More Running News;
some old, some new

Visit the Archives page for previous stories and features. Also, the Side Trips section has news added throughout the week.

Ultra will return to Cowtown

The Ultra 50K will be back in 2009 for The Cowtown, Executive Director Heidi Swartz said. The Cowtown board of directors met in March and decided to bring back the event after receiving so much positive feedback. The 50K was added this year to help celebrate Cowtown's 30th anniversary and the distance almost matched the 30 in miles.

The 50K gives Cowtown a marathon, half marathon, 10K, adult 5K and children's 5K. There were 128 who registered for the 50K and 117 of them finished.

Lancaster Mile to tweak event for November

The 2008 Lancaster Avenue Mile, a point-to-point course and mostly downhill, has been for Saturday, Nov. 15th, at 8 a.m.  All proceeds will once again go to the Fort Worth Police K9 Support Group (non-profit).
 
This year's event is being coordinated with Jim Newsom from the Fort Worth Running Company, and Chris Mathis from Redstone Visual Impressions, announced Mike Deavers, an officer for the D/FW Airport Police, K9 EOD Unit.
 
``We are hoping to build on last year's success by providing transportation for runners to the starting line, simplified heat schedules, race day entertainment and cash prizes for the 'Elite Invitational' heat,'' Deavers said. Four of the elite men dipped under 4 minutes in last year's race. The race is over the same course that the once-popular All Saints Mile was conducted, heading down Lancaster Ave., from the Summit Ave. intersection to adjacent to Farrington Field.

Metroplex Team Cleans Up

Yes, we did it for the “fun” of it, but there was a competitive streak burning in each of us… if we were gonna run 203 miles in 24 hours, why not try to haul home some hardware?

This was the inaugural Texas Independence Relay, held March 1-2, 2008, and we were the “Trinity River Trash” team – a deceptively named group of racers from throughout DFW (and a mixer from Connecticut), ready to follow the course laid out years ago by those who fought the battles to win our great state’s independence.

After staying overnight near the race’s starting line in Gonzales, we made it to the little town’s square for our assigned staggered start time. The patriotic theme of the race and the overwhelming warmth of every volunteer and town we would encounter began there.

After a one-mile starting lap together as a team, our first runner peeled off and began his first leg of about 6 miles. The 10-person team (five men, five women) was divided between two vans, and one van was “on-duty” at any given time.

As Runner #1’s first leg neared completion, we waited for him at the appointed exchange so that Runner #2 from our van could receive the baton (a plastic slap bracelet). As this second runner took off, we let the first runner cool down for a few minutes, use the port-a-potty, then jump in the van as we headed off to the next exchange. This way, Runner #3 could be in place when #2 came into view, and so on. As the last runner in our van, #5, finished running, the second van was ready to take over, and their first runner (actually #6 for the race) was ready for the exchange.

When each of us in the first van had run our first legs (of the four legs we would eventually do), we found a little local restaurant along the route, and dined on very homemade chicken soup, sandwiches and baked potatoes. We had a few hours while the second van runners completed their first legs, then had to be ready to take over again.

Things started to get interesting as the sun went down, because we just kept running – only now it was pitch black, kind of lonely, and basically pretty scary. We wore headlamps, reflective vests, and clip-on blinky lights, but those barely stood up to the 18-wheelers that whizzed head-on in the lanes just beyond the shoulders we ran in, the drivers most certainly surprised by the crazy middle-of-the-night runners encroaching on their desolate territory.

Of course, the often-present scent of skunks was a reminder that a huge, roaring truck was actually more welcome than some of the lurking nocturnal wildlife we could have stumbled into or over at any given moment.

Because of the staggered start, we had not seen a single other runner from the race up to this point; but as 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning approached, that all-important competitive streak was going to provide some much-needed midnight oil. As we began to pass runners from other teams on the deserted highway, we stayed fired up by chalking them off as “bogeys.” We were starting to count and calculate any teams we’d spotted along the way, and wondering what their standings might be at this point?

As the last legs of the race entered the city of Houston, the one weak spot of the race organization came to light: poor markings (or complete lack of markings) on areas of the course resulted in added time and mileage to the race legs of four on our team. However, our collective need-for-speed filled in the gaps and powered us to the finish line at the San Jacinto monument.

The finishers’ medals – each a huge, heavy, encircled iron star that hung from a wide brown ribbon – looked and felt like they’d been cast from the star at the top of the monument itself.

As we wolfed down pizza and candy bars (we’d been dutifully chomping on rice cakes and Gatorade ever since that chicken soup the day before), we checked out the teams who might be vying for our title. Then sure ’nuff,  we got called up to the judges’ stand, and it wasn’t for some chintzy gold-colored plastic! This is TEXAS, and we each got awarded a generous Salsa Sampler box for winning Second Place in the Open Mixed Division, with a time of 25:38:55, at a pace of 7:33, in a field of  63 teams; and seventh of 113 teams overall.  (The team who beat us in our division came all the way from Los Angeles, so we’ll give it to ’em, eh?)

The ride home from Houston was quiet, with dreams of eating more real food, using real bathrooms, and spending the entire upcoming week catching up on lost sleep. Next March, there will be more Trinity River Trash blowing in on the Houston highways, and we’ll be cleaning up again!

  Ethiopian Misses World Best

(Press release posted on www.marathonguide.com)

Dubai (UAE): A blistering early race pace put paid to Haile Gebrselassie's world record chances at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Jan. 18, but the Ethiopian still stormed to victory in a time of 2:04:53 - the second fastest time in history.

Gebrselassie, who set the world best of 2:04:26 just four months ago, took the title and the richest-ever marathon first prize of $250,000 after running the final 12km on his own. Despite appearing upbeat with his 2-minute, :23-second advantage over runner-up Isaac Macharia of Kenya, Gebrselassie miss out on the $1 million bonus on offer for a new world record.

"Maybe the other guys were a little too good," he smiled, referring to the lightning pace set by the race pacemakers. At the 10K mark, Gebrselassie was 45 seconds up on his Berlin world record pace. At the halfway stage, that advantage had stretched to 61 seconds, giving him a potential finishing time of well under 2:03.

He maintained his world record charge until the 35K mark when he still had 25 seconds in hand. But the Ethiopian's early pace proved costly and in the end, the record escaped him by 27 seconds.

Conducted under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and staged under the aegis of the Dubai Sports Council, the race also saw the richest purse in women's marathon history. And it was early race favourite Berhane Adere who took the title in a new Dubai record time of 2:22:42.

Second home was fellow Ethiopian Bezenushe Bekele in a time of 2:23:09 in her first competitive marathon, while last year' champion Askale Tafa Magarsa made it an Ethiopian 1-2-3 with a time of 2:23:23, faster than her
winning time in 2007 but only good enough to take third.

Adere, winner of the last two Chicago Marathons, was delighted with her first Dubai title as well as the record prize-money of $250,000.2007 Total Marathon Finishers and Overall Demographics.

Record set for marathon finishes in the US

(From www.marathonguide.com)

2007 saw a record number of marathon finishes in the USA, with a 2.3% growth in the number of marathon finishers from 2006 to 2007, according to MarthonGuide.com. More than 403,000 marathon finishing times were recorded in the USA in 2007 (while we are estimating that this number will become 407,000 when the dust settles) - an increase from over 397,000 finishes in 2006.

With MarathonGuide.com estimates, the number of male finishers increased by 3.2%, while the number of female finishers grew by only 1.3% - the lowest rate ever. Continuing the trend which began in 2006, the gender gap has been widening, this year greatly, with men accounting for 60.5% of marathon finishes and women 39.5%. To further emphasize the loss of women to the sport, the average age of female participants grew, suggesting that the aging population of female marathoners was not being replaced by younger runners. On the other hand, the average age for male marathoners dipped slightly, meaning that younger men were helping to prop up the numbers and are showing support for the sport.

In total, MarathonGuide.com know of 340 marathons that took place in the USA in 2007, which was down from an estimated 350 in 2006 - but clearly, the average size of these marathons was greater than in past years.

Records set at Houston

(From the Chevron Houston Marathon site)

HOUSTON, Jan. 13, 2008 – More than 20,000 participants, a race record, lined up on a weather-perfect morning for the 36th running of the Chevron Houston Marathon trio of races. Among the records set, Dire Tune obliterated her 2007 record by a staggering 2 minutes, 12 seconds for back-to-back victories in the marathon.

Tune, 22, of Ethiopia set a course record 2:24:40, besting her 2007 record of 2:26:52. Worknesh Tola, 30, of Ethiopia, finished second in 2:35:37.

In the men’s race, David Cheruiyot, the 2005 and 2006 marathon winner, returned to Houston to claim his third victory in four years.

Cheruiyot, 37, of Kenya had a closer race, finishing in 2:12:32, just 13 seconds ahead of Kasime Adilo of Ethiopia. With his victory, Cheruiyot joins Stephen Ndungu as the second three-time winner of the Houston Marathon.

In the Aramco Houston Half Marathon, which serves as the USA Half Marathon Championships, James Carney clocked a 1:02:21, eleven seconds ahead of Jason Lehmkuhle. Kate O’Neill, 27, broke the tape in 1:11:57, 13 seconds ahead of Desiree Davila.

See some of the top area times in Side Trips.

Ricky Cox, Ed Swiatocha among
Texas Road Racing Hall of Fame selections

Two Dallas-Fort Worth well-known runners, Ricky Cox and Ed Swiatocha, are two of the recent selections for the Texas Road Racing Hall of Fame. Cox is a three-time winner of the Cowtown Marathon (1982, '83, "86),and an Olympic Trials qualifier in '84. He began and conducts the weekly Trinity 5000 Summer Series in Fort Worth. Swiatocha is a two-time winner of the White Rock Marathon (1985 and '86) and also won Cowtown ('87) among his achievements. He also qualified for the Olympic Trials in '88.

Cox also owns a finish line company and times several area races. Swiatocha, who works for Luke's Locker, helps at finish lines, and has coached hundreds of runners.

Others selected to the Hall of Fame are Seymour Liebermann; Tom and Mary Anne McBrayer; Dan Green; and Dorothy Doolittle.

Liebermann is credited with inventing jogging and starting the Junior Olympics. The Memorial jogging trail is named for him.

The McBrayers, of Houston, are long-time race directors and race committee chairs. Tom issues USATF-RRCA certifications for Texas road races.

Green is a longtime Woodlands High School cross country coach who led teams to 30 district titles, 25 region titles and 13 state championships.

Doolittle coached high school in the early '70s, and also at Missouri, Stanford and Tennessee. She's retired and living near San Antonio.

The selection committee also picked the Beach to Bay Marathon Relay as a Hall of Fame race.

San Antonio will be rocking
with inaugural Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in 2008

Elite Racing, Inc., organizer of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series has announced that the City of San Antonio will be the new home of the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon & ½ Marathon. The inaugural race is set to run through San Antonio on Sunday, November 16, 2008 and will replace the city’s existing marathon. Organizers expect to draw more than 15,000 runners and walkers to the event, which will feature 70 live bands along the marathon and half-marathon courses. Read the rest of the story.

• El Scorcho. which had a midnight start, was cool, says one of the 50K participants, Kelly Richards. See her story.
• OK, all you runners; you don't have to be worried about being beaten by a 10-year-old anymore. No, Molly Tucker isn't moving; she's just getting older. Molly, who won overall women's titles and lowered her 5K PR to 18:05 in her brief road-race career at 10 years old, turned 11 on July 6, 2007.
• USATF plays wrong tune with audio ban, says one runner. Read what Jim Robertson has to say about the rule.
• Three area triathletes gain entrance into the Seven Continents Club by finishing the Safaricom Marathon in Africa. See report.
• Read Fiona Green's report about her return home and competing in the Great Edinburgh Run in Scotland on May 6. She lined up close to the elites and was (briefly) captured on TV.