The Women's Olympic Marathon and Week 5

Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia hits the tape
(pic from NBC's broadcast)

The ladies sure know how to put on a good show in the marathon. This race portended to be very special with the strongest field ever assembled, with seven women having run sub-2:20. American hopes in this race centered on our strong contingent of Shalane Flanagan, Desiree Davila, and Kara Goucher. However, realistic hopes for a medal from amongst these three had to be set low, with all their PRs (personal records) exceeding 2:25. Still, hope springs eternal, at least at the start of every race. The smart money was always on either the Kenyans or the Ethiopians, with the favorite being Mary Keitany (Kenya), recent winner of the 2012 London Marathon in a time of 2:18:37, and Keitany holds the world record for the half-marathon. So? Who won? (See 1st inset.)

African lead pack
(pic from NBC's broadcast)

Well, not the favorite. It was a thrilling race, with a lead pack of Kenyans and Ethiopians taking control at about Mile 17. It was not known if the Kenyans or Ethiopians would run as packs or trust themselves to their individual fates, but in the last stages of a marathon it's surely every woman for herself. About Mile 20, there were five Africans in the lead pack (see right) as they appear to leave the rest of the field in the dust.

Russia's Petrova Arkhipova
passes Flanagan
(pic from NBC's broadcast)

Not so, however. Russia's Petroval Arkhipova, a great steeplechaser in her own right, decided it was time to make a move or get relegated to an also-ran. She first set her sights on passing the lead United States entry, Flanagan (see left). Arkhipova looked surprisingly strong at this point and put an exclamation point on that by eventually catching up to the shrinking lead pace. Keitany eventually dropped back, as did Kipligat.  Now there were but two Africans left: the Ethiopian, Tiki Gelana, and Priscah Jeptoo of Kenyan (see right).

Gelana gets stronger at finish
(pic from NBC's broadcast)

Tiki Gelana seemed to know it was now her race to lose, and she was determined not to do that. The timelapserunner saw a t-shirt logo worn by track coach John Smith on TV yesterday. It read: "If you think training is hard, try losing." Tiki must have heard that one before as well and decided to turn it on at the end. She finished going away in the Olympic record time of 2:23:07, not bad for a course not known for it's record-producing times.

Goucher helps Flanagan
(pic from NBC's broadcast)

As for the Americans, Flanagan did her best to hang in there, running near her personal best on this slow course, finishing 10th in 2:25:51. Goucher finished just behind her in 11th place at 2:26:07. Davili was DNF (did not finish).

It's hard to say that the race was a disappointment for the Americans. They ran near their best times. It is clear that there's another level beyond where we have seemed to go, though - another notch tighter on the belt. Whether we can get there or not is unclear. The Africans have such a great tradition of producing great distance runners and that stream of talent is not slowing down - it's getting stronger. Marathoning is brutal - both in training and at race time. Alberto Salazar opined that to be a great marathoner you must have a great tolerance for suffering. That's not something you easily recruit people to take on, I dont' believe.

UPDATE: Halo II Headband

This item arrived Friday in the mail, just in time for use on Saturday's long run. Worked like a charm, pretty much, during the hour and twenty minutes of hot, humid workout. I'll give it a couple more tries before ordering a couple more.


WEEK 5 TRAINING SCHEDULE:

Week 5's training schedule is no biggie. But that's OK ... it's part of the plan. We follow the plan so that our brain doesn't sabotage us with distractions or other nonsense.

Week 5 Schedule - Just like Weeks 1 and 3

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Just active-isolated stretching today (not done till the evening), as Sunday is a day of rest. No significant lingering effects from yesterday's 5.5 miler, but we didn't expect any with the pace being so slow and all. Too much sitting around though and the hamstrings start to irritate a bit after all that sitting. Have to think about how to deal with that.