Sunday, February 28, 2010

PreClassic 2010 tickets on sale this week

Tickets for the Prefontaine Classic 2010 will go on sale on March 5. From personal experience, the best seats sell out on day 1. So, haste is the name of the game. Here's a map of Hayward Field. You want to try and get something close to the finish line.

The only little complaint I usually have is that they don't have a list of athletes announced by the time the tickets are on sale. It's like Priceline, in a way. But you can think of it as booking a 5-star hotel on Priceline. You know it will be good - the athletes are guaranteed to be of top most tier. I've been going to the Pre Classic for the last three years without knowing (at the time of booking tickets) who I'll get to see. So, who have I seen so far? Alan Webb, Kenenisa Bekele, Craig Mottram, Maria Mutola, Bernard Lagat, Sanya Richards, Jenny Barringer, Nick Symmonds, Kara Goucher, Matt Tegenkamp, Dathan Ritzenhein, Asafa Powell, Jeremy Wariner, Asbel Kiprop, Gelete Burka, Jen Rhines, Pamela Jelimo, Saif Shaheen, Shalane Flanagan, Shannon Rowbury, Meserat Defar, Nick Willis. Needless to say, you will not be disappointed.

Moreover, this year marks the first year of the IAAF Diamond League, and of the 14 worldwide meets that are part of this, Eugene and New York are the only ones from the United States. So, there is no better way to spend your July 4th weekend this year than this. Mark the date.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

How long can you wear a merino wool shirt without washing?

I had read about people trying this on backpacking forums. So, I decided to try it out for myself. How many times did I wear my merino wool shirt without washing? The answer - 10.

10 times and yet no odor. No itches either. It was as if I'd picked up a fresh shirt each time I went for a run.

Could I have gone longer? I think so. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperative. The winter rains set in, which means less time in between runs for the shirt to dry out completely. I could've let it dry out over a few days but I didn't happen to have too many extra shirts to alternate. Moreover, if you don't let it dry out completely, there is a little bit of a funky odor. Maybe next time, I'll shoot for over 10.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Prefontaine Classic - now in July

Just checked out the website for the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon. Looks like they moved it to July starting this year. July 3th, Saturday. They used to have it in early June. This is great news. Moving it to the July 4th weekend is definitely a great move. Oregon usually has a bunch of other activities in the summer and more so in July than in June. This way it becomes easier to clump them together with a visit to Hayward Field to check out some of the greatest athletes in the world.