Round up of news items from last weekend...Sun 9th Oct 2011

Here are a few news international news items from last weekend...

1) Woman gives birth hours after Chicago Marathon.......This was a story that was picked up by a lot of the mainstream media. This report from the Chicago Tribune......27 year old Amber Miller was nearly 39 weeks pregnant -- expecting her second child any day -- when she set off from the starting line of the Chicago Marathon Sunday. She ran and walked even as contractions started kicking in toward the end of the race. But she managed to cross the finish line -- and grab a bite to eat -- before giving birth to baby girl June Sunday night.

She finished the marathon in 6 hours, 25 minutes and 50 seconds. Not her personal best, but she did beat her husband. “Without training for it, he actually got a little bit behind,” Miller said. “But he was out there with me.”

Miller said the contractions started out "just randomly” during the race. “But I think just from running throughout the pregnancy, I’d usually get a contraction here or there anyway,” she said. “But then, a few minutes after I finished, I started feeling the contractions and they were coming every five minutes. So I think we waited an hour or so just to kind of make sure it was real labor. They were pretty consistent at that point.”

After grabbing a sandwich, she headed for the hospital and June was born at 10:29 p.m. Seven pounds, 13 ounces. Asked if she was going back to work today, Miller laughed and said, "No, I will not. I'm taking it easy today."

Article debating the merits of it HERE

Video clip HERE

2) Soccer Manager runs Half-Marathon by mistake..........this is one for the soccer buffs. Former West Ham player and current manager of Swindon Town Paolo di Canio unwittingly completed the town's half marathon after losing his bearings on the fun run course.
The 43-year-old Di Canio was supposed to sound the horn to start Sunday's main race before completing the two-mile short course. But the Italian took a wrong turn and ended up finishing the full 13.1 miles in one hour 49 minutes - 36 minutes behind race winner Dave Roper. "There were three options, I thought I should start with the fun [run] marathon but unfortunately we changed direction, kept going and followed the first group. Unfortunately I ended up doing a full half marathon plus 800 metres. Audio interview HERE

3) Runner hops on bus to finish 3rd in Marathon.......In the Kielder Marathon in Northumberland, England, Rob Sloan of Sunderland Hariers hopped onto a spectator bus at the 20 mile mark and was driven the six miles to the race’s closing stages. Then he jumped off, hid behind a tree until other competitors came into view and rejoined the race, crossing the finishing line in two hours, 51 minutes and one second to secure third place. He went on to tell a TV crew that he had given the race everything he could.

Except for a few small details.........like the guy coming 4th complaining about Sloan not passing him, the people that saw him on the bus and the people that saw him hiding in the trees! Eventually, he was disqualified. The Daily Mail have the full story with pictures and maps HERE

Update....The BBC have a piece on it HERE

4) .........and finally back to the Chicago Marathon again. The winner of the 2011 Chicago Marthon was Moses Mosop in a time of 2:05:37. Not only did he break the course record and claim the $50,000 course-record bonus, he also got the $100,000 winner's purse.

In the womens race, Russia's Liliya Shobukhova finished first for her third straight victory in the Chicago Marathon in a personal best time of 2:18:20, the second fastest time in event history and the fastest time in the world this year. The win and sub-2:20 time bonus were worth $140,000 in prize money, she’s now the second fastest woman in history.

So what does the start of a big city Marathon look like with 45,000 runners? See the video clip below....45,000 runners in under 1 minute (after advert)