Entertainment For Lively Minds
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Hidden away in today's sports pages, towered over by tales of which billionaire's going to be buying which multi-millionaire for his millions-in-debt club, is the story of Mo Farah decimating a top class field, obliterating (his own) British record and setting the year's best time in the world for 5000 metres. Assuming that Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele is fit next year, this could well be the track event for we brits at the sporting occasion we're apparently calling '2012'. Steve Cram's commentary, aided by the absence of Brendan Foster, is, to my ears, up there with the best of Coleman. Incidentally, when Crammie broke the world mile record, the TV commentary wasn't by Coleman. So respected was DC, that Crammie got him to dub a commentary onto his personal video of the race. Here're the Farah highlights. Note that in the home straight he's running so powerfully that he appears to be kicking his arse.
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I share your admiration for Mo
Astonishing performances since he moved to the States under Salazar's coaching. But the Cram/Coleman/world record story is, unfortunately, not true. Coleman's tones are all over the TV coverage from Oslo.
Must be another race, then
unless Crammie's being untruthful. He mentioned it a few months back, at a talk before the Brighton Marathon.
Yep, Mo's training truly is 'going well'. I particularly like the ice-based injury prevention work he's doing - sort of ironic given Salazar's problems with overheating when he was a runner!
Untruthful?
He hasn't got that bone in his body! I put together some VT for Steve's 50th birthday dinner, including the mile WR and it was definitely Coleman waxing lyrical over the Bislett Games pics. Crammy must be getting forgetful in his old age....
The great thing about
Mo Farah's rise has been the gradual development, rather than a suspicious sudden emergence.
He is a class athlete and more power to him in London.
BTW, the end of the 1500 was a bit tasty or 'Oy yoy yoy' as the brilliant commentary team have it.
For athletes
They're not very good boxers.
I thought that
its like 2 drunks fighting after closing time
Those two
are actually rather more adept at the fighting arts than most middle to long distance runners, who're so habituated to just running (with a slight lean to the left because of the track) that the idea of changing direction, let alone using the body in other ways, is alien. There used to be a top level 10 mile race in Portsmouth which included, at the halfway point, a 180 degree turn around some cones. Many fell.
I stand corrected!
I wonder what he was on about, then?! It has to be said that he's looking in great shape for someone now in his sixth decade on the planet. Back in the 90s I ran the first 15 miles of the London Marathon alongside him, at perfect, metronomic 6 minute miling pace, but then I suffered an attack of 'runner's trots' and had to leap into a portaloo. I imagine he kept those 6 minute miles going right until the bloody Mall. Quality.
Oi.. Brighton Boy.. Say that again..
"Back in the 90s I ran the first 15 miles of the London Marathon alongside him, at perfect, metronomic 6 minute miling pace.."
You're a dark horse, Mensi.
Yup, I was Marathon Man
which, sadly, predictably, resulted in me becoming Knee Operation Man.
Friends of mine will want to know..
Andy the runner will want to know your best marathon time.
Dave the Concept 2 addict will want to know your best 30 min distance at top resistance.
Justin the Iron Man and fellow knee victim will want to know when you'll be joining the other fortyish knee victims in an Iron Man event. And, if you have already done so, post the time.
I can do a few chin-ups, in case youre wondering. That's about it, though. I'm not a great athelete.
2-41 marathon
and 2000 metres indoor row (that's the traditional race distance) in 6-41 (as a lightweight, ie under 11 and a half stone).
Never done a triathlon - I would've had to have front crawl technique lessons so as not to drown, and get into the whole world of bike gadgetry. More than that, though, these endurance activities take over and give you TATT (tired all the time) syndrome, AND, increasingly, incidents of Atrial Fibrillation are being noticed in apparently ultra-fit endurance types. Tai Chi, weights, cycling-as-transport are my activities now. Love 'em.
What I miss now that I'm not running, though, isn't the quest for times, but the freedom experienced whilst running in the great outdoors. Meditation is a similar experience, though, and doesn't require keyhole surgery, nor does it elicit an upsurge in hunger.
The husband of a colleague of mine..
Was training very, very hard for the Marathon Des Sables (loony) and, yes, ended up with AF.
I am so far out
of the athletics loop it leads me to ask who our other medal hopes are at "2012"? There had better be a few because I've seen the traffic plans and I'm not happy. I wish Paris had bloody won it.
As far as athletics go...
we're looking at David 'Dai' Greene in the 400 hurdles, Jessica 'Jess' Ennis in the Heptathlon, Mo in the 5 and 10k, Phillips 'Not liked by Jonathan Edwards' Idowu in The Triple Jump, and maybe Jenny 'Little Jenny Meadows' Meadows in the 800. In the field, Lawrence Okoye could 'medal' in the discus.
Sorry that doesn't justify this
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/18196.aspx
Agreed
It's like a ludicrously expensive, complicated and protracted courtship that'll peak for a night or two, and then result in even longer post-coital depression.
Am I the only person
who immediately thought of this?
(Run Run Run - Jo Jo Gunne)
Jo Jo Gunne
No you were not Bassclef, thats exactly what I thought.
(Good song from my teens)
No, I thought of this
Much as I like Mo..
He's a Somalian.
The next Olympic 5000m and 10000m titles will be won by someone who comes from East Africa. They may be running for their country of birth, they may be running under a flag of convenience.
They will also be truly astonishing atheletes.
Mensi wrote about the 180 degree turn in the Great South Run. I've been out running when professional runners have been scouting the course. They went past me like I was standing still, but looking like they were jogging. To see men going so fast, so elegantly and so easily was an honour. Running is a very, very simple thing that we can all do. To see it done so well was an education.
Hardly a 'flag of convenience'
given that Farah's parents emigrated to the UK when he was 8.
When I lived in turktown...
I ran the great south run many times.
There is a point near South parade pier where the leaders are on the opposite side of the road, on the way back, passing those of us not even half way, making it look so, so easy.
World class distance runners - magnificent athletes.