MY RUNNING BLOG
August 19, 2024
The 2024 Summer Olympics are in the history books and both marathons were won in Olympic record times, despite the hilly course out to Versailles and back, and warm weather. The marathon has traditionally been the last event of the Olympics and until 1984 there was only one - a marathon for men. I am not sure why it took another 40 years to hold the women’s marathon on the day of the closing ceremony but finally it happened, with the men running the day before. About time.
And were those races memorable?
2023 New York Marathon winner, Tamirat Tola was a reserve in the Ethiopian team and only got to the start line when one of the three Ethiopian entrants suffered a late injury. And did he ever seize the opportunity, powering away from the lead group up a long hill three-quarter way into the race, to win easily with not another runner in sight.
How different was the women’s event. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, winner of gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m in Tokyo ,and bronze in both in Paris in the five days leading up to the marathon, was amazing, winning the marathon in a sprint finish, with two runners coming round the last bend side by side as if this was a 400m race not a marathon. Sifan becomes the first woman to win gold in all three of the longest running events at the Olympics. Amazing.
April 21, 2024
The big spring marathons are behind us, notable for a handful of sprint-to-the-line finishes. Let's first look at Rotterdam, not one of the six marathon majors but a big one in Europe where records were set regularly before the focus of the top athletes turned to Berlin in recent years. It is a flat, fast course I have run twice, and where the late Kelvin Kiptum planned to try to go under two hours after he shattered the world record at Chicago last autumn. On the men's side the winning time of 2h4m45 was somewhat slower than one imagines Kelvin would have run but what a finish - with Dutchman Abdi Nageeye beating Amedework Walelegn by FIVE SECONDS! Ashete Bekere won the women's race easily.
Boston's mens race was won by Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia in 2h6m17 from Mohammed Isa of Kenya but what a finish here as well with the women's race as Kenyan Hellen Obiri repeated her win of last year, beating countrywoman Sharon Looked by EIGHT SECONDS!
And so to London. The women's race was one for the ages, with four athletes racing towards Buckingham Palace side by side. Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir had that final kick left in her to win in a new women's only (no men pacers) time of 2h16m16 from Tigst Assefa, who won at Berlin last October, but how about this: EIGHTEEN SECONDS SEPARATED THE TOP FOUR. All were under the old women only WR.
The men's race was won by Alexander Matiso of Kenya in 2h04m01 but here's the thing - by only fourteen seconds from perhaps the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Berkele, now 41 years old. Bekele's time is a new MASTERS WORLD RECORD.
February 11, 2024
The running world mourns the tragic passing today of the fastest marathoner the world has ever seen, Kelvin Kiptum, at the age of 24 and in his prime. We will never know what he would have accomplished in 2024 and beyond. Rest in peace.
November 20, 2023
Let’s take a look at the progression of marathon world records. When I started running regularly back in 1974, the men’s world record of 2h9m36s was held by Australian Derek Clayton, a time set at the 1967 Fukuoka Marathon, where he knocked a stunning two and a half minutes off the previous record. That record stood for fourteen years until the Fukuoka Marathon in December 1981 when another Australian, Rob de Castella, cut 18 seconds from the record.
Clayton had gone under 2h9m at the 1969 Antwerp Marathon, as did Alberto Salazar at New York in 1981, but in both cases the courses were found to be slighty short of the marathon distance.
Then, at the 1985 Rotterdam Marathon, Portugal's phenomenal Carlos Lopez became the first man to run under 2h8m - at the age of 38! He is perhaps better remembered for winning the Olympic marathon the previous summer, setting an Olympic record that stood for 24 years; not bad for a 37 year old!
Yet, in the past fourteen years, from 2002 until now, the record has been broken TEN times, all by African born runners, eight on the Berlin course, reducing the record by five minutes over that period to Kiptum’s 2h0m35s in Chicago last month.
What is it that it took 14 years to knock 18 seconds off the record while in the last 14 years, we see five minutes go? Logic would suggest it gets more difficult to improve times as times get lower. Is it the African running revolution? Is it improved training methods? Improved nutrition? Greater competition? Whatever it is, these guys are fast.
Let’s look at the women’s record. There are no reliable records until the 1960’s and few marathons accepted entries from women until the 1970’s. The three hour mark was first broken by American Elizabeth Bonner at New York in 1971. The record fell at regular intervals during the 1970’s and early 1980’s and by 1985 was all the way down to 2h21m, set by Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway at the London Marathon.
Interestingly, that record then stood for thirteen years until Tegla Laroupe knocked off 19 seconds at Rotterdam in 1998. British athlete Paula Ratcliffe dominated the first five years of the 2000’s with a best itme of 2h15m at London in 2003. Brigid Kosgei of Kenya ran a 2h14m at Chicago in 2019, just before the pandemic, a record that stood until Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa knocked over two minutes off that record with her amazing 2h11m52s at Berlin a few weeks ago.
The 2023 autumn majors have produced stunning new world records for men and women a mere two weekends apart.
(All information is from Wikipedia as of today’s date)
November 15, 2023
The three autumn World Marathon Majors are now in the history books and all three were run in near ideal conditions, producing new world records for both men and women.
In Chicago, we saw repeat winners from the London Marathon. Running only his third marathon Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya dropped the world record to 2h0m35s. How about that? How far away can a sub-two hour marathon be? Not to be outdone, Sifan Hassen of the Netherlands won the women’s race in a second fastest ever time of 2h13m04s.
Next was Berlin and Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia dropped the women’s world record to 2h11m53s. Ehud Kipchoge won the men’s race for the fifth time, in 2h02m42s. He was only a few seconds over one hour at half way with a world record in his sights perhaps, but failed to maintain this pace in the latter stages of the race.
New York is staged last, in early November, and this year in mild, windless conditions. A little over 50,000 entries were accepted from more than three times that number who applied, so it is a massive undertaking for the city and New York Road Runners. The five-borough course is not as fast as the other two Majors as evidenced in the winning times. Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, last year’s world champion, won the men’s race easily in 2h4m58s. The woman’s race came down to a sprint finish with Kenyan former 5,000 meter champion, Hellen Ohiri winning in 2h27m23s, completing a rare Boston – New York double in the same year.
Well done to these amazing athletes.
August 9, 2023
Today the BBC published on its website the results of a study by researchers from Medical University of Lodz in Poland and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the USA which analyzed 226,000 people and concluded that the risk of dying prematurely is reduced by walking as few as 4,000 steps a day, less than previously thought. However, every extra 1,000 steps beyond 4,000 further reduces the risk of dying prematurely by 15%. The benefits apply to all ages. This confirms other research I refer to in the book that concludes that any amount of regular exercise is better than none at all.
June 7th, 2023
Today is Global Running Day, a good day to commit to exercising regularly for the rest of your life, though not a good day to exercise outdoors. Multiple wildfires in Quebec have enveloped the eastern part of North America in smoke. New York has the unhealthiest air of any major city in the world. Outdoor sports from Little League to Major League Baseball has been cancelled, even the start of our local cross country season today was postponed. I have not run for days and have limited my outdoor activities to swimming.
May 5, 2023
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the global health emergency. This does not mean COVID-19 has gone way - it has not - or we should let our guard down, but at least we have moved on from the terrifying times we experienced, starting in March 2020. That month I was about to start writing the chapters in Running For Your Life that share my knowledge of the racing scene, from preparing for your first 5k all the way up to running grueling ultramarathons. Races stopped just like that and I stopped writing, just like that. No one knew when races would return, anywhere in the world, and I did not want to write about things one could not do, at least until one could do them again. Instead I kept a monthly diary of the pandemic and how it impacted my running for the rest of the year that we would like to forget, and have included in the tab above called: 2020 - What a year
April 23, 2023
The London Marathon has just finished, back to its April date for the first time since 2019, with 47,000 runners. Congratulations to track champion Sifan Hassan on coming from behind to win the women's race in her first attempt at a marathon. Taking advantage of the cool, damp conditions, on the men's side Kelvin Kiptum smashed Kipchoge's course record and was only 16 seconds outside the latter's world record. Now having run two marathons, both under two hours, two minutes, the 23 year old must have the world record in his sights.
April 18, 2023
Yesterday was Boston Marathon Day. The men's race was won by Evans Chebet, from Kenya, who won the race last year and then won the New York Marathon last November. Why was this win a surprise? The reason is countryman, Eliud Kipchoge, the best marathon runner of all time, was in the field, running his first Boston. Remember Kipchoge set a new world record of 2 h 01 m 09 sec in Berlin last October, has won the marathon gold at the last two Olympics and had only ever been beaten over this distance twice, and not recently. He has also run the marathon distance under two hours in a time trial.
What happened? Kipchoge finished sixth, some three minutes behind Chebet and said afterwards: "It was not my day."
As I discuss in Running for Your Life, I have never mastered the Boston course, with its relentless hills in the second half. The experts say that familiarity with the course is key. Let me make a prediction: if Kipchoge returns next year, he will win.
April 15, 2023
Today is the tenth anniversary of the bombing at the Boston Marathon and we remember those who lost their lives or were maimed in that tragic incident, which I describe in Chapter 1 of the book. I had just crossed the finish line and was collecting my gear from a volunteer at the moment of the first explosion. I felt the tremor beneath my feet but was fortunate to be at a safe distance, about a block away.
April 10, 2023
An article published last month in Bicycling refers to a study that concludes that your “Performance Age” is a better predictor of how long you will live than your chronological age. It refers to a large study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology that followed 126,356 men and women with average age of 54 who had an exercise stress test at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA between 1991 and 2015. The participants were followed for an average of nine years.
The study concluded that those who exercise regularly and whose Performance Age is younger than their actual age as a result, lived about ten years longer than those who did not exercise.
The 2024 Summer Olympics are in the history books and both marathons were won in Olympic record times, despite the hilly course out to Versailles and back, and warm weather. The marathon has traditionally been the last event of the Olympics and until 1984 there was only one - a marathon for men. I am not sure why it took another 40 years to hold the women’s marathon on the day of the closing ceremony but finally it happened, with the men running the day before. About time.
And were those races memorable?
2023 New York Marathon winner, Tamirat Tola was a reserve in the Ethiopian team and only got to the start line when one of the three Ethiopian entrants suffered a late injury. And did he ever seize the opportunity, powering away from the lead group up a long hill three-quarter way into the race, to win easily with not another runner in sight.
How different was the women’s event. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, winner of gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m in Tokyo ,and bronze in both in Paris in the five days leading up to the marathon, was amazing, winning the marathon in a sprint finish, with two runners coming round the last bend side by side as if this was a 400m race not a marathon. Sifan becomes the first woman to win gold in all three of the longest running events at the Olympics. Amazing.
April 21, 2024
The big spring marathons are behind us, notable for a handful of sprint-to-the-line finishes. Let's first look at Rotterdam, not one of the six marathon majors but a big one in Europe where records were set regularly before the focus of the top athletes turned to Berlin in recent years. It is a flat, fast course I have run twice, and where the late Kelvin Kiptum planned to try to go under two hours after he shattered the world record at Chicago last autumn. On the men's side the winning time of 2h4m45 was somewhat slower than one imagines Kelvin would have run but what a finish - with Dutchman Abdi Nageeye beating Amedework Walelegn by FIVE SECONDS! Ashete Bekere won the women's race easily.
Boston's mens race was won by Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia in 2h6m17 from Mohammed Isa of Kenya but what a finish here as well with the women's race as Kenyan Hellen Obiri repeated her win of last year, beating countrywoman Sharon Looked by EIGHT SECONDS!
And so to London. The women's race was one for the ages, with four athletes racing towards Buckingham Palace side by side. Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir had that final kick left in her to win in a new women's only (no men pacers) time of 2h16m16 from Tigst Assefa, who won at Berlin last October, but how about this: EIGHTEEN SECONDS SEPARATED THE TOP FOUR. All were under the old women only WR.
The men's race was won by Alexander Matiso of Kenya in 2h04m01 but here's the thing - by only fourteen seconds from perhaps the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Berkele, now 41 years old. Bekele's time is a new MASTERS WORLD RECORD.
February 11, 2024
The running world mourns the tragic passing today of the fastest marathoner the world has ever seen, Kelvin Kiptum, at the age of 24 and in his prime. We will never know what he would have accomplished in 2024 and beyond. Rest in peace.
November 20, 2023
Let’s take a look at the progression of marathon world records. When I started running regularly back in 1974, the men’s world record of 2h9m36s was held by Australian Derek Clayton, a time set at the 1967 Fukuoka Marathon, where he knocked a stunning two and a half minutes off the previous record. That record stood for fourteen years until the Fukuoka Marathon in December 1981 when another Australian, Rob de Castella, cut 18 seconds from the record.
Clayton had gone under 2h9m at the 1969 Antwerp Marathon, as did Alberto Salazar at New York in 1981, but in both cases the courses were found to be slighty short of the marathon distance.
Then, at the 1985 Rotterdam Marathon, Portugal's phenomenal Carlos Lopez became the first man to run under 2h8m - at the age of 38! He is perhaps better remembered for winning the Olympic marathon the previous summer, setting an Olympic record that stood for 24 years; not bad for a 37 year old!
Yet, in the past fourteen years, from 2002 until now, the record has been broken TEN times, all by African born runners, eight on the Berlin course, reducing the record by five minutes over that period to Kiptum’s 2h0m35s in Chicago last month.
What is it that it took 14 years to knock 18 seconds off the record while in the last 14 years, we see five minutes go? Logic would suggest it gets more difficult to improve times as times get lower. Is it the African running revolution? Is it improved training methods? Improved nutrition? Greater competition? Whatever it is, these guys are fast.
Let’s look at the women’s record. There are no reliable records until the 1960’s and few marathons accepted entries from women until the 1970’s. The three hour mark was first broken by American Elizabeth Bonner at New York in 1971. The record fell at regular intervals during the 1970’s and early 1980’s and by 1985 was all the way down to 2h21m, set by Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway at the London Marathon.
Interestingly, that record then stood for thirteen years until Tegla Laroupe knocked off 19 seconds at Rotterdam in 1998. British athlete Paula Ratcliffe dominated the first five years of the 2000’s with a best itme of 2h15m at London in 2003. Brigid Kosgei of Kenya ran a 2h14m at Chicago in 2019, just before the pandemic, a record that stood until Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa knocked over two minutes off that record with her amazing 2h11m52s at Berlin a few weeks ago.
The 2023 autumn majors have produced stunning new world records for men and women a mere two weekends apart.
(All information is from Wikipedia as of today’s date)
November 15, 2023
The three autumn World Marathon Majors are now in the history books and all three were run in near ideal conditions, producing new world records for both men and women.
In Chicago, we saw repeat winners from the London Marathon. Running only his third marathon Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya dropped the world record to 2h0m35s. How about that? How far away can a sub-two hour marathon be? Not to be outdone, Sifan Hassen of the Netherlands won the women’s race in a second fastest ever time of 2h13m04s.
Next was Berlin and Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia dropped the women’s world record to 2h11m53s. Ehud Kipchoge won the men’s race for the fifth time, in 2h02m42s. He was only a few seconds over one hour at half way with a world record in his sights perhaps, but failed to maintain this pace in the latter stages of the race.
New York is staged last, in early November, and this year in mild, windless conditions. A little over 50,000 entries were accepted from more than three times that number who applied, so it is a massive undertaking for the city and New York Road Runners. The five-borough course is not as fast as the other two Majors as evidenced in the winning times. Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, last year’s world champion, won the men’s race easily in 2h4m58s. The woman’s race came down to a sprint finish with Kenyan former 5,000 meter champion, Hellen Ohiri winning in 2h27m23s, completing a rare Boston – New York double in the same year.
Well done to these amazing athletes.
August 9, 2023
Today the BBC published on its website the results of a study by researchers from Medical University of Lodz in Poland and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the USA which analyzed 226,000 people and concluded that the risk of dying prematurely is reduced by walking as few as 4,000 steps a day, less than previously thought. However, every extra 1,000 steps beyond 4,000 further reduces the risk of dying prematurely by 15%. The benefits apply to all ages. This confirms other research I refer to in the book that concludes that any amount of regular exercise is better than none at all.
June 7th, 2023
Today is Global Running Day, a good day to commit to exercising regularly for the rest of your life, though not a good day to exercise outdoors. Multiple wildfires in Quebec have enveloped the eastern part of North America in smoke. New York has the unhealthiest air of any major city in the world. Outdoor sports from Little League to Major League Baseball has been cancelled, even the start of our local cross country season today was postponed. I have not run for days and have limited my outdoor activities to swimming.
May 5, 2023
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the global health emergency. This does not mean COVID-19 has gone way - it has not - or we should let our guard down, but at least we have moved on from the terrifying times we experienced, starting in March 2020. That month I was about to start writing the chapters in Running For Your Life that share my knowledge of the racing scene, from preparing for your first 5k all the way up to running grueling ultramarathons. Races stopped just like that and I stopped writing, just like that. No one knew when races would return, anywhere in the world, and I did not want to write about things one could not do, at least until one could do them again. Instead I kept a monthly diary of the pandemic and how it impacted my running for the rest of the year that we would like to forget, and have included in the tab above called: 2020 - What a year
April 23, 2023
The London Marathon has just finished, back to its April date for the first time since 2019, with 47,000 runners. Congratulations to track champion Sifan Hassan on coming from behind to win the women's race in her first attempt at a marathon. Taking advantage of the cool, damp conditions, on the men's side Kelvin Kiptum smashed Kipchoge's course record and was only 16 seconds outside the latter's world record. Now having run two marathons, both under two hours, two minutes, the 23 year old must have the world record in his sights.
April 18, 2023
Yesterday was Boston Marathon Day. The men's race was won by Evans Chebet, from Kenya, who won the race last year and then won the New York Marathon last November. Why was this win a surprise? The reason is countryman, Eliud Kipchoge, the best marathon runner of all time, was in the field, running his first Boston. Remember Kipchoge set a new world record of 2 h 01 m 09 sec in Berlin last October, has won the marathon gold at the last two Olympics and had only ever been beaten over this distance twice, and not recently. He has also run the marathon distance under two hours in a time trial.
What happened? Kipchoge finished sixth, some three minutes behind Chebet and said afterwards: "It was not my day."
As I discuss in Running for Your Life, I have never mastered the Boston course, with its relentless hills in the second half. The experts say that familiarity with the course is key. Let me make a prediction: if Kipchoge returns next year, he will win.
April 15, 2023
Today is the tenth anniversary of the bombing at the Boston Marathon and we remember those who lost their lives or were maimed in that tragic incident, which I describe in Chapter 1 of the book. I had just crossed the finish line and was collecting my gear from a volunteer at the moment of the first explosion. I felt the tremor beneath my feet but was fortunate to be at a safe distance, about a block away.
April 10, 2023
An article published last month in Bicycling refers to a study that concludes that your “Performance Age” is a better predictor of how long you will live than your chronological age. It refers to a large study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology that followed 126,356 men and women with average age of 54 who had an exercise stress test at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA between 1991 and 2015. The participants were followed for an average of nine years.
The study concluded that those who exercise regularly and whose Performance Age is younger than their actual age as a result, lived about ten years longer than those who did not exercise.