To the Trials We Go

As Jeremy pointed out in his previous post, we are headed to the Olympic Trials in Eugene after this weekend. We will be driving there, which means we should probably start planning on how that's going to happen. Currently, neither of us owns a car, or a bank account, and I lack the attention span to drive for more than an hour without picking up a dangerous hitchhiker. In preparation for the trip, we will spend the weekend sipping pounding $9 beers while watching the Reds at Yankee stadium then working on our tans (and our table manners) up in the Hamptons: the usual.

Needless to say, we're really excited about the trip and being able to do the same thing we have been doing here at LTOB over in so-called Tracktown, USA. We hope all of you guys follow the "action" over at TOTHETRIALS.COM and let us know what's the what in the comments. We will still be updating every now and then on this site with pics and tidbits too "racy" or "obscene" for the lightweights over at 3000 miles.

Then, we will be back on here after the trials are over to give the real scoop on Eugene. You know, who hooked up with who, who woke up in women's underwear the morning after their 1500 final: the good stuff.

This trials is gonna be a big one, folks, so dust off that old Springsteen album and jump around a little bit, we won't tell.

Finally, if you live in the Columbus, Ohio area and want to wish us well, or throw boiled vegetables at us, visit the Second Sole in the Stoneridge Plaza at the corners of Morse and Hamilton in Gahanna, OH. We'll be there sometime between noon and 4pm on June 25th. Hopefully. So it would be best to just block out the whole day and hang out with the Sole crew. I here they smell nice but love to give wedgies, so watch out.

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Rating the Meats

That's Easy:
1. Steak
2. Chicken
3. Sausage
4. Bolgna
5. Turkey

Now that that's out of the way, why don't we rate some TRACK meEts?

As you may or may not have heard by now, Keninisa Bekele has signed on to make an attempt at his 10,000 meter world record at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on June 8. This coming on the heels of the Reebok Grand Prix's announcement that the world's top two sprinters, Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay (that's right I said it Asafa, what are you gonna do about it?), will face each other over 100 meters. Along with that, Adidas has set up a great field for their Adidas Track Classic this coming Sunday.

Undoubtedly, the three best track events in America leading up to tha' Grandaddy of all American track events: the trials.

With these four meets, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and Nike USATF seem dedicated to putting on top quality track and field meets. Let's have a look how each meet stacks up, shall we...


Here's how the ratings work:

No Stars = Is this a professional track meet or a 7th grade pizza party?!
* = 3 out of 4 LRC message boarders will bitch about
** = Runnerville will have suggestions
*** = Mary Wittenberg would/has approved
**** = "boners galore"

1) Geographic Location
Nike Pre - Eugene ***
Reebok - New York City ****
Adidas - Carson, CA **
Trials - Eugene ***

Eugene as a city, like it or not, is the only town willing to put all their eggs in the track and field basket, and that is commendable in its own right. Even if its not an especially visible town nationwide. NYC is simply the media capital of the world, though, and will always generate a large crowd and, most especially, media hype. Carson is 22 minutes from LA according to my google maps, which doesn't seem that long I suppose, but as far as I'm concerned, ain't nothing in LA but rich hippies and people who are perpetually 3 hours behind me, no one I want at one of my track meets.

2) Venue
Nike Pre - Historic Hayward Field ***
Reebok - Icahn Stadium **
Adidas - Home Depot Center No Stars
Trials - Historic Hayward Field ***

Once again, like the Nike/Eugene marriage or not, what they have invested in track and field and Hayward field looks pretty cool right now. They updated things that needed to be updated but, as far as I can tell, didn't sacrifice too much of the authenticity. Although, putting "Historic Hayward Field" on the new jumbo-tron seems a bit forced. Icahn Stadium is cool, on an island and all, but it's impossible to get to without a car, and who wants to drive in NYC? The Home Depot is a boring store filled with employees that clearly don't want to help me out with my bundle of 4x4's. I don't understand why they are trying to hold a track meet in that kind of environment.

3) Website
Nike Pre - No Stars
Reebok - **
Adidas - ***
Trials - ****

The Pre website looks like my 15 year old cousin's geocities site. Reebok and Adidas are about the same, but Adidas has had a time schedule and starting lists posted for a while now and Reebok has NO updates. The Eugene08 website is top-notch, as it should be.

4) Marquee Race/Time Trial
Nike Pre - Bekele going for 10,000m WR, Meseret Defar going for 5,000m WR ***
Reebok - Usain Bolt v. Tyson Gay in 100m ****
Adidas - 7 of world's top 10 women in 100m No Stars
Trials - Every. American. Ever. ****

Two world record attempts at Pre is pretty impressive but, quite frankly, this smacks of little more than a publicity stunt. Count me as "doubtful" as to whether or not Bekele is actually ready and seriously going for a record or did the Pre folks promise him a free trip see "pre's rock"? Bolt v. Gay is HUGE. I wouldn't mind if Asafa Powell totally dropped off the radar. Bolt and Gay obviously aren't afraid of a challenge. Powell? Shaking. Boots. Adidas has a number of strong races and an overall great field, but no real "matchup" to speak of.

5) Ability to avoid attempts at squeezing any remaining juice from the already dry, shriveled up fruit that is a former track athlete's "legacy.," to the point where a track fan almost definitely resents said athlete.
Nike Pre - Negative Eleventy Billion Stars
Reebok - ****
Adidas - ****
Trials - Jury Still Out

Note to Nike/Lanana/Eugene08: please stop pimpin' Steve so hard. He's not going to be able to carry your company University's mystique forever. His abnormally broad, German shoulders are only so strong.

6) Overall
Nike Pre - *
Reebok - ***
Adidas - **
Trials - ****(times 1 million boners)

This could easily change after the fields fill out.

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LTOB's First Annual Night Out With the Nets

Every once in a while, the minions of writers that contribute to LTOB, and live in our basement closet, are set free for a night out on the town in a pre-planned, shoddily supervised activity. It raises morale and allows said minions to do something other than constantly refresh the letsrun message board. We do have interests outside of races and professional wrestling scandals after all. A brief recap (and video) of the night are after the jump.


Last night's activity was a trip across the Hudson to that smelly cousin of New York City, the kind of cousin who used to always ask you to come over for a sleepover after family functions and look at his penny collection while snacking on cold garlic bread and grape-aid. You know, New Jersey. We went to see the New Jersey Nets game last night and boy was it average.

The highlight of the game, as always, was the fan cam. It caught yours truly in the act:



If you look closely at the end, you can see Jeremy in his red shirt laughing smuggly at me. He's always judging me. It was a night of celebration, what can I say.

The other highlight was the short intermission between the 3rd and 4th quarter. The players on the court had just heated up from totally to mildly disinterested as the 3rd quarter buzzer sounded, and then all hell broke loose.

Literally: All. Hell. Broke. Loose.

My vision was just blurred enough from the empty wallet's worth of beer that I had consumed and everywhere I looked there were cheerleaders, dance teamers, huge wolves with guitars, ALL either throwing or shooting t-shirts out of big cannons!

There were even, and this is the best part, t-shirts parachuting in from the top of the arena.
Everyone was going nuts. It was like someone we all were rooting for just won the super bowl.

(We're looking at you, Eugene. t-shirts, t-shirts, t-shirts, coming at us from all angles. We love that shit.)

And then the game ended and someone may or may not have won.

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Eugene '08 Update: Big Fat Video Board? Check!

Eugene '08 is really shaping up to be a big event and they are not sparing expenses. This artists rendering of the revamped, space-age Hayward Field v.08 looks really cool. After reading about all the new crap they are cramming into this trials, I'm starting to get really excited to see how well Eugene pulls this off. It is rather obvious they feel that they have something to prove and we all know how hard people try when they need to prove something (fat chicks I'm looking at you).

In related news, apparently Americans like watching them some TV. Eugene '08 has heard you loud and clear America, and they are doing something about it. According to the Daily Emerald article, Nike has "donated" a $1.5 million state-of-the-art video board that will be ready in time for the Trials.

In unrelated news, my boss recently "donated" my paycheck to me.

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