Sub-two, the numbers on your barbell and 30 plants

Last weekend the sub two-hour barrier was officially broken for the men's marathon. Kenyan Sabastian Sawe ran a 1:59:30 in London which he had been preparing for including his sponsor Adidas paying an extra $50,000 to anti-doping testing for the months leading up to the run to quiet skeptics. Yomif Kejelcha, just 11 seconds back also broke the two-hour barrier in his first marathon ever. And third place run will go down in history as being the most disappointing thing ever, beating the current world record, not quite hitting under two hours and being beaten by two others. At any other race his time would be worthy of a parade and splashed all over the news. 

This New York Times article gives some great reasons on why we are seeing this now including runners not waiting until their "faster" days on the track are over. Marathons pay MONEY. London paid five and six figure sums for winning and beating previous times. Who knows what Adidas sponsor bonuses are. So not only are the fastest runners coming out for the races, so are the "almost just as fastest runners" to be pace makers which are key for getting through the first parts of the race on target. Super shoes for both better training miles and faster recovery help and on race day these matter. The Adidas super shoe both sub-two-hour marathoners were wearing weighed less than your iPhone and have some type of foam that makes you spring. Better fueling and a whole lot of belief are also powering the speed.  I am looking forward to how many more people will be hitting this milestone in the near future. 

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MEANWHILE
While runners were speeding away in London, runners in Champoeg Park, south of Portland were participating in the Slug Run backyard ultra. From their website, "a backyard ultra is a deviously simple race. Runners just have to complete a 4.167-mile course within a one-hour cutoff. And then line up to do that again at the top of the next hour. And again the next. And again." The runners completed the course 77 times before there was just one left completing 78 laps and 325 miles for the win.  

WHAT I AM THINKING ABOUT 

• I ran three miles yesterday. Just a reminder of what most runners are actually doing. 
• Someone said care more about the number on your barbell than the number on the scale and I want that for us all.
• I am trying to eat 30 plants each week and so I am making a lot of lists and my smoothie is a very ugly brown but still delicious.