Riccione

Ooo, I'm so proud today!

Patty just emailed from Italy to say she DID win the silver in the 5k -- you couldn't tell from the weird way the world masters championships organizers post the results, and the slightly weird way these races were run.

My training partner and YourRunning.com blogger writes from Riccione:

"The 5000 was a final -- they had a slow heat and a fast heat. I was in the fast heat with two Belgians ranked under 17:00 and I pushed the last mile with a final 75-second quarter to pass one of the Belgians, so I did get the silver medal.

Many of our best masters runners are currently in Riccione, Italy, for the world championships.

News so far... my erstwhile training partner Patty Murray finished a storming second in her heat of the 5000 metres. Looks like she's sucessfully recovered from injury, but may not have the legs to challenge the Belgian Corinne Debaets who is running in a different class, the only woman under 17 minutes. But Patty is second fastest of the lot so far by a comfortable margin, so fingers crossed there is a medal on...

Two big stories for me to come out of the Carlsbad 5000 today (Sunday)...

first, Henry Rono served notice that it's not all talk and he really is serious about his comeback, with a storming 17:48 in his first major race since, well... forever. The former three times world record holder was second in his age group behind the man who remains The Man to beat: 57-year-old Nolan Shaheed, who covered 5k in an astonishing 16:31.

Second, comiserations to my training partner Patty Murray, who ran a fantastic 17:05 in the masters women's race and lost the race by just TWO seconds!

Henry got a lot of positive media coverage praising his reinvention of himself as a world-class runner, this time as an age-group masters champion. However, a little puzzling was the mention of Henry's attack on the 4:40 world mile record for 55-year-old men, which some are saying he has scheduled for September at the World Masters Championships in Riccione, Italy. These being regular track and field title events, there is no mile race, just a 1500 metres.