Tuesday 083110

AM – ten miles easy.  Met up early with Don B to trade some war stories.

Technologies I am playing with today:  Running Ahead (on line GPS data collection site – tip from Jay), the new blogger stats, and Gmail Priority Inbox

Will / when will there be a sub 2 hour marathon?

Bike race up Pikes this past weekend, and a race report.  At times my speed dropped to 3mph and I was going all-out as hard as I could.

Treadmill versus outdoor running revisited.

Catching up on how I did on my PP predictions. For the Ascent, I predicted these folks … and how they actually finished.

1.) Parr (ack – tough day for Timmy and is simply not in the form he was in 09 where he appeared unbeatable – 34th)
2.) Haefer (close – fourth)
3.) Gates (got this one)
4.) Nichols (close – fifth)
5.) Chemweno (yet another Kenyan who does not start.  I will get burned someday for not picking internationals, but I simply won’t because they are too much a wild card to even get to the line)
6.) Blake (got off course – finished 20th!)
7.) Maksimow (finished 8th – so close)
8.) Manning (got off course – finished 15th!)
9.) Randall (well, he won … 8 spots better than I predicted him)
10.) Mendoza (finished well back – did he get off course too?  30th)

I missed Peace, Donnelly (from the UK), Burrell (late entrant), Lopez (Mexico).  Not bad.  Might have done better had some folks not took a hike to the Bottomless Pit.

Marathon, I picked:

1.) Carpenter (got this, but it is sort of a given)
2.)  Parker (this guy is very consistently racking up sub 4 performances)
3.) Parr (Yeah, missed this but again, he was just not the big factor this year … I tip my hat to him though for fighting through the weekend.  He finished seventh)
4.) Boettcher (he finished ninth.  I might have got this but he was doubling back from a tough mountain 10k the day before)
5.) Clark - (Nick is having an incredible year when you look at it … lots of wins, CRs, PRs … and being one spot out of the money here.  Thought he’d get sub 4 though … wonder if he gets that next year)
6.) Mock (finished 15th on a tough day – for him.  A time he is not happy with 4:31 – would have been a PR for me …)
7.)  Burch - (did not start … was dealing with some niggling injuries)
8.)  Fain (got this one)

Spots 9 and 10, which I did not pick, went to Boettcher and Grauch.  I missed the Spainard Castaner (sixth), and the three guys from Nick’s planet Krypton … but I gave all those guys a nod in my predictions.  Not bad on whole across the two races.  Obviously, the depth of the Ascent keeps it much harder to pick.  Got to wonder how things change up a bit if the race does not have the international flavor.

PM – 5 miles easy.