Notes on an '08 Calendar
By Bryan Green
Growing up in L.A., I would wake up every morning and immediately turn to page 2 of the L.A. Times to read Allan Malamud's "Notes on a Scorecard" column...
Four days a week, he filled it with snippets from across the sports world, ending each one with an ellipsis...
Some were local events, some were trivia, some were commentary, but as a whole, they were compulsively readable...
So here's my homage to Malamud, where I recap 2008 and lay out my hopes for 2009...
Usain Bolt had the best performance of Beijing, and deserves all of the "athlete of the year" awards that he's receiving...
But Sammy Wanjiru's Olympic marathon victory did the most to change my perspective about a track/running event...
Here's something you won't hear everyday: The best distance runner in the world today is Sammy Wanjiru...
Head-to-head over any distance from 10k up, I'd pick Wanjiru, over Kenenisa Bekele (#2) or Haile Gebrselassie (#3) ...
But I bet Martin Lel will have something to say about that comment in London...
In case you're wondering, my women's top three is Tirunesh Dibaba, Paula Radcliffe, and Elvan Abeylegesse ...
Statistically, 2008 was the best year ever for (men's) marathon running , with a new world record and 106 people dipping under 2:10...
I see even bigger things for 2009, as the Olympic marathon eliminated the fall marathon that many of the world's elites would have run...
But I also see Wanjiru and Radcliffe missing their respective record chases in London, finishing around 2:04:20 and 2:17:40, respectively...
This will be a breakout year for one athlete in particular, Mekubo Mogusu , a Kenyan running collegiately in Japan...
Mogusu used to be competitive with Wanjiru when they were both high school athletes in Japan...
He just ran 1:06:04 for 23.4k in the Hakone Ekiden, breaking his own stage record, which you can read more about here ...
The performance of Day 1 for me was 18-year-old Ryuji Kashiwabara breaking the Stage 5 record by nearly one minute, though...
I'd predict him to be the next great Japanese runner if I had any faith that the Japanese system can still produce truly world-class runners...
My top US distance running moment was not Shalane Flanagan's American Record bronze medal performance in Beijing...
I'm going with Ryan Hall's 2:06:17 marathon in London, because I think historically it will be remembered as a turning point in American marathoning...
The first evidence of that will be Dathan Ritzenhein's sub-2:07 in London this April...
Other American performances I'm looking forward to in 2009 include Kara Goucher winning Boston, Galen Rupp breaking the 10k American Record and flirting with sub-27, Matt Tegenkamp and Ryan Hall running sub-27:30s, Bernard Lagat breaking the American record for 5k, Shalane Flanagan running a half-marathon, Anthony Famiglietti Anthony Famiglietti setting a new American Record in the steeplechase, Chris Solinsky running sub-8:25 in the steeplechase, Shannon Rowbury running 3:58 for 1500m, Alan Webb returning to form, German Fernandez, Chris Derrick and Luke Puskedra all running sub-13:30 for 5k, and Jordan Hasay breaking the high school 3200m record (9:48)...
If even one of those were to happen I'd be thrilled...
I'd be even more thrilled if Jon Rankin got his sponshorship back...
The global recession looks like it might wreak havoc on elite track and field, as there are only a few companies who essentially pay every athlete's salaries (Nike, adidas, etc.), and if they cut back, the entire sport will be hurt...
So it seems like the timing might be ripe for a new model, like Major League Track and Field , though I'm not sure there's enough will to see it happen...
On a more personal note, I will make yet another resolution to write, read, and run more during the new year...
I hope you included, "Read Runnerstribe more often" in your resolutions...
Happy New Year everyone, I'm looking forward to an amazing 2009!
Bryan ran cross country and track and field for UCLA, as well for Japanese ekiden teams while living in Japan. He now pretends to be a runner (mostly on weekends) and a writer (mostly after running). Check out his popular running blog Optimal Training and his distance running lenses at Buraian's Lensography. He welcomes your feedback via comment or email at buraian@lifeofburaian.com