Race Round-Up From The Track

Although I really enjoy longer races, and normally on trails, I did run track and cross country all through high school and college and still enjoy the tactics and thrill of a track race. This week and weekend is the 2011 USATF Track and Field National Championships in Eugene, OR. The racing and competition is going to be awesome, so be sure to check out all the news from Track Town at: www.usatf.org


I'll start off my USATF Championships viewing by nominating the top 3 track performances of the last few weeks.

#1) On June 11th Lukas Verzbicas of Orland Park, IL not only defended his title in the adidas Jim Ryun High School Dream Mile, but also became the fifth US high school runner to break four-minutes in the mile. He can add that to his other accolades, including breaking the national high school record in the 5000m indoors, breaking the national high school record for the two miles outdoors, and winning both the Foot Locker and Nike national cross country championships. His next goal is a gold medal at the World Junior Triathlon Championships. He will run for the Oregon Ducks this fall.Check out a flotrack video of the race here:

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238873-adidas-Golden-Stripes-2011-Dream-100-Jim-Ryun-Dream-Mile/video/495885-adidas-Dream-Mile-Race-Video-Lukas-Verzbicas-35971

#2) On June 23rd Hayward Field hosted both the men's and women's 10000M national championships, which also served as the qualifier for the US World Championship team. In the men's race the top four runners had already reached the world A standard, so the race was "slower" and tactical from the begining with Galen Rupp taking a close victory. You can watch the race from the USATF website here:

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&pg=1&event_id=3618&video_id=49837&folder_id=2043&offset=1#video

In the women's race Shalane Flanagan ran away from the field taking the win, with Kara Goucher coming in second, and Jennifer Rhines taking third. I should also point out that the women's medal ceremony is shown in the men's 10000M video, and in it the commentators incorrectly state that Kara Goucher moved with her family from New York to Michigan. I feel compelled to correct them and say that she actually moved to (the one and only!) Duluth, MN. You can watch the women's race from the USATF website here:

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2011&pg=1&event_id=3618&video_id=49805&folder_id=2043&offset=2#video

#3) In yet another stunning performance the 80 year old Ed Whitlock of Ontario Canada broke two world records in 25 hours at the Canadian Masters National Championships. He ran an unbelievable 42:59.16 in the 10000M shattering the old mark by over 1:30! To put that into perspective Ed ran about a 6:55 pace for the 6.2 miles...the men's 80 year old age group record for the mile is 7:09! The next day Ed broke his own two week old 5000M world record running 20:58.12.

Ed Whitlock Cruising To Victory!

And of course good luck to all of the runners taking on Western States this weekend as well. I hope to join you at the starting line sometime in the next few years! Lots of good running going on this weekend, from ultras to the track

.Go For The Buckle Western States Runners!