yesterday i was talking my gf about the u.s. olympic qualifier taking place this morning. she sort of gave me this funny look like, what? you are getting up early to watch a marathon on the web? how does that saying go...you know you are a running geek when: you can name at least 3 athletes taking place in the qualifier? you wake up early to watch?

anyway, all of that set aside, i can't believe what happened to ryan shay. i just don't understand it. its incomprehensible really. its almost come to the point where i feel like anytime i run a marathon, i'll be rolling the dice a little bit. my thoughts to go out to everyone.

ryan hall won the race. i think this says it all:

Hall tamed a Central Park course that has virtually no flat stretch and is a constant stream of bends and curves. His mile splits tell the story once he left the pack. Starting with the 13^th mile, they were 4:44, 4:53, 4:53, 4:59, 4:56, 4:32, 4:41, 4:34, 4:40, 4:51, 4:42, 4:52, 4:47 and 4:49, before he crossed the finish line in 2:09:02. He ran the first half of the race in 1:06:17 and the second half in 1:02:45.