The "Kick-Off" Event!

(or the "warm-up" act for next week!)
I think this is one of the most well thought out, balanced and nuanced articles I have read on running.
I also think Joe Hermans must be a heck of a diplomat managing KB and Smiley Haile

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/sports/paris-marathon-kicks-off-a-month-of-foot-races.html?_r=1

Time to come home?

For me the balancing act has always been between "New World" opportunity and "Old World" culture

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/its-not-all-bad-britain-fares-well-in-international-quality-of-life-index-9234133.html

I took the test! (2)

And then I took a "mental age" test - it probably confirms what most of you thought!!

http://en.piixemto.com/tests/mental-age/?data=MjU1

I took the test! (1)

I have to stop looking at Facebook - it causes me to do silly things!

I scored 39% in the @channel4 psychopathic traits test. 
How psychopathic are you? 
Take the test http://www.channel4.com/psychopath #psychopathnight

The Beginning?

April Fools! (2)

This "spoof" quoted from the 'LetsRun' April 1, 2004 homepage...
'Jacobs lawyer, Craig Greer, was unapologetic about filing the lawsuit. "The lawsuit is 100% legitimate. Regina's life has been ruined plain and simple by her positive drug test and Suzy forced her to take the drugs. It's a rather straightforward and simple case to understand," said Greer'
... reminds me of "Moaning Meadows" claim that the drug taking Russians had caused her achilles injury because they had "forced" her to (run more mileage) train harder.

What a wonderful contrast those earlier April Fools pages are (stupid Americans threatened law suits because they had been fooled) to the present ones - they all but give the game away in today's one by giving a link to the "real" homepage.
On the plus side there is also a link to previous "Aprils Fool" homepages 2001-2013

Aprils Fools! (1)

Given the gullibility and stupidity one sees on the 'LetsRun' message boards I can see a lot of (US) folk falling for this!

                                           USATF Has Listened!!

“Quite honestly, the fans were right. They were complaining about potential conflicts of interest. Now those are 100% gone and we have 100% transparency. People won’t question if we are unfairly favoring one party if we are an actual subdivision of Nike. Now there is nothing unfair about it. You get what you pay for.” 

- USATF CEO Max Siegel reacting to the uproar that resulted after the Gabriele Grunewald/Jordan Hasay controversyin an April 1, 2014 USATF press release announcing that to avoid any and all conflicts of interests USATF will officially become a subsidiary of Nike later this year.