Saturday, February 20, 2010

On Olympic Medals

My friend, Vince Hemingson, made a post in his blog about choosing not to see Olympic medals at the Canadian Mint. I've seen the Vancouver medals, and they look to be about the size of CD's or DVD's.
I've had the pleasure of carrying a very old Olympic medal around the world. (I also turned down a chance to meet the Queen of England, but that's a whole other story.) One of the places where I took this medal was to the Expo at the London Marathon in 2008. It was displayed there, along with Dorando's Cup, and one of the events was an Italian press conference. At this press conference, which was organized by the Enzo Ferrari Memorial Marathon was Stefano Baldini, the 2004 Olympic Marathon Champion.
I found myself standing close to Baldini, and he commented, "Mine is much bigger." (Now, aside from all the potential nudge, nudge, wink, wink implications of such a statement, it's true.) The medal I was holding was about the size of a U.S. half-dollar. Olympic medals have grown significantly over time, from the very small size of the early era, to these oversize medals of today.
Those of you who might want to run a marathon in Europe may want to consider the Ferrari Marathon. One of the related things you can do tied to it is to visit the Ferrari Museum, which is located in the start city of Maranello. The finish is in Carpi, where marathon legend Dorando Pietri spent his running life. See more about the Ferrari Marathon here.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Olympiad

Last night, as the Olympic Games began, I was at my running club's annual banquet. I did not see the torch getting lit (and what I now understand was its malfunction). The Georgian luger who was killed came up briefly in conversation.
After I walked in with my camera, I got tagged with the official photographer designation. One of my personal highlights is the annual hall of fame induction. Because my club is now 75 years old (unless it's 76 or 77, there's some debate), it was also a special year. Likely the biggest name inducted was high jumper Milton Goode, a 1984 Olympian, and the other big name was Curt Clausen, a racewalker who competed in 3 Olympics (1996, 2000, and 2004) and captured a bronze at the world's in the 50km in 1999. Another inductee was a man who'd run the first New York City Marathon (and is still out there banging it out 40 years later!).
I shot a couple of hundred photos, and will post them on the club's blog.

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Awaitng The Snow

The weatherman is saying that we are going to see over a foot of snow tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about this. I still haven't found my x-c ski boots, so don't think I can go out tomorrow. I'm sure my son will be glad to get a day off, and based on the predicted conditions, I think his snow day is pretty much a sure thing.

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