The Carnival of Running #30

Welcome to the 30th edition of The Carnival of Running!

With all the pageantry in the Bay to Breakers 12k, it’s nice to see the race itself was a great contest:

Sammy Kitwara set a world record for the distance, saying afterwards, “I feel very well, but very hot.” That prompted one wiseguy to remark, “You know it’s hot when the Kenyan says it’s hot.”

Usain Bolt shows us he’s a pretty fast road racer, too.

The men’s 400-meter hurdle race at the Adidas Track Classic featured a set of misplaced hurdles. Oops. If you missed the meet on ESPN2, Universal Sports has a rundown of the winners and losers.

A guy in New Zealand will attempt to break the record for fastest marathon run on a treadmill. In case you were considering it yourself, it’s 2:21:40.

If you’ve never done a hash run, here’s a good primer of what it entails, which is mostly beer.

Steve Bond says runners rarely exhibit the “crush the opponent at almost any cost mentality.” He’s right. What’s that “almost” doing in there?

The Associated Press discovered three recession-proof products are chocolate, Spam and running shoes. Smells like race day to me!

Cameron Stracher is writing a book about the 1970s running boom, and he’s of the opinion that economic malaise and increased interest in running go hand in hand. But I was more interested in this little story:

“In law school I ran with a world-class, 5,000 meter runner who disclosed he was stoned in the middle of a 13-mile run (apparently a common training technique for him).”

Maybe he was doing… wait for it… speedwork!

On Run Oregon, Joe Dudman discusses the etiquette for passing someone while training. I have soft footfalls, so I use the ninja sprint, sidling up behind them and then shooting past so they foul themselves in shock.

We’ve all seen those poor pacers, running an entire marathon while holding up that little tour guide sign. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? They’re rabbits. They should have rabbit ears.

Outside magazine thinks long, slow distance makes for long, slow runners.

University of Oregon students make themselves feel better by generating their own electricity while on elliptical machines. Before you get too excited about this idea, it would take 3,000 people a day on 20 machines to generate enough electricity to power one small house. It makes more sense just to go to bed an hour earlier.

copia verborum notices some odd behavior while she runs through Sulphur.

You watch for potholes. You watch for traffic. But Run to Win says to watch out for wet paint, too.

Pam Anderson (this one, not this one) recommends hard candy instead of gels on long runs.

Race congratulations to:

* sound mind, sound body for her 10k PR and tasty free beer.

* The Running Laminator for a monstrous 10k PR but, alas, no tasty free beer.

* maria k at run, rock, and roll for completing her first marathon in Cleveland last Sunday. She even had enough energy to heckle her ex-boyfriend at mile 17. Tremendous!

* Sun Runner who BQ’d in the same race. For her BQ, I have NV.

Thanks to Nitmos at Feet Meet Street for introducing me to the All American Standards of Excellence for master runners. All of those are reachable for me, so I’m clearing a space for my $10 certificate to go right next to my C-130 Hercules One Thousand Hour Club certificate. The old joke was the award for 3,000 hours was a hearing aid.

That’s all for this time, friends. Monday is the Great Funny/Viper Challenge. May the best snail win! Submit your posts to carnival@runningisfunny.com. Now run away!