Go Canada Go...

Hi All,

Have I ever led off a blog with two stories on fast Canadians? Maybe not...but this week both Eric Gillis and Simon Bairu deserve some love for their incredible runs last weekend. (Of course, in my foresight, I predicted Tara Quinn-Smith might be the one to watch...oops). Plus some more interesting stories...

 Simon Bairu made US headlines by soundly defeating Ryan Hall last Sunday at the Phoenix Rock N Roll Half Marathon. Ryan Hall is probably the most recognizable US endurance runner due to his recent results and his wealth of sponsors. But last week,  in only his second half-marathon, Simon Bairu of Regina made short work of Hall, as they ran together for 10 miles then Bairu kicked into high gear before winning by 1:21. Bairu ended up running 1:02:47, a PB by 23 seconds and a race record. Bairu is hoping to make his debut in the marathon later this fall (perhaps at NYC) where he will take a shot at the Canadian record of 2:10:08. How old is this record? It was set in 1975 by the great Jerome Drayton at the Fukuoka Marathon.

The other big Canadian news is that Eric Gillis ran the Houston marathon in a stunning 2:13:56 in his marathon debut. According to one source, it was the second fastest marathon debut by a Canadian and the 3rd fastest marathon by a Canadian in the past 14 years. You can read Gillis's blog post of his day here. Gillis was the 10,000m Canadian champ in both 2007 and 2008 (Bairu won in 2009), so it's not unexpected, but it's nice to see that Canadians are finally developing some great talent and seeing their results pay off in the marathon!

Couple other running notes - Deena Kastor ran an amazing half-marathon in Phoenix as well, running 1:09:43 to smash the course record and to show the world that she is still a favorite, despite being 37 years of age and coming off 2 injury-filled years. Congrats to her.


The running world shifted their attention to Dubai last night/this morning to pay attention to Haile Gebrselassie, who kicked off 2010 with a solid 2:06:09 marathon, good enough for the win and his 10th sub-2:07 marathon! Unfortunately for Geb, any time he runs a marathon and doesnt challenge the world record (his splits are here)it is probably considered a bit of a disappointment. However, the $250,000 first prize cheque is a nice consolation prize for his effort. We might have to wait until September for his next marathon (Berlin) but he did confirm this week that he will run a half-marathon in March in New York City. Although known for his marathon skills, Gebrselassie is equally dominant in the half, with 9 wins in 10 races. It should be good for running to have Geb run on US soil as well...

The Tour Down Under bike race is flying along in Australia, and although the race does have some big names participating (Robbie McEwen, Lance Armstrong, Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde), the big news in Australia has been Andre Greipel from HTC-Columbia. The "other" sprinter on HTC (they still have Mark Cavendish of course), Greipel has won 3 of the 4 first stages in Australia, and now holds a 20 second lead going into the last two stages. The other big names have all made headlines (Lance made a late attack yesterday, Evans and Valverde finished 2nd and 3rd in stage 3, McEwen was third in stage 2 and second in stage 4) during the first 4 days. Huge crowds continue to follow the racers, as pro cycling continues to grow outside of Europe.

Two more notes on Lance Armstrong - one of the fallouts from Lance's potential two more years in pro cycling is that his debut at Ironman may now have to wait until 2012.  According to one report, Lance will race Kona 15 months after his last appearance at the Tour de France. So now we have to wait and see what happens this July...Lance's coach Chris Carmichael also announced that Lance is currently in as good or better shape as he was when he won multiple Tour de France titles. According to Carmichael, Lance is in much better shape than he was last year, way ahead of his normal January fitness,  and he should be more "explosive" in 2010. Will this translate into better results in France? As always, we are forced to wait...

Ok, thats it for now...I'm working on a weekend doping piece, so come back soon for a look...