BBC Podcast looking back at the start of the barefoot running revolution

Back in 2009, the book Born to Run was published and it sparked a whole craze about barefoot and minimalist running. The origins of that book can be traced back to 2006 when an ultra distance race took place in Copper Canyon in a remote part of Mexico. The race between America's best ultramarathon runner Scott Jurek and a tribe of Tarahumara indians inspired a revolution in the sport.

Recently the radio programme Sporting Witness on the BBC World Service looked back at that event. The 9 minute podcast can be heard HERE

High Jump...Dick Fosbury and 'the flop'

For the majority of people, the high jump has always had one particular style...the 'Fosbury Flop'. The athlete essentially jumps over the bar head first with their shoulders and back closest to the ground with their legs trailing behind and then flipped upwards at the last moment. It may seem that it was always this way but prior to 1968, high jump techniques were completely different.

In the early part of the 20th century, the 'scissors' was popular but this was largely replaced later with variations of the 'straddle'. This technique was the dominant style until the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968 when a relatively unknown US high jumper called Dick Fosbury took the Gold.....(video HERE although it's a bit long)

The Guardian had an interesting piece on the 'Fosbury Flop' on Tuesday and how it changed the high jump forever.....Article HERE

In this interview, Dick Fosbury talks about the technique named after him and it's impact on the sport...

Guardian article on John Carlos and the black power salute of the 1968 Olympics...

This must be one of the most iconic photographs taken during any Olympic games. The 60's were a turbulent time in the US with the civil rights movement looking for equality for the countries non-white population. Just months before the Olympic Games in Mexico, Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

On the morning of 16 October 1968, U.S. athlete Tommie Smith won the 200 metre race in a world-record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia's Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds, and the U.S.'s John Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds. After the race was completed, the three went to collect their medals at the podium. The two U.S. athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty. Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride, Carlos had his tracksuit top unzipped to show solidarity with all blue collar workers in the U.S. and wore a necklace of beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed and that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage." All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges after Norman, a critic of Australia's White Australia Policy, expressed empathy with their ideals.

Both U.S. athletes intended on bringing black gloves to the event, but Carlos forgot his, leaving them in the Olympic Village. It was the Australian, Peter Norman, who suggested Carlos wear Smith's left-handed glove, this being the reason behind him raising his left hand, as opposed to his right, differing from the traditional Black Power salute. When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd. Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."

Norman passed away in October 2006 in Melbourne at the age of 64. Thirty-eight years after the three made history, both Smith and Carlos gave eulogies and were pallbearers at Norman's funeral.

The Guardian have an interesting article on John Carlos HERE

Ultra runner Caballo Blanco found dead in New Mexico wilderness...

Micah True, better known by his nickname, "Caballo Blanco", whose extreme-distance running was detailed in book Born to Run, set out on jog on last Tuesday in New Mexico but never returned. True, 58, whose extreme-distance running prowess is detailed in the book Born to Run, set out on what – for him – would have been a routine 12-mile run on Tuesday from The Wilderness Lodge and Hot Springs, where he was staying. He left his dog at the lodge and never returned. A search began the day after.
The body was discovered at about 6pm in a remote, rugged area of the Gila Wilderness, the New Mexico state police said. The cause of death was still unknown, but there were no obvious signs of trauma, incident commander Tom Bemis told the Boulder Daily Camera.

Michael Sandrock, a columnist who writes about running for the Daily Camera, knew True for at least 20 years and had run with him. He called True a pioneer of the sport of ultrarunning, which involves running extreme distances, often on gruelling terrain and many miles longer than the 26-mile (40km) marathon. He described True as a "legend" among ultra runners.

True was the race director of the Copper Canyon Ultra Marathon, a 50-plus mile race in Urique, Mexico, last month. He was featured in articles in running magazines and was a central character – known by his nickname, "Caballo Blanco" – in Christopher McDougall's non-fiction bestseller "Born to Run." McDougall said he based his book on the first Copper Canyon marathon that True organised. "It's heartbreaking because there was this unique, wonderful running party he put on in the middle of nowhere, and no one else could make this happen," he said.

Here is a talk given by Caballo Blanco back in 2010 about the now famous Copper Canyon race with the Tarahumara Indians in Mexico...
Part 1 of 3...

Part 2 of 3...

Part 3 of 3...

Final post for the Dublin City Marathon.....
The is the final post before the Dublin Marathon. I'll update the weather forecast below as close to the day as I can.

Good luck to everyone making the trip to Dublin. I know there is is a big group from Cork going but this blog gets visits from all over Munster and Ireland and I'm sure there are people travelling from every corner of the country. I guess we all have certain target times in mind but the main thing is to just finish the Marathon. You'll see I have a quote at the bottom of this page from the great Emil Zatopek who said... "If you want to win something, run the 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run a marathon."

It really is the ultimate distance regardless of what time you do...

This is a video I found some time back of John Stephen Akhwari in Mexico, 1968.