Now Available on Amazon!

Amazon offers so much more than just books! Check out the blue-box sponsored link on this screen print from a New York Times web page search:



Free shipping on qualified orders! I wonder how they're shipped?

IAAF World Championships

There's been some interesting action in Berlin. Universal Sports has had great coverage over the internet.

Of course, this amazing race has to lead:


The finish of the woman's 10K was also pretty awesome. Don't celebrate until after you cross the finish line.




The marathon races are next weekend. The men's marathon is early Saturday morning (0445 CDT). The USA team :
1169 Daniel BROWNE USA 24 Jun 75 2:11:35 PR, 2:13:23 Qualifier
1182 Matt GABRIELSON USA 28 Jun 78 2:17:38 PR 2:17:38
1193 Nate JENKINS USA 6 Oct 80 2:14:56 PR 2:14:56
1237 Edwardo TORRES USA 22 Aug 80 2:17:54 PR 2:17:54
1247 Justin YOUNG USA 25 Jul 79 2:13:54 PR, 2:18:50 in 2009, 2:13:54 Qualifier

The women's marathon is early Saturday morning (0415 CDT). The USA team :
980 Desireé DAVILA USA 26 Jul 83 2:31:33 PR 2:31:33
992 Zoila GÓMEZ USA 7 Jun 79 2:33:53 PR 2:33:53
993 Kara GOUCHER USA 9 Jul 78 2:25:53 PR, 2:32:25 in 2009, 2:25:53
998 Paige HIGGINS USA 12 Jul 82 2:33:06 PR 2:33:06
1012 Tera MOODY USA 18 Dec 80 2:33:54 PR 2:33:54

Here's a great picture by Sean Hartnett of Tera Moody and Zoila Gomez racing the US Olympic Trials Marathon.


Here's the entire starting list.

UT standout Leonel Manzano qualified for the 1500m final Wednesday.



And Bekele blew away the field in the Men's 10K

Is It Fall Yet?

Days Since Last Run Below 80°F: 12 counting my trip to Washington DC. It's been 24 days since it was 78°F down here on Sunday morning, July 19th.
Days Since Last Run Below 70°F: 83 (May 21, a pretty nice Spring this year)

45¼ miles for the week of August 2nd through 9th

I'm just so tired of sweating. It was nice to run in the lower 70s°F while I was in Washington DC. But those were still sweat soaked runs. My shoes were completely soaked after just three miles Sunday. This has been a bad Summer. Here's a graph of the daily high and low temperatures for Clute this year.



South Texas Summer Snow



View of the prison farm while driving home from work

Back from DC

Wouldn't you know the week I spend in DC is their week of Summer. Each run ended up soaked in sweat, but it was still much better than down here and I was able to notch my pace up somewhat. The best dewpoint I saw was a decent 65°F on Thursday morning and the worst was 72°F on Friday morning. Much better than the upper 70s, but still humid. The best temperature I saw was 73°F on Tuesday and Thursday morning and the worst was 85°F late Monday afternoon. Not too bad!
DC is an interesting city with all of it's diagonal (state) streets, circles, and monuments. From my hotel, I had a short warmup/cooldown to the Rock Creek Trail and the C&O Canal Trail. Of course, I did my share of tourist runs, looping the White House and the monuments on The Mall. The C&O Canal Trail is a nice unending stretch of crushed rock along the old canal, great for serious runs. Stepping up and down the curbs and the faster running took a toll on my left knee. I just felt a few niggles; hopefully, it's nothing serious.

Here's a picture of me from a tourist run Friday morning (at this nuke's favorite monument):