Running and Triathlon Links Wednesday!

Well...because we sort of missed Monday. Long weekend and all.

So let's get to it. Study up and learn something already.

The first article is about the number of deferments granted at the Boston Marathon - unfortunately, it turned it to not be the whole story

And here's The Rest of the Story on the Boston Marathon deferments - and yes, these people will be taking spots in next year's race

The misadventures of the Australian Olympic Triathlon Selection Committee - once again, why don't they just let them decide it in a race?

Another barefoot running equals injury article - I'll just be over here...keeping my mouth shut

Meet the five US Olympic Triathletes - they earned their spots out on the race course

Komen Race for the Cure news not getting better - numbers are even worse than first estimates

Turn your marathon training into PR's in shorter races - turns out that training can do wonders for your 5k's and 10k's as well

How to be a faster triathlete...on a budget - in my opinion, it's the most difficult thing about tri...being poor

The man, the business: Usain Bolt - I don't talk much about sprinters, but it's a good read

Nice photo gallery of the Cap Tex Triathlon - Hunter Kemper and Andy Potts fighting it out

Tips for happy feet and healthy running - hey, you've got to trust NPR

Interested in tubeless tires for your tri bike? - check out a comparison

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How Fast Can a Human Run?

Yeah, I know we've talked about this before, like right here, but this is an interesting article all the same.

Chuck Klosterman, over at ESPN.com, spends a little time thinking about the top-end limit on human speed. As I said, frankly, the sprinting stuff has been said before, and I don't find the 100m all that exciting anyway, but I like his point about sprinting vs. long distance running. That said, I'm not sure what Christopher McDougall is talking about with the hype around sprinting being "sexist." What? Because men are faster than women in sprinting? Well, they're faster at the marathon too - I don't see it.

Anyway, nice to read any kind of running article at ESPN. That's pretty rare.

Yeah, the photo: enter "fastest human" into Google images and the first 7 photos are of Usain Bolt. The eighth photo is this guy. Yeah, he looks fast.

Can we get much faster?

Interesting article here about humans and their ability, or not, as the case may be, to run significantly faster than we already do.

I'm not sure Usain Bolt actually tells us much. I don't think the fact that he has crushed records means they will just continue to be crushed. If Bolt can indeed run a 9.4, as he says, that doesn't mean the next great sprinter will run a 9.3. Maybe Bolt is truly close to the end of the line. After all, there is a point where humans just can't go faster...and we'll get there sooner, rather that later, in races like the 100 meters.

We might have a little more breathing room on races like the marathon, especially for women, but they're running marathons unbelievably fast now as well, so...

What do you think?

Thanks to Richard Giles for the photo.

Go America! And...uh...Canada, eh!

Considering I've been watching the Olympics pretty much every night since they started, there's an interesting article over here at Running Times by Jonathan Beverly.

Beverly makes the point (well, tries anyway) that the Olympics, and more specifically, the nationalistic attitudes that come about during the Olympics, are bad for sports, including running.

I'm not sure I agree. Sure, there are people that watch the Olympics solely to cheer on their own country. I'm not sure that's even wrong. But there are plenty of others that watch to see the best athletes in the world strut their stuff, no matter where they're from.

I sure don't remember too many people complaining about how boring it was to watch Usain Bolt break world records because he wasn't American!

Give it a read and let me know what you think.

Let's race!

RACES FOR WEEK OF MARCH 1st TO MARCH 7th

March 6th / Spring Forward 5k Run Against Autism / Tacoma, WA

March 6th / Honeywagon Runs 13.1 and 4 mile / Everson, WA

March 7th / King County Bar Association YLD 5k / Seattle, WA

March 7th / Red Lizard 5 Miler / Lake Oswego, OR

March 7th / Harry's Spring Run-Off 8k Against Prostate Cancer / Vancouver, BC

I Can Outrun Usain Bolt!

Well, in theory.

Interesting article over at LiveScience.com: apparently, humans have an upper-end speed limit of about 40mph. Yeah, that's fast. Considering that Bolt hits about 28mph when he breaks world records.

Of course, running 40mph in theory, and doing it in practice, are two very different things. Still, the fact that the 100m record was 10.6 100 years ago and is now 9.58, or the fact that the marathon record was 2:55:18 100 years ago and is now 2:03:59, has to give runners hope that we'll just keep getting faster and faster.


Thanks to the University of Wyoming for the cheetah. And no, even at 40mph, you couldn't outrun the cheetah. You'd still be cat food.