Deena vs. Lance
LA JOLLA, CA: WE KNOW THAT DEENA KASTOR CAN BEAT Lance Armstrong by almost exactly 40 minutes in the marathon. And can guess that Lance would leave Deena well astern in The Tour de France. Now we also know the relative values of their signed autographs on a piece of commemorative clothing.
At last night's RunningUSA auction, a Lance-autographed “Discovery Channel” cycling jersey went for $3000. A pair of Deena-autographed shoes, plus autographed poster and Athens Olympic program, fetched $1000.
The Lance jersey was won by Tom Raynor, owner of the FleetFeet chain of speciality running stores. Earlier, Raynor had bid for and won VIP guest passes to both the upcoming Olympic Marathon Trials, in New York Nov. 07 and Boston April 08. These went for $1600 apiece. After winning, Raynor donated the passes back to RunningUSA, so they could be sold again, increasing the take for the night. Raynor was also one of five individuals inducted into the RunningUSA “Hall of Champions” last night—a Hall that recognizes people for their off-the-roads contributions to road running in America.
Non-endurance auction items didn’t fare so well in the generally spirited bidding. Two courtside tickets to an L.A. Lakers vs. Sacramento Kings basketball game—which the auctioneers guaranteed would put you basically shoulder to shoulder with Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, and Cameron Diaz—had a face value of $4400. But they only fetched half that much.
Other Hall of Champions winners last night included: Alan Jones, who programmed the first race-timing software, and designed the counter used on bicycles to measure road race courses; Julie and Dennis Ikenberry, who have been timing West Coast races for 30 years; and Bart Yasso, Runner’s World’s race services manager.
In addition to the 300+ conference attendees, The Hall of Champions banquet was attended by RunningUSA coach Terrence Mahon; his wife, Jen Rhines; Gabe Jennings; and Sara and Ryan Hall.
Just thought I'd post. I feel bad that Kristin gets all the comments. You rule, Amby!
Amby: It should be noted that Tom Raynor sold the Lance jersey to a gentleman he had out bid. He took the money - and gave it all back to RunningUSA.
Few are more passionate and more giving to our sport than Tom Raynor.
If anyone wants to donate to RunningUSA - the web site is runningusa.org.
Safe travels Amby!!
What drives it all: Great speech, but after six years of volunteering, I can say what drives it all, is the kids. The first day that I showed up for a high school practice, just jumped in and started helping, the first thing that I noticed is that none of the kids, not even the good runners had ever heard of Bill Rodgers. Had never heard of Jim Ryun, Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Webb..as we were warming up that day I quized them all.
Then we wonder why our sport, which is the greatest sport in the world, have no fans.
It educating the kids about the stars of our sport and the sports history that is key to any future success in the sport and with the general public.
Every football kid can name the great football players, every baseball kid can name every great baseball player, basketball? ame thing.
Ask a kid who Ryan Hall is. Ask a running kid, out for a team somewhere who Alan Webb is...never mind Buddy Edelen or Bill Rodgers.
Knowledge drives EVERYTHING. As a leader and coach, don't bother with Daniels, Peter Coe or Noakes, if the kid standing in front of you isn't interested enough to know what Ryan Hall did the other day.
The secret to the success of our sport is developing a sense of pride and spiritual awe in the youth who find their way to the cross country team after all other options have failed or them.
That drives it all- The G.
I apologize for posting this here, but couldn't find the proper avenue. This comment is about your recent Runner's World web article, "How Many Calories Are You Really Burning?"
Near the end of the article you mention testing calories burned running vs walking. Your conclusion was based on a single trial using only yourself.
I submit that your walking rates are high because you've just run for 12 minutes at progressively faster paces, and you didn't allow your body enough time to recuperate. Ten minutes is insufficient. It would have been better to test the walking portion after a day or two.
Still, I'd like to see you do the same test with one change. Do the walking first, then rest ten minutes, then finish with the running. Then compare the two.
Also, where did you get the info that inefficiency boosts heart rate, oxygen consumption, and calorie burn? Was that from a research article?
I think when it comes to the value of the sports items listed in the Deena v.s. Lance article I would say a key factor is that Lance is retired from road bike racing. Another factor may be that Team Discovery will be no more at the end of 2007.