, but Hall will get plenty of competition from the likes of Julie Culley, Emily Brown, Pezz, Bonds and a strong field from all over. If the Runnerspace race coverage team team remains the same, Chris Nickinson will have the call on the Women's side.

Runnerspace will be streaming the race live tomorrow at 11:05am eastern and more information and interviews are available at http://www.runnerspace.com/USA-5km

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Galen Rupp gets American 10,000 Record of 26:48.00 in Brussels!

Rupp follows closely behind Kenenisa Bekele

Galen Rupp came to play today. He looked strong the entire run and held with the rejuvenated master, Kenenisa Bekele, until about 600 meters to go. Luckily, mid race someone posted the stream of the race and I got to see Rupp run the last 7 laps. He surged, ran with poise and hung on strong when Bekele put the hammer down for a strong third place finish behind Bekele and Lucas Rotich. He was rewarded with a new American 10,000 Record of 26:48.00! Full results are here.

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Diamond Dash: DL Final in Brussels sees Galen Rupp targeting American 10k Record

No pollen, no problems
(TrackAndFieldPhoto)

At 1:15 pm eastern today, the final Diamond League meet of the season will get started in Brussels, Belgium. At 1:25pm, the Men's 10,000 will go off with Galen Rupp taking on Kenya and Ethiopia's finest (including Kenenisa Bekele). Rupp will have one number on his mind, 26:59. Rupp was planning on going after this record earlier this year at Distance Night in Eugene, but a high pollen count spoiled the attempt. That won't be an issue today, and with highs in the low 60's, the weather should be great for the attempt.

Next up will be the Women's 1500 at 2:21pm. All American eyes will be on Morgan Uceny, as she attempts to take one more victory and clinch the Diamond League 1500 title. Maryam Jamal will be her biggest competition for the $40,000 pay day. Also in the field will be golden child, Jenny Simpson, as she attempts to rebound from a poor showing in Rieti.

The Men's 800 goes off at 2:45pm with another epic showdown between David Rudisha and Abubaker Kaki. A very fit Asbel Kiprop will join the mix to make things interesting as well, but no Americans will be in the field. At 3:13pm, the Women's Steeplechase will finish it's Diamond League season. Milcah Chemo leads this field with no Americans joining the party. Closing out the day will be the Men's 5000 at 3:38pm. Vincent Chepkok and a recently disqualified Imane Merga will lead another American-less field. 

Follow along at Universal Sports and UniversalSports.com

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Things I Like: Flotrack's new show, Run Junkie

There's a new running show on the block from the excellent team over at Flotrack. My twitter account was greeted to a tweet (from Flotrack) this morning, introducing their new show, Run Junkie. Hosts Ryan Fenton and Alex Lohr do an excellent job of keeping the news brief and exciting and interject some true track dork comedy. While there are other excellent recap shows like Runnerspace Live and the House of Run podcast, in my opinion, there's always room for more. Here's to the newcomer! Check out the first episode below:

Watch more video of Run Junkie on flotrack.org

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David Rudisha returns to the scene of the time in Rieti

King of the Rodeo
(TrackAndFieldPhoto)

Last year in Rieti, Italy, David Rudisha brought the heat; the heat being a 1:41.01 World Record in the 800 meters, his second of the season. Mr. Rudisha returns to Rieti Saturday to take aim once again at his heralded record, with personal pacer Sammy Tangui in tow. The race will go off at 12:05pm eastern, as Rieti is six hours ahead of the east coast.

There are a few other exciting distance races going on in Rieti as well.

On the Men's side, the 1500, which goes off at 11:38am, has World Champion, Asbel Kiprop, leading the way, with Amine Laalou, Nick Willis and Ryan Gregson leading the international field, and Americans David Torrence and Will Leer taking aim at the 2012 Olympic A-Standard.

Bernard Lagat leads the 3000 and has said on Twitter that he is taking aim at his 7:29.00 personal best. If he were to better that, he would set an American Record in the process. Tariku Bekele, Vincent Chepkok and others will stand in his way. The race goes off at 11:48am.

On the Women's side, Gold Medalist, Jenny Simpson returns to the track in the 1500. She'll have Spain's Natalia Rodriguez and Morocco's Btissam Lakhouad trying to take her down at 12:25pm.

Full schedule is available here. Full Men's Startlist is here and full Women's Startlist is here. For more up to the minute information, check out our Italian friend, Alberto Stretti's blog. He's looking for a stream and I'll post it if available!

Relive David Rudisha's 1:41.01 World Record last year:


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Diamond Dash: "Olympics in a Day" in Zurich Thursday

Cheruyiots of Fire
(TrackAndFieldPhoto)

Only a few days after the completion of the 2011 IAAF Track and Field World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, the always exciting Weltklasse Zürich Diamond League meet kicks off at 2pm eastern Thursday (on UniversalSports.com).

The distance action gets started at 2:15pm with the Women's 5000. Vivian Cheruiyot, coming off a very strong 5000/10,000 double at Daegu, leads a very strong field, including Daegu 5000 Silver Medalist, Sylvia Kibet, 10,000 Silver Medalist, Sally Kipyego and American, Shalane Flanagan. Flanagan's coming off an average 10,000 in Daegu and will look to bounce back and once again take aim at Molly Huddle's American 5000 Record; one that she's come within a second or two of breaking multiple times this summer.

The Women's 800 is the next distance event on tap at 2:50pm. This field is stacked with Daegu winner, Mariya Savinova, Silver Medalist, Caster Semenya and Bronze Medalist, Janeth Jepkosgei. It also has a hungy Jenny Meadows, who missed the finals in Daegu in being outkicked by Maggie Vessey in the semis. Alysia Montano will be ready to go as well after narrowly missing the Bronze by .06 seconds. Finally, Morgan Uceny will look to rebound after being tripped with 500 to go in the 1500 finals, only to watch fellow American, Jenny Simpson, take the Gold.

The Men's 1500 is the penultimate distance event in Zurich at 3:10pm, with Olympic and World Championship Gold Medalist, Asbel Kiprop, leading the way. His countryman and Daegu Silver Medalist, Silas Kiplagat, will look for revenge in front of the sold out (in advance) Zurich crowd. Another exciting entry will be 800 meter Silver Medalist, Abubaker Kaki. Kaki ran an excellent 3:31 earlier in the season and has mentioned doubling in the 800 and 1500 in London. This will be a great field to test himself against. Finally, there are two Americans in the field, but both are pacemakers. Old reliable, David Krummenacker, will be there along with 800 meter national champ, Nick Symmonds. It will be interesting to see how Symmonds handles pacing a 3:30-ish race (and how long he goes. My guess 1000 meters max).

The last distance event of the day is the Men's Steeplechase, which goes off at 3:35pm. Will Daegu dancing star (and Gold Medalist), Ezekiel Kemboi, be there? Yes, indeed. Paul Koech, who was left off Kenya's Daegu roster, will be there to challenge. The field is a little down beyond that, as Brimin Kipruto and the two frenchies (Tahri and Mekhissi-Benabbad) won't be there. American Ben Bruce will have his hands full and will look to improve on his breakthrough 8:19.10 personal best (that he set earlier this year).

There will be plenty of excellent sprint and field events going on as well as Zurich always gets the best talent. Watch live on UniversalSports.com or later on Universal Sports television.

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