The first modern Olympic Games took part in Athens, Greece between April 6-15, 1896.  There were 43 events in nine sports.  Per latest data, 14 nations and 241 athletes (all men) took part.     Since Athens was the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, it would hold the first modern day one.  This was due to the formation of the International Olympic Committee on June 23, 1894 by French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin.  Athens would hold another Summer Olympics in the summer of 2004.   Most of the Track and Field events, along with the Opening/Closi ..read more

The following post is a first of a series of marathon facts nationally and worldwide.  Hope everyone enjoys this.   The 1897 Boston Marathon was the first of 127 editions of the event.  It is currently the oldest marathon in the world.   However, Boston is not the first marathon held in the United States.   On 19 September 1896, the Knickerbocker Athletic Club of New York hosted their first amateur open games.  The marathon, a 25 mile event between Stamford, Connecticut and the Columbia Oval in the Bronx, a New York City borough, took place.   The course, a ..read more

Recently, this runner has been asked how it is like running in the current age group.  The thought returned when going home from a track practice at Kezar last evening. The answer to this is an interesting one.  Just recently, in several road races that this runner has been in, the number of people in my age group has been small, maybe a dozen people like at the Stow Lake Stampede 5K last weekend.   A friend of mine, Rick, and myself, talked a little about this after the recent Bay To Breakers race.  We reminisced about whom we remember in events 20 to 40 years ago.  ..read more

The past weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area was, indeed, a busy one for this runner.  Usually during the year in this area, you will find several road races, and maybe an ultra or a trail run.   The first weekend of June was a good one.  On Saturday, it was a Pacific Association USATF race in Golden Gate Park known as the Stow Lake Stampede 5K.  It is becoming one of the fastest 5Ks in Northern California.  On Sunday, it was the 102nd version of the Statuto race that began and ended in North Beach.   The last time this runner ran on back to back days was Augu ..read more

It has been 24 years since running my only Boston Marathon.  I was fortunate thanks to qualifying in the 1998 Napa Marathon on the first Sunday in March.   I remembered the date well.  It was the traditional Patriots Day date of April 19th.  I arrived the Saturday late morning prior after taking a red-eye flight from San Francisco.   The hotel, known as The Midtown, was my sleeping quarters for three days.  It was within a half mile of the finish line on Huntington Avenue.  After stopping at the race expo, I arrived around 2pm, checked in and got a couple o ..read more

Easter Sunday was the annual DSE Easter Mountain Lake Park 5K in San Francisco's famous Presidio.   After weeks of incliment weather, Sunday morning was one of the more beautiful mornings in this area.  It was about 50 degrees at the 9:00 a.m. race time.  It was also great to see everyone again after nearly ten months of not running a local event.   The warmup to the race went well.  I took the 1 California MUNI Bus to the Laurel Heights shopping center area and decided to warm up the rest of the way there, roughly one mile.  Surprisingly, the run felt easy but ..read more

In posting this, tomorrow is April 1st.  Running season becomes more popular whether it is marathon running or track and field season.   The last few days, this runner has become a little more excited knowing that runners locally and around are running races, particularly marathons.  It just so happens that there are two major marathons coming up in April with Boston and London being contested within six days.   I have decided, after saying no to any more marathons, that I'll do one and maybe two more. One has been definitely committed to one late in the fall.   The ..read more

For many years, this runner would keep all of his training/race mileage and races on what is called a running log.  Runner's World in the early 1980s kept a very good one.   When you have kept running logs in a book since 1972 and 50 years later, you still had them, it was time to consolidate into one or two areas.   I have used an excel file for my races.  All 1311 races this runner had run had the date, the time I ran, and most have what place the runner finished and how many were in the event.  Also, I've downloaded the amount of miles after the last race in a giv ..read more

Recently, this runner-blogger took a look at the updated and new Excelsior Running Club website.  Nothing against the old one but really liked what I saw. Definitely, there are some nice photos as well as some important facts about the club.  One of the things that caught the eye was the origin of the club.  The origin story was nice because this runner didn't know the full story until now. Fast forwarding from 1973 to today, the club has done well so far in the road and ultra PA USATF season.   In the road race standings after one event, the club Open Men are second, t ..read more

A couple of days ago, I was watching most of last year's Berlin Marathon on You Tube.   Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya ran a world best that day in two hours, one minute and nine seconds to destroy a great field.  There is no question in my mind that he is the greatest distance runner of all time!  Nothing against the greats such as Haile Gebreslassie of Ethiopia, Kip Keino of Kenya or others, but he is amazing.   In 12 Abbott Marathon Major Races he has run, he has won 10 of them.  Of the six Abbott Marathon Majors, he has won at least once in four of them.   Next m ..read more