Gary Parsons set the record this year in a race around Australia called the Long Run. He beat the old 1983 record by 34 days. The race is 8,315 miles long (13,383km). His total time was 183 days, about 6 months. His average was 45 miles per day, with a high of 53 miles. In 1994, Parsons broke the 1000-mile world track record with a time of 13 days, 17 hours. Earlier this year he ran the Simpson Desert, crossing 1160 sand dunes in 3 days and nights. His next goal is to break the WR for the longest continuous run, currently 17,071km... Yiannis Kouros ran 167 miles in a 24 hour race in Toledo (8:30 miles), then the next weekend, ran 163 miles in a 24 hour race in Italy... The best walkers in the world do 6:15 miles... Bill Benson, 80, won his age group in the NYC 5th Ave. Mile: 7:56...

There is evidently a 4-minute miler training in SB, Mike Miller, from Portland, sponsored by Fila... At the World 1/2 Marathon Championship in Palermo, Italy Oct. 3rd Paul Tergat won in a leaner in 1:01:50 (Tergat holds the WR in 59:17). Top American Larson was 41st in 1:04. Tegla Loroupe won the women's title one week after her marathon WR, in 1:08:48... The US women's leader in the marathon is Kim Pawelek; her 2:37 is the slowest US-leading women's time since 1977... Czech Dvorak, the new WR holder in the decathlon, had a 3-meet average of 8825 points, which only 3 people have ever exceeded. One of them is Jurgen Hingsen, who married a Santa Barbara girl... Josh Spiker of Ventura was rated 5th best HS 3200m runner in the nation... US coach Mel Rosen: "Michael Johnson's 400m record will last 20 years. His 200m record (19.32) will last 50 years"... The IOC suspended Afghanistan's Olympic Committee because that country bans women from sports...

The IOC is considering putting a cap on marketing revenues at future Olympics to try to limit commercialism... Marathoner Ronaldo da Costa, the former world record holder from Brazil, now trains in Bouldere, Colorado, after three kidnapping attempts... The US Olympic Trials are in Sacramento, CA July 14-23, so now is the time to get your tickets. Try www.usatf.org... America's best runner, Bobby Kennedy, ran 13:05 this year. Gebreselassie ran 13:11 for the 2nd 5K of his 10K... Canada wants the $10,000 given to the USA 4X100M team at the Goodwill Games because Dennis Mitchell was later busted for nandrolone... By team scoring the World Championships for Men the US ended up first over Germany and Kenya. For Women the US also won followed by Russia and Germany... Octagon Marketing bought the Millrose Games, the nation's oldest track meet, from former owner IMG... IAAF president Primo Nebiolo says the 2000 Grand Prix Trac and Field Final will be in Doha, Qatar, after the Olympics... For a good runner's page try www.vrunner.com. It has links to free training logs, personal home pages, runner email postcards, etc.

SUPERSTAR GABRIELA SZABO
Szabo, 93 pounds, age 23, from Romania was undefeated this year, as she broke the WR indoors for 5000m, won the indoor golds in the 1500m and 3000m, then won every race all summer including the World Cup 5000m. She becomes the first track athlete to win more than 1 Million dollars in prize money in a year, plus Nike gave her $500,000. She is shy, from a small village of Bistrita, in Transylvania on the Romanian-Hungarian border, where the average monthly salary is one hundered dollars. She lives in a small apartment in Bucharest with her husband/coach. She is the most famous athlete in her country, mobbed by kids wanting her autograph whenever she goes out. She has donated some of her prize money to Romanian orphanages. "I have 3 houses now, and a new Audi. I put my money in foreign banks, I've had bad experiences with Romanian banks". She runs 20 miles a day.

WORLD AND AMERICAN MARATHON RECORDS
At Chicago Oct. 24 Khalid Khannouchi, 27, of Morocco, soon to be American, broke da Silva's recent 2:06:05 WR with a 2:05:42 win. It was 36 degrees at the start. The leaders went through the 1/2 in 1:03. At mile 18, one of the world's greatest marathoners, 2-time Boston winner Moses Tanui took the lead and Khannouchi was 26 seconds back. With two miles to go, they were stride for stride. Coming out of a tunnel Khannouchi quickly gained 30 yards and the race was over. Khannouchi averaged sub 4:40's the last 3 miles. Khannouchi becomes the first man to average sub 4:48's for 26.2 miles. He won $165,000 and a VW Beetle. Tanui's 2:06:15 was a PR and is #3 on the all time list. Defending champ Osoro of Kenya was 3rd in 2:08. Unknown American David Morris, 29, from Alaska currently training in Japan, broke the AR, running 2:09:32 on the certified, point to point course. The women's race came down to a sprint as defending champ Joyce Chepchumba won by one second in 2:25:59. There were 24,621 finishers. The race produced 32 new 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers. Steve Placensia won the masters race by one second in 2:17:04. See www.chicagomarathon.com and www.khannouchi.com for details.

The women's marathon WR was broken Sept. 26 in Berlin by Tegla Loroupe, 26, of Kenya, who ran 2:20:43 (1:11:26 at the 1/2). She was shielded for 25 miles of the race by 3 male pacesetters. Men's winner Josephat Kiprono ran 2:06:44, a Kenyan national record, and Inubushi of Japan also broke 2:07 in a Japanese Record (he could not qualify for the Japanese 30-member national team earlier this year).

LOCALS NEWS: Fred Vega is running 70-mile weeks, training for the SB 1/2 marathon and Las Vegas Marathon. The lucky stiff is retired and training like a madman. On the other end of the scale, Gregg Horner "hasn't run since June", when he tore an Achilles tendon. He was seen basking in the sun with his 2 year old sun at Shoreline Park, and "doesn't know if he'll be back". Many of you know Meg Barbour: she ran 2:51:10 at the Chicago marathon, missing the Olympic Trials qualifying mark by about 2 seconds per mile (she was 1:21 at the 1/2). Other local finishers at Chicago were Melanie Penfield in 4:30:34, John Wiskel in 3:09:33 (1:31 at the 1/2), Bobbi Janowiak in 4:10:38, and Jack Bianchi, 57, ran 3:13:03 (1:31:28 at the 1/2). Payton Jordan, 82, the WR holder in the 100m and 200m for the men 70, 75 and 80, broke the US record for 100m with a 15.64 (missing the WR by .01) at the Club West meet at SBCC Oct. 3rd. John Whittemore, 99, of Montecito, scored four single-age records with the shot, discus, hammer and javelin. Gordon McClenathen won the 5000m 60's in 21:50. Don Truex ran a 5:32 1500m to win the 60's, Richard LaClaire won the M35 in 5:20. Duncan Thomas, 50, set a new age division record at the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, in 9:44:13. His time beat the 45-49 winner. He holds the 45-49 record from 1996. His splits were 58 minutes for the 2.4 mile swim, 5:11 for the bike, and a 3:37 marathon. When asked if he would be back next year he replied: "No Way". Vic Birtalan also finished, in 11:15, winning an age group award, in his 3rd ironman this year.

RUNNING SHORTS is written monthly, originally intended as a column in the Santa Barbara Athletic Association newsletter (we're a 400 member running club on the central coast of California). It is a collection of running, health and endurance info from Track and Field News, Runners World, USATF's Road Running Information Center in Santa Barbara, Joe Henderson's "Running Commentary", Jim Hage's "Running Ranting and Racing", National Masters News, and personal anecdotes from my 25 years of running ( currently 15 miles per week at age 42). There are about 100 of you who receive this by e-mail, located all over the world, from Kobe, Japan to Australia to Austria to the United Kingdom and the USA. Enjoy and keep on runnin'! Remember, any day you're running is a good day! Kevin Young
kyoung@sbre.com

Click here & tell your friends about this page !

Have you got a human interest story about a runner you know or a race report to share ? ontherunevents.com is happy to share stories with our readers. Send us your stories, your experiences!

Copyright © 1999 ontherunevents.com, All rights reserved.
Commercial use or redistribution in any form, printed or electronic, is prohibited.