Hall of fame

(Photo: NBC)

It turns out the online NBC video feed for the U.S. men's Olympic marathon trials was only available in the U.S. I tracked the race on Runner's World's "near-live" text feed, which is a surprisingly exciting way to follow a marathon with no video.

So my prediction was correct: Ryan Hall pulled off a superb victory, blasting ahead of the lead pack with a 4:32 18th mile and ramping up a merciless pace for the rest of the race to finish in 2:09:02. Hall broke the U.S. trials record by more than a minute.

What's more impressive is the fact that the trials course was in Central Park, a route that has almost no flat sections. I ran the NYC Marathon in 2000 and I'll never forgot those torturous rolling hills of Central Park leading to the finish. To run an entire marathon on those rolling hills in 2:09 is unimaginable.

Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell also grabbed U.S. Olympic team spots, placing second and third in 2:11:07 and 2:11:40. Former world record holder Khalid Khannouchi took fourth place and could still go to Beijing as an alternate.

Tomorrow, it's the New York City Marathon. One year, I'd like to joggle this one.

Tracking the trials in NYC

It's a new age of marathoning for the American men. I can't wait to track tomorrow's trials in New York City. The stunning lineup of contenders includes Alan Culpepper (pictured above), Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, Khalid Khannouchi, Abdi Abdirahman, Mbarak Hussein, Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell. It would seem almost impossible to predict a winner, but I'm going with Ryan Hall, based on his recent 59-and-change half-marathon. My second pick is Abdirahman.

Now if only we could get some Canadians running at this level...

WANTED: Bedside rack for juggling clubs

"Many customers are buying one for each side of the bed." I nearly lost it when I first heard that.

They should design something like this for juggling clubs. I could work on my 3-club patterns before I even get out of bed. And if an intruder comes it – BLAMMO! – a club to the head. The Canadian answer to the shotgun.

How many drops?

Here's a question I get all time as a joggler: How many times do I drop? Riyaad Ali just asked me this in a comment from yesterday's post about Perry Romanowski 50-mile joggling world record. Perry had only four drops during the entire race.

Here's my progression in the marathon:

• Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2005: 20 drops
• Boston Marathon 2006: 14 drops
• Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2006: 8 drops
• Salt Lake City Marathon 2007: 4 drops
• Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 2007: 2 drops

My typical drop rate these days in about one every 25K. That's about one drop for every 18,000 catches. My 10K world record was drop-free.

Albert Lucas, who once held the marathon joggling record, has joggled several marathons without a single drop.

I drop a lot in training because I'm usually doing tricks.

One thing's for sure: the more you think about not dropping, the more likely you are to drop a ball.

Romanowski smashes 50-mile joggling record

Big news in the joggling world: Perry Romanowski broke the 50-mile joggling world record yesterday in Chicago. His time of 8:23:42 eclipsed Ashrita Furman's mark by nearly half an hour. To top if off, he only had four drops. What a feat!

The fall joggling plan

This photo of 5-ball joggling champ Owen Morse is one of the best joggling shots I've ever seen. As he competes at the 1988 International Jugglers' Association festival, you can see the look of intense concentration on this face as he maintains a perfect 5-ball pattern while sprinting. That combination of speed and coordination is what makes joggling (in my unbiased opinion) the greatest sport in the world.

My plan for the fall is to improve my base running speed with some track work. At the track, I'll also be working on my 5-ball joggling. If I can find a track race that will accept of joggler, I want to go for the 5,000m joggling world record of 16:55 sometime during the winter.

Since I'll be running lower mileage over the next few months, I'm going to use my extra time to look for an advertiser for the Mango velomobile. If anyone knows a company who would be interested in getting their brand on a non-polluting, health-promoting, head-turning vehicle, inquiries can be sent to joggler1@gmail.com.

Wisconsin joggler going for mile record

When I first started The Bloggling Joggler, I thought I'd probably run out of joggling-related news after a few months, but here I am nine months later and the updates keep pouring in.

Here's a great piece on a new competitive joggler on the scene. Tyler Wishau is going after the joggling mile record of 4:42:36, set in 2003 by Will Howard. This will be an exciting one to track.