Zach Bitter broke a 17-year-old world record for 100 miles by ten minutes last Saturday in Milwaukee, running 11:19:13. He continued for another 40 minutes to set the 12-hour record as well, 104.8 miles. The venue was the Petit National Ice Center, a long-track skating facility that has a 443-meter track around it and is maintained at 50-55 degrees. His average pace was 6:48. Wow. Just wow.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Sam didn’t say “freakin’”, but that’s close enough. It was about 20 years ago, I was training with other track-oriented members of the Hartford Track Club and racing a lot at 800-1500-mile. I was in the best shape of my life.
Corey Bellemore, the world record holder for the Beer Mile (4:33.6), ran a 3:49.05 for 1500 meters to finish second in the Canadian T&F nationals last weekend. That 1500 time converts to about a 4:07 mile. So to put the beer mile record in perspective, it only cost him about 27 seconds to stop and drink a 12-oz. beer each lap, and to run with the consequences. (Incredibly, Bellemore has actually run a Beer Mile in 4:24.x, but he left a half-ounce too much residue in his empties, so he was DQ’d.) … I was curious so I looked up age group Beer Mile records. My age group would be the 50-68 (?!) men, and the world record is 6:23. I might have a shot at this… without the beer stops!
This past weekend the USATF Nationals were held at Drake and televised by various NBC stations. We don’t get the premium stuff, so from what we saw this was the US “sprint, throw and jump” championships. Occasionally there would be a result from a distance event posted. (I guess we’re being trained for the Tokyo Olympics next year.) There were some notable distance achievements: Molly Huddle won her fifth straight 10k championship, Emma Coburn her eighth steeple, Shelby Houlihan nipped Jenny Simpson in the 1500 and went on to win the 5000, Lopez Lomong won the men’s 10k for the second year in a row, and Craig Engels upset Matt Centrowitz in the 1500.
I recently read Peter Sagal’s The Incomplete Book of Running. If you are a fan of his from NPR, you would expect a lot of humor – and there are some laugh-out-loud lines in it. However, overall the book is a mostly serious memoir about topics such as his divorce, body image issues, the Boston Marathon bombing (he was nearby at that instant), and other biographical details. Worth it if you’d like to get to know him better.
We just returned from a 2-1/2 week trip to Colorado and points southwest. It was a great vacation, and it was also an interesting exploration of the effects of heat, elevation, direct sun and humidity in various combinations.