Training today - just an easy run around the common.  I am getting that “end of term” feeling towards my training, where I don’t feel like doing anything any more.  But I do prefer to do a little training in the final week - I soon start feeling sluggish if I do nothing.

While I’m writing this, I’m just keeping tabs on what is happening in the Boston Marathon, which is taking place even as I type.  The Americans are pretty excited this year as they reckon that this year, for the first time in ages, there is a possibility of an American winner in the men’s and women’s race.  Ryan Hall has gone off very fast with the leading men (4:39 first mile).  Kara Goucher is still in the pack of leading women, which seems to be running pretty slowly (78 minutes at halfway)

One person who I am very pleased to see there is Bill Rodgers.  For those whose memories of distance running don’t go back to the seventies and early eighties, I should point out that Bill Rodgers is one of the all time greats of American distance running.  “Boston Billy” won this classic race four times in the late seventies.  He also won the New York Marathon four times, plus he won a large number of prestigious road races in the USA and around the world.  To millions of American runners of the period, he was an inspiration and an idol.  Bill continued to train and compete seriously well into his fifties.  His last serious marathon came in 1992 and the last marathon he completed was the 1996 Boston, which was the hundredth running of the event.  The last few years haven’t been too kind to him.   After largely avoiding injury for many years, he stepped off a kerb one day and, crack!, he suffered a stress fracture to his tibia.  A couple of years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and required an operation last year.  He is now hopefully fully healthy again and should be out there again on the Boston course as I write these words.  His aims are fairly modest this year - he is talking in terms of doing it in under four hours - but it will be good to see him cross the finish line again.  (Interesting article here) 

Stop press - Deriba Merga of Ethiopia wins in Boston with a time of 2:08 something.  Ryan Hall is third.  I guess he will be disappointed with that, but he was the only man in the top ten, who was neither Kenyan nor Ethiopian.  The women’s race is won by Salina Kosgei of Kenya in a modest 2:32, with Kara Goucher third.

Extra stop press - Bill Rodgers has just crossed the line in 4:06.  It looks like he suffered over the later miles, but he made it to the finish.

In other news, I shall be going along to the Expo on Wednesday and expect to be there round about lunchtime.  I don’t expect to see many, if any, other bloggers there, as most people tend to arrive towards the end of the week.  But if you are there, I shall be lurking somewhere in the vicinity of the Realbuzz stand between one and two.  Don’t put yourself out to be there though - for one thing I can’t guarantee I’ll be there at that time.  For another, in real life I am a pretty dull person, so be warned!

Tags: Boston marathon

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