Light Friday Reading

For your Friday reading enjoyment, two articles that I saw on the Twitter:

The first is about Erin O'Mara, who qualified for January's Olympic Trials by running a 2:43:55 at last weekend's California International Marathon.  Pretty good, considering her first marathon, the 2006 Detroit Free Press Marathon, took her 4:08:08.  A year later she dropped 46 minutes off.  In marathon #4, she ran a 2:55.  I'll let you read the rest!  Oh, and for Ryan Schmidt, Ben Ingram, Nina Hartman, Andy Olson, and scores more - she's from Michigan.

The second is about Kara Goucher, who is running the tragically-long-titled Dodge Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon this weekend.  She was originally slated to run the Las Vegas Half this past weekend, but her new coach wanted her to do the Miami race with training partners Shalane Flanagan and Lisa Uhl.  The plan is to go in on super tired legs, on the heels of very high volume.  Read how she's adapted to the new training regime.

Here's a great quote, from a question asking whether she and Shalane are friends: "When you're competing, you're competing.  Everyone is wanting the same thing.  Everybody wants to cross the line first.  But that doesn't mean you can't help each other get to that point."