Tyson Start Lists Created: I Feel Like Chicken....This Friday Night!

As the title might have led you to assume, the Tyson Invitational start lists were posted today. Rather than following the link, though, you can just take a look at the highlights:

Men's College 5000 Meters

***Not sure why they tagged this race as "college" as there are three pros (Alistair Cragg, Stphen Hass (sic), and Braden Forrest) competing. Maybe they just wanted to attract a certain audience, like the "Women of the Big 10" editions of Playboy. If that's the case, then we'll definitely know where all the sweaty 45 year old dudes came from this time.

-The only thing to see here is Cragg and how he is doing at the beginning of the Olympic year. Has he finally gotten over the fact that he only has two wrists on which to put sweat bands? But, seriously, he has been quite aloof since beating Bekele and his Euro Indoor gold in 2005. Alist-where have you been? (think about it...groan)

-The field, despite lacking the big names of the Tyson 3k in the past (Amer. Record for Broe with Licoln and Tegenkamp getting very close in subsequent years, etc.), the collegiates in the race are fast. Cragg will most likely not be pushed to beat his 13:28 facility record, though.

Women's Invitational Mile


-Carrie Tollefson and Tiffany McWilliams will square off early in their build up to making the team at the trials.


-In bigger news, Reebok has found a way to harness the awesome power of Death's Rage in the form of a robot aptly named Jenelle Deatherage. Apparently, she knows how to throw down indoors, and could be using all of satan's fury on the two perennial 1500 powerhouses, to give them a slice of what they'll be eating come Eugene, "Deathberry Pie" (I reserve all commercial use of the term Deathberry Pie and 'rage cracker crust, including t-shirt, hoody, and cartoon rights for the build up to Eugene '08).


Men's Invitational Mile


-Wow, talk about your showdown of flashy potential and rock solid consistency. Kevin Sullivan and Nick Willis, in reverse respective order, both American based mid-distance mainstays from sparsely represented countries finally competing in a race where one of them will probably win. Not to mention Rob Meyers, a perennial mid-packer in his own right, might actually regain the spark he found during the 2004 indoor season.


-The real story here is Steve Sherer. A nose hair away from being a 3:55 guy (sorry Steve, but it does sound a lot better than 3:56), he will be right on the mix. This race will probably be won in 3:55-56, and he can run that on his own, so he will probably win. Why are we even running the race?
-The real story within this real story is that we may finally have a golden boy underdog come the trials. Underdog referring to the fact that he was a total unknown before he ran the 3:56, and golden referring to his bleached hair look (don't worry Steve, 2001 was a strange trip for everyone, I know).