These aren’t your normal lists about running but they are great!

The first is 11 Enemies of Runners. Some highlights:

• Hot Girls
• Oprah
• Regular Running Routes
• Other Runners

Be sure to check out the full list for more enemies and his full description.

The other is a list from the Telegraph paper in London with a catchy title: Everything you Wanted to Know about Marathons but were Too Exhausted to Ask. Author Ben Fenton points out 100 random facts about the marathon (some specific to London and others to the distance in general). The article was actually written in 2004, so I’m not sure if all the facts therein still hold up, but its pretty interesting stuff. Here are ten of my favorites:

• Organisers provided 88lb of petroleum jelly for medical use including avoidance of “runners’ nipple”.
• The London Marathon is the only one requiring athletes to run in two different hemispheres.
• There are 29 people who have run in all 24 London marathons. One of them has flipped pancakes around the course for the last 10 years.
• First holder of the 1908 world record, Johnny Hayes, would have been 662nd yesterday.
• Thousands of runners sent texts updating their time and position thanks to a special microchip supplied by a mobile phone company.
• Fastest marathon time for a person blowing a trumpet is 3:06, which would have beaten all the celebrities.
• 710,000 bottles of water and 40,000 litres of sports drinks were available.
• Last year, Lloyd Scott finished in five days, eight hours, 29 mins and 46 secs – in a 120lb diving suit.
• The London record for a conga line to complete the course is 25 hrs and 13 mins.
• Greatest victory margin in the men’s race was the 2:57 that separated Hugh Jones from Oyvind Dahl in 1982.

HT Simon Says…Run and A Fool of Myself

[tags] Marathon [/tags]

On a side note we went to see our first Twins game.  It was a lot of fun, especially since they won and we had free tickets!!