It's looking like the Chicago Marathon will have some ideal temperatures for fast times this year (especially for this guy from Miami who hasn't run much in temps under the upper 70's...)
Weather.com is predicting a low of 40° and high of 53°!
Last year was a cool 65°F, so 15-20° cooler will feel downright chilly!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Chicago Marathon
Welcom to race week 2012.
The training is in the books, and runners are tapering into the 35th anual Chicago Maraton.
My training this year has been unfortunately sub-par, resulting in low to no expectations entering this year's race (and partly responsible for me not posting in this blog much this year). My sub 3 hour run might be off the table after failing many of my recent hard workouts for reasons unknown.
Regardless, here's my race day info:
Victor DelRosso
Corral A
Bib: 2151
Some info sent out to race participants that might be helpful to potential spectators:
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Change in Kenyan Marathon Olympic Team
Chicago Marathon winner Moses Mosop has pulled out of the 2012 Olympics because of a tendon injury. His withdrawal forced the Kenyan selection team to appoint a new member for the 2012 squad. Surprisingly Geoffrey Mutai and Patrick Makau were once again overlooked with 2011 London winner Emmanuel Mutai taking Mosop's spot on the team.
One has to wonder why 2 of the best Marathoners in the world would be overlooked, though neither has run well in 2012. Makau dropped out of the London Marathon after 11 miles with a hamstring issue and G. Mutai failed to finish the Boston Marathon, dropping out after 18 miles with stomach issues.
It's almost a shame that 6 of the top Marathoners in the world are from Kenya - it would be quite a site to see all of the best runners on the line at the same time!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSwkvxh1n8X2VKNLK3RNbVepD-fA?docId=24cc1a308ecf435697c70bbe116d35e4
One has to wonder why 2 of the best Marathoners in the world would be overlooked, though neither has run well in 2012. Makau dropped out of the London Marathon after 11 miles with a hamstring issue and G. Mutai failed to finish the Boston Marathon, dropping out after 18 miles with stomach issues.
It's almost a shame that 6 of the top Marathoners in the world are from Kenya - it would be quite a site to see all of the best runners on the line at the same time!
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSwkvxh1n8X2VKNLK3RNbVepD-fA?docId=24cc1a308ecf435697c70bbe116d35e4
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Kenya's Olympic team chosen
Surprisingly we won't be watching the #1 rated marathoner in the world (Geoffrey Mutai) or the world record holder (Patrick Makau) in the Olympics this summer as neither made the Kenyan team. I'm guessing this will put some extra pressure on the runners that did make it as both they and the Kenyan selection team will be under additional scrutiny at the games.
Read the story here :
Competitor.com: Kenya’s Olympic Marathon Teams Announced
Read the story here :
Competitor.com: Kenya’s Olympic Marathon Teams Announced
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Shoe Review: New Balance Minimus Roads (MR10)
Weight: 8.0 oz (size 9)
List Price: $110
Drop: 4 mm (18mm heal, 14mm forefoot)
Released: March 2011
Pros: Light weight, durable, undercut heal helps correct form, enough padding to protect feet on higher mileage concrete runs.
Cons: First 100 miles of arch pain – long break in period, loose some traction on wet ground.
SIZE & FIT
Length seemed to be pretty standard and the toe box was nice and wide, allowing for plenty of toe splay. I ended up wearing 10’s – same size as my typical ASIC running shoes.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Gravity Defyer
Has anyone told them what their design looks like or is that what they were going for? And why would I want that on my springy shoes?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Running Punishment Causes Death
Back in high school we used to laugh at the shirts that red "Our sport is your sport's punishment". The idea that people in most sports view running as punishment is somewhat amusing, but the idea of running as punishment loses all humor when it causes a death...
"Authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. Severely dehydrated, the girl had a seizure and died days later. Now, her grandmother and stepmother who police say meted out the punishment were taken to jail Wednesday and face murder charges. "
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2107529,00.html#ixzz1nE9p48lp
Crazy, sick people...
"Authorities say 9-year-old Savannah Hardin died after being forced to run for three hours as punishment for having lied to her grandmother about eating candy bars. Severely dehydrated, the girl had a seizure and died days later. Now, her grandmother and stepmother who police say meted out the punishment were taken to jail Wednesday and face murder charges. "
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2107529,00.html#ixzz1nE9p48lp
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Ancient Footprints
A one legged man "running" at 4:26 pace? Hunters faster than Olympic sprinters? Cadence around 300 steps per minute?
Scientists, with the help of expert trackers, drew some rather interesting conclusions from footprints in New South Wales, Australia thought to be over 20,000 years old.
These articles aren't new - published in 2006-2007, but still pretty interesting. Some huge leaps in some of the calculations to be sure (like using constants taken from small sampling (12) of modern day recreational distance runners). I have to be hugely skeptical of some of the numbers, especially that high of cadence or a one legged man managing that high of speed, because of a number of factors I don't understand how they could have taken into considerations (up and down motion of the runners, exaggerated stride length, ie bounding, etc.) I can make prints in the sand that look very similar but are much slower...
However, it does lead you to question if, with a different form, people could run even faster than we're seeing today. These scientists are saying they already have...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060803-footprint.html
http://playthink.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sdarticle-1.pdf
Scientists, with the help of expert trackers, drew some rather interesting conclusions from footprints in New South Wales, Australia thought to be over 20,000 years old.
These articles aren't new - published in 2006-2007, but still pretty interesting. Some huge leaps in some of the calculations to be sure (like using constants taken from small sampling (12) of modern day recreational distance runners). I have to be hugely skeptical of some of the numbers, especially that high of cadence or a one legged man managing that high of speed, because of a number of factors I don't understand how they could have taken into considerations (up and down motion of the runners, exaggerated stride length, ie bounding, etc.) I can make prints in the sand that look very similar but are much slower...
However, it does lead you to question if, with a different form, people could run even faster than we're seeing today. These scientists are saying they already have...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/08/060803-footprint.html
http://playthink.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sdarticle-1.pdf
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Race Report: 2012 ING Half Marathon
2012 is off to much the same start as 2011, so I decided it would be fitting to have my first post of the year (a year with hopefully more regular posting) be the ING Half marathon race report
A year ago the ING half was my first half marathon and the first time I'd ever raced over a 10k. A year later it's my 4th half (though really only my second fast competitive one) and I have a full under my belt. A year ago a strained achillies kept me from running for several weeks before the race, this year a foot stress fracture kept me out in december and a knee issue slowed me up for several weeks before the race.
I was signed up for the full marathon this year, but after being slowed up in December and January there was no way I could have run it, so I decided several weeks before the race that I would be running the half. At the expo however they told me if I switched to the half there was a good chance I wouldn't be getting a medal or an official time - so I ran under my buddy's bibe number after he decided he wasn't even going to run the half. Unfortunately this meant I was starting from the E coral rather than the C coral. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time, but ultimately it lead me to treat this race as a long MP run rather than full out race.
Starting from closer to the back put a lot more slow people in front of me - and I'm sure many people who shouldn't have even been up there... My first mile was painfully slow 7:10 as I walk-ran as fast as I could constantly dodging around people and weaving from one side of the street to the other. After 2 more miles of 6:40 pace dodging walkers I bagged any idea of racing and tried to settle into 6:40-6:50 pace.
Overall the race was relatively uneventful so I won't put down the details. The 6:48 pace I averaged for the race felt hard, but on the plus side, even with limited training, didn't feel all our or as hard as it did last year. (Granted I ran 5 min faster last year but I was healthier and the weather was quite a bit warmer this year.) Also, my garmin read a full quarter mile further than race distance - lots of weaving from one side of the road to the other!
The goal now is to get fully healthy and get some good 5 & 10k races in this spring before settling in for another marathon training season.
A year ago the ING half was my first half marathon and the first time I'd ever raced over a 10k. A year later it's my 4th half (though really only my second fast competitive one) and I have a full under my belt. A year ago a strained achillies kept me from running for several weeks before the race, this year a foot stress fracture kept me out in december and a knee issue slowed me up for several weeks before the race.
I was signed up for the full marathon this year, but after being slowed up in December and January there was no way I could have run it, so I decided several weeks before the race that I would be running the half. At the expo however they told me if I switched to the half there was a good chance I wouldn't be getting a medal or an official time - so I ran under my buddy's bibe number after he decided he wasn't even going to run the half. Unfortunately this meant I was starting from the E coral rather than the C coral. It didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time, but ultimately it lead me to treat this race as a long MP run rather than full out race.
Starting from closer to the back put a lot more slow people in front of me - and I'm sure many people who shouldn't have even been up there... My first mile was painfully slow 7:10 as I walk-ran as fast as I could constantly dodging around people and weaving from one side of the street to the other. After 2 more miles of 6:40 pace dodging walkers I bagged any idea of racing and tried to settle into 6:40-6:50 pace.
Overall the race was relatively uneventful so I won't put down the details. The 6:48 pace I averaged for the race felt hard, but on the plus side, even with limited training, didn't feel all our or as hard as it did last year. (Granted I ran 5 min faster last year but I was healthier and the weather was quite a bit warmer this year.) Also, my garmin read a full quarter mile further than race distance - lots of weaving from one side of the road to the other!
The goal now is to get fully healthy and get some good 5 & 10k races in this spring before settling in for another marathon training season.
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