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Lead Stories: Thursday, August 28, 2008

Josh Cox: Miracles 50
Part II - The End of Faith
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #9)

Posted May 18th, 2008 at 1:30 PM by Josh Cox

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Trail / Ultra, Elite Athlete Blogs, Josh Cox

Welcome to the official blog of U.S. marathon runner Josh Cox. Every other Wednesday visit http://joshcox.thefinalsprint.com for Cox’s latest blog entry and for more information, also please visit: www.joshcox.com

Faith – noun: strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual understanding rather than proof.

“Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions.”
- Aristotle,
Metaphysics, II, (III), I.

Pascal’s Wager
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
- Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher

The 1997 Mountain Masochist 50 Miler started just before dawn. The leaders and I passed 3 miles in under 18 minutes. Six minute pace, easy, I could do this all day, only 47 more to go.

During “ultras” – that’s runner nerd for “ultra marathon” – there are aid stations about every four miles. If athletes are hungry – they eat, if they’re thirsty –they drink, if they need a rinse – their crew douses them with water. A crew is essential; all the top runners have one. Crews, typically, are buddies who enjoy running but aren’t dumb enough to actually race beyond 26.2 miles. My crewman was Chad Davis, a walk-on from Sacramento, a cool guy – particularly since he rented out our attic.
Through 20 miles everything was going according to plan.

Only 25 more miles before I unleashed my secret strategy, I thought. They won’t know what hit them. (See last blog for secret strategy.)
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Josh Cox: Miracles 50
Part I - A Boy Named Sue
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #8)

Posted May 1st, 2008 at 4:00 PM by Josh Cox

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Track & Field, Elite Athlete Blogs, Josh Cox

“I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.
Oh, I believe in miracles.
I believe in a better world for me and you.”
-The Ramones,
I Believe in Miracles

“Son, this world is rough
And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
And I know I wouldn’t be there to help you along.
So I give ya that name and I said good-bye
I knew you’d have to get tough or die
And it’s that name that helped to make you strong.”
- A Boy Named Sue
(A song written by Shel Silverstein made famous by Johnny Cash. A song about a dad who names his son Sue and leaves - the son vows to exact his revenge for his awful name. He finds his dad, fights him, his dad gets up, smiles, and explains why he named him Sue. )

“The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian literary giant & Casino fiend

Somewhere around 41 miles, in the high hills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains the race came undone. I could no longer run; a humbling experience for a self-assured 22-year-old college senior who, several hours earlier, had thought running a 50-mile race was a good idea. For the first time in my life I wished I were jogging – oh the horror – anything but the “J-word.” But alas, I was doing the S-word. Shuffling. Shuffling is what we runner’s do, we bypass the jog and enter straight into the shuffle. It’s part of the unwritten code – run slow, shuffle, but never, ever jog.
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Podcast 63: Elite ultra endurance and trail runner MICHELLE BARTON

Posted July 9th, 2007 at 2:39 PM by Adam Jacobs

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

Episode 63 of The Final Sprint Podcast was done in conjunction with TrailFit.com; a comprehensive trail running, ultra- marathoning, and adventure racing publication and the newest member of the TFS media network.

Today’s guest is Southern California’s MICHELLE BARTON; an elite ultra distance and trail runner with an intoxicating love for the sport, eternally positive spirit, and incredible athletic ability.

These gifts have propelled her to ultra-marathon finish lines, such as the 2006 Orange Curtain 100k, ahead of not only the women but also every male runner in the field. Most recently, Michelle was victorious at the Holcomb Valley 33 Mile Trail Run on June 10th and then two weeks later had the honor of pacing Gordy Ainsley at the legendary and infamous ultra that he founded: the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run (WS100).

Download the interview to hear Michelle discuss her experience at Western States, how she trains, staying fueled on a vegetarian diet, the differing training and mentalities for ultras, trails and road races, Dean Karnazes, plans for the future, the booming and supportive ultra-endurance community 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: Michelle Barton
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 16.7 MB
Length: 24:20

Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!

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Podcast 52: Running the Sahara’s Charlie Engle

Posted May 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 PM by Adam Jacobs

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

charlie engle running the sahara sitting on night nine Episode 52 of The Final Sprint Podcast features my interview with Charlie Engle; one of America’s top ultra- endurance athletes and Running the Sahara’s Expedition Team Leader. Charlie, along with Canada’s Ray Zahab and Taiwan’s Kevin Lin, successfully became the first humans to run across the
Sahara Desert this past winter. The statistics of their historic and life-changing adventure are almost incomprehensible. In average temperatures of 112 degrees Fahrenheit, these three men ran for 111 days, accumulated a total of 4,300 miles, crossed 6 countries and drank enough Gatorade Endurance Formula (3,300 liters) to fill an entire swimming pool!

This fall the documentary “Running the Sahara”, directed by James Moll and narrated by Matt Damon (both of whom are Academy Award winners) will chronicle Charlie, Ray and Kevin’s incredible feat.

In this in-depth interview Charlie talks about how the idea evolved, the drive to realize such a unthinkable goal, staying hydrated and nutritionally fueled, the critical assistance of partners like Gatorade and Magellan GPS, and the multitude of dangers and obstacles (such as scorpions, wind storms and a lack of water) that they encountered (and overcame) along the way.

Download the podcast to hear Charlie discuss these topics, as well as, how they were received by the local communities, H2O Africa (the charitable organization they created to raise awareness of and help solve the water crisis in Africa), the documentary, his plans for this year’s Badwater Ultramarathon, 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: Charlie Engle
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 25.7 MB
Length: 37:32

Check out every episode of TFS’s Podcast in iTunes!

Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!

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Podcast 9: Interview with extreme ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes

Posted February 5th, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts

Today’s podcast features my interview with Dean Karnazes, the “Ultramarathon Man”‘ who earned national acclaim (and became the target of skeptical critics) for completing the Northface Endurance 50 (Fifty marathons in fifty states in fifty consecutive days).

After the NYC Marathon, his 50th and final race, Dean decided to follow in the footsteps of Forrest Gump and “just kept running”; making it all the way from New York City to St. Charles, MO!

His resume also includes a myriad of impressive (and unique) feats, such as finishing the first marathon on the South Pole, winning the 2004 Badwater Marathon (135-mile race through Death Valley in 120-degree heat), swimming across San Fransisco Bay and running 350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes.

Download the podcast to hear Dean respond to all the critics and discuss his past achievements, un-orthodox training routine, source of motivation and plans for the future.

Listen In
[MP3] Direct Download (Right click, 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: Dean Karnazes
Producer: Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 20.1MB
Length: 00:29:23

Interested in featuring The Final Sprint Podcast on your site, blog or My Space page? Click here to learn how!

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UltraRunning Magazine names Lundblad, Meltzer as 2006 “Runners of the Year”

Posted January 21st, 2007 at 9:00 AM by Lisa Cieplechowicz

Section: News & Results, Announcements

Congratulations are in order for Anne Lundblad and Karl Meltzer who have been voted the 2006 UltraRunning Magazine’s North American runners of the year.

Two-time recipient of the female ultrarunning honor, Lundblad had a busy year. Once again leading the U.S. women at the highly competitive IAU World Challenge 100K in Korea, she achieved her personal best of 7:44:18, coming in at sixth place. Later, in Texas, she won the Sunmart 50 mile (6:33:21), managing to score the fastest North American time at that distance in 2006.
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Will marathon running damage my heart?

Posted December 15th, 2006 at 11:39 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Health & Fitness

In 1924, famous cardiologist Paul Dudley White claimed that “exercise can’t hurt a healthy heart”. Over the years, several poorly-controlled studies have shown that ultra-endurance events, such as running a marathon, might impair heart function.

Now a study from Northwestern University shows that Dr. White is still correct. The authors tested 45 patients before they ran the Chicago Marathon and re-tested them one month after the race. They demonstrated that the race had not caused any abnormalities in heart function.
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