Gene has run three marathons under 3:00 since turning 70, only the second runner to do so along with the legendary Ed Whitlock. You can also follow him on Strava, if you want to witness some amazing feats of training and racing. In addition to marathons, he races ultras up to 200 miles. This weekend he’s competing the the Philadelphia Freedom challenge, which entails a half marathon and an 8k on Saturday, followed by a full marathon on Sunday. Yesterday he “took it easy” in the half, running 1:39, before going out and blasting the 8k in 33:33 — 6:43 pace! As I write this, I haven’t seen marathon results yet. I’m guessing low-3:00’s.
In August Donavan Brazier won the Diamond League 800 in Zurich, with a time that put him behind only the great Johnny Gray among Americans. In Doha at the World Championships, he won gold and broke Gray’s 1985 AR, with a time of 1:42:34. And he’s only 22!
…and so were a lot of other people who thought that Kenenisa Bekele was done. His performances in the past few years at the marathon distance have been DNF’s or disappointing. (That is, for someone whose debut marathon wad a 2:05.) He has looked heavy, and it was easy to jump to the conclusion that he had lost his desire. Nope. In Berlin last weekend, he was just 2 seconds off the Kipchoge WR. More to come, or was it good enough to prove us wrong again?
This past Sunday Geoffrey Kamworor shattered the half marathon world record, dropping it 17 seconds to 58:01. He passed 10k in 27:34, which is four seconds faster than Lasse Viren’s 1972 WR for 10,000 meters!
For those of us who are fortunate enough to work in education, this is the time of year for new beginnings. Every year (or every semester) is a fresh start, with new classes, different students, and a clean slate. It’s full of opportunities to fix what didn’t work and improve on what did.
… won the 800 meters at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday night against a top international field. His time of 1:42.70 is the third fastest American performance all-time, behind only two races by the legendary Johnny Gray. Even more impressive is the way he did it: he let the pacer and other favorites blaze through the 400 in 48.2, sitting in 8th place 30 meters back. With 200 to go he was in 7th place, still 25 meters back… and then he turned it on, passing the entire field for the win. Such patience and confidence! And he’s only 22.