Trust me, my runners aren't going to run one event while looking past it to the second event. When they get on the line for the 10K, that's a do-or-die situation for them.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
A lesser but still fundamental rule of racing is that you properly enter the event. Anyone who doesn't but still insists on running interferes with the paying customers.
I do the whole 10-event thing, but at the end of the day, it's still track and field.
In those long, lonely miles you put in during the off-season, and in those knife-in-the-gut track repetitions and hill repeats that buckle your knees - at that moment in almost every race when you ask yourself how much you're willing to hurt to catch one more runner - you can draw strength and inspiration from your running mates.
Runners exalt the marathon as a public test of private will, when months or years of solitary training, early mornings, lost weekends, rain and pain mature into triumph or surrender. That's one reason the race-day crowds matter, the friends who come to cheer and stomp and flap their signs and push the runners on.
Whenever I'm being invited to the New York City Marathon like today, I need to think twice because I know it's a very tough race.
The natural urge when running a distance is to push harder and finish sooner - to race against time. Every second behind a deadline is a little defeat.
Marathon runners set explicit goals.
When you are at the Olympic Games, it comes down to a ten thousandth of a hair between making the next round or winning a race or getting second or third.
Runners are competitive folks. I think some might feel slighted they haven't got more recognition. I think they have a point. In running, you won't necessarily get noticed just for turning in good performances.
In the marathon a crazy athlete can just keep pushing from the beginning, at a championship you don't need a time just to win the race.