Just 18 miles north of this San Jose suburb, one of the most important meets for distance runners held in the United States will take place at Stanford University. Packed with talent, the Peyton Jordan Cardinal Invitational turns the running industry on its head: top stars actually pay entry fees to compete and there are no appearance fees or cash prizes.
So what’s the draw? Perfect weather for achieving all-important Olympic Games qualifying times. When the sun sets at this time of year in Palo Alto, the winds calm down and the temperature drops, becoming comfortably cool. There is already very low humidity.
The key races are the top sections of the men’s and women’s 5000m and 10,000m, led by double world champion Bernard Lagat. Although he won the world titles last summer at both the 1500m and the 5000m, he doesn’t have an Olympic Games “A” standard time in the longer distance: 13:21.50. Working with other coaches, managers and the New York Road Runners, the men’s 5-K will be set-up by pacemaker Christian Hesch for a 13:10 to 13:20 finish time.
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If you can, your editor recommends watching ESPN tonight at 7:00 p.m., EDT so you can see a great segment done by the producers of the sports news show “E:60″ on Ryan and Alicia Shay. The show is one hour and the piece on the Shays is about 20 minutes.
If you can’t watch at 7:00 p.m., the show will also be shown later tonight at 11:00 p.m. on ESPN2.
The following information was just released to the media and general public regarding the cause of death for Ryan Shay, 28, the U.S. distance runner who tragically collapsed and died during the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on November 3, 2007:
“Cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac hypertrophy with patchy fibrosis of undetermined etiology. Natural Causes.”
The release was made by Ellen Borakova, the Director of Public Affairs of the New York Chief Medical Examiner. The full report of findings from the official autopsy will be made available exclusively to Shay’s family.
Ryan’s father, Joe Shay, told the The New York Times that all of the toxicology reports came back negative and that the family would make a statement later in the day to address the report’s findings.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Alicia and the entire Shay family. May Ryan’s memory, kind soul, and endearing spirit live on forever in our hearts.
Epic Battle Shaping Up Between Pistorius and IAAF
Armed with a new set of results that contradicts the IAAF’s, Oscar Pistorius is confident about winning the appeal of his suspension. The IAAF is standing by their decision.
Read more at: [Times Online, UK][Sports Illustrated]
IAAF Defends Dwain Chambers
The IAAF is defending drug cheat Dwain Chambers’ right to compete. IAAF president Lamine Diack said, “I won’t make a special case out of this. When we have rules, we respect them.”
Read more at: [Sports Illustrated]
Article Focuses On Alicia Shay’s Beijing Pursuit
An article focusing on Alicia Shay’s pursuit of her Olympic dream in honor of her late husband Ryan is featured on InsideBayArea.com
Read more at: [InsideBayArea.com]
Photo courtesy of Alicia Shay.
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Welcome to the official blog of top U.S. distance runner Ryan Hall as he begins his quest for Olympic gold! Check back every other Friday for Ryan’s latest entry.
These past three weeks I have been shown what it means to persevere in the face of hard times. Sara and I arrived in Flagstaff on December 30th to stay with our friend, Alicia Shay, with the goal of helping her in whatever way we could through the recent loss of her husband. However, as is the case so often when we try and help others, we are the ones who get blessed from the experience. I guess this is why Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Alicia showed me what it means to get up every day and face her troubles with courage and strength. I am sure a lot of people are proud of how Alicia has endured this hard time. I am certainly very proud and inspired by her ability to just plain get up everyday and choose to live a life of joy, even though she certainly has the right to be bitter, angry and frustrated.
Perseverance is a trait that I have had to learn a lot about during my running career.
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Saturday’s New Balance Games at the Armory Track and Field Center here will feature a top women’s mile, a tasty appetizer for the great middle distance races which will follow at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games and the Millrose Games over the next two weekends. There are also invitational miles for men, and high school boys and girls.
Race director Ian Brooks has assembled a strong international women’s field, and nobody has more experience running the mile on the Armory’s fast 200m banked Mondo track than Canadian Carmen Douma-Hussar [Pictured]. She will be making her sixth start in this event since 2002. She won the race in 2005 and has only once finished lower than third.
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With his books in the black and 26 medals (14 gold) won at last August’s IAAF World Championships in Athletics, USATF CEO Craig Masback was riding high as he strode the podium to give his State of the Sport address at the opening session of the USATF annual convention here.
Reminding the 800+ attendees that their organization was $3,000,000 in debt back in 1997 when he took charge of the Indianapolis-based governing body, Masback said today that his organization was sitting on a significant reserve fund and was “poised to use our power to make a difference.”
Indeed, under Masback’s guidance the United States has minted global stars like Allyson Felix and Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards, Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb and Deena Kastor and Meb Keflezighi. He called athletics “the world’s best sport,” and thanked the federation’s members for their hard work and support to make the United States the world’s #1 track team.
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Today in East Jordan, Mich., a funeral was held for Ryan Shay, the 2003 USA marathon champion who collapsed and died at the USA Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon on Nov. 3, in New York City. He was 28 years-old and had been married only for four months to the former Alicia Craig, the Stanford University star who won the NCAA 10,000m title in 2003 and 2004.
The exact cause of Ryan’s death is still unknown, but it is clear that his heart abruptly stopped at about the 9 km mark of the Trials and, despite heroic and immediate medical intervention, he died before reaching Lennox Hill Hospital on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
I knew Ryan both through my role as a journalist and a race organizer. It would be a stretch to say were close, but we were certainly friendly and shared a passion for the sport. I recruited Ryan to run the 2004 ING New York City Marathon where he set his personal best time of 2:14:08, cracking the top-10 in ninth place. It didn’t surprise me that Ryan would run his best marathon in New York, despite the difficulty of the course. He was so strong and so tough, the kind of runner who was well suited to the hills of the Five Borough Classic. Ryan really had heart.
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Less than a day after winning the 2007 U.S. 10-K championships at the Tufts Health Plan 10-K, on Monday, Oct. 8, Deena Kastor was up for a Tuesday-morning run on a similar course, the criterium loop which will host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials - Women’s Marathon next April. The Trials course will feature four laps of a circuit which criss-crosses the Charles River between Boston’s Back Bay and Memorial Drive in Cambridge, sharing large sections with the Tufts course.
Kastor and her coach, Terence Mahon, said the course tour was the second of two reasons to come to Boston this weekend, the first being the opportunity to race hard on the course during the 10-K on Monday. Kastor won that race easily in 32:01, and admitted that it also represented an opportunity to “redeem myself” after a disappointing race at the Boston Marathon in April.
The 2007 Boston Marathon has framed Kastor’s approach to the Olympic Trials as well. “Boston taught me not to believe in favorites,” Kastor said on a conference call with reporters today. “Anything can happen over the marathon distance.”
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2004 Olympic marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor (Mammoth Lakes, Calif.) cruised to victory at the 2007 USA Women’s 10 km Championship, running 32:01 today at the Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women in Boston.
Kastor and two-time defending women’s 10 km champion Katie McGregor (Minneapolis, Minn.), pulled away from the field during the opening 800 meters and by the first mile mark, Kastor passed in 5:00 with a five-second lead over McGregor.
A second 5:00 mile propelled Kastor to a 15-second lead. As she continued her tour of Memorial Drive, Kastor steadily built her lead, reaching the finish 40 seconds ahead of McGregor, who finished in 32:41.
The race for third saw 2007 USA Half-Marathon champion Elva Dryer (Gunnison, Colo.), outrun 2007 USA 20 km champion Alicia Shay (Flagstaff, Ariz.), and Rebecca Donaghue (State College, Pa.), Dryer was timed in 32:53 with Shay and Donaghue finishing in 33:05 and 33:09, respectively.
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