1:03:00 ... ok, I did have to jog a couple yards to get that even ;-). Another beautiful day, another wonderful set of dirt roads and trails. I don't think I will leave.
August 15 is the beginning of the 12th World Championships in Athletics (track and field) in Berlin. There are at least 2 athletes here in Flagstaff preparing for the women's marathon. Yoko Shibui, from Japan and Paige Higgins from the USA (and Flagstaff). Nobby Hashizume (from the Lydiard Foundation) is coming into town today, to see Yoko, and Greg and the gang, and things are getting exciting as Paige leaves for Berlin on Friday. All of these athletes have sacrificed a lot for these types of opportunities, and it is awe-inspiring to see the final preparations for a very important race. It is easy for me to see why Greg (McMillanElite) chose Flagstaff for his training base, although I really liked Boulder I find running here a lot more fun ... almost never ending number of great places to run. Of course once the snow comes the athletes are forced to run on ashpalt again, and apparently the first two weeks are so are filled with complaints of aches and pains from the pavement pounding. I know I feel that way too ... I am spoiled since in Tucson I never run on anything but dirt or grass (and track) -- and whenever I am forced to run on any hard surface I just see all my joints being shocked and jarred and "old" ;-).
Anyway -- interesting, I found out even though Paige and Yoko are living within a couple of miles from eachother they are not training together. Not out of competition but because of training styles being completely different. Apparently the Japanese runners run a bunch (and I do mean a bunch) of miles - but many of those miles are so slow that even recreational runners would have to slow down, and many of the other elite runners just can't bear to run that slowly. I have heard the same thing said about some of the runs of the Kenyan elites, when they are not supposed to be running fast their slow days are painfully slow (hence the term "Kenyan shuffle"). Interesting. I will try to find more links to this for those of you who might be interested.
Not now though, I have to get some work done so I can enjoy some of the afternoon.
I hope all you bloggers are having a great week ... | 