sarahbarker1 Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
An Exercise Physiologist Explains Why 800 Meters Hurts Like The Devil
It's the first high school track meet of the season. Boys who have completed no warm-up whatsoever other than to wrestle over the last Reeses peanut butter cup stand, hands dangling like heavy weights, near the start line of the JV 800 meter run. Long of shin and weak of chin, they're inanimate, for...
Meet The World-Class Runner Who's Also A Maasai Warrior
Kenyan fastman David Rudisha, above, seems to be the ultimate modern speed machine—upholstered in aerodynamic, wicking fabrics, branded, nano-shod. The latest science informs his training, nutrition and recovery. A multi-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist, he's broken the world record a...
Nine Surprises From Unlikely U.S. Marathon Champ Blake Russell
Twenty miles is considered the psychological halfway point in a marathon—quads and hammies are starting to rig, feet are swollen and pulpy, raw skin stings from salty sweat, bodily systems send increasingly frequent and frantic cease-and-desist messages to the brain. The remaining 6.2 miles require ...
Girl Scout Cookies: A Hurdle Too High
Full disclosure from the Olympic hurdler......
Only In LA: Cooling Buses Will Help Marathoners Chill
Headache? Dizziness? Excessive sweating? These are symptoms of being, or channeling, LA Marathon director Tracey Russell. After preparing every detail for 25,000 people to gallop 26.2 miles from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica beach this Sunday, she got the weather forecast, which is code beet-red. A...
Olympian On The IOC's Rules Against Sponsors: "It's Very Un-American"
We all know—or should know—that Olympic athletes don't make a penny from that 17-day extravaganza of running, jumping, throwing, swimming, flipping, etc. That pisses two-time Olympian Nick Symmonds off. It should, especially when you consider that even though about $6 billion went through the Inte...
Work Hard, Blot: Lipstick And The Fifth-Fastest Indoor Mile Ever
Dammit people, put down the fatty and pay attention to women's middle distance track. U.S. women are killing it on a global scale. Take Shannon Rowbury, above: Already a two-time Olympian and lotta-time World Championship finalist, she broke from the gate this year and laid down a 4:22.66 mile at ...
McFarland Cross Country: They Built It And Hollywood Came
Given how Hollywood likes to tart up the truth (see American Sniper, Frozen, et al.) you probably have a very good sense of what's going on with Disney's soon-to-be released McFarland USA. The Kevin Costner vehicle is based, as they say, on the true story of a boys' cross country team from McFarland...
"How's Your Dick?": The Rise And Fall Of An Alleycat Race
"Stupor Bowl is dead," Gene Oberpriller pronounced after the 18th annual alleycat bike race. The fact that you—hopelessly mainstream as you are—are reading this is proof. As any nightclub owner will confirm, underground cachet is a fragile beast. It's only minutes, or entries in this case, between t...
USA Track & Field: Our Sport Is Cool Because It's Real Basic
USA Track & Field made a TV commercial that aired recently on NBC with enough moving parts to anger or confuse nearly everyone. Which is good for buzz, so it was successful on that front. ...
Four Ways To Quit: Run Long Like The Kenyans
Justin Lagat, who lives in Kenya, in fact, is Kenyan, wrote a piece for RunBlogRun on the four ways in which Kenyans do their long runs. Since our very lean friends from the Rift Valley own distance running, this post, I thought, held great promise—secrets revealed, myths busted, the spleen-witherin...
The Current 800-Meter World Record Holder Is 62 Today
The IAAF, always conscious of doing the right thing, tweeted greetings to Czech mid-distance runner Jarmila Kratochvilova on the occasion of her 62nd birthday. The photo they used, above, is from 1983, commemorating another remarkable anniversary: Kratochvilova's world record in the 800 meters, 1:5...
Why Running Alone Through Snow For 135 Miles Is Harder Than It Sounds
Here's an excerpt from Alicia Hudelson's account of last year's Arrowhead 135, an unsupported endurance challenge through northern Minnesota starting today. It gives a pretty good flavor....
Hey Boys And Girls: You, Too, Can Skate 40 MPH Downhill Over Jumps
Sadie Lundquist (not pictured) launched from the rose window of St. Paul's iconic cathedral, some 40 feet above ground, dropped in and started building speed. A tiny check at the top of a 10-foot cliff and she was over the edge, hitting the ice with a crunch, fighting for balance, blurring through e...
Three Ways To Improve Your 10K
First, go to winter training camp in Ethiopia and stay with that dope baller Geb! #Boomgettingitdone. That's Haile Gebrselassie there in the middle, notcher of 27 world records and a 26:22.75 10,000-meter guy. Of course, that was on the track, which is so so much faster than pounding out 6.2 mile...
El Crap: Scariest Pictures Ever
Never have I been so happy that my job entails sitting on my rump and sending pitches. Above, that's Kevin Jorgeson at his office, sending pitches. See the difference? ...
Can The Chillest Runner In The U.S. Be The First To Make Five Olympics?
It's noon in Tucson, Ariz., and Abdi Abdirahman is making a spot of tea. The Black Cactus (having correctly ascertained that what distance running needs is more cowbell and monikers) is part way through an easy day. So, 12 miles, done. He's chill, he's happy, he's confident. What the hell's the matt...
Why Did The NYPD Clip This Japanese Marathoner?
Above is a screen shot of prolific Japanese runner Yuki Kawauchi making a break from the lead pack in the 2014 NYC Marathon, at about 18K, just past 11 miles. This is about 1:21 into EuroSport's full coverage of the race. The video leaves to cover the women's leaders and returns at 1:22:35 to show ...
2014 Sports Beard Of The Year: It's About Putting In The Work
Adding facial hair to the list of excellent things about track and field, mid-distance runner Will Leer has been awarded the 2014 Sports Beard of the Year. British blog BeardWatch bestowed the honors on the 29-year-old after a groundswell of support from track and manscaping fans pushed the spe...
Ex-Nike Runner Metes Out Public Relations Advice
Former Nike-sponsored runner Kara Goucher suggested in a tweet that Nike's We Run Dirty campaign for trail running gear was ill-advised, given the recent doping dramas involving, among others, top-tier Kenyan Rita Jeptoo and Russian Liliya Shobukhova. Both women are—or were, at the time they fail...