Support your athletes, guys!

Lolo Jones finished fourth in the 100m hurdles Source

A few days ago, the New York Times published a scathing article on Lolo Jones. Jones was torn apart for being all style, no substance. Then, when she finished fourth in the 100m hurdles finals, the haters jumped on the opportunity to say "I told you so," pointing to her disappointing finish as proof she was overhyped and overrated. It's really shameful to lose to favorite Sally Pearson, who won in an Olympic record time, you know.

But wait. Can we step back for a second? Jones' "failure" meant that she finished fourth at the Olympics. For now, she is fourth in the world. Sure, this is a sport where there is really only one winner, and where the top three get hardware and glory while fourth gets to pee in a cup, but let me repeat that for you. Fourth in the world. Allow me to quote Allie Kieffer here:

GALEN RUPP TAKES SILVER MEDAL!

Galen Rupp (silver) and his training partner Mo Farah of Great Britain (gold) Source

RUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!

Full results after the jump.

Molly Pritz 1:10:45 at San Fran Half!

Seeing as track hasn't yet started in London (well, except for the athletes, because for them it started a long time ago), allow me to steer your attention towards the San Francisco Half-Marathon, where Molly Pritz, running for ASICS, went 1:10:45 to shatter the old course record and set herself a new PR...in the middle of marathon training. Which makes it all the more impressive because running marathon pace for 13 miles is a pretty tough thing to do during marathon training. You heard it here first...that girl is going to be the next big thing. Better update later when I'm not at XC camp in the woods with spotty Internet.

Gear Review: Brooks Green Silence

I put off buying the Brooks Green Silence for a long time. The shoe's main selling point is that it's environmentally friendly. Really? I'm all saving the environment and slowing global warming, but I want shoes that are known for their performance, not for saving the planet (although both would be pretty sweet). However, I had some friends who seemed to like them, and then I heard someone compare them to the PureConnect, only with decent durability. Hm, well that was enough to make me order them. Then I got word that they were being discontinued, along with the Launch, and I put off writing the review for a long time. I mean, who wants to read a review about a shoe that's being discontinued at the end of this year? In fact, I almost didn't write it (hence the pictures of the beat-up shoes below). But then I thought about it and realized that it's a pretty cool shoe, and as far as I'm concerned, people deserve a chance to hear about it and try it before it disappears. So on to the review!

Another Contest! (not mine this time though)

Just giving you guys a heads up that Molly Pritz is running a contest on her blog for anyone who can guess her finishing time at the San Francisco Half. If you need something to work with, her stats are here, though keep in mind she's not tapered for this one. Good luck!

Click here for details and to enter!

Mezamashii Contest Winners!

I was absolutely blown away by the response to the Mizuno Mezamashii giveaway. All in all, there were 256 entries (minus a few that I'll discuss in the next paragraph) for two spots on the Mezamashii Project. I enjoyed reading about all of your Brilliant Runs, as well as hearing what kind of shoes you guys would want, so thanks to everyone for participating! And of course, thanks to Mizuno for sponsoring the Mezamashii Project!

In case you're all wondering how this worked, I used RANDOM.ORG to generate a random number, then figured out which comment corresponded to that number. Seems fair, and seems to be how all the other blogs do it, so if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. There were a few deleted comments, and at least one joke comment (thanks a lot, Nicole!), so I had to see if the deleted comments figured into the comment count (they did). Thus, I figured if I landed on one of them I'd just pick another random number. Luckily, this wasn't an issue and I was able to just use the first two numbers I picked.

The Mezamashii Project and Free Shoes Giveaway! CONTEST CLOSED

As you may have heard by now, Mizuno is starting up The Mezamashii Project. This is Mizuno's way of reaching out to runners, getting some shoes on people's feet with the confidence that they'll like 'em enough to be repeat customers.