Fast Running Blog

1: T. Dibaba 29:54 OR/ NR  Ethopia
2: E. Abeylesse 29:56  NR   Turkey
3: S. Flanagan  30:22   AR   USA

Caught the race live online; Flanagan finished and it seemed she didn't even know she had won bronze. It looked like someone had to tell her. There were that many lapped runners!

Is there a link for an online replay?

should be on NBC tv today sometime btw 10:30-12 (check the nbcolympics website). i don't know when.

i watched on on http://www.aelling.lir.dk/public/  some danish tv thing live streaming the olympics. i've been able to see all the TnF heats on there (100m heats, 3000 steeple, hept, 110h, 400h, etc) Click on the TV, then on the bottom left box click SportTV, then on the bottom right click Danmark Beijing 1 Olympics Live 790 Kb. No replay though.

Let me know when you find a video of the race. I have already searched for it on nbcolympics (it probably won't be there until after its replay late tonight) and on youtube.  No success yet.

Definitely post a link if anyone finds it.

I wonder if Adam's website will show the marathon live tomorrow (which would be around dinnertime for us)?

By the way, apparently the story gets even better- she almost didn't run due to stomach problems! http://www.usatf.org/news/view.aspx?duid=USATF_2008_08_15_10_05_05

Thanks for the update. I second Jon PLEASE if anyone has the full coverage of the marathons let me know. It was great being able to watch the trials at my leisure and replay the parts I wanted to see again.

Thanks for the info and links.

I thought they did a good job broadcasting most of the marathon.  Too bad Magdalena and Deena DNF'ed.  Congrats to Tomescu Dita on a bold race and gold- Cody and I started really rooting for her since she was the one bold enough to finally make a move.  Good race.

Jon, I completely agree I was surprised how good the coverage actually was. I hope they do the same for the men's race.

I think it was great coverage because there were no other events scheduled before 9am their time.  I do have to admit I actually wanted the leader to get caught because it would have made the race more interesting.  As I have reflected, though, I feel bad for feeling that way because she really was brave and strong and deserved the gold.

Michelle, At first I felt the same way. But she took a chance and it paid off. I heard her in an interview this morning and she truly sounds like she deserved that win for being so gutsy. Even the bronze medalist sounded happy with her performance though I felt bad for her being so close on home soil and "missing it"...

It was a good race. Did anyone else notice that her 1+ minute lead was only 22 seconds or so by the end? Was she running out of gas, or just enjoying her victory lap (or losing time by looking back so much). I felt bad for Radcliff; I was rooting for her, but she just didn't have the fitness for it after the injury. Kudos for trying though.

I did notice that.  I think it was probably a little of both.  She didn't have anyone she was battling for position with.  While #2 and #3 were kicking for the silver.  I think that was the reason for at least half of the difference. 

I noticed that, as well.  However, she sure did not look like she had slowed down at all.  I think the others just kicked it up quite a bit while she maintained about the same pace.

It makes you wonder if the chase pack could have caught her if their fire had been lit earlier.

I bet they could have.  The commentators also stopped commenting on the lead in the last few minutes, so we weren't aware of changes- I thought she might finish her last lap before anyone else entered the arena, so was surprised how close they were. 

Gay, Kastor, Lagat? I can't say that I'm dissappointed because they are all great athletes but what is happening to the US runners at the Olympics? We all know very well how hard it is to hit that one peak race (which makes Phelps that much more amazing) but...

Well, Gay was already injured. Kastor broke her foot. Don't know about Lagat. Then Flanagan makes up for some of that (considering most years the U.S. won't take home a single distance medal).

I was rooting for Tomescu-Dita for two reasons. One, I like the no mess around break away approach. Two, she chicked me in the Provo Run The Front 10 K in 2005 (by 48 seconds) so I felt some kind of an odd connection.  I did get to talk to her and Luminita Talpos who finished 18th in Beijing before the race for a little bit. Luminita chicked me as well, but only by 10 seconds. Her coach was quite a character showing up every half mile on his bike and giving long agitated pep talks in Romanian.

You can see everybody's splits at

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/AT/C73L/ATW099101.shtml#ATW099101

For those who ran the SLC marathon this year, the following might be of interest. Maria Portia who won SLC in  2:40 ran 2:35:19 in Beijing finishing 39th with a Peru record. So that gives you an idea of what you might have done in that race. This would have given me 2:29, 2:34 for Adam, 2:22 for Shin, 2:20 for Ndambuki, 2:18 for Gena Tuffa. Assuming no exceptional misery from 88% humidity, and other forms of distress.

Zuzana Tomas had some trouble, but made it to the finish in 2:49. You can read the report here:

http://runzuzanarun.blogspot.com/

Yes, and now I can post on the bragging board that I have provided valuable advice to an Olympian :-)

Did Dena really brake her foot? I didn't know that. Sorry Adam for venting false things on you blog. But how in the world did she do that in 20 min's of running? Or did she really? This could be some propaganda... J/K sucks if she really did brake a bone.

Broken bone in the foot- makes me cringe just thinking of that.  Ouch.

Here's the best article I have found about Deena.  Apparently it is truly a broken foot.

http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&ATCLID=1555417