All hail the King

I can't believe I forgot to mention the recent retirement of arguably the world's greatest middle distance runner, Hicham el Guerrouj. The guy rightfully went out on the top of his game, complete with countless world championships on the track, a still-standing world record in the mile and capped by double-Olympic gold in Athens. Sounds like a pretty complete career to me.

* I turned the ripe-old age of 24 this past Wednesday. Oddly enough, I'm feeling a bit on the old side these days. It's kind of disheartening. And as my good pal Tim pointed out, "hey, as of tomorrow you'll be closer to 30 then 18". Thanks, asshole.

* Consider this a shameless plug for a little road race in Portland, Maine on June 18th which was brought to my attention by Scott. It's called the New England Mile and it promises a fast course with plenty of good competition and free Friendly's ice cream afterward. Five-grand in total prize money doesn't hurt either if you've got some wheels and need to pay next month's rent. Go up there, have some fun, eat some ice cream and get a PR while you're at it. C'mon, after all it's in Maine, where life is how it should be.

* Check out Matty's Mulv's blog for some good stuff from Renato Canova. Not that I advocate everything that this introspective Italian preaches, but if you're as much of a running dork as I am, it's provides for some interesting reading. Some good stuff there.

And that's it for now. I'm getting up there in age and running quite a bit these days, so as a result I'm rather tired. More tomorrow, hopefully. Take it easy all.

Quote of the day:

There is a big difference between TRAINING and RUNNING : the first has the goal to stimulate your body, AND THE ANSWER OF YOUR BODY IS THE TRAINING. The second is something good for your health, but forget that you can improve with this mentality.
- Renato Canova