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Lead Stories: Friday, May 16, 2008

Ryan Hall:
More Precious Than Gold
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #9)

Posted May 10th, 2008 at 6:15 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, 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 three months to go before the Olympics begin I am now putting the finishing touches on a vision that birthed 10 years ago during a long, slow, painful, fifteen-mile run around the lake. Now, after all I have been through I have just 105 days to pour myself into my training and prepare for the biggest opportunity of my life. All the training, all the discipline, all the depression, all the sacrifice, all the joy, it was all part of the journey that has prepared me for August 24th.

I love the Olympics. I always have. Growing up I had Olympic rings scribbled all over my text books. I find the symbolism of the rings to be quite dramatic with the five rings representing the unity of man from each of the five continents. There is something powerful about the unity of man.
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Kate O’Neill: Make Way for Ducklings and Runners
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #7)

Posted April 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 PM by Kate O'Neill

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill

Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!

For the first time in my life, I dropped out of a race yesterday. I had been eagerly anticipating the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials since October 8th. That was the day after the Chicago Marathon. For the first 24 hours after the race, I was too exhausted to even contemplate running another marathon, but once I had had a full day to recover, I began dreaming of the possibilities and felt eager to test myself over the 26.2 mile distance again. The thought of racing at the Trials in my hometown in front of my family and friends made me even more excited. I struggled for the first few months of training after Chicago, but by Christmas time training was on an upswing and I could see improvements every week.
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Ryan Hall: Post-London Recap “It’s Just the Beginning”
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #8)

Posted April 18th, 2008 at 7:00 PM by Ryan Hall

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

As has become my custom before all my best races, my travel to London was crazy. Before breaking an hour at the Houston Half-Marathon it was a monster snowstorm that left us in a ditch and literally snowed in, before London last year it was nearly missing my flight as I realized that the train from San Diego would not drop me off at LAX like I had thought (although my tardiness did result in me getting the last available seat on the plane…in first class), before the Olympic Trials it was the fires and smoke that made for a juggle in travel arrangements and then an earthquake to shake things up just hours before our flight. So when travel got crazy heading to the London marathon you would think I would be excited to know that a good race was on schedule. However, I had a hard time seeing it that way.
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TFS Running Podcast 135:
Kate O’Neill on this Sunday’s USA Olympic Women’s Marathon Trials

Posted April 15th, 2008 at 6:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Olympics, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts

Kate O'Neill On Episode 135 of TheFinalSprint.com Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America, I had the pleasure of speaking with 2004 Olympian Kate O’Neill who will be running in her first US Olympic Marathon Trials this weekend in Boston. Kate is the 2008 US Half-Marathon champ and goes into the trials with an impressive debut marathon time of 2 hours 36 minutes and 15 seconds (Chicago, 2007).

In the interview, we talk about her goals and thoughts on the Trials and her preparation at altitude in Mammoth Lakes, CA alongside her Team Running USA teammates Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall. We also talk about fellow Yale Alumnus Frank Shorter and about her blogging for The Final Sprint’s Elite Athlete blog series.

Download the podcast to hear Kate talk about getting used to training at altitude, the similarities of her training to Deena Kastor’s, the possibility of running the 10k in Eugene at the USA Olympic Track & Field Trials and much more!

TO DOWNLOAD: Right click here and select “Save As”

Host:Jimmie Markham | Guest: Kate O’Neill
Producers: Greg Cherniet, Adam Jacobs
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 19.3 MB | Length: 00:28:11

Episode Sponsored By: U.S. Army Special Forces

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Ryan Hall: London ‘07: Lesson Learned
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #7)

Posted April 11th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Ryan Hall

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

I consider myself blessed to be able to look back on my marathon debut at the 2007 Flora London Marathon with fond memories. This time last year, to say the least, I was a little timid of the new and daunting distance I would be racing. I think every marathoner can probably look back on their first experience and recall their nerves. I remember very well being quite nervous as we ate our pre-race pasta dinner. I sat with my Mom and wife, my eyes drifted to the 2006 ING New York City Marathon champ, Gomez de Santos, who was finishing his meal quietly. One table over sat another ING New York City marathon Champ, Hendrick Ramaala, laughing as they chatted casually. It amazed me how relaxed and composed everyone seemed to be with less than 24 hours to go before gun time. As for me, I had to get out of that room if I was going to keep my composure, so my wife and I headed up to our room. On the way up we shared a memorable elevator ride with then-world-record-holder, Paul Tergat. To break the awkward silence Sara asked him what he was up to, but he misunderstood and responded, “Tomorrow is going to be fast, very fast.” Now I was really getting nervous.
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Kate O’Neill: The Quest for Easter Peeps
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #6)

Posted March 31st, 2008 at 5:00 PM by Kate O'Neill

Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill

Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!

Last Sunday, we celebrated Easter as a team. We started the day off like any other group of people on a holiday – with long runs ranging from 17 to 23 miles. Then we all went home to rest up and prepare a dish to bring to Sara and Steve Slatterys’ condominium for Easter dinner.

I felt inspired to bring something that fit the holiday, but something that would also force me to be a little creative. After much hemming and hawing, I finally resolved to make sweet potato puree with a twist. Rather than adding marshmallows to the dish, I would add Easter peeps.

My sister and I have always loved Easter peeps. Every year, we bought a box as soon as they arrived in the stores. In the last few years, I’ve started to like them a little less, but I still crave them, mostly for nostalgic reasons. Their novelty has started to wear off a little bit now that they make them for every holiday (part of the company’s campaign called “Peeps – Always in Season”), but the Easter ones are still the real deal. I’ve bought the Christmas-tree-shaped peeps for gingerbread houses a few times, but most years I save up my peep appetite for Easter.
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Ryan Hall: Success That’s Independent Of Outcomes
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #6)

Posted March 29th, 2008 at 3:03 PM by Ryan Hall

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Movies, Famous Quotes, Elite Athlete Blogs, Ryan Hall

Today, as we drove down through a few flickering snowflakes to do my final last longish tempo run (10 miles), I was thinking to myself how fast the last couple of months have gone by. I can’t believe that I am back, race-fit, and ready to go, when it seems like the Olympic Trials were just a few weeks ago. I guess that is the sign of a proper marathon build-up.
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Kate O’Neill: A Long Way to Lisbon … and Back
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #5)

Posted March 19th, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Kate O'Neill

Section: News & Results, Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill

Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark http://kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com/ and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!

As I write this blog, I am on my way back from the Lisbon, Portugal. My plane is about to land in Frankfurt, Germany where I have a five hour layover before my 11 hour flight back to the US. So I still have a long day of travel ahead of me! On the bright side, the change in time zones will make St. Patrick’s Day seven hours longer for me! As someone who is 99.999% Irish I’ll try to find some joy in that fact, even though St. Patrick’s Day hasn’t really been the same since I moved from the East Coast and started missing my parents’ annual corned beef and cabbage dinner.
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Kate O’Neill: Cabin Fever
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #4)

Posted March 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 PM by Kate O'Neill

Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill

According to holidaysforeveryday.com, March is Cabin Fever Month. I go to this website often in search of something fun to celebrate. I don’t observe all of the mini-holidays. (For example, January 2nd is Swiss Cheese Day, but that is one of my least favorite kinds of cheese so I bypassed that holiday. January 19th is Learn to Ski Day, but I think I will have to wait until my running career is over before picking up that sport.) At the end of January when my roommates and I were searching for a reason to throw a party, we were ecstatic to find that January 26th is Australia Day! All the guests had to bring an Australian dish. Most approached this challenge with their whole-hearted enthusiasm, procuring crocodile meat, whipping up egg whites to make Pavlova, and building an Australian salad (a hard thing to do in the dead of winter since Australia’s seasons are opposite to ours.) One person, who shall remain nameless, just bought some Teddy Grahams and taped the word Koala over the word Teddy. While this did not require a great amount of effort, we were impressed with his resourcefulness.
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TFS Running Podcast 128: 2004 Olympian DAN BROWNE Sets His Sights on Eugene

Posted February 25th, 2008 at 3:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Olympics, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts

Welcome to Episode 128 of The Final Sprint Podcast, the most listened to running podcast in North America. Today we’re joined by Dan Browne, a 2004 Olympian in the marathon and the 10000m and a graduate of West Point.

In this interview, Dan walks us through his gutsy performance at the Olympic Trials marathon and talks about how things have gone since he hooked up with his new training group, Team Running USA. He splits his time nowadays between the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA and Mammoth Lakes, CA for his altitude training. He also talks about his recent illness and his plans for the rest of the 2008 season, including running the USA 15 km Championships that will be held on March 8th in Jacksonville, FL.

Download the podcast to listen to Dan talk about this year’s Prefontaine Classic 2 Miler, his fondness for the Army 10 miler and his military service with the Oregon National Guard, the strong faith he shares with his teammates and much more.

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Host: Jimmie R. Markham | Guest: Dan Browne
Executive Producer: Adam Jacobs
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Musicians: Ryan Ahlwardt, Darnell Perkins
File Size: 11.6 MB | Length: 17:01 MIN