Ryan Hall's Blog, page 327

November 3, 2015

Ultrarunners Complete Chicago Marathon to NYC Marathon Journey

Alex Ramsey (left) and Patrick Sweeney after the New York City Marathon. Photo courtesy of Patrick Sweeney.

The plan sounded ambitious—run the Chicago Marathon, then run to New York City and run the New York City Marathon. It was a cross-country run totaling 850 miles with a hard deadline.

Patrick Sweeney and “Barefoot” Alex Ramsey went for it. And they did it.

The two had 21 days to get from Chicago to New York City, running a marathon at both ends. That’s more than 40 miles of running a day.

Not only did the two get to the start line of the New York City Marathon on time, they then went out and ran solid races to wrap up their challenge. Sweeney finished the New York City Marathon in 2:57:05 running in sandals, while Ramsey finished in 3:10:02, running barefoot.

Sweeney and Ramsey did the run as a U.S. leg of the Champions Walk for Peace, which was set up to bring awareness to ethnic violence in Kenya’s North Rift Valley. The day after the New York City Marathon, Ramsey and Sweeney symbolically passed the Walk for Peace torch to elite marathoner Wilson Kipsang, one of the co-founders of the Champions Walk for Peace, at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan.

They are still accepting donations at W4P.org.

Sweeney and Ramsey certainly had the resume to take on such a challenge. Sweeney is a 2:37 marathoner who says he runs about 20 ultramarathons a year on average. Ramsey, meanwhile, has qualified for the Boston Marathon running barefoot, and has run the Leadville Trail 100 among other high-profile ultras.

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Published on November 03, 2015 08:57

Photos: Arizona’s Javelina Jundred Trail Running Races

Aravaipa Running’s Javelina Jundred 100-mile and 100K trail running races at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills, Ariz., send runners through an amazing Sonoran Desert landscape on singletrack trails with Saguaro cactus, granite boulders and dry wash-beds aplenty.

Paul Giblin of the UK dominated the 100-mile race, winning in 13:49:17, narrowly missing Hal Koerner’s 2011 course record. Meanwhile, Devon Yanko of San Anselmo, Calif., obliterated the women’s 100-mile course record with an eye-popping 14:52:06 effort. “Overall it was awesome,” said race director Jamil Coury. “Good weather and some incredible performances! Devon was unreal out there! We had a DJ at the start/finish and everyone seemed to have a great time.”

Here are some of the scenes of this year’s event from photographers Melissa and Deron Ruse of Sweet M Images. For full results, go to aravaiparunning.com.

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Susan Collins-Pulick, 52, of Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Clint Welch, 38, of Carmichael, Calif., grind out the miles and take in the views in the 100-mile run. More than 500 runners registered for the Javelina Jundred 100-mile race this year (making it the second-largest 100-miler in the U.S.) and another 138 ran in the 100K race.

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Wonder Woman, aka, Alicia Judy, 45, of Cave Creek, Okla., cruises along on her way to a 27:10:43 finish in the 100-miler. Given that this year's 13th annual event was held over Halloween weekend and the race director Jamil Coury encouraged "Jalloween" and Day Of the Dead themes, many runners ran in seasonally appropriate race kits.

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Prolific 100-mile runner Catra Corbett dresses up in colorful race kits everywhere she goes, but her Halloween-inspired get-up was still pretty remarkable. Corbet, 50, of Freemont, Calif., finished the 100-miler in 27:53:16, placing 201st overall and 54th among women.

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Jordan Camastro, 32, of Tucson, Ariz., and Erin Dial, 28, of Tucson, Ariz., looked like they were ready for trick-or-treating during the 100-miler.

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Breanna Cornell, 23, of Florence, Ala., was fifth among women in the 100K in 12:42.

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Suzanna Guadarrama, 27, from Hollywood, Calif., was the 12th fastest woman (22:33:38) in the 100-miler, but we don't think she wore this costume the entire way.

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Tracy Dimino, 44, of Ramona, Calif., stays a few strides ahead of Gean Ivan Dagnino, 40, of Mexico in the 100-miler. Dimino finished third among women (20:10:24), while Dagnino was 55th overall and 46th among men (22:16:03)

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Catra Corbet and Lisa Kravetz, 52, of Scottsdale, Ariz., ham it up for a photo opp.

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Runners' headlamps dance along the horizon with the setting sun over the Sonoran landscape.

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David Bliss, 53, of Phoenix, is having a bad hair day en route to a 27:52:41 finish in the 100-miler.

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That's Gordy Ainsleigh, 68, of Meadow Vista, Calif., dressed up like the ultra legend he is during the 100-miler.

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Elycia Bechard, 27, of Ashland, Ore., and Eric Compton, 36, of Los Angeles rack up the miles.

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Leo Fung, 25, of Calgary, having fun on his way to a 25:25:24 finish in the 100-miler.

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Shinano Hazlett, 48, of Cardiff, Calif., floats like a butterfly through the 100K course, eventually finishing 11th among women in 14:40:03.

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Um ... Brian Tinder from Flagstaff, Ariz., does his best Borat impersonation in the 100-miler. No place to pin a race bib onto that pair of shorts, huh?

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Here's Brian Tinder wearing a lot more clothing.

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Vasile Samartinean, 40, of Surprise, Ariz., on his way to a 13th-place finish (10th among men) in the 100K (11:57:23).

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Here's Peter Kleuser, 38, from Nashville, Tenn, hanging out at the lap turnaround point, where runners switched directions. Kleuser finished the 100-mile race in 23:49.

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Karl Meltzer, the winningest 100-miler runner in the world, turned in another strong effort and finished sixth overall in this one (16:31:02).

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Mirna Valerio, 40, of Rabun Gap, Ga., finishes the 100-miler in 25:59:55.

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Stacey Cleveland, 37, of Penticton, BC, Canada, is all smiles on the way to a ninth-place finish among women in the 100-miler (21:48:26).

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Still life with a cactus in the setting son. Not much needs to be said about this one.

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Don't be frightened, that's really just Jakob Herrmann, 44, of Yorba Linda, Calif., at some point on his way to a 27:22:44 finish in the 100-miler.

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Paul Giblin, 38, of the UK, was the overall winner, as he stormed the course in 13:49:18 to win by more than an hour. He finished about 90 seconds off of Hal Koerner's 2011 course record.

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Devon Yanko, 33, of San Anselmo, Calif., had an amazing race and broke the year-old course record held by Kaci Lickteig by 48 minutes. Yanko finished second overall in 14:52:06, four and a half hours ahead of the second-place woman.

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Karim El Hayani, 21, of Seattle, dominated the 100K race, winning in 9:29:14.

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Is this the most organized (and colorful) drop-bag system in the world?

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Race director Jamil Coury congratulates Paul Giblin after he won the 100-mile run in near-record time. The Jundred will be a "future" race for the Ultra Trail World Tour next year, which should bring more international competitors.

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Published on November 03, 2015 08:45

ESPN To Broadcast TrackTown Summer Series In 2016

ESPN and TrackTown USA have agreed to a multi-year agreement to televise the launch of the TrackTown Summer Series beginning in 2016.

The TrackTown Summer Series—an idea which first surfaced with a trio of High Performance meets at Hayward Field (2006, 2007, 2008) leading up to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and was followed by the highly successful Run TrackTown High Performance meet held in conjunction with the 2014 IAAF World Junior Championships—is a new domestic circuit of scored track and field meets featuring competition between top teams of elite athletes in cities on both the East and West coasts. The Series will culminate with a championship meet at historic Hayward Field on July 29, to be televised on ESPN or ESPN2.

“This is outstanding news for our sport,” TrackTown USA President and 2016 U.S. Olympic men’s head track & field coach Vin Lananna said. “We look forward to continuing to explore fresh and creative ways to spark interest in track and field in the U.S. We are excited about providing expanded competitive opportunities in the U.S. during the summer for our high-end athletes as they peak for major global championships. This kind of national exposure is hugely valuable for our athletes, fans and the entire sport.”

The TrackTown Summer Series was designed to give American track and field athletes world-class competitive opportunities on U.S. soil during the summer, something that has alluded them in years past and forced them to compete on the robust European track circuit. The agreement with ESPN will shine a spotlight on those athletes and provide viewers with a spectator-friendly window to watch their extraordinary performances.

“ESPN is proud to work with TrackTown USA and to televise the new TrackTown Summer Series, which will showcase some of the best athletes in the sport,” added Doug White, ESPN senior director of programming and acquisitions.

Allyson Felix, one of the most decorated female sprinters of all-time, was enthusiastic in her praise of both the TrackTown Summer Series and the broadcast agreement with ESPN.

“I am always looking for great ways to connect and engage with the fans of track and field,” Felix said. “To be able to do that at home is incredibly special and I’m excited to see more track televised in the U.S.”

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Published on November 03, 2015 07:41

The Evolution of the Marathon’s Fastest Men

Photo: PhotoRun.net

Geoffrey Mutai had no doubt that running 26 miles and 385 yards in less than two hours was physically possible. The performance, he believed, was within his own body. What stopped marathoners from running faster, he believed, was not so much the structure of their bodies as the structure of races. There was no point thinking about the two-hour marathon when you saw how the sport existed in 2012—namely, a few exceptional athletes lined up twice a year in a great world city, barreling 26.2 miles through the streets.

Occasionally, at night in his mountain hideaway, Mutai would fantasize about how the sport might evolve so that it became more about the limits of physiology than about winners and losers. He knew that in the right set of circumstances, people could run so much faster.

For a niche sport like professional marathon running, record times at a Sunday marathon are sometimes the only way to generate a Monday headline. So, between the organizers, the athletes, and Mutai’s manager, a plan was drawn up for the 2012 Berlin Marathon. The pacemakers were to take the lead pack through the halfway mark in 61 minutes and 30 seconds. If all went according to schedule, Mutai would finish the race in an “even” split (for exactly two hours and three minutes), or he would run the second half faster than the first for a “negative” split of 2:02 and change.

To a marathon runner of almost any standard, these numbers are enough to provoke nightmares. For an elite competitor, one’s predicted halfway split time is significant because it is a marker of what one hopes to achieve in the race. The marathon is, at its highest level, a delicate exercise in expending energy evenly over the entire course, and the fastest times are generally achieved when the second half of the race is run at the same speed (an “even” split) as, or slightly faster (a “negative” split) than, the first. Sudden rises or dips in pace can kill a record attempt stone dead. At many marathons, race organizers employ pacemakers, or “rabbits”—other athletes who for reasons of schedule, finance, or talent are paid a few thousand dollars each to run only a limited section of the race—to ensure that the lead athlete’s desired pace is adhered to, and to offer some protection against the wind. The rabbits are generally paid by distance: some will travel to halfway, some to 25km, and the strongest to 30km or 32km. From there, the racers are on their own.

At the prerace technical meeting in a drab conference room at Berlin’s Maritim Hotel, at noon on the day before the marathon, it was confirmed that Mutai had asked the rabbits to take him through halfway in 61:30. No athlete in the history of the sport had ever asked for such a fast split, but the other Kenyans in the room didn’t flinch. At least four of them felt confident that they could run 61:30 for the first half and still finish strong. However, when Jan Fitschen—an affable German marathon runner in the twilight of a career in which he had won, among other honors, the European 10,000m gold medal—was asked about the split Mutai had requested, he made an unfamiliar sound, somewhere between a giggle and a cough. A few minutes later, when the meeting was finished, he walked away shaking his head and laughing. Fitschen hoped to run the first half of the race in 67 minutes.

Ten years earlier, running the first half in 62 minutes and 30 seconds was considered suicidal. When Haile Gebrselassie ran his first marathon in London, in 2002, he asked the pacemakers for this very split—62:30—to widespread amazement. There was a belief that if a runner, even one as talented as Gebrselassie, were to start so fast, he would inevitably “blow up” in the second half of the race as his energy reserves dwindled and lactic acid flooded his muscles. A 62:30 split, it was thought, was a sure and painful way to lose money.

One of Haile’s competitors for the 2002 London Marathon was the world record holder Khalid Khannouchi, who was raised in Morocco and became an American citizen in 2000. When Khannouchi’s wife, Sandra, heard about the split Haile had proposed, she was apparently so incensed that she made a noisy demonstration of her feelings at the prerace technical meeting. There was no way, she said, that her husband would be joining this idiotic early pace. But come halfway, Khannouchi was with Haile and the other challenger, Paul Tergat—and evidently the pace did not finish him off. He went on to win the race and break the world record in 2:05:38.

Strange things had happened to professional marathon running since 2002. Not only had two minutes fallen from the world record, but the distance appeared to have changed genre. By 2012, the elite no longer considered the marathon a pure endurance event. It was a speed-endurance event. The world’s best had, in the words of the American commentator Toni Reavis, “out-trained the distance.” To explain the difference, many of the most experienced coaches used an automotive analogy. It used to be the case that marathon runners needed a diesel engine. Now the best had turbo-diesels. They were capable of both doughty endurance and devastating pace.

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Published on November 03, 2015 00:28

November 2, 2015

9 Must-Do Turkey Trots Across the Nation

Mile High United Way Turkey Trot

You can find an event pretty much anywhere on the busiest race day on the calendar—Thanksgiving. Yes, turkey trots are everywhere, as people enjoy burning a few calories before hunkering down for a feast. We offer nine of our favorites here, but you can find one close to you on our race calendar. Happy racing … and eating!

Dana Point Turkey Trot

Nov. 26; Dana Point, Calif.

This 38th annual event is a lot more than your traditional neighborhood turkey trot, routinely drawing more than 11,000 runners. The event features a health and wellness expo the day before, then a 10K, 5K, 5K Masters and kids’ run on Thanksgiving Day. There’s even a costume contest for those who want to run as a turkey.

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot

Nov. 26; San Jose, Calif.

This is one of the largest turkey trot races in the country, offering something for everyone. It features an elite 5K invitational with a $25,000 prize purse for the fastest runners, as well as a 5K and 10K run/walk for those looking to burn Thanksgiving calories. An additional costume contest and plenty of kids’ races make this a

family-friendly event in downtown San Jose.

Naperville Noon Lions Turkey Trot

Nov. 26; Naperville, Ill.

The 18th annual event in this western Chicago suburb has grown to be the biggest turkey trot in the state, with 7,500 participants every year. The neighborhood course starts and finishes at Naperville Central High School and attracts a range of runners, walkers and costumed participants. Spoil your appetite with the post-race pancake breakfast.

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Published on November 02, 2015 14:58

Photos: Inside the New York City Marathon

Competitor senior video producer Steve Godwin ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday and took his GoPro along for the fun. What he captured was an intimate look at what makes the race so great—the runners moving through the five boroughs, the spectators cheering them on, the sights of America’s largest city, and the block party that stretches for 26.2 miles with numerous cultures celebrating the event and the runners.

Here’s a look at the 2015 New York City Marathon from the point of view of one runner.

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Boarding to buses to Staten Island.

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On the buses.

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Once in Staten Island, you stay warm and get ready to run.

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Runners finding a comfortable spot and getting off their feet.

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Pre-race selfie.

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The elites run on the upper level (which everyone sees on TV), but many runners are on the lower deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

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Lots of runners use their apparel to relate a message.

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In Brooklyn.

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Brooklyn

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Funny signs all over the course.

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Manhattan

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More signs.

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The Bronx.

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Steve Godwin, crossing the finish line.

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Published on November 02, 2015 12:08

Photos: Best Halloween Costumes From the Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon

Although several races took place on Halloween with plenty of clever, wacky, spooky, and fun costumes, not many ran through a vineyard with wine-tasting stations and creative costumes like the Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon in northern California. Marking the end of autumn wine harvest, this Halloween-themed race passes through two dozen wineries along the course, starting at Virginia Dare Winery and finishing on the Trentadue Winery grounds for a post-race wine and music festival. From cruising shark pairs to a very Grouch-y individual, here are the best Halloween costumes from this year’s race:

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