Go Paula

Paula Radcliffe won the NYC Marathon today. She's probably one of my favorite runners. There's so much talk about stride length, lean, toe strike, and cadence in running, but here's a runner who just goes out and SUFFERS. No finesse, just hard running. I was smitten after she limped through the finish line at the Olympics this Summer.





It seems like some athletes are able to extend their careers in sport today. The NY Times has a good story about the trend here. It seems that slowtwitch muscles, and the big engine required for some efforts in endurance sports (cycling, running, swimming) don't diminish until the athlete is in their early forties, and I've still had some wompings from masters swimmers and cyclists who are older than that.

I'm racing the Hokie Open here in Blacksburg this Saturday. My goals are to be happy with my effort, and have fun. The team I'm racing with should be fairly strong so a few of us may run the course this week. My run mileage is really low right now so no real expectations. Long run last week was fifty five minutes on the tready.

Don't forget to vote Tuesday.


Photo Credit: three60