Watching Races Online

Last night I went to bed while nodding off to the live feed of the Chicago marathon. I eventually passed out, but awoke to learn that Japanese based Kenyan runner and Olympic champ, Sammy Wanjiru, had won the race over Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia. Also sometime after midnight I got up because, guess what, I couldn't sleep. It was great that Chicago had live coverage of the race and even better that the athlete tracking was top notch. I was able to quickly find out about the results of the race that I cared about:

• Scotty Downard ran a PR of 2:26:52
• Jerry Faulkner looks to have had a fast start, solid half, but rough finish. It would have been great to see things come together for this guy who put in a lot of work during the Oklahoma summer, 2:39:05
• Chad Crockford rolled to a 2:53 finish while his wife, Danielle unfortunately DNF'd
• Fasil Bizuneh had an aggressive start and didn't make it to the finish line
• Sage Canaday formerly of Cornell and now of Hansons just missed the trials qualifier with 2:19:18

Well done to those who ran PRs and good job Chicago for having your marathon together.

This brings us to how to view the Izumo Ekiden online. I will refer to Brett Larner's blog, Japan Running News, on how to do so. It requires a bit of a download, but in the past I've been able to watch some other ekiden races.

Also, while you're visiting Japan Running News, take a look at the two teams that he highlights. Look at their personal bests for 5,000m and 10,000m! Further try to ignore his dig at the Ivy League team which has never placed in the top 10 for several reasons. I can't help but disagree on his argument about having Oregon or Stanford come over to race as that's not the purpose of the trip, type of team that is fielded or time of year that is convenient.