Archive for November, 2008

Tag, You’re It

I neglected to mention that Thursday’s Run to Feed the Hungry used disposable timing tags instead of the traditional chips. It was my first experience using one and it seemed to work fine, unlike the problems they have had elsewhere over the past year.

I did see a few people who were running with the chip still attached to their bib, however, so they didn’t receive a time. I guess you can’t make anything completely foolproof.

Run to Feed the Hungry

The numbers were staggering for a short race in a medium-sized city, but the newspaper is reporting some 28,000 people turned out for Sacramento’s Run to Feed the Hungry yesterday. The chip system recorded 15,000 runners and walkers in the 5k and nearly 5,800 in the 10k. To give you an idea of the mass of humanity out there, the 10k winner finished at about the same time as the last walker crossed the starting line.

Mr. Gobbles, pictured here, finished 4th in the 5k.

Despite all the hype and the press coverage, it somehow got lost that we even had an Olympian in the race. Magdalena Lewy Boulet, one of the three women to represent the U.S. in the marathon in Beijing, finished second in the 10k.

My own race was decent. I ran a 49:55, more than 3 minutes slower than the PR I set in last year’s race, but consistent with my times over the last few weeks. It was good enough for 683rd in the field of 5,782 and 42nd of 244 in my age group.

The Carnival of Running #8

Welcome to the 8th edition of The Carnival of Running!

It’s Thanksgiving week, and I know many of you will be out bright and early on Thursday morning to participate in a turkey trot. I’ve got a 10k – the Run to Feed the Hungry. It benefits the Sacramento Food Bank and is the largest Thanksgiving Day race in the country, expected to draw 26,000 participants this year.

Hat tip to Run to Win for this week’s video of an outdoor treadmill.

You’ll notice there are no curves on that road. With fixed axles, I’d like to see it try to go around a corner. Now that would be funny.

A running (?) theme this week was celebrity encounters. The Typing Makes Me Sound Busy misses an imagined assignation with Hugh Laurie in the wonderfully titled “Premature Evacuation.” Marci Runs the Marathon has much better luck, with celebrities galore appearing on Juror Appreciation Day.

Wide Awake in Wonderland lives with a celebrity, and that’s not counting her ice cream date with Weird Al Yankovic.

Steve in a Speedo?! Gross! has photos of some people’s too-close encounters with those Ronald McDonald statues.

See Kai Run. See Kai Eat. gets advice from running celebrity Bart Yasso, but later delves into profanity to describe him and it.

Half-Fast and friends aren’t famous yet, but after their podcast makes its way through the Internet tubes, they might be.

If you can’t be a celebrity, you might as well try dressing like one. Blyfinn has photos of a trail race involving women in bridal gowns. Not to mention Loin Cloth Man, which might explain why the women were running so fast.

Speaking of costumes, The Running Moron‘s post about his turkey trot and other holiday races made we wonder if every holiday is covered by a road race. Do people run in beards and stovepipe hats in the Lincoln’s Birthday 5k? Do they wear pancake costumes on Shrove Tuesday?

Turkey trots are great, but Running Off at the Mind feels burned out. Should he use Thanksgiving to rest? And Kevin at 5ksandcabernets talks about those “first mile blues.”

The Journey to 70.3… digs up Joe Kelly’s 53 Runners’ Commandments. They still stand the test of time.

After Thanksgiving comes Christmas, so The Polka Dot Zebra shares her letter to Santa, but Running into the Sun is just happy that she won’t have to ask Santa for a new Garmin.

The holidays also mean lots of traveling, and MizFit‘s guest blogger describes the multiple joys of modern air travel.

We have two race reports from the Philadelphia Marathon, one by Ramblings of a Running Addict and the other by joyRuN.

Even better, though, was a first half-marathon race report by Marathon Mama‘s dad, who described “Two young women next to me arguing over personal issues and their relationship – developed into screaming battle, ending on the sidewalk and clearly the end of the day for one or both. I’m thinking, this marathon stuff is getting interesting.”

Finally, Nitmos at Feet Meet Street not only learns how to avoid nipple chafe, but how to easily increase web traffic while doing it. Jai…on Training is so impressed she reprints a nipple chafe story from a year ago.

I don’t understand this post by Mostly Running… but it’s fun watching it go off the rails.

And thanks to Xenia at Diggin’ It, I was able to achieve my lifelong goal of linking to a blog post that references “the left side of my hooha.”

That’s all for this time, friends. Submit your posts to carnival@runningisfunny.com. I’m off to create my world-famous chile-crusted turkey. Happy Thanksgiving! Now run away!

Dogging It

From Sky News:

What Could Go Wrong?

Having received a BMW M3 from Puma for his birthday, Usain Bolt will also receive “specialist driving lessons” at BMW’s track in Germany.

If You Want to Win, Stay Away From This Race

The Ageo City Half Marathon boasted 412 runners who finished under 1:10.

What to Do When Your Marathon Is Canceled at 4 a.m.

Have breakfast and then bandit some other race you just happen to stumble upon.

Hat tip: Dena B.