Ryan Hall's Blog, page 299

January 19, 2016

Louisiana Marathon Winner DQ’ed For Receiving Outside Assistance

Mandy West was DQ'ed from the Jan. 17 Louisiana Marathon after finishing in 2:49:26. Photo: Facebook

According to several reports, Mandy West, 39, the first female finisher at the Jan. 17 Louisiana Marathon, was disqualified shortly after the race for “receiving assistance.”

Danny Bourgeois, the race’s co-founder, told The Advocate the disqualification was the result of a “technicality of assistance.” In other words, West, who works as a Nike sales rep in St. Louis, allegedly received aid from someone on the course who was not affiliated with the race or its 17 aid stations throughout the 26.2-mile course.

According to reports, someone on a bicycle allegedly brought West nutrition and liquids at several points during the race. Bourgeois said West was warned by race officials at least once during the race that outside assistance was prohibited under race rules.

After West finished in 2:49:26, race marshals consulted and shared the information with race director Jonathan Dziuba, who DQ’d her. Second-place finisher Amany Ishaq (3:07:58) was credited as being the first female finisher after the DQ.

In an interview shortly after the race, when West was still thought to be the winner, she said she was attempting to run 2:45:00 or faster to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials on Feb. 13 in Los Angeles. She said she ran alongside a male competitor who had that pace until Mile 15, when he “dropped off.”

“I was in no-man’s land and it was hard with the wind to gauge kind of where I was. To be honest, I stopped looking at splits,” West told The Guardian. “It’s a beautiful course, a lot of turns in certain areas, so I think that can slow you down with the wind. The crowd is amazing, and it was beautiful.”

According to reports, West was a two-time First Team All Ivy League basketball player at Penn and didn’t take up running until later in life after she played professional basketball in Greece.

West said she tried to get into the Houston Marathon, also run on Sunday, in an attempt to qualify for the Trials, but she “couldn’t get in.” She said the Louisiana Marathon was her first race in a year.

“Work is my focus,” West told The Advocate. “I run a lot, obviously I want to be competitive. But we’ll see, I think I might like to start getting into some trail running now.”

MORE: The Advocate

A handful of runners have been DQ’ed after being caught cheating in recent years, most notably when Mohamed Fadil was stripped of his victory at the 2014 Orange County Marathon. Fadil was the original victor in a course record time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 42 seconds, but the runner-up—Stephan Shay—protested after claiming Fadil had outside help during the race. Also, Kendall Schler was disqualified from the 2015 Go! Marathon in St. Louis after it was discovered she cut the course.

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Published on January 19, 2016 06:56

January 18, 2016

Nick Arciniaga Wins Star Wars Half With Epic Finish-Line Photo

Photo: RunDisney

The force was with Nick Arciniaga over the weekend in Southern California.

The 32-year-old, who’s in his final preparations for the Olympic Trials marathon next month in Los Angeles, defended his title at Disneyland’s Star Wars Half Marathon, winning the race in a time of 1:05:49. As he approached the finish line, his wife handed him a toy lightsaber, which he proudly brandished as he crossed.

“Did you see that?” the PA announcer shouted after Arciniaga finished. “He’s having way too much fun!”

It’s well-documented that Arciniaga is a huge Star Wars fan. When RunDisney started the Star Wars Half Marathon last year, Arciniaga told latrials2016.com, “I knew I had to run it. It speaks to me more than anything else. That will be the race where I want to have a streak.”

Arciniaga is a 2:11 marathoner and sponsored by UnderArmour. His UA teammate, Annie Bersagel, won the women’s race at the Star Wars Half in 1:15:09. Both used the Star Wars Half as a tune-up for the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon on Feb. 13.

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Published on January 18, 2016 14:22

4 Tried-and-True Running Secrets of ‘The Flying Finns’

Paavo Nurmi beats Edvin Wide to the win in Stockholm in July 1926. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

It’s hard to fathom there was once a day when runners from outside of East Africa dominated competitive distance running. But this was the case in the early days of the sport, when the likes of Hannes Kolehmainen, Paavo Nurmi, and Ville Ritola—all wearing the sea-blue Nordic cross of Finland on their uniform—were the first runners across the Olympic finish-line tape in nearly all the middle and long-distance events from 1912 to 1924.

Because of their success, these three runners came to be known as the “Flying Finns.” They laid the groundwork for eventual powerhouses like Kenya and Ethiopia. Hannes Kolehmainen, a bricklayer by trade, was first to win for Finland, garnering three Olympic gold medals in Stockholm in 1912. Nurmi and Ritola followed in the footsteps of “Smiling Hannes” with Nurmi setting 22 world records and winning nine Olympic gold medals throughout his career in the 1920s. Ritola still holds the Olympic record for the most track and field medals in one Olympics, collecting four gold and two silvers at the 1924 Games in Paris.

Despite the fact that it’s been roughly 100 years since the Finnish heyday, there are many lessons to be learned from these amazing athletes. What made them so great? How did their training and approach to competing differ from their rivals? What were the secrets of the Flying Finns? We’ll answer these questions and unveil some of their biggest secrets so you can apply them in your own training and racing.

Be “hungry” to prove yourself.

Ryan Lamppa, the founder of Bring Back The Mile and himself a Finnish-American, points out that Finland didn’t achieve its independence until 1917. “Finns had and have a strong sense of national and cultural pride,” he says. The Finnish runners, led by the legendary Paavo Nurmi, embodied and showcased that pride with their running prowess. Collectively, The Flying Finns were the New York Yankees of the era. Lamppa says that from this desire to distinguish themselves as a new nation in the relatively new modern Olympics helped the runners band together with a common purpose: prove that they were capable of competing with athletes from more established nations.

Keep your diet simple.

Similar to today’s Kenyans and Ethiopians, who consume fresh vegetables, starches like ugali, and raw milk, Finns like Kolehmainen, a vegetarian, ate whole-grain bread and drank milk sometimes straight from the cow. Thor Gotaas, author of numerous running books, including Running: A Global History, says that the Flying Finns grew up in mostly poor families and were used to the simple diet that complemented the demands of long-distance running. “Finland had a late industrial revolution compared to Norway and Sweden, and their diet became refined and ‘modern’ later than in many other countries,” Gotaas says. Because of Finland’s colder winter climate, the runners needed to consume more calories than modern-day East Africans, but the simplicity of the diet remains a constant.

The little things go a long way.

When Nurmi was competing, there was no such terminology, but nevertheless, the Finns embraced these concepts. Gotaas points out that the Finns cross-country skied during winter and came from farms where heavy labor on a daily basis was a way of life. Additionally, the Finns established a solid aerobic base in the winter thanks, in part, to copious amounts of walking. Tim Noakes writes in The Lore of Running that Finnish runners incorporated walking two to three times a week into their training—going as far as 60K—from January to March. And Gotaas notes that many of these walks were with a heavy backpack to strengthen the back and legs. Additionally, he says that a lot of their workouts took place in favorable, healthy locales. “They trained much on soft surfaces: in the woods, on snow and on roads in the woods, in fresh, cold air,” he says. Gotaas notes that the Finns also incorporated recovery techniques like sauna and massage between their workouts.

Toughness is a good trait to possess.

Lamppa points out that the Finnish language has a unique word that pairs quite well with distance running: sisu. “That [word] means grit, determination, bravery, never give up, fortitude and more, and the Finns take that word to heart (ask the Russians and Swedes who never could truly conquer the Finns),” he says. “The Flying Finns displayed plenty of sisu when racing.” Gotaas agrees. “It was taboo to show signs of weakness,” he says. “The Finnish sisu meant that a person should show strength and willpower.”

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Published on January 18, 2016 11:55

Photos: 2016 Carlsbad Marathon and Half

A scenic January race along the coastline of Southern California, the 25th edition of the Carlsbad Marathon and Half took place Sunday in northern San Diego County. The course ran for several miles on the Coast Highway overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The marathon was won by Newton-sponsored Fernando Cabada in a time of 2:18:14, a minute faster than Tekeste Nekatibebe. The women’s marathon was won by Mary Akor in 2:41:24.

The men’s half marathon was won by Yonas Mebrehatu in 1:05:14, with Simegn Abnet Yeshanbel winning the women’s half in 1:12:23.

Here are photos from the day, taken by Rich Cruse:

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