With Olympic Trials Looming, Cardinal Invitational Has Star-studded 10,000s

There are never that many chances to run a truly elite 10,000 on the track in the United States in the spring, so it's not so surprising that so many stars are flocking to the 10,000s at the Cardinal Invitational on Saturday at Stanford University. Shalane Flanagan, the 2008 USA Cross Country champion and U.S. 5000-meter recordholder, has previously indicated she'd like to try and break Deena Kastor's American 10,000 mark of 30:50.32; Kim Smith of New Zealand might be able to challenge her in a duel at that speed. Kara Goucher, the 2007 World Championships bronze medalist in the 10,000, has stated that her goal on Saturday is just to get the Olympic "A" qualifier of 31:45; Alicia Shay apparently has the same goal. Amy Rudolph, Sara Slattery, Jen Rhines, Sally Kipyego, Amy Hastings, and Molly Huddle are also in the women's 10,000 at the Invitational. The men's race could include Dan Browne, Andrew Carlson, Jason Hartmann, Jason Lehmkuhle, Fasil Bizuneh, Rod Koborsi, Bolota Asmerom, Josh McDougal, Craig Mottram, and Josh Rohatinsky (who is currently also registered for the 5000). The men's 5000 tentatively includes Bernard Lagat, Abdi Abdirahman, Ian Dobson, Adam Goucher, Ed Moran, and Jorge Torres. In the women's 5000, the top contenders include Emily Brown, Renee Metivier, Katie McGregor, Lauren Fleshman (who is also signed up for the 1500), and Arianna Lambie.

You can enjoy all the action this Sunday, May 4 at Stanford at Cobb Track and Angel Field for the Peyton Jordan Cardinal Invitational. The meet will include some of the best competition the Cardinal will face all season.

Courtesy of Runner's World

**San Francisco native standout Shannon Rowbury will be running the 1500 meters. She needs a 4:10 to guarantee entry into the Olympic Trials. 4:19.50 (which she can do in a practice run practically) is the B-standard. But what she is really shooting for on Sunday is the Olympic A-standard which is 4:07.00. This is a great meet for distance races (2001-Meb set the American 10,000 meter record, 2004-15 Olympic A standards achieved, 2006-Webb made his 10,000 meter debut in 27:24). The meet starts at 4pm Sunday but the main races (i.e. fast sections) are all between about 6-9pm. Hope you can come to watch some great track and cheer on Shannon!

Follow link to view roster: http://www.sml1.com/recordtiming/stanford/pjc08/pjc_entries.htm

Tentative meet schedule: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/stan/sports/c-track/auto_pdf/08-PaytonJordanCardinalInvitat.pdf

For more information about the Cardinal Invitational go to http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stan-c-track-body.html

*** 5/1/2008 UPDATE: This is from Andy Chan, the coach for local running club, Pamakids:

An update on Shannon's race on Sunday at Stanford...Shannon told me to spread the word that Stanford is not charging admission for the meet. So you can watch what is shaping up to be as elite a meet as the Olympic Trials for FREE! The meet is getting a lot of talk amongst running geeks (like me). There is talk that Shannon's training-mate, Shalane Flanagan is going after the American Record in the 10,000 meters (current record-30:50 by Deena, which is just a little under 5:00 per mile).The fast sections of the distance races are as follows:

Women's 3000 Steeplechase - 6:40
Men's 3000 Steeplechase (2 sections) - 6:53
Women's 800 (2 sections) - 7:13
Men's 800 (2 sections) - 7:21
Women's 1500 (2 sections) - 7:31 - THIS IS SHANNON'S RACE
Men's 1500 (2 sections) - 7:45
Women's 5000 - 7:57
Men's 5000 - 8:15
Women's 10,000 - 8:30 - SHALANE FLANAGAN AMERICAN RECORD ATTEMPT
Men's 10,000 - 9:05 - the men in this section are fast, they'll be done by 9:35 so we can get home and go to bed

Lewy Boulet: 'I Did Not Plan to Be Alone'

SF Bay Area runner, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet of adidas-Transports, qualified for the Olympic Marathon on Sunday.
Lewy-Boulet (right) beside winner Deena Kastor

April 20, 2008

By Toby Tanser
Photo by Jeff Dengate

It was the hard worker's way -- mile after mile grinding away, really and truly running her own race. Her face locked in a stern, determined fashion, with one mission, one goal: to make the team.
Two weeks before the U.S. Olympic Women's Marathon Trials, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, 34, PR'd on the track, racing to a third-place finish in the 10,000 meters at Stanford, clocking 32:33. A great time to hit a PR, if you have done the marathon training. But knowing that Magdalena is coached by Jack Daniels, and has been since the 2000, you just knew she had done that training.
The real journey began with the offer of opportunity, one that she is quick to reflect upon with every word. The opportunity of America. The daughter of Janusz, a long-distance trucker, and Lucja, a mother who holds a degree in agricultural studies, Magdalena grew up in Katowice, Poland, under a Communist regime. In 1988, following her father who had gone ahead to make the journey possible, she moved to Kiel in the north of Germany, before ending her voyage for freedom in Long Beach, California, in 1991.
"I actually started running because I realized I could get school paid for if I ran," she says. And run she did, straight onto a track scholarship at Berkeley. On September 11, 2001, she became a U.S. citizen at a shortened ceremony in San Francisco. "I was expecting a three-hour ceremony," she says. "It was five minutes. They said, 'Get in the car and go home.'" She learned about the tragedy of 9/11 on the car radio.
Soon after, she married Richie Boulet, a 3:53 miler, and started prepping for the 2004 Trials. That race proved to be disappointing as she finished fifth. "I did not run my best race. I blew it between miles 23 to 24," she says. Shortly afterwards, she started a family -- but never lost her Olympic dream.
Fast forward four years. The mother of Owen, three years old next month, had been leading today's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials for well over two hours. It was a perfect day for running: bright, crisp skies with temperatures in the mid-50s.
"I did plan to run the pace I was running," says Lewy Boulet, "but I did not plan to be alone." And alone Magdalena was, maintaining a lead straight from the gun. Both race winner Deena Kastor and the third-place finisher Blake Russell professed that they had not recognized it was Lewy who made the early break from the large pack that stayed glued together. “If I had known…,” they both mused.
Running alone was not a problem for Lewy; that's how she does all of her training, either on the roads or on the treadmill. Due to her busy life, that's just the way it plays out. "I get up very early in the morning to run. I always have been working full time when I have been running. Before my current job (working as a coach at Berkeley for the men's and women's running teams), I was in the sports nutrition world." Her husband, who holds the family marathon PR with a 2:25 (“that’s one of my goals!”), also works more than full time too -- he has a couple of running stores, called Transports, in Oakland and Berkeley.
When a smooth-running Kastor ultimately caught her at mile 23, Lewy Boulet did not worry. "Because of the criteria course I knew I had about two minutes on Blake, and with two miles to go I knew I could still run six-minute miles and get on the team." As EPSN commentator noted on the finish line, "Even when she slowed down, the wheels did not fall off. That is when you could see she is a strength runner... she never even hit a six-minute mile."
Kastor professed that she thought Lewy Boulet was going to win the race; she was looking so strong. Kastor would have been content with that (“I had succumbed to second place”). Magdalena also thought she could pull off the win when she was zipping along. "I kept on hearing one minute forty, two minutes... but I knew Deena would be coming. When the crowd stopped telling me the time, I knew it was close."
If Deena was the overall winner, then Lewy Boulet should get the architect's prize for making the race. George Hirsch, chairman of the New York Road Runners, who was out in the sun on Boylston Street, marveled at Lewy Boulet at the mile-eight point. "She looks amazing, like a machine," he said.
It was a mechanic performance as her style from gun to tape remained the same; a marathon's fatigue could not falter her stride. "The marathon was planned months ago. I knew I would be running 5:30's to 5:40's the whole way. I planned to pass half way in 1:15; I think I was 1:14 something."
When she crossed the finish line, there were tears in the eyes of not only Lewy Boulet but her husband as well. "We both cried; it was just the moment."
The moment: A Polish immigrant and an American citizen minted on 9/11 now going to Beijing to represent the U.S. in the blue-ribbon event of the Games. "I'm really proud of myself. There was something my husband and my coach said to me, 'The race is not going to come to me, I'm going to have to go out there and get it.' "
Get it she certainly did.

Courtesy of Runner's World

ADIDAS AND MARATHONGUIDE.COM JOIN FORCES WITH WCSN.COM TO PROVIDE A FREE WEBCAST OF THE BOSTON MARATHON

Live and On-Demand Webcast Available Worldwide on April 21

LOS ANGELES – April 16, 2008– World Championship Sports Network (WCSN), the premier destination of Olympic and lifestyle sports, announced today it is joining forces with adidas and MarathonGuide.com to provide a free, first-ever global webcast of the 112th Boston Marathon. Through this partnership, fans worldwide can logon to WCSN.com to watch the live and on-demand webcast on April 21, beginning at 9:25 a.m. EST. "We're excited to partner with adidas and MarathonGuide.com in offering this free webcast and to help foster worldwide awareness for this major race," said Carlos Silva, president and COO of WCSN. "Now, for the first time global road racing fans will have unprecedented coverage to see the top marathoners square off in one of the world's most prestigious sporting events." On WCSN.com, running fans can also access Marathon Madness, a special editorial package that features original content, articles from road racing experts, interactive maps, results, highlights and more. Furthermore, WCSN.com will be offering special commentary from running legend and four-time Boston Marathon winner Bill Rodgers."Adidas is proud to join WCSN.com in providing a free internet broadcast of the 112th Boston Marathon," said Spencer Nel, head of global sports marketing for running and track and field at adidas. "As a Boston Marathon sponsor, adidas is especially pleased to help bring the oldest continuing annual marathon in the world to as many viewers as possible in every corner of the world. With its proven track record WCSN.com is the ideal partner to make that happen.""Since 2000, MarathonGuide.com's mission has been to promote the sport by providing comprehensive coverage of and information about marathons and distance running. As part of that mission, we are proud to work with WCSN.com and adidas to ensure that the Boston Marathon broadcast will be available at no cost and can be enjoyed by as many marathon enthusiasts as possible," said John Elliott, founder and president of MarathonGuide.com.Deemed one of the world's most prestigious and oldest annual road racing events, the Boston Marathon is the second stop on the World Marathon Majors, a marathon series offering a $1 million prize purse to be split between the leading male and female marathoners in the world. WCSN.com is the home of the 2008 World Marathon Majors with complete coverage of the London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York City races. Marathon fans around the globe can catch the action on www.wcsn.com where they can be part of the more than 500,000 spectators anticipated to be cheering on the runners as they dash through the streets of rural Hopkinton to the beautiful Boston Back Bay finish line at Copley Square. Fans will also have access to complete live and on-demand video footage plus free access to news, race results, photo galleries, behind-the-scenes features and more.

adidas Urban Run SF - BAY TO BREAKERS 12K Training - April-May 2008

In April and the first two Mondays in May, we will be training specifically for the Bay to Breakers 12K. There will be a Hayes Street "UP" course and a "DOWN" course alternating each week. Shorter route options are available. Don't get intimidated by the hills in the Bay to Breakers 12K and run with us!

** Please note that ALL routes below will NOT go through Golden Gate Ave and Larkin Street! I love you guys and gals that much to not have you killed or go through urine alley!

UP route (4/7, 4/21, 5/5) ~5.4 miles
Everyone will start at 6:30PM:

Left on Market
Right on Hayes
Right on Scott
Right on Sacramento
Right on Grant
Right on Market
Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store

Course map: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1715828

DOWN route (4/14, 4/28, 5/12) ~8 miles
Running start is 6:15PM!! You must be able to run faster than 9:30/mile pace:

Start at adidas Sport Performance Store
Powell
Left on Post
Right on Scott
Left on California
Left on Arguello
Enter GG Park and make left on E Conservatory Drive
Left on JFK
Exit GG Park and make left on Stanyan
Right on Fulton
Right on Scott
Left on Hayes...go DOWN
Slight left onto Market
Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store

Course map: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1715865

SHORTER option 4.1 Miles (4/14, 4/28, 5/12)
Running start is 6:30PM:

Start at adidas Sport Performance Store
Powell
Left on Post
Left on Steiner
Left on Hayes...go DOWN
Slight left onto Market
Finish at adidas Sport Performance Store

Course map: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1735145