Update: School and Training

So I'm sure you've all figured I've given up on blogging by now. Not true! I have a Mizuno Wave Universe review written up...but I have moved back to school and have no idea where my camera is, and no one wants a review with cell phone pictures. So as soon as I find my camera, I'll have a Universe review up. I also have another shoe on order that I'm sure all of you will judge me for, but whatever, JUDGE AWAY! Other than that, I am officially signed up for the Philadelphia Marathon in November, so that means that marathon training is underway, which takes up a significant chunk of time. It does not, however, take up as much time as grad school, which is also underway. Finally, the school doesn't serve dinner on Friday or Saturday or any meals at all on Sunday, so that means I have to cook which also takes up time (to be fair, cooking takes up much less time than school or running). Also, thanks to anyone who voted for me in the Flotrack contest...the submission period is over but Flotrack hasn't posted the finalists yet, so I have no updates for you as to what's going on there.

Flotrack's Saucony Kinvara 3 contest

So Flotrack is having a Kinvara 3 design contest. So if you like playing with Photoshop, get on that! And if you don't like playing with Photoshop, you should vote for my design! (Actually you should go look at all the entries and vote for the one you like rather than just voting for me without looking at the others, but if you do think mine is cool, I'd certainly appreciate you giving mine a Like or a Tweet!)

Women's Olympic 1500

Women's 2012 Olympic 1500m final Source

Oh boy, here we go again. I hate to be the person who rants all the time, but those of you who know me know that I love watching mid-distance just as much as I love watching distance. Can't run MD for crap, but watching it is fun. You don't have as much time to get into it the way you do a distance race, but they have all the tactics and strategy that distance races have, and they can take on different personalities the same was as distance races. A 100m dash is always fast. That's not to say it's any less exciting, but you know it's going to be fast. A mid-distance race, like a distance race, can involve a furious pace from the gun (a la the men's 2012 Olympic 800 that we just saw, courtesy of David Rudisha), or it can start slow and tactical and end with the kind of dead sprint to the finish that every kicker hopes for (a la the women's 2012 Olympic 1500...more on that later). Plus male mid-distance runners are beautiful and female mid-distance runners have the body I wish I had, but I digress. So, needless to say, I was watching the women's 1500. For those of you who missed it, the 1500 opened in a pedestrian (for them) 75 second jog. The race itself didn't start until the bell lap...which is when Morgan Uceny fell. At the end of the race, former doper Asli Çakır Alptekin emerged as the winner. Fail. Fail fail fail.

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!