The Nike Human Race is Back for 2009

It turns out Nike is returning for a second edition of its worldwide Nike Human Race 10K this year, and the date is October 24th. With August nearing an end and no word of the event, I'd been assuming Nike wasn't holding the event, which was a combination of a series of formal races around the world and many more run-your-own-10K individual events.

Here is an excerpt from a Nike press release (from TriathlonTraining.net):

"Nike-hosted Human Race events will be held in more than 24 cities from New York City to Los Angeles, Buenos Aires to Rome. Through Nikeplus.com, however, every city and every road can become a race day course. By combining the virtual running world with the physical, the Nike+ Human Race is open to anyone, anywhere. Race registration opens August 18 on Nikeplus.com. By registering, runners will be able to participate in one of several Nike-hosted events or choose to run where they are on race day."

This year's Human Race seems to be scaled down significantly from last year's. And of the 24 cities, only three are in the United States: New York City; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles.

The 2009 New York Nike Human Race takes place in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, starting at 8 a.m. This has got to be an improvement over last year's chaotic race on Randall's Island, which featured running across sites that were under construction and, at one point, coming to a complete halt as runners hit a bottleneck waiting to run over a narrow bridge.

Maybe Nike realized it bit off more than it could chew last year and decided to pare down this year's events for logistical as well as economic issues.

2009 NYC Half-Marathon - Results, Runner Tracking, TV Highlights

Today was the 2009 NYC Half-Marathon, and Tadese Tola of Ethiopia and Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain took the race in the men's and women's divisions, respectively.

In case you weren't able to watch the race live at the New York Road Runners' Web site, ABC TV in New York (channel 7) will broadcast a one-hour show of highlights from the 2009 NYC Half-Marathon at 11:35 p.m. on Sunday night.

You can use the runner tracking feature to see how a particular runner did, searching by name, bib number, city, country, etc.

Beach to Beacon 2009 Results

The 2009 Beach to Beacon 10K Run took place today, August 1st, from Cape Elizabeth to the Portland Head Light on the coast of Maine. Here you can find the Beach to Beacon 2009 race results - www.beach2beacon.org/results09.htm

You can also find results of the Beach to Beacon races from previous years. The race was begun by former Olympic Marathon champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, a native of Maine.