Posts Tagged ‘Running’

Nation’s Fastest High School Runners Go For a Walk

December 12th, 2010 by Geoffrey Decker

The day before the 32nd annual Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships, the 40 fastest boys and girls from all over the country got a chance to visit the daunting Balboa Park cross country course in San Diego. It’s become as much of a tradition as the race itself and several of the sport’s top athletes, who got their start at this race when they were in high school, came back to lead them on the course.

Clinton Hill on Marathon Sunday

November 29th, 2010 by Geoffrey Decker

A mile down the road from Brooklyn Academy of Music, which doubles on Marathon Sunday as the borough’s most densely-packed area for crowds on the course, Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill is just as vibrant, if slightly less prominent.

Against a backdrop of the towering Lafayette Gardens, a troubled housing project that has had two murders since August, an entire community – residents, elected officials, churchgoers and casual fans – turned out this month to cheer on the 40,000 runners to participate in the 2010 New York City Marathon.

8 out 10 Active Runners Will Suffer Injury in Their Career

November 8th, 2010 by Geoffrey Decker

If the highly-acclaimed British Journal of Sports Medicine and my little old informal – and wholly unscientific – survey are an indication,  runners hoping to remain injury-free face pretty stiff odds.

You heard that right. I put my research methods in the same sentence as the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Why? In a story about red flags that runners raise for health insurers, the New York Times cited one of their studies that “found rates of injury to the lower extremities were as high as 79 percent in long-distance runners.” (more…)

Cotton Motivation: These Cross Country T-Shirts Say It All

October 15th, 2010 by Geoffrey Decker

A quirky high school cross country tradition is the team t-shirt, which boasts a quote, virtue or slogan to serve as its unofficial motto. Much like the personalities of the athletes who wear them, these shirts run the gamut of uniqueness, ranging from inspiring to intimidating to silly to personal.

Dozens of these shirts were on display last weekend in the Bronx at Van Cortlandt Park. It was the 38th running of the Manhattan Invitational, the world’s largest single-day cross country meet, which featured 300 teams from more than a dozen states in 40 races.

Here’s just a sampling of the t-shirt mottos I saw, complete with an explanation from the coaches and runners who wore them: (more…)