Start with a bang

It is hard to believe but in Beijing they will use an ordinary starting gun. One that just makes al lot of noise and nothing else. No signal to electronics and loudspeakers behind the runners according to this article on the of New Scientist.

Everybody knows the loudspeakers are meant to get the starting signal to all runners at the same time. Without them the runner on the inside track will hear the gun before the runner on the outside track. This difference might be as much as 150 millisecond on a 4x100m relay race where the runners are a long way apart.

Except that the sound needs time to travel to the runnner on the outside track there are two more effects that come into play:
1) the runner on the ouside track is faced with a 'bad start' which will not help in running a relaxed race. A tensed up runner is usualy not the best runner;-)
2) the extra decibels from the bang of the gun will help to get out of the starting blocks faster as research has shown...(I doubt if the kids in the picture get anywhere;-) frightened as they are by the bang of teh gun)

One of the researchers dealing with this topic is Jesus Dapena. If you browse to his research topics you find he also developped a model that takes into account the wind and the airdensity (high level tracks should give faster times that sealevel tracks due to the difference in air density and the lower amount of oxygen has no effect on a 100 meter run)....where was this kind of research when I went to university and the only models I worked on were wingstructures...

over hundred or not?

Remember I mentioned a 101 year old taking part in London marathon? As it now appears there is some dispute about his age....The Guinness Book of Records gives the men only 94 years due to his date of birth on his NHS papers. His passport states 101!
To me it is still a major achievement finishing a marathon at this age even though it takes him close to 10 hours. Read the story of his life and the dispute in the Guardian.

Running as Art

You might think the title contains a typo and that it should be 'Running is (an) Art'. Which is true as well but to be honest..the title is correct: "Running as Art"
In the London museum Tate Britain you can see a sprinter running by every 30 seconds as a celebration of life. It is an art installation by the artist Martin Creed who once before had an installation of a light bulb swithing on and off in an otherwise empty room. The installation, called "Work No. 850", is on show in the 86-metre neoclassical sculpture galleries of Tate Britain. Imagine the amount of interval training the runners have to do to keep up the schedule for the next four months. The installation is on show untill the 16th of november.
The idea behind the installation is being still represents death so running (sprinting) is the opposite of death and represents life. Nothing new for the runners among us;-)

Creed in the Mirror: "Running is the opposite of being still. If you think about death as being completely still and movement as a sign of life, then the fastest movement possible is the biggest sign of life. So then running fast is like the exact opposite of death: it's an example of aliveness."
In the Telegraph Creed explains the origine of his idea: "In Palermo we went to see the catacombs of the Capuchin monks. We were very late and only had five minutes to see it all before closing time. To do it we had to run. I remember running at top speed with my friends through the catacombs looking desperately left and right at all
of the dead people hanging on the walls in their best clothes, trying our best to see it all... it was a good way to see it. It was that kind of delirious running which makes you laugh uncontrollably when you're doing it. I think it's good to see museums at high speed. It leaves time for other things."

Director Stephen Deuchar of Tate Britain called the work "compelling, simple and lyrical" and "It upsets any preconceived ideas of how to move appropriately through an art space," On its Web site, Tate Britain warns visitors: "For reasons of safety, we ask the public not to run or obstruct the runner."
Wanna know more? Here is a video from youtube with an interview with the artist and clips of the runners, running through the museum:

Marathon Bible

In one of the Google Adds Sections on the side of this blog is an add for the Marathon Bible. Once you hit the link you are forwarded to a page promising you a free marathon training schedule (see image below).

You'll get free access to the next page by leaving your e-mailaddress. However I have to warn you. The next page DOES NOT offer you a free training schedule. It is simple an addpage for the book Marathon Bible. And the promsie of a free training schedule is to lure you into leaving your mailaddress. But hey, if you want to check out the offer for the book click here for direct access to the page without leaving your mailaddress behind...so you will not be spammed

Charity: please contribute with a click a day

This time a post that is not realy related to running. As I had to update the layout of my blog I added a link to Polska Akcja Humanitarna. I promote them where possible since I got to know them 15 years ago travelling trough Poland. By know they are actively involved in humanitarian aid to children all over the world including for example Birma.

Everyone can contribute to their work with very little effort by going to their Pajacyk site. Press the green button on the belly of the wooden puppet and PAH will receive a small contribution from one of their sponsors. You can only click once a day.

TIP: You can of course make the pajacyk page your homepage so you are reminded to click every time you open your browser.
BETTER TIP: I can imagine you want to hold on to your current homepage. Than you might consider using a scheduled task. Open control panel > scheduled tasks and use the wizzard to make a task. This will enable you the have your browser open automatically at, for example, a fixed time.
After using the wizard you have to don one thing manually. Open teh task and you will see the following text in the run field: "C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\iexplore.exe". (or something similar if you have a different browser).
Add a blank space and the link to the so you end up with: "C:\PROGRA~1\INTERN~1\iexplore.exe http://www.pajacyk.pl" (see screendump below). Otherwise you browser will open with you usual homepage.
My tasks opens the site every day around noon, a fitting and useful reminder for my lunch.

If you want to test if the string is correct. Go to start > run and past the string in the text field and click OK.
Good luck and thanks for helping with a click a day....