Olympic Flame.........The final route of the Olympic flame as it travels around Britain has been revealed. It was thought that perhaps it might have made a quick detour to Dublin but it doesn't seem so if the map is to be believed. News story HERE
London Olympic Posters......Bizzare is probably the best word to descibe the designs. Many of them don't look so much abstract as more like they were done by a 4 year old ;o) The designs can be seen HERE while some of the more iconic posters of previous games can be seen HERE
Running as Therapy.......BBC Sport have this piece on when you need to tune out from the pressures of life......HERE
Appearance Fee's......This article delves into the world of elite Marathon runners annd appearance fee's. While the piece supports them, it gives a good insight into just what it takes to assemble an elite field. For some major Marathons, it's no longer a case of just turning up and the best man wins. Now it's runners and their agents negotiating an appearance fee. It's big business as race directors try to put together exciting races with fields that will draw media and spectator attention; world records, course records, world and Olympic medals. The article can be seen HERE
How much is a Marathon worth?......Appearently, if it's the Los Angeles Marathon then it is worth something under $20 million!! Major city Marathons are big business indeed with entry fee's to match. The LA Marathon attracts some 25,000 runners and it costs $145 to enter......and that's the early fee! Article HERE
Marathon Bandits!......Perhaps it's not suprising that with entry fees in the USA of $145 for the LA and Chicago Marathon and $115 for a Half-Marathon, some people decide to gate-crash. Seemingly, it's an ongoing problem at a lot of events. For the 12k 'Bay to Breakers' race in San Francisco, the number of bandits nearly equaled the official field of 50,000. Last year, they decided to crack down as "Bandits were the No. 1 leading cause of property damage during the race,". The reason?......"They were drinking quite a lot of beer and wine out on the course." ;o) .......The article is HERE
...and finally....The New York Marathon.......Geoffrey Mutai ran 2:05:06 last Sunday to win the New York City Marathon and to take 2m 37s off the ten-year-old course record of 2:07:43
On a course not known for producing fast times, Mutai’s 2:05:06 performance is one of the top-20 clockings of all time. If you consider that he was only 88 seconds outside the Marathon world record of 2:03:38 and he didn't have the benefit of an army of pacers, it's an incredible time. Even the 2009 winner Meb Keflezighi ran the course yesterday two seconds faster than his winning time in 2009, and came 6th.Reports on the New York Marathon on the IAAF site and Athletics Weekly.
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