Welcome to Earth

As we celebrated our Independence Day on Wednesday, many of you honored the birth of our nation by racing. The Arbutus Firecracker 10k used to be so low key that you had to FAX someone to get a registration form FAXED back to you. But, it had random money for age groups, so it was a diamond in a haystack. It's also not an easy course, and definitely not one that yields fast times.

Dave Berdan has returned fast and furiously to the race scene, and on Wednesday he finished 2nd to Ty Stump, running 33:25. Charles Larsen was 3rd in 33:53, and Tristram Thomas, in his last race as an American, was 4th in 34:09. How fitting was it that Tristram's last day here (before moving to Italy for grad school) was on the 4th of July? I didn't even know planes flew out on Independence Day.

Dan Miranda has been supplementing his run miles right now with a lot of time on the bike - and it seems to be working - as he ran 34:53 to finish 6th. Jack Flowers and Dave Berardi finish 9th and 10th, in 36:51 and 37:01. Then it was all ladies, as Jackie Truncellito trounced the field in 38:56. Lisa Ievers was up from Alabama and ran 41:36 for 3rd, while Denise Knickman finished 4th in 42:22. Emily Boss ran 48:21, and Karen Menge finished at 49:17.

Down in Atlanta, at THE Peachtree 10k, Jeff Rumbaugh ran 36:46 for 200th place (out of 57,000!).

Today, at another super large race, the Utica Boilermaker 15k in upstate NY, Mike Mashner finished 153rd in 57:19, while Aaron Tripp was 649th at 1:06:20. Jen Koshy ran 1:21:36.

In the scrum of Olympic Trials and a lack of events of our own, I forgot to mention them. Diane Heiser earned last week's Purple Drink Athlete of the Week for her run at the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya. Honorable mentions were Brennan's race on Hayward Field, Dan Miranda's 16:51 5k in in Ellicott City, and Meg D/Amy Horst 1-2 at the BRRC 1500m.

For anyone who reads this today, you are privy to finding out THIS week's PDAW, and that goes to Jackie Truncellito. Denise said she was still in sight at 5k, and then blazed the 2nd half to run a seriously impressive time at Arbutus. She says she's just resumed training again, so expect to see more great results from her!

This week's NOS Award goes to Tyson Gay. Did anyone see how he burnt Justin Gatlin up at the end of the 100m in Paris? It was incredible. The time was "meh" (9.99) but he's really coming into race form.