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Lead Stories: Saturday, September 6, 2008

Alan Webb Highlights 23rd Annual Carlsbad 5000

Posted March 27th, 2008 at 5:04 PM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

After breaking Steve Scott’s quarter-century old American mile record last summer in Brasschaat, Belgium, 25-year-old Alan Webb will have an opportunity to take down San Diego native Marc Davis’ 1996 American road 5k record of 13:24, also set at the Carlsbad 5000. Webb has chosen to open his 2008 Spring campaign in Carlsbad as he prepares for an Olympic bid. The Southern California race, set for Sunday, April 6, 2008, was made famous by Scott 23 years ago as both the course designer and champion of the first three events.

“I’m really looking forward to my first trip out to Carlsbad,” said Webb, a Reston, Virginia native. “I’ve always heard about what a great course and event it is, and how fast people have run there. Plus, Steve Scott has been something of a mentor to me over the years, and to run on a course he designed and won on three times just makes it that much more special.”
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Philly Distance Run Joins
ING Family of Races

Posted February 7th, 2008 at 11:10 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Road Racing

The Philadelphia Distance Run has become the latest event to join the ING family of road races, organizers announced today. This classic September half-marathon, which goes up and down the Schuylkill River, will now be known as the ING Philadelphia Distance Run.

“Elite Racing assumed management of the Philadelphia Distance Run in 2005 and has since worked hard to uphold its high standards and increase its visibility on the world’s stage, said Adam Zocks who manages the race for San Diego-based Elite Racing, Inc., a division of Competitor Group, Inc. “Our partnership with ING only adds to the prestige of the event.”

The race is consistently one of the fastest half-marathons in the United States. According to the independent Association of Road Racing Statisticians, the ING Philadelphia Distance Run has played host to three men’s world records (1982, 1985 and 1990) and two women’s world records (1983 and 1984).
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Original Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon Begins a New Decade in San Diego

Posted January 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Marathons

On Sunday, June 1, 2008, the original Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego begins a new decade as one of the world’s premiere marathons. The event is known as a 26.2-mile block party with a live band at every mile along the course, hundreds of cheerleaders, themed water stations and a post-race concert, which featured SEAL in 2007.

Now is the time to set training plans and begin preparing for the entertaining fitness experience. For 20,000 runners and walkers, race weekend offers a unique opportunity to take an active vacation, accomplish personal goals, team up with friends and family, raise funds for charity or race like the King.
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Field For Sunday’s P.F. Chang Rock ‘N Roll Races Named

Posted January 10th, 2008 at 9:32 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: News & Results, Marathons

The fifth annual P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon & Half-Marathon on Sunday, January 13, 2008 will host an Ethiopian dominated professional field and shine the spotlight on 39 American women from 19 states who are “Running Down a Dream” as they race for a position at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women’s Marathon.

Without Terefe Yae, the 2007 men’s champion, in this year’s field, Ethiopian Dejene Yirdawe, 29, who finished third at the 2007 Dublin Marathon in a personal best time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 8 seconds, represents the fastest time in this year’s Arizona field.
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Elite Racing Sold to Falconhead Capital

Posted January 7th, 2008 at 10:34 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Elite Racing, the San Diego event management company which founded the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon series, has been sold to Falconhead Capital, LLC, a private equity firm which specializes in investments in sports, leisure, lifestyle, and media-focused businesses. Terms were not disclosed.

Falconhead’s purchase of Elite was part of a larger transaction, amalgamating Elite with Triathlete and Competitor magazines. These three businesses will now operate under the name of Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI).
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NYC Firefighter & Marathon Coordinator Victor Navarra Succumbs to Cancer at 56

Posted December 31st, 2007 at 10:30 AM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Victor Navarra, the retired New York City firefighter who was the start coordinator of the ING New York City Marathon for 25 years, died this morning after being in a coma for two days. He was 56 and had suffered from cancer which had begun in his sinuses.

“The more someone gives in life, the harder it is to lose them,” said ING New York City Marathon race director, Mary Wittenberg, in a prepared statement. “Vic was a giver. In every way. Of his time, energy, emotions and passions.”

Although he was retired, Navarra volunteered to work at Ground Zero after the attacks of 9/11 in 2001, spending long hours on “the pile” as the rescue workers called the massive heap of rubble left after the World Trade Center was brought down. In 2005 he was diagnosed with malignant tumors adjacent to his sinuses. Efforts to eradicate the cancer failed, and Navarra’s health was failing in the lead-up to this year’s marathon. Nonetheless, he was still engaged in the planning process and was still at the start of the race despite losing his eyesight to the cancer.
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Elite Racing Names Turnbull New Elite Athlete Coordinator

Posted December 12th, 2007 at 9:15 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Elite Racing, Inc., announces Matthew Turnbull has been hired as the company’s new elite athlete coordinator.

Turnbull replaces Mike Long who died in July. Long served as Elite Racing’s athlete coordinator for 16 years.

Turnbull, 30, from Stocksfield, Northumberland in England, is now responsible for recruiting and managing the professional and elite amateur athlete fields for Elite Racing’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series and the Carlsbad 5000.

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series includes seven major marathons and half marathons throughout the U.S. The Carlsbad 5000 is home to 16 world records and is known as the “world’s fastest 5K.”
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USATF Delegates Debate Headphones Ban

Posted November 29th, 2007 at 11:00 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results, Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Motivation, Music

Delegates to the USATF convention who attended the open session of the Long Distance Running Division chaired by Fred Finke were anxious to debate the ban on headphones in road races which was imposed by USATF at last year’s convention.

“We realize this issue has caused a great deal of angst,” said Finke, who has received hundreds of e-mails on the subject. “It seems to be a hot button issue.”

USATF enacted the ban in accordance with a rule put in place by the IAAF which banned the use of headphones in championship events. The IAAF ban was intended to prevent athletes from receiving information via radio about the whereabouts of their rivals, a practice which is permitted in the big bicycle tours, like the Tour de France.

But in practical application, it has meant that recreational runners are not allowed to wear MP3 players, like Apple’s iPod, and listen to music during road races. Only a handful of U.S. races have actively enforced the ban.
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Kenyans Sweep; Khannouchi Frustrated at Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose

Posted October 15th, 2007 at 4:06 PM by Martha Jones

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Kenyans McDonald Ondara and Magdalene Makunzi won the second annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose on Sunday. Ondara, 23, covered the 13.1-mile course in 1 hour, 1 minute, 11 seconds. Makunzi, 24, broke the tape in 1:09:58.

The men’s race culminated in a sprint to the finish as Ondara, who led the majority of the race, beat the 27-year-old Tanzanian John Yuda by just seconds.

“I was sort of afraid of him,” said Ondara of his closest competitor Yuda. “It was very hard to predict,” Ondara added about planning his final kick.

Yuda managed a smile as he clutched his ribs after the finish from an apparent side stitch.

“It was a good race,” Yuda said. “The course was quick.”

After mile three, the men’s lead pack began to thin out, gradually dropping American Khalid Khannouchi. The four-time Chicago Marathon champion was clearly frustrated with his 1:05:04 finish time.
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Khannouchi set to lead Meb-less American bid at
Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon

Posted October 10th, 2007 at 6:23 PM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Former world and current American record holder in the marathon Khalid Khannouchi has never made an Olympic team in his historic career. Now, at the age of 35, Khannouchi leads the American bid at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon San Jose, Sunday, October 14, 2007, in preparation for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Men’s Marathon in New York City next month.

Without the 2006 women’s champion Silvia Skvortsova in this year’s field, Kenyan Edna Kiplagat returns to San Jose to better her second place finish from a year ago in the event’s inaugural running.

Khannouchi’s list of career accomplishments are impressive. He has won the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon four times. Twice he has set world records at the marathon, once in Chicago 1999 (2:05:42), and again in London 2002 (2:05:38) in what many in the running world believe to be the greatest marathon ever run.
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