Big weekend in distance running...and a little cartoon for chuckles

Just a quick post today as I wanted to put out the second installment of the "Top 10 signs you know guys have taken over the house" (you can check out the first if you missed it!) and this one is "When the Front Room Stairs Become Shelves." Obviously once all the available floorspace as been covered there is no other place to house items but the stairs?!?! hehe. At any rate, I did want to let anyone who is interested in seeing the continuation of this series and other cartoon/art related material know that I will actually be moving it over to my Writing and Art Blog as I try to move back into the swing of things since my accident and use this Fitness Stop blog for the fun workout, sports, and health related tips and news.

So for all of those track junkies out there last night was another big step forward for American Distance running in that Chris Solinksy smashed the American Record in the 10,000 meter event down at Stanford. The race was stacked, pacers enlisted, and there was plenty talk of the potential falling of Meb Keflezighi's nine year old record of 27:13.98; but much of the attention was put on Galen Rupp as being the one to do it. This was in fact Solinsky's debut 10k and while he was fit one never really knows what to expect in their first attempt at a distance, especially among such a high caliber field. So when he did take the lead with 800 meters to go I'm sure many a track fans were surprised, cheering him on, but maybe still expecting him to fade or ultimately be overtaken in the end. But the very opposite was the case in he blazed home to win in 26:59.6, which not only established the new AR but crossed the elusive 27 minute threshold making him the fastest 10k harrier ever not of African descent. Not too shabby. :)

The race was so fast that Galen did still eclipse the previous American Record mark in finishing in fourth with 27:10.74. Just ahead of him in third was Sam Chelanga of Liberty who set the new NCAA record with 27:08.39. Also, one of Solinsky's training partners, Simon Bairu, represented Canadians well and with his 27:23.69 for fifth set the bar in the Canadian Record.

In the rest of the meet Shannon Rowbury drew some attention herself in winning the women's 5,000 meters, in which she is still relatively new to the event at usually sticking to the 1,500, as she upset current American Record holder Shalane Flanagan with 150 meters to go and finishing time of 15:00.51. Shalane came in at 15:04.23 and Amy Begley placed third by setting a PR for herself in 15:05.69. So it was quite an exciting night for distance running, and it actually comes off of a thrilling weekend being that the Oregon Relays in Eugene were the night before and Andrew Wheating had an amazing kick to win the 1,500 in 3:37.8.

All of this is quite inspiring and hopefully pumps everyone else up to set and achieve their own fitness goals whether it be in running or even just getting in a certain number of workouts a week. Seeing others achieve their own goals is something we can all look to as motivation. So on that note I hope you all had a great weekend, busted your own sweat even if it wasn't in a record setting attempt, and are looking forward to the start of another week!


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