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Quote of the Day: 2/27/08
Posted February 27th, 2008 at 8:30 AM by Jeanie Rebb
Section: Motivation, Famous Quotes
“There is no room for frills when you’re fighting the lone battle against yourself. It’s something only a runner would understand.”
- Saucony
Quote of the Day: 1/26/08
Posted January 26th, 2008 at 9:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb
Section: News & Results, Track & Field
“I am called to be faithful with the body, mind, and opportunities God has given me in preparing them to make the Olympic Team, and that is how I should measure the success of my season.”
- Sara Hall, elite U.S. middle distance runner
TFS Podcast 122
Adam Goucher:
Operation Olympic Gold
Posted January 24th, 2008 at 7:00 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts
Episode 122 of The Final Sprint Podcast features my interview with world-class distance runner Adam Goucher; whose long list of accomplishments include being a two-time U.S. Outdoor 5,000m champion (’99, ’00); 2000 USA 12km and 4km XC champion; 2006 USA 4 km XC Champ; 2007 USA Cross Country runner-up; 1998 NCAA 5,000m Outdoor champion; 1998 NCAA XC champion and 2-time NCAA 3,000 Indoor champion (’97, ’98).
In the interview Adam talks about his recent ankle surgery and the subsequent (and ongoing) recovery, his plans for competing at the marathon distance after the Olympic season, his victory over Kara in their Nike challenge, the excitement and challenges of the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs at the Olympic Trials and his specific focus on the 5k.
Download the podcast to hear Adam discuss these topics, as well as, the role of faith in his religiously-eclectic training group, coach Alberto Salazar’s recovery, and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Adam Goucher
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 13.1 MB | Length: 19:09 MIN
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
Long Live Running!
Nike Plus will improve the way you run. Get feedback from your iPod on pace, time, distance and calories burned.Log into Nikeplus.com to track your progress,
set goals and challenge friends.
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Jon Rankin:
A Letter to the Goddess of Victory: Falling In-Love
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #3)
Posted January 2nd, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Jon Rankin
Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Jon Rankin
Welcome to the official blog of rising U.S. track & field star
Jon Rankin; the inaugural member of TheFinalSprint.com’s
Elite Athlete Blog Series. Make sure to check back every other Wednesday for Jon’s latest entry.
I assume you heard it at least one hundred times already, so bear with me as I say it to you one more time:
‘Happy New Year!’ to all of you.
In this entry I will be sharing a letter from my newly minted journal. It’s a letter that describes how I feel about the sport that I play (I want to achieve all that I’m capable of achieving) and also, a girl that has helped re-ignite my passion for life—a passion that I thought only existed in dreams before she won my heart.
I write this letter and will write any subsequent letters to a Goddess known as Victory. In these letters I personify the word victory because in sports victory and the idea of victory is talked about so much that it sounds like it’s something tangible, something that can be touched; and sometimes, even someone that is real. Victory is unique because the concept behind victory and what it really is goes beyond finishing first. I’ve gained a greater sense for the broadness of the definition and meaning of the word from a mentor of mine, Mebrahtom (”Meb”) Keflezighi who tells all that he meets: “RUN TO WIN.”
The interesting thing about his mantra is that it sounds like he is saying run to get first place, and that’s all. But what he is really saying is that you must run in such a way that you’re always giving your best. If you can do this then you’re truly “running to win.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Remembering Ryan Shay
Posted November 11th, 2007 at 9:45 PM by David Monti
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Columns, SPOTLIGHT
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Video: Distressed Marathon Runner Thanks Guardian Angel After Chicago Marathon
Posted October 9th, 2007 at 11:06 AM by Hariz Siddiqui
Section: News & Results, Marathons
Beyond the blame game that’s taken place in the aftermath of the 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, there are tales of true grit and the kindness of strangers.
Watch the following report from CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli at the Condell Medical Center to hear this special marathoner describe how her “guardian angel” helped protect her from danger on a day where nearly every headline was about tragedy, chaos, and distress.
Runner’s High Revisited
Posted October 1st, 2007 at 1:07 PM by Lisa Cieplechowicz
Section: Running & Training, Health & Fitness, Exercise
HesFit.com, our men’s health and fitness partner site, recently reported that runner’s high was largely caused by the presence and production of endorphins in the human body. Interestingly enough, it turns out this issue isn’t as cut and dry as it may seem. Recent research questions the role of endorphins in the onset of runner’s high and turns instead to other factors to explain this state of temporary euphoria.
Endorphins are hormones, recognized for their morphine-like qualities, that are produced in your body during exercise. As Dr. Owen Anderson in Runner’s World magazine was quoted as saying, it is “[s]tress, either emotional or physical [that] triggers the release of endorphins into the bloodstream.” Intense physical activity, an undeniable cause of stress on the body, is widely recognized as the main trigger in this release of hormones. Consequently, many scientists have come to believe that there is a significant link between the release of endorphins and the elevated moods athletes are in after long, hard workouts.
Read the rest of Lisa’s analysis at our partner site: HesFit.com
Quote of the Day: 8/26/07
Posted August 26th, 2007 at 6:00 AM by Blake Roebuck
Section: Motivation, Famous Quotes
“The first thing I had to do was learn that I could do it.”
- a runner
Podcast 68: PETER GILMORE NYC Half-Marathon preview interview
Posted August 4th, 2007 at 4:48 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts
Episode 68 of TheFinalSprint.com Podcast features my interview with American marathoner PETER GILMORE as he prepares for tomorrows NYC Half-Marathon presented by Nike.
(Note: TFS’s LIVE coverage of the race will begin at 7am EST!)
Tomorrow’s race, which will be Peters first since the Boston Marathon, will feature one of the most competitive professional fields in recent distance running history, including: 
Haile Gebrselassie (who has never been defeated at this distance), World Marathon Majors leader Robert K. Cheruiyot, Hendrick Ramaala, Abdi Abdirahman and Alan Culpepper.
In the interview Peter talks about his battle with the plantar fasciitis that he developed in Boston, what it will take to race against this field of legends, shaking off the rust from his nearly four-month abstention from racing, getting to know and learning from Hendrick Ramaala, and jokes about his streak as the “Top American Finisher”.
Download the podcast to hear Peter discuss these topics, as well as, his special relationship with and love for NYC, his summer and fall training regimens, preparing and strategizing for this fall’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and much more!
Listen In
[PLAY] (To Download: Right click and select “save as”)[RSS] Add The Final Sprint Podcast RSS feed to your RSS reader to have the show delivered to you
Host: Adam Jacobs
Guest: Peter Gilmore
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 13.6 MB
Length: 14:55
Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!
Death of young runner linked to over-use of muscle creams
Posted June 12th, 2007 at 1:01 PM by Courtney Albon
Section: News & Results, Gear & Apparel, Track & Field, Sports Medicine
The sudden death of 17-year-old Arielle Newman, a cross country runner at Notre Dame High School in Staten Island New York, has been linked to a chemical contained in common muscle creams such as Ben Gay and Icy Hot.
Doctors said that the award-winning cross country runner died from absorbing too large an amount of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in muscles creams that many athletes use to reduce pain before and after an event.
The medical examiner claimed that the level of Methyl salicylate found in Newman’s body at the time of death was six times the safe amount. Because Newman was running, her body absorbed the chemical at a faster rate.
Read the rest of this entry »
Who had the more impressive Boston Marathon debut?
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The Final Sprint
On March 15, 2010
SDrunner said:
Great review, I wrote one on the Ironman Road Trainer HRM, which is similar to this one, without the...