Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Twitter doesn't do the US Olympic Marathon Trials justice

Saturday morning was the longest morning of my life. Due to our cable, I was forced to follow the US Marathon Trials on Twitter. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some Twitter, but its no way to watch a marathon.

Thankfully the good folks at NBC came through in a clutch situation and aired the event Saturday afternoon. I was even able to get my husband and son's to agree to watch it as well. Yea! On the men's side, Meb Keflezighi won the event in 2:09:08. Keflezighi ran an awesome race leading the pack for most of the way then surging ahead of his competitors at the end. He also had a large Twitter following that was rooting for him.

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Ryan Hall came in second (2:09:30) and ran a bit of a funky race. He stayed to the front of the pack the whole time and then randomly would take the lead then fade a little. He was also all over the road, at one point crashing into third place runner Abdi Abdirahman (2:09:42).

That crash was a good lesson to show my son. At soccer he has been having trouble when they are doing sprints. He is fast and sometimes can't control it. My husband and I were able to say hey, see what happened to him? When he crashed, he didn't stop and just kept going.

Keflezighi, Hall and Abdirahman will go onto represent the men's team at the 2012 Olympics in London.

On the women's side, Shalane Flanagan won the event in 2:25:38. She set a trials record and not to mention ran pretty darn fast. Lets just say if that was me.....I would be a couple of hours hind her (like 2 to be precise). LOL!

Desiree Davila finished second (2:25:55) and Kara Goucher was third (2:26:06). I was glad to see Goucher do well. I have her book: Kara Goucher's Running for Women: From First Steps to Marathons.  I love it! She is such a cool chick. I also have alot of respect for her coming back so strong after giving birth to her son Colt.

Willoughby native Katie McGregor placed 11th overall in a time of 2:34:0. It was nice to see a runner from Northeast Ohio represent on the national stage. Would have loved to see her qualify for the Olympics however the women's field was the "most deep they have seen in a long time."

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Flanagan, Davila and Goucher will go on to represent the US women team at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Can't wait until the Summer to watch this awesome group of runners kick some butt!!

2 comments:

  1. AMAZING race!

    I was live tweeting it, but SO many people were doing the same I kept losing connection.fail. :) Happy I made it home in time to rewatch it on TV

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  2. Lucky lady! How did you do on Sunday?

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