Luke - 12.56

12.56mi, 100:42 (8:00)

Today I ran 12.56 miles in honor of Dathan Ritzenhein breaking the American Record in the 5000 meters, in 12:56.27. This record had stood for thirteen years, and even though Ritz is 42nd on the all-time list of 5000m runners, he is only the fourth non-African to break thirteen, and is third on that list (second if you exclude Dieter Baumann, who was later busted for performance-enhancing drugs). Guess that shows you how ingrained running is in East African culture. I think the U.S. is making a surge to catch up to the Kenyans and Ethiopians, and it won't be too long before we have a few guys that can compete at the top level.

I ran this less than 10 hours after last night's run, but I was actually expecting it to be even slower. The first mile was about 9:30, but I was able to pick it up for most of the rest of it, even though it was a bit tough to do so. I did 12+ minutes barefoot on the grass, and it was early enough (and not too sunny) that the bees weren't out yet.

Didn't mean to "hibernate" this week; things got busy and then I went to Portland...I was expecting not to miss a run due to the trip, but on Thursday my friend tried to drive me to the bus station and we missed the exit and then took another wrong turn and we ended up not making it there in time, so I was forced to stick around and drink and play darts for another night, and my friend decided to just drive me down to Eugene on Friday. I'll try to get all my posting updated today...I promise to try to get it done in a timely manner from now on.