Joining Winjiru on the podium were the same two who finished behind him in Beijing, only flip flopped. Beijing bronze medalist Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia finished second, while silver medalist Jaouad Gharib of Morocco finished third.

Shooting for a new world record, Winjiru was on pace to break Haile Gebrselassie’s time of 2:03:59 at the halfway point.

From the Associated Press:

“The condition of the weather was very fine and my body was fine, but the pacemaker was going too slowly. He said he was tired,” the 22-year-old Kenyan said. “I think they should get a good pacemaker from the starting point to 35K.

“But I got good experience and maybe next time if we can get a good pacemaker, I can set a world record.”

Kebede’s time of 2:05:20 was a personal best. Gharib finished with a time of 2:05:27.

The two elite Americans in the race each ran solid efforts; both establishing personal bests. Meb Keflezighi finished ninth with a time of 2:09:21, beating his personal best by nearly 30 seconds. Dathan Ritzenhein finished 11th in 2:10:00, bettering his personal best by one minute.

In the women’s race, Germany’s Irina Mikitenko captured her second consecutive London title winning in 2:22:11. Mara Yamauchi of Britain finished second in a personal best time of 2:23:12. Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova was third in 2:24:24.

Though the race does not have the hype of Boston, London features many elite runners including Beijing Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, Beijing bronze medalist Tsegaye Kebede and Americans Dathan Ritzenhein and Meb Keflezighi.

Ritzenhein and Keflezighi will most likely not be in the running for the podium in London, but both will be shooting for personal bests.

Ritzenhein will run his fourth marathon on Monday; the first time on a fast course. In his debut marathon in New York in 2006 he finished 11th in 2:14:01. He was second on the hilly 2008 Olympic Trials course in 2:11:07 and endured hot temperatures at the Beijing Olympics, finishing 9th in 2:11:59.

Keflezghi is returning from a rough 2008 in which he did not run a marathon and competed in only three races. Since finishing a respectable third in Boston in 2006 in 2:09:56, three seconds off his personal best in New York in 2004, injuries have stifled the Athens Olympic marathon silver medalist. He has had a good start to 2009 however, winning at the U.S. half-marathon championships in January and the U.S. cross-country championships in February. He and Ritzenhein are both aiming for a 2:07:30 finish.

Wanjiru and Kebede however are the favorites and could threaten Haile Gebrselassie’s world record of 2:03.59. Wanjiru and Kebede are both only 22 and lead the trend of the marathon becoming a young man’s race.

Wanjiru, from Kenya is the world record holder in the half marathon at 58:33 and has a personal best marathon of 2:05:24. His Beijing Olympic gold run of 2:06:32 smashed the old Olympic marathon record by nearly three minutes and many running experts call the run in the hot, soggy conditions in Beijing the best marathon ever run.

Kebede, from Ethiopia, has a personal best marathon of 2:06:10 and will certainly be in the running for first place. He claimed the bronze in Beijing after passing teammate and recently crowned Boston champ, Deriba Merga, in the final 400m.

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya dominated the field last year, winning in 2:07:46 after taking the lead at the 5k mark and never looking back. The course record holder (2:07:14) captured his fourth Boston title (2003, 05, 07, 08) and will be looking for a fifth this year.

This year though promises to be a better race. And that is because of American Ryan Hall.

He’s the fastest man in the field (2:06:17), has run a sub one-hour half marathon (59:43) and is the leading challenger in the world to break the African’s dominance in the marathon. Because of his accolades, Hall carries with him an enormous weight to be the first American to win Boston since Greg Meyer in 1983.

Hall is also bringing a buzz to the running community not seen in years, (he’s throwing out the first pitch at Fenway on Saturday). With a win, journalists will have something to write other than the African’s dominance in running.

As Hall said in an interview with Runners World, his training has been specialized just for the hills he will face in Boston. Training at altitude in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., he has done many tempo and distance runs at altitudes of 5,000 to 7,000 feet.

This will not just be a two man race however. Hall and Cheruiyot will have company in two other Cheruiyots.

Evans Cheruiyot comes in with a personal best (PB) of 2:06:25, set last year in his Chicago victory and has also run a 59:05 half-marathon. And then another Robert Cheruiyot comes in with a PB of 2:07:21.

Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Daniel Rono of Kenya also come in with sub-2:07 times, to form a strong and deep field.

The official Paddypower odds have Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot at 11-8 to win, Evans Cheruiyot 5-2 and Hall 4-1.

I’d like to see history, so I’m going with Hall. It could be an epic race.

But the point is, your body is ready to run the race and with one week to go you do not want to hurt yourself. Getting antsy and trying to squeeze in one last long run, replacing your runs with other high-intensity workouts such as basketball or cycling, or filling up your pre-race week with things that will tire you out (moving furniture) - all of these will hurt performance on race day.

There are many things you can and should do in the week before the race that will help you on race day. Here are some suggestions from Coach Joe English at Running Advice and News:

1. Get more sleep. For any students out there, hopefully your exams were last week (like mine!) and you can recover this week and add an extra hour of sleep each day. This is especially important because you’ll probably be restless the night before the race and not get much sleep.

2. Drink plenty of fluids starting Monday or Tuesday rather than the day before the race. Take a water bottle with you to work or class, avoiding long periods without drinking. Your urine should be light yellow in color and you’re likely drinking too much if your pee is colorless. (More on hydration from Coach Joe English).

3. Eat plenty of carbohydrate rich foods. Start increasing the amount of carbohydrates in your meals at the beginning of the week.

4. Don’t over eat. You’ll be exercising less, so you don’t necessarily need to eat more than normal to carbo-load. Avoid fatty and sugary foods, instead favoring starchy foods.

5. Avoid alcohol. Sorry everyone, it dehydrates you. If you must, limit your drinking to one beer a sitting.

6. Take your rest days. Your workout schedule calls for them, so avoid the temptation of a pick-up basketball game or rock climbing. You need to be resting. Rest means rest!

7. Get a massage on the Wednesday or Thursday prior to the race. It can relax you and loosen you up. Plus it just feels good.

8. Try to relax. Put pre-race anxiety aside by focusing on all of the preparations that you’ve made to get ready for your race.

9. Focus on pace work and short speed rather than going out logging big miles the week before the race. These short runs focus on internalizing your race pace. Short/fast speed workouts keep the legs fresh without tiring yourself out. A good example of a workout like this would be: 4×400M or 4-6 laps of 200M hard/200M easy.

10. Take a nap the day prior to the race as you’ll most likely have a difficult time sleeping later that night.

11. Have all of your gear (shoes, shirt, shorts, race packet, etc.) prepared the day or two before the race. Nothing worse than having to scramble the morning of the race looking for your other running shoe.

12. Don’t rush yourself on race morning. Get up with a reasonable amount of time to allow yourself to wake-up, eat, and get your pre-race bathroom trips (#2) out of the way.

13. Relax. The bottom-line is to relax both mentally and physically in the week before the race.

So, relax, get sleep, eat/hydrate well and avoid physical activity other than your workouts in the week leading up to the race. You’ve done all the training, so there’s no reason to mess it up the week before the race.

Good luck and I’ll see you all there!

And yet, the week had tragedy as well, with the Angels’ Nick Adenhart being killed in a car accident just hours after pitching the game of his life.

In a complete chance of luck, Adenhart was killed when an alleged drunk driver rolled through an intersection and plowed the car in which Adenhart was a passenger. He was 22.

Twenty-two years old and living out his dream. The dream of so many young boys before him. He had finally realized his potential and garnered his spot on the Opening Day roster of the defending AL West Champions Angels.

And it all came to an end because someone decided to drive drunk.

I am a college student and am fully aware of the dangers of mixing alcohol and driving. Every weekend in Ft. Collins, Colo., CSU students are forced to make a decision on whether or not to drive home after having a couple drinks.

Don’t.

Call a sober friend. Call a cab. Call the school’s weekend ride service Ram Ride. Walk.

Because it isn’t just you you’re endangering, it’s everyone else on the road. That’s what makes Adenhart’s death so much harder to take - he was a passenger, not even driving and was at total mercy of this other idiot driver.

But still we have a hard time in our society taking drunk driving seriously. In this same week, the buzz in the media was concerning New York Yankees’ pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who was arrested this off-season for driving under the influence. The buzz however, wasn’t about his DUI, but rather the video of his drunken self making jokes with NYPD about Yogi Berra’s height and New Yorkers.

We laughed at it, but forgot that Chamberlain was arrested for a DUI. Oh, so he didn’t kill anybody or himself. But he could have.

Only in tragedies like Adenhart’s do people fully realize the dangers of driving drunk. Why don’t we get this message all the time?

It’s a shame, because baseball lost one of its young stars this week to a happen of chance and all we are left with is to ponder the possibilities of what he could have become.

The alleged drunk driver’s life was spared, and he is left to ponder how many people’s lives he ruined because he decided to get behind the wheel after drinking.

Hopefully our justice system will give him that chance to think behind bars.

The list is compiled by members of the Facebook group, Everything is Funner with a Runner. And I must say I agree with many of the statements.

Here are my 20 favorite, “You might be a runner if’s…”

1. You can remember a time from a race 4 years ago, but you can’t remember your friends’ birthdays.
2. You double knot all your shoes out of habit
3. You wake up every morning in pain.
4. You can’t go a day without some little brat saying ‘run Forest run.’
5. You have hundreds of safety pins scattered around your house
6. You go to a golf course to run.
7. Your shoes have more miles on them than your car does.
8. You need a magnifying glass to see your name in the newspaper
9. You have chafing in strange places.
10. Your chest is as flat as your back.
11. You can snot rocket while running.
12. Your girlfriend can bench more than you.
13. Your favorite food group is carbohydrates.
14. Your highest heels are your training shoes.
15. Your spit strings from your chin and you don’t even care.
16. Gatorade is your drug of choice.
17. If your car breaks down you never even consider hitching or calling for a ride.
18. Your calves are bigger than your biceps.
19. You try to impress girls by saying you’re a fast finisher.
20. You’ve said “she’d be one hell of a pole vaulter” at a strip club.

Mark Remy, for Runner’s World on his blog RW Daily, posed this question and RW ran a homepage poll a while back. The results were mixed as 54 percent responded “Absolutely,” 22 percent “Maybe, But Not By Much,” 22 percent “No, I’ve Seen My Share of Unattractive Runners,” and 2 percent “No, In Fact I Find Runners Less Attractive Than Average.”

It’s an interesting question. I of course will say yes. It is very attractive to me to meet a girl who is crazy enough to pound the pavement for miles every week. Also, runners acquire confidence and personal gratification through their training and competitions and a happy and confident person, regardless of their looks, will likely draw the attention of others.

And well, look at Kara Goucher. And for the women, Josh Cox.

Runners are naturally going to be in shape and have toned bodies, but there are plenty of attractive people who can find much better things to do than run five miles a day. So, take a glance around your classroom or at the mall and compare to the starting line of a race.

I say the runners at the start of the race are more attractive on the whole. At the end of the race is another question though.

What do ya’ll think? Are runners more attractive than average? Feel free to comment and explain your answers.

According to studies, running with music lowers your perception of effort. Music can trick your mind into feeling less fatigued and encourage positive thoughts, even if you are feeling pain.

And music with a fast tempo (120-140 beats per minute) can be used to pump you up prior to a competition and matching the beat of the music to the tempo of the exercise can regulate your movement and reduce the oxygen required during running.

The dudes at the blog, The Art of Manliness, compiled a list of 52 of the best workout songs. Their key element in selecting the songs was tempo as according to experts, it is the most important factor in enhancing workout performance as it provides timing and coordination for your movements.

Fifty-two songs is a lot to list on here, so check out the link, but here are some notables (many of which I run to). (I can’t stand “The Final Countdown” by the way).

“Thunderstruck“-AC/DC

“Loser“-Beck

“Seven Nation Army“-The White Stripes

“Paint it Black“-The Rolling Stones

“Bulls on Parade“-Rage Against the Machine

“B.O.B“-Outkast

“D.A.N.C.E“-Justice

“Lose Yourself“-Eminem

“The Distance“-Cake

“Should I Stay or Should I go Now“-The Clash

And one not on the list, but a song I’ve run to a lot recently is “Electric Feel” by MGMT. Good stuff, but sometimes I find myself dancing rather than running. Still cardio right?

What are some of your favorite running songs?