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Friday, July 15, 2022

Running in the News... Five for Friday

It's been WAY too long since I've posted one of my "Five for Friday" columns (or any TJ's Turf blogs, for that matter). With a number of interesting articles making the news this week, it was the perfect time to reinstate this routine.

The first article came across my desk just as I was trying to decide on a fifth notable article. The Jim Thorpe news quickly made its way to the top of this list.

Before we all hunker down for the weekend to watch the World Track & Field Championships, take a look at what I found remarkable in this week's running news.

Jim Thorpe, first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S.

Just today the Associated Press announced that Jim Thorpe has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon & decathlon – nearly 100 years after being stripped of those gold medals for violations of strict amateurism rules of the time. Read more about it here:

Jim Thorpe reinstated as sole winner for 1912 Olympic golds

And in this article in The New York Times:

Jim Thorpe Is Restores as Sole Sinner of 1912 Olympic Gold Medals

Thorpe, to some, remains the greatest all-around athlete ever. He was voted as the Associated Press' Athlete of the Half Century in a poll in 1950.

(AP Photo, File)

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Running in the News...

Five for Friday

Here are five articles I found especially noteworthy from this week's running-related media coverage. Please let me know what you think!

This very interesting article in The New York Times describes a group of runners training for this weekend's New York City Marathon.

Set for Marathon, Ex-Addicts Find Their Way profiles these addict/runners who live, work and train in Coriano, Italy at San Patrignano, one of the largest drug rehabilitation centers in Europe.

“We are broken vases that have been glued together again,” Floriddia said. “But if we can work and live in a healthy environment, we won’t break again.”

Tucked in the northern hills of Italy, San Patrignano is not a typical training ground for marathoners. It has 1,300 residents at its main facility, which doubles as a small farming community. The addicts submit to a four-year rehabilitation program in which they must cultivate their food, clean their rooms and undertake tasks like making cheese, raising pigs and cows, and producing wine.

[Please click on the article link above to read the entire story.]

I enjoyed reading about an extraordinary northern Arizona high school cross country team in this Associated Press article, Hopi High in Ariz. becomes cross-country standout.

The group of boys head out toward the mesa, setting their feet upon dirt trails that are lined with scrub brush and corn fields. It's the same earth that their Hopi ancestors would tread as they ran in prayer for rain, prosperity and all of mankind.

For these boys, the drive is as much about the competitive spirit as the enduring spirit of their culture. Hopi High School, where they are students, has earned 23 state cross-country titles in a row, and according to its coach, is one of three schools in the country to earn a perfect score at a state meet. No high school in the nation is as dominant when it comes to winning consecutive championships, and the team wants to make sure the streak continues.

The pressure this team feels is not just for their upcoming regional and state meets, but also from their tribe's long-standing running success.

In the Hopi's story of running glory, there is inspiration that comes from a Hopi man who competed at the 1908 Olympics and earned a silver medal in 1912. The federal government shipped Louis Tewanima off to boarding school, and he rose to become one of Indian Country's most famous athletes, along with fellow Carlisle Indian Industrial School classmate Jim Thorpe. Tewanima's American record in the 10,000 meter race stood for more than 55 years before being broken by Billy Mills, an Oglala Lakota.

[Please click on the article link above to read the entire story.]

One of the best things about this Well/Phys Ed article in The New York Times: The Marathon Runner as Couch Potato, is the writer's use of the phrase "prolonged sedentariness." But there's some other good information as well.

One recent study reported the average American sits for 8 hours per day. But in a study specifically looking at runners currently training for a marathon, the runners self-reported sitting an average of 10 hours a day – 2 hours MORE than the national average.

In effect, the data showed that “time spent exercising does not supplant time spent sitting,” said Harold Kohl, a professor of epidemiology and kinesiology at the University of Texas and senior author of the study. “It seems that people can be simultaneously very active and very sedentary.”

[Please click on the article link above to read the entire article.]

This article, Taper madness: Running withdrawal puts many marathoners on edge, appeared in The Washington Post the week before last month's Marine Corps Marathon, but the sentiment applies to just about any runner in the week or so before their marathon.

It’s as if someone stole your morning coffee, every day for two or three weeks. You might not kill him over it, but you’d consider it. Robbed of their favorite pastime, runners brood about losing fitness, gaining weight, injuring themselves and race day weather, to name just a few of their favorite obsessions.

[Please click on the article link above to read the entire article.]

Speaking of the Marine Corps Marathon, did you hear the organization disqualified the male winner of this year's 10K?

Marine Corps Marathon 10K Winner Crashed the Race: The man has been disqualified

The man, whose name has been removed from the official results list, was from France and won the 6.2-mile race in 32:20 minutes. However, he later admitted he wore a friend’s bib and was not registered for the sold-out event, which drew 10,000 runners. The Marine Corps Marathon now recognizes 25-year-old Stephn Gedron of Massachusetts as the official 10K winner with a time of 33:19.

[Please click on the article link above to read the entire article.]

Friday, July 22, 2022

Running in the News... Five for Friday

The summers featuring Olympic Games or World Championships are some of the most exciting for Track & Field fans. I've been glued to my television just about every night this past week, watching the World Championships at the famed (and newly-renovated) Hayward Field in Euguene, Oregon.

With that in mind, this week's selection of Top 5 Running Stories is, by default, World Championships-heavy, but not exclusively. I tried to showcase some of the stories behind the scenes that piqued my interest.

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Syndney McLaughlin's youth track coach knew what was coming

Late tonight we all saw Syndney McLaughlin not only break her world record in the 400H, but SMASH it to smithereens. As a bonus, she's also now a World Champion. This article from The New York Times is an interesting Q&A with one of McLaughlin's earliest coaches. A woman who saw her potential from the start.

[Doug Mills, The New York Times]

Lisa Morgan, ...A five-time U.S.A. Track & Field junior national team coach, was also a longtime coach at Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J. McLaughlin, who grew up in central New Jersey and ran at Union Catholic High School, was a friendly rival and then ran for Morgan on multiple junior national teams.

What was the most important thing you instilled in her?

Believing in who she was. The confidence. Step on that line and believe in you and use your God-given talent to do what you are supposed to do. That is what I instilled in her. You are competing against the world, across the globe in another country and you are competing for your country. You have to ste up. Your team is counting on you to bring back gold for your country.

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Writer Erin Strout gets the inside scoop, for Women's Running magazine, on a spectacular moment captured at the end of the women's World Championships Marathon.

Splits: A World Championships Marathon Moment Captured—and Adored

A single photo illustrates all those finish line feels.

[photo credit: Kevin Morris]

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And speaking of interesting moments captured at the World Championships... Unless you're REALLY not a track & field fan, you've no doubt heard (or, more likely, seen) the moment when a television videographer stepped right into the path of the men's steeplechase final. I'm still waiting to find/read an in-depth interview with this man to see just what he was thinking (or not thinking) when this happened.

A cameraman became an accidental obstacle in the men's steeplechase.

Whoops.

Credit...

[Lucy Nicholson/Reuters]

Have you ever experienced obstacles in a race?

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Opinion: The Day the Shoes Blotted Out the Sun

Oiselle CEO Sally Bergesen asks: Who are we short-changing when we choose to ignore the shoe tech dilemma?

[Sound off in comments below, please.]

Defying claims that plant-based diets lack for protein or hinder athletic performance, vegan athletes worldwide have proved otherwise, including some of the most accomplished competitors in the world. The latest to prove the naysayers wrong: Vegan runner Mike Fremont, who turned 100 years old in February and celebrated with a run around Vero Beach in Florida.

Fremont adopted a vegan diet at the age of 69 after receiving a daunting cancer diagnosis. He turned down what his doctors told him was life-saving surgery in favor of switching to a whole food plant-based diet. Now, Fremont, the oldest known vegan runner, holds the marathon distance world records for single-year age groups of 88 and 90.

Make sure to keep scrolling this article to read mini-profiles of surfers, professional tennis players, NFL & NBA players, etc. all of whom are THRIVING on a vegan diet, including ultra-runners Scott Jurek & Matt Frazier and sprinters Morgan Mitchell & Elijah Hall.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Running in the News... Five for Friday

This was a fun week in running news.

Find out what it's really like to be an ultramarathoner and what motivated Alex Nemet to complete seven races of 100 miles (or more) in just six months.
A documentary about the amazing Girls on Run organization (Chicago chapter) won an Emmy.
A Boston Marathon bombing victim gets to wear her favorite high heels again!
Plus a couple of studies on exercise.

Alex Nemet of Cleveland calls his ultramarathon races “unbelievable therapy sessions.”

His story is told in "Ultramarathon Runner Embraces Physical and Mental Challenge."

But pushing his body and his mind to their limits, tearing himself down to the core, is what Nemet craves. It is in this state that he finds emotional healing.

[Please click link above to read the entire article.]

I have a remarkable young cousin who is smart, funny, kind and athletic. She's currently a college student and cross country runner. I need to send this article ("How Intense Study May Harm Our Workouts") to her and see if she's experienced the phenomenon explored in this study.

Tire your brain and your body may follow, a remarkable new study of mental fatigue finds. Strenuous mental exertion may lessen endurance and lead to shortened workouts, even if, in strict physiological terms, your body still has plenty of energy reserves.

...

In simpler terms, exercise simply feels harder when your brain is tired, so you quit earlier, although objectively, your muscles are still somewhat fresh.

[Please click link above to read the entire article.]

Sarah Moshman and Dana Michelle Cook, owners of Heartfelt Productions, won an Emmy [Outstanding Achievement for Human Interest Programming - Program/Special/Series/Feature/Segment (Award to the Producer/Host/Reporter)] at this month's 55th Annual Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards Ceremony.

Their film "Growing Up Strong: Girls on the Run," showcases the Chicago Chapter of Girls on the Run.

This short documentary shines a spotlight on Girls on the Run – Chicago, a non-profit program that inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum that creatively integrates running. Girls on the Run – Chicago serves over 6,000 girls annually through their after school initiatives. The documentary follows the experiences of these girls as they prepare for a 5K event at Soldier Field.

This headline says it all: "Marathon bomb victim gets new leg for high heels."

Heather Abbott rarely wore flats before she became one of the many people to lose a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings. She calls herself a "professional heel-wearer" and preferred heels that reached the towering height of 4 inches.

On Thursday, she showed off a new prosthetic that will help her reclaim a little bit of her personal style: a "high-definition" realistic silicone leg that can be worn with high heels.

[Please click link above to read the entire article.]

And then there's this gem:

"Exercise in a Pill? The Search Continues."

Ummm.... No thanks. I'll continue to sweat and work my heart and lungs the old-fashioned way.

Two newly published studies investigate the enticing possibility that we might one day be able to gain the benefits of exercise by downing a pill, rather than by actually sweating.

Not all that enticing.

But while some of the research holds out promise for an effective workout pill, there remains the question of whether such a move is wise.

Duh?

And, again, thanks but no thanks!

[Please click link above to read the entire article.]