Not since 1982 has an American won the New York City marathon. This all changed on Sunday morning when Meb Keflezighi crossed the line in a first place finish of 2 hours 9 minutes and 15 seconds. Donning his white United States team singlet, Keflezighi ran an inspired final 10,000 meters to break away from the field on the difficult Central Park section of the course. While some may debate the "American-ness" of Keflezighi, as he immigrated to this country as a twelve year old from Eritrea, I see no cause for this argument. Meb began his running career in the States, running track and field for his local high school (San Diego High School) and then going onto compete for the UCLA Bruins. This makes him a product of our American running system, and what a product he has become. Keflezighi is runner with heart and honor. As a fellow marathon runner, I couldn't be more proud to have him represent our sport and country.
Here is a funny take from David Letterman about the thoughts of Keflezighi during his victorious voyage through NYC.

On April 20th I ran arguably the world's most historic road race, the Boston Marathon. It was a wonderfully chilly day in Boston. The crowds lined the route and were electric for the duration of the run. It was a wonderful day for American distance running. Two runners, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher, both reached the award stand with a pair of third place finishes. These are collectively the best male and female American finishes at Boston since 1985. With distance running hardly in the limelight, most people cannot comprehend the type of effort these elite athletes put into their training. This video, created by FloTrack.org, can hopefully highlight the hard work done to accomplish these amazing feats. The video chronicles Goucher doing a 20-mile workout approximately three weeks before Boston.

A chill is still in the air here in Wisconsin (actually it was 10 degrees, today), but we know that Spring is on its way because Major League Baseball’s opening night is only 24 days 22 hours and 32 minutes away (at least as I write this blog). For this reason, I felt it appropriate to mention my favorite baseball statistics website, Baseball-Reference.com. I’ve always found this site to be much more useful than anything actually produced by Major League Baseball. Finding statistics from a mere two years ago is almost impossible at MLB.com, but Baseball-Reference is there to help, providing statistics from the 1851 season onward. In addition to just raw data, everyday a new “Stat of the Day” is provided. Recently, one of these stats was that Alex Rodriguez, currently of steroid fame, has the single season record for the most homeruns by a shortstop. Apparently steroids do have an effect on the record books? Who would have guessed! Regardless of that, find your own fun facts with this great resource for baseball fans.