This one's for all of you suburbanites...

(via inventorspot – thanks to Perry for the link)

I have no grass on my front lawn, but if I did, I'd get one of these for sure. They should make a recumbent version, though.

Fit friends: Tara's triumph

On the same day my friend Charles Bedley won the Toronto Marathon, Tara Norton, a childhood friend and pro triathlete, placed 12th in the Hawaii Ironman. Her time of 9:41 was a huge PB under sweltering conditions in Kona. Simply amazing.

From Tara's website:

October 13, 2007 - Ironman World Championship - On one of the hottest race days on record in Hawaii, Tara finished 12th overall in a time of 9:41:03. Tara's 5:11:15 bike split propelled her from 28th after the swim to 9th place at the start of the run. Over the course of the marathon there were many positional changes amongst the top-15 women. Tara is thrilled with her best Hawaii finish to date and will report more in her "Thoughts" shortly.

Charles Bedley wins 2007 Toronto Marathon

Wow! My old training partner Charles Bedley just won the 2007 Toronto Marathon (the one that's not the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon) in a blistering time of 2:21:58. It looks like Bedley and Edmonton's Matthew Norminton flew through the half in 1:08 and Charlie hung on for the win.

This is the same race that I won in 2002, so each of us has taken the crown, only he was almost nine minutes faster.

Way to go, Charlie!

Monkeying around at the Oasis ZooRun

Today's Oasis ZooRun was my first race since breaking the joggling marathon world record. It was also the most fun I've had in a race ... ever. And I've run a lot of races. I felt very relaxed; I had no time goal; I didn't care if I dropped. I was there to entertain people and enjoy myself ... and I did.

Finish time: 38 minutes and change.

After the race, I went over the Reebok booth to teach people how to juggle. Some people asked me for autographs. When this happened, there was a long pause where I looked at them waiting for a "Just joking!" But no, there are some actual Joggler groupies out there. This is serious stuff.

Joggling the ZooRun

This is me driving the Mango velo to work. The camerawork is shaky, but the actual ride is very smooth due to the double suspension.

On Saturday, I'll be joggling the ZooRun 10K at the Toronto Zoo, then hanging out at the Reebok joggling booth and giving joggling tutorials.

Perry and Barry joggling in Chicago

Here's a clip of Perry joggling to a 3:59 in the Chicago heatwave.

Perry said five-ball joggler Barry Goldmeier also joggled it but was likely forced to stop when the race was cancelled. I can't begin to imagine what it must have been like juggling five beanbags in 31 C temperatures.

Will The Joggler get to meet Gebrselassie?

When I signed up to run as a pacer at the Detroit Marathon for the U.S. women's Olympic trials qualifying time of 2:47, Haile Gebrselassie was the last person I expected would be at the race. But officials have confirmed that the Ethiopian star will in fact run a portion of the race on October 21.

I hope to meet the man who set the marathon world record of 2:04:26 in Berlin on the same day that I set the joggling world record of 2:50:09 in Toronto (not that I'm comparing myself to the greatest distance runner the world has ever seen, but I would like the chance to tell him about my record, and maybe get him to try joggling).

If Geb is out for an easy run in Detroit, would he run as slow as 2:47 pace? I don't know if he could run that slow. I suspect his easy pace would be around 5:10 per mile.

In other news, 'CBC News: Sunday' did an update on the joggling saga. Dianne and I watched it, laughing and cheering all the way through.