Friday, March 27, 2009

A Big Boy (and Girl Weekend0

There's some hot action on the big stage this weekend.

First up - tonight at Stanford is some hot track racing. It's an early season meet; but, the Stanford track almost always host some fast distance times (even in March). Check out results here: http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/invite09/

Second - and the real gem of the weekend is the World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan. This is where the best distance runners in the world come to do battle. Funny thing though - it always seems like the best Americans find some lame excuse for not going. Usually the excuse is something along the lines of "Well, I'm focusing on getting ready for track season. I want to be ready for the World Championships". Isn't it funny that the top Ethiopians, Kenyans, Qataris, Tanzanian, Europeans, Ugandans, etc. all seem to be able to show up, race World XC, and still be sharp and ready for the summer track season. And what about the Americans - they skip the XC meet to "get ready for track" - funny how that hasn't translated into lots of international success?!?!

At any rate, there will be good coverage of the meet in a few locations. The official site with full results, splits, stories, etc. will be at www.iaaf.org. www.letsrun.com is always a good source of information. Robert Johnson (one of the co-founders of LetsRun.com) is on site in Amman and is posting updates to the site. And, you'll be able to watch on-deman coverage of the races at www.universalsports.com

On the local scene - not much going on this weekend. There is the Buttercup Run in Arlee (likely to attract at least a few Missoula area folks); and, to the best of my knowledge, that's pretty much it. Not much (especially after all the offerings in the alst two weeks); but, we have to take what we can get.

See you on the roads, tracks and trails.

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