distance runners

I found this news article on a new marathon rule. It applies to half marathons, this one in particular is from the Norwich Half Marathon. They are deciding to ban mps players and personal stereoes as well. That means any participants in the marathon can not wear any sort of mp3 player or personal stereo while running in the half marathon. A few runners a quite upset with this new ban, and personally I think it is a good rule, but does suck for those long distance runners that can not run without some sort of their personal choice of motivating music. me, being a long distance runner myself I feel for those who hate this new rule. I find it very hard to go out for a long run, anything over five miles, and run alone with no music. Although I see the other side of it as well because, sometimes when I do run with my music I can not even hear a car coming behind me, or if someone were to sneak up on me I would not even know. They have legit reasons they want to inforce this rule for this particualr half marathon. It is a road race, and sometimes not all the tarffic is clear of the runners on the roads and accidents happen, and have in the past infact leading to some tragic deaths. Runners reading this news article had mentioned "this could ruin the future of long-distance running if other races follow suit." Even some runners thought that do not even run with a music device are not safe runners and dont even watch for cars. So, I do not know how effecive this rule may be, it may or may not even help the problem of runners getting injured from vehicles. I understand though, this organzation trying to do something to help this issue, and I think it is worth a try. If you want to run with a mp3 player or personal stereo, run for fun on your own time. If you want to run this half marathon find a friend that way you wont need music. Plus a lot of organized runs have music playing along the streets anyways.

Gordon White

http://www.thepilot.com/stories/20071007/sports/sports/20071007WHITE.html
Al Oerter, form Long Island, NY, was never really picked as the favorite to win the gold medal in the discus. He often suffered from some illness and a heart disease. This news story is extremely sad and touching though, and I highly recommend reading it. He became the first person to win 4 consecutive gold medals in the same track and field event which is amazing despite his heart condition he suffered from. Oerter died last Monday of heart failure. He was not like many other highly paid professional track athletes, he earned a living by working on computers. Oerter really began his career as a discus thrower through an odd occurence really I thought, something you wouldnt really expect. He had been on the track team in high school and usually ran the one mile, then one day a disuc landed by his foot and he picked it up to throw it back and that began his career. I think this is an inspirational story and one athletes should read.

http://www.aloerter.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/sports/othersports/01cnd-oerter.html?ex=1348891200&en=369c670d15ec89ab&ei=5088&par

sports

A Riverview High junior plays two sports and has the heart to handle both, is the story I read today. This student is a cross-country runner and a soccer player which I think is pretty amazing since both of those sports are high intensity. Both sports are a lot of hard running which makes it that much more difficult. Three times this year he has competed in a cross country meet and a soccer game in the same day. But he is not completely normal inside, his heart beats at 48 per sec instead of someones else who would normally beat around 80 or so. I think this is awesome and i wish I had this gift. He doesnt get worn out as easily and says he can run forever. He really has a bit of an advantage.