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Lead Stories: Sunday, July 20, 2008

Philadelphia Running Group Encourages Homeless

Posted April 9th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Megan Hueter

Section: News & Results, Columns, Health & Fitness, SPOTLIGHT

All too often, the streets of Philadelphia can be marked by homeless individuals whose inspiration stereotypically seem to have been lost in bad decisions, unfortunate circumstances or what some critics unwarrantably call pure laziness. But in the “city of brotherly love,” the homeless are stomping on the stereotypes… with their running shoes. That’s right—they’re joining together to overcome life’s challenges through one of the most self-disciplining sports out there—running.

Back on My Feet is non-profit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of Philadelphia’s homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem.

Read the rest of this entry at our partner site: HesFit.com

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Ryan Hall: Ready For London and Some Mean “Pan-takes”
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #5)

Posted March 17th, 2008 at 7:28 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

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 at http://ryanhall.thefinalsprint.com/

With four weeks to go until the Flora London Marathon, I can hardly believe it’s almost here. My anticipation is growing stronger and stronger with every passing day and with every big training effort complete. This past weekend was especially challenging. On Friday I completed my longest tempo run in my buildup for London (15 miles) and then completed a solid 23 mile run two days later. It was a big weekend of running that left me feeling fit and as prepared as ever for the distance. I don’t exactly know what the results will yield, but I do know that it will be a fun and exciting race.
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Ryan Hall: Keeping Perspective
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #4)

Posted March 4th, 2008 at 4:56 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

To be completely honest, I was bummed after XC Nationals. I was in good shape and ready to go, or so I thought. My expectations were high and I was hoping to kick off 2008 with a bang, so I was naturally a little bent when things didn’t turn out how I had hoped. Finishing fifth wasn’t a terrible performance and my hat goes off to Dathan and the rest of the guys on the team (I am sure we will all be proud of how they represent the US at Worlds), but it just wasn’t building the momentum I was looking for heading into London. Afterwards, there were lots of reasons, of which I constantly kept reminding myself, for why I didn’t perform well, but that didn’t keep me from getting a little bummed. Even so, I welcome these humbling experiences because they get me fired up. I had humbling experiences that preceded all of my best races.
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Ryan Hall: Confidence
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #3)

Posted February 16th, 2008 at 1:15 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

TFS Elite Athlete Blog Series RYAN HALL 425x75 copy 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.

ryan hall winning 2007 olympic trials men's marathon in central park Something that has been on my mind a lot lately is the importance of confidence. When I am in Mammoth training I sometimes like to shoot hoops after our evening weight lifting is complete. When I am shooting around I like to work on my visualization skills. Just moments before releasing the ball I see the ball going in.

In my mind I become border-line cocky with each passing shot. If I miss I instantly shake it off and visualize the next shot going in, swish. I tell myself there is no way I will miss, swish. I see the ball crisply cutting through the net, swish. It amazing how much better I shoot when I am overly confident. I know this is kind of a ghetto experiment but it has definitely shown me that I am a lot more likely to perform better when I am confident than when I am unsure.
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Josh Cox: Carpe Diem
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #2)

Posted February 6th, 2008 at 3:15 PM by Josh Cox

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Josh Cox

TFS Elite Athlete Blog Series JOSH COX 425x75 copy Check back every other Wednesday for his latest entry and for more information about Cox, also please visit: www.joshcox.com

In ‘97 Cox ran and won a 50-mile ultra, in ’99 he ran his first marathon making him the youngest Trials qualifier. The following year he clocked 2:13, which opened the door for him to train with the world’s best in Kenya. Cox has tried his hand at Reality TV, been all over magazine covers and is a fixture in the sport.

CARPE DIEM

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights leader

“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”
- Francis Bacon, English philosopher and statesman

“Never, never, never quit.”
- Winston Churchill, Author, soldier and Prime Minister

October 1980, Paul David Hewson and his band - formally known as “Feedback” and “The Hype” - had just released their first full-length album, Boy. Their single “I Will Follow” climbed the UK charts and their star was born. Around that time, the band joined a religious group in Dublin, the Shalom Fellowship. Time passed and some of Shalom’s leaders began criticizing the bands “involvement in the world.” The leaders told the band that in order to please God they would have to give up rock ‘n’ roll.
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Ryan Hall: Vision
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #2)

Posted February 1st, 2008 at 1:45 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

ryan hall winning 2007 olympic trials men's marathon in central park One of my favorite aspects of training in Mammoth is the “vision” that I get while I am up here. Let me clarify what I mean by “vision.” Vision is my mind’s-eye image of what’s possible. Vision is what inspires me to action, gives me the ample motivation to change, and – above all – gives me the belief of what is possible. On my runs these past two weeks I see London. I have a strong vision for the amazing opportunity that awaits me on April 13th and what could happen there.
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Josh Cox: Temet Nosce
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #1)

Posted January 24th, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Josh Cox

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Josh Cox

TFS Elite Athlete Blog Series JOSH COX 425x75 copy Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox.
Check back every other Wednesday for his latest entry and for more information about Cox, also please visit: www.joshcox.com

TEMET NOSCE

“If you wish it, wish it now
If you wish it, wish it loud
If you want it, say it now
If you want it, say it loud.”
- “Lifeline” by Angels & Airwaves

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that.”
- Dr. Howard Thurman, Author, philosopher, preacher and civil rights leader

We’ve all seen the movie, The Matrix. Thomas “Neo” Anderson enters the Matrix to meet the Oracle, find his destiny, and figure out who he is in an attempt to touch the future. He meets a kid. The kid bends the spoon with his mind only to explain that there really is no spoon. Neo walks into the kitchen and is greeted by the Oracle:
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Study: Fewer Intense Workouts, More Recovery for Maximum Performance

Posted January 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 PM by thefinalsprint.com

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Injury & Rehab, Exercise

man_running_on_treadmilll How much time should you spend working at your maximum level in your sport, compared to miles or days spent going at a relaxed pace?

Researchers at the University of Madrid in Spain divided competitive distance runners into two groups. One group did frequent intense workouts and fewer slow recovery miles, while the second group did fewer intense workouts and more slow miles (Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, August 2007).

At the end of five months, the runners who did fewer intense workouts and more recovery miles improved far more than those who ran fewer miles and spent a lot of their time trying to run very fast.
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Ryan Hall: Perseverance
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #1)

Posted January 18th, 2008 at 5:00 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

ryan hall winning 2007 olympic trials men's marathon in central park 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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Podcast 110: Courageous Survivor, Running Hero, and
TFS Success Story Honoree
GILBERT TUHABONYE

Posted December 19th, 2007 at 6:00 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Books, Success Stories, Columns, Success Stories, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts

TheFinalSprint.com (TFS) is honored to present our monthly Success Story award to individuals who have overcome tremendous obstacles, changed their own lives and/or the lives of others through running, sports or fitness. Past recipients of TFS’s Success Story award include female running pioneer Kathrine Switzer, father-and-son team of Rick and Dick Hoyt, and amputee athletes Oscar Pistorius and Rudy Garcia-Tolson.

I am proud to announce that TFS’s November 2007 Success Story, and my guest on Episode 110 of The Final Sprint Podcast is courageous survivor and running hero GILBERT TUHABONYE.

Born to a Tutsi tribe farming family in Burundi, a small mountainous country in east central Africa, just south of Rwanda, Gilbert grew up in the midst of the centuries-old war between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In October 1993, the Hutu classmates at his school, their parents, some teachers and other Hutu tribesmen forced the Tutsi teachers and children into a room where they beat and burned them to death. After nine hours of being buried by the burning corpses of his beloved friends, and himself on fire and seriously injured, Gilbert jumped free of the burning building and ran into the night, the sole survivor of one of the most horrible massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war.

Gilbert, who now lives in Austin, Texas, has continued his efforts to try and compete in the Olympic marathon and is the award-winning coach of Gilbert’s Gazelles, a training group consisting of hundreds of dedicated runners of all skill levels. Gilbert has also created the Gazelle Foundation, with the mission of improving life for people in Burundi and offering educational assistance to children in Austin, Texas, where Gilbert, his wife Triphine and daughters Emma and Grace reside. His life story is captured in his book, This Voice in My Heart, a testament to the triumph of the human spirit as Gilbert emerges from the scars of his unimaginable ordeal to live a life of optimism, grace and victory.

Listen In
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Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Gilbert Tuhabonye
Producer:Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 19.8 MB | Length: 26:53

Episode Sponsored By: Nike +

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