WHY I RUN

I started running in first year. I started jogging to get fit for hockey and then fell in love with the sport. I run for the athletic club DSD which is based in Balinteer. I run cross country in the winter months and I run 1500- 3000 metres on track. I have competed for Ireland in running 6 times. My dad is my coach, his name is Dave Taylor. He was a runner when he was younger, he made the Olympics twice. He has ran sub 4 minutes many times and holds many irish records. He went to Arkansas college on an athletic scholarship. I aspire to be like him.

                                  USAIN BOLT

Usain Bolt is known as the greatest runner of all time. He has won nine Olympic gold medals. He is the fastest man ever to walk earth. Usain Bolt is my favourite runner as he is a charismatic entertainer as well as an extremely talented runner.
he was born in Jamaica on August 21, 1986. he was a  cricket player and a sprinter early on, Bolt's natural speed was noticed by his cricket  coache at school. At the age of 15, Bolt ran at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, where he won the 200-meter dash, making him the youngest world-junior gold medalist ever. Bolt's feats impressed the athletics world.
Bolt is a freak, he is 6 foot 5 inches which explains why he is so good. His average stride length is 2.44 metres. Unfortunately Bolt's last race will be this summer at the World Championships in London. Bolt is releasing a movie on the 27th of November. It is called "I am Bolt"

Does Geography Play A Part In East Africa’s Running Success?

                                            

I have noticed that the majority of East Africa’s successful runners come from three mountainous districts that run beside the Great Rift Valley. In Kenya, most of the country’s successful runners come from Nandi. In Ethiopia, most of the country’s successful runners come from Arsi and Shewa and Iten.

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These locations  benefit long-distance runners because of the altitude. This mountain air, when combined with endurance training, leads to an increase in red blood cells. More red blood cells, means that your body has more oxygen-storing haemoglobin passing through your veins. It also means carbon dioxide can pass more efficiently through your body.

This theory about training at high-altitude, and the increased efficiency this can lead to in the runner’s body, definitely makes a lot of sense. However, to say that geography is the only factor behind Kenya and Ethiopia’s running success does not tell the whole story. After all, there are people in Mexico, the Andes, and large parts of Central Asia that live above 2,000m. The fact that these areas do not come close to matching the success of Nandi, Arsi, and Shewa suggests there are other factors at play in the long-distance running success of East Africa.



   WOMENS RUNNING THROUGH THE YEARS

1954 —  Diane Leather became the first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile (4:59.6) on May 29.

1960 — Women were allowed to participate in five running events in the Summer Olympics, including the 800 meters, which had been banned after the race in 1928 because of questions as to whether it was too taxing for female athletes.

1967 — Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with an official bib registered under the name K.V. Switzer.

1972 — The AAU allowed women to register for marathons after dropping its 1961 ban on women competing in U.S. road races.
 

1977 — the sports bra was invented.

1978 — Nike introduces first women-specific running shoe, with the Nike Waffle Racer.

1983 — After being unable to compete in the 1980 Summer Olympic Games due to the U.S. boycott, Mary Decker Slaney wins gold medals in the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter runs at the IAAF World Track & Field Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

1984 — Joan Benoit Sameulson from the USA wins the first women's Olympic marathon, held in Los Angeles.

1985 — Great Britain’s Zola Budd breaks the world record in the 5,000-meter on the track running barefoot..

1988 — Norway’s Grete Waitz won the New York City Marathon for the ninth time.

1991 — Susan G. Komen’s Race for the Cure debuts the first pink ribbon at its NYC event. The now-iconic symbol for breast cancer awareness was given to all breast cancer survivors and participants of the race.

1994 — TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey crosses the finish line at the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. in 4:29:15. Her effort, which included her losing 80 pounds in the year leading up to the race, sparked a new running boom among women, with the theme of “anyone can do it.”

1996 — Russian middle-distance runner Svetlana Masterkova sets the women’s mile world record of 4:12.56 at a race in Zurich, Switzerland just a few weeks after becoming the second woman in history to win Olympic gold medals in the 800- and 1,500-meter events.

 

2007 — British runner and marathon world record-holder Paula Radcliffe won the New York City Marathon 10 months after giving birth to her daughter.

2009 — Women’s Running publishes its first issue and is now the largest women-specific running magazine in the world.

2012 — Shalane Flanagan, Desiree Davila and Kara Goucher finish 1-2-3 at the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston. It was the first time the top three finishers ran sub-2:30 in the trials.

2013 — High school running prodigy Mary Cain finished second in the 1,500 meters at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, becoming the youngest American to represent the U.S. at an IAAF World Championships. She became the youngest woman ever to make the finals and placed 10^th.

2014 — Shalane Flanagan’s fast early pace at the Boston Marathon sets the tone for the first four finishers to break the course record against the race’s most competitive field in history. Flanagan finished seventh with the fastest American women’s time in Boston history.

History background

 The ancient Olympic Games began in the year 776 BC, when Koroibos,  won the stadium race, a foot race 600 feet long..
Other evidence, suggests that the games may have existed at Olympia much earlier than this date. A series of bronze tripods have been found at Olympia, some of which appear to be dated at about the ninth century BC, and it has also been suggested that these tripods may have been prizes for some of the early events at Olympia.


From 776 BC, the games were held in Olympia every four years for almost twelve centuries. Additional athletic events were gradually added until, by the fifth century BC. The athletic events included three foot races as well as the pentathlon - discus, javelin, long jump,
Track-and-field athletics in the United States dates from the 1860s. As track and field developed as a modern sport, a major issue for all athletes was their status as amateurs. For many years track and field was considered a purely amateur sport and athletes could not accept training money or cash prizes.
If charged with professionalism, athletes could be banned from competition for life. In 1913, American Jim Thorpe was stripped of his 1912 Olympic victories in the decathlon and pentathlon and banned from further competition after it was learned he had played semiprofessional baseball.
Beginning in the 1920s, track and field’s scope widened. The first NCAA national championships were held for men in 1921, and women’s track and field became part of the Olympic Games in 1928. In 1952, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sent its first Olympic team ever to the Summer Games in Helsinki, Finland, where the squad captured several track-and-field medals. Over the next 30 years, the U.S. and Soviet teams battled in one of the sport’s longest and most competitive rivalries. Women’s track struggled for widespread acceptance until the 1970s, when track and field as a whole enjoyed a boom in popularity. During that time, the U.S.-based International Track Association  organized a professional track circuit. The venture, although popular among fans, went bankrupt after several years. Few athletes wanted to participate in ITA competitions because athletes were actually receiving larger illegal payments for appearing at amateur meets than legitimate professionals were making on the new circuit. Many athletes also turned away from ITA competition because it disqualified them from participating in future Olympic Games. The Athletics Congress now regulates the sport in the United States; the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) sanctions international competition. Track and field hassince their revival in 1896. International professional running, initiated in the 1970s, has had limited success.

                                      Introduction

Hello my name is Abbie Taylor. My blog is about the geography of running because I am interested in running.