Marathon: You Can Do It

On my blog travels I found this funny running story by Baldrunner . The story is how a thief stole his daughters race number and went ahead to race.

The theft took place at 2006 city of Angels Half Marathon.  According to the post  , They arrived at the Expo only to find that her daughters running pack was missing, the attendants informed them that someone had collected it.  King of Pot then says,

“We later found out from the results of the race that an unknown male runner used my daughter’s race number and started and finished way behind us. He finished the race in 2 hrs 33 minutes & 03 seconds with split time at 10K in 1 hr 06 minutes & 14 seconds. He had 10:40 minutes pace in the 10K and 11:41 minutes pace for the half-marathon. The guy did not register for the race but just simply ran the race using my daughter’s original designated race number.”

He goes further and claims, “I had a suspicion that the guy who got her race number was a Chinese!!!!”

Tags: Marathon, race, Running

I was going through Matt Mullenweg blog when I stumbled on an interesting comment on why Olympic heroes need pity not adulation.

If you don’t know Matt, he is the genius from San Francisco who gave us wordpress software, the best blogging software on the planet. My website is powered by wordpress.

This was the comment by a reader calling himself Nas,

“People willing to punish themselves hard enough to qualify for the Olympics require counseling, not admiration… Not to mention the fact that some athletes go through a training regimen that starts early enough and is hard enough to qualify as child abuse… Olympians are by and large victims, not “winners”. “

As a runner, my best moment is at the end of 42K marathon, nothing can beat the joy and pride from the satisfaction of doing something very difficult.

What do you say, are you a  victim or hero?

Tags: Marathon, Olympics, Resistance, Running, Training

After watching Jamaican Usain Bolt smash the 100 metres record, I asked myself, “From which part of Africa did his slave ancestors come from?”

All Jamaicans are descendants of Slaves from Africa. Did his slave ancestors come from Kenya? I don’t think so. If they came from my country Kenya, Usain Bolt would have been a long distance runner.

Ethiopia? No. Ethiopia is good at middle distance running.

What about Nigeria? probably yes.

Nigeria is the only country in Africa that has been able to produce sprinters that compete in Olympics.

At 2008 Beijing summer Olympics, sprinters Olusoji Fasuba and Damola Osayemi represented Nigeria in the sprints. Fasuba holds the African record in the 100 meters with a time of 9.85 seconds. Nigeria won a bronze medal at the mens 4 x 100 meter relay.

I won’t mind if Nigeria gloat about Usain Bolt being their own!

Tags: , Athletes, Beijing Olympics, Olympics

During the ancient Olympics games normally only young men could participate. The sportsmen usually competed nude.

This was due in part to the weather and also because the festival was meant to be a celebration of the achievements of the human body.

Today try to run nude in public and you will get yourself behind bars!

If the IOC wanted a solution to the high temperatures in Beijing Games they might just look at ancient games for an answer!

Wrestlers at ancient games 

The practice of running nude ended when the Roman Empire gained power in Greece and introduced Christianity and it’s mannerism.

Emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the religion of the Empire in AD 393 and banned pagan rites, the Olympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival.

Tags: , Athletes, Beijing Olympics, Olympics

While the rest of the world is concerned with the bad Air at Beijing, the Chinese authorities believe one of their biggest problem at Beijing Summer Olympics will be the bad behaviour of Chinese crowd.

According to a news Item I just read on Fox news australia, Chinese spectators are amongst the worst in the world, they spit, swear, shout and scream. They constantly hurl abuse, refuse to turn off their mobile phones when silence is needed, never sit still and are often negative.

I thought those are qualities of a good sports fan! But for Chinese authorities, the local crowds are a problem they have been trying to address for the past year.

The Chinese authority have come up with what I can describe as the first professional cheer leading squad in the world. They call it the Worker’s Civilised Cheerleading Squad, they have been trained on etiquette and manners of a sports fan.

According to Huang Keying, the Deputy Director of Spectator Services Division at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games they have banned the following traditional habits of sports fans:

1) International spectator pastime, Streaking (So Obvious!)

2) Gambling

3) Drunkness

Spectators have been warned to keep banners supporting China at home and that disruptive behaviour could result in several days’ detention.

Tags: Beijing Olympics, Kenyan Runners, Olympics, Running, sprints