All I want to do today is take care of a few loose ends and respond to some recent reader comments. Think of it as a trip to the mental hazardous waste drop-off day.

The NYC Marathon and WMM Title

Thanks to Kevin, Ben, and Ankit for the comments on my post about the New York City Marathon. Obviously, I should have spent more time reading up on the race. Then I would have known that, as Ben pointed out, Wilson Kipsang can overtake Dennis Kimetto for the World Marathon Majors title. Had I read the men’s preview more carefully, as Ankit did, I would also have known that one of the runners with the best chance to beat Kipsang (and ensure Kimetto’s WMM victory and the $500,000 that comes with it) is Kimetto’s training partner Geoffrey Mutai.

If that reminds you of something, let me flash back to the Fall of 2012, when Kimetto and Mutai raced together at the Berlin Marathon. Mutai won in 2:04:15, with Kimetto a second back in 2:04:16. Many felt that Kimetto had eased up to allow Mutai to win, ensuring Mutai the WMM title. Is New York 2014 a chance for Mutai to repay the alleged favor?

And that’s just one of the great stories that will unfold in New York. I’m going to follow Kevin’s plan of running in the morning and then watching as much as I can when I get back.

Jerry Mizner’s Fate

Last week I wrote about the mysterious malady of Jerry Mizner, the disappeared training partner of Quenton Cassidy from John L. Parker’s Once a Runner. My post was intended to recall those who, for whatever reason, experience debilitating setbacks in their running and somehow manage to crawl their way back to health. Loyal reader and stickler for accuracy Josh Seeherman wrote to remind me that Parker tells us what happened to Mizner in Again to Carthage, the sequel to Once a Runner.

It’s not a happy ending. Mizner, we are told, chooses to go to Vietnam as a medic. While on a mission, his plane (or chopper, I don’t remember which), goes down. Although he survives the crash, he is killed by a Viet Cong soldier. The rest of the book feels like an extended mourning.

Sub-Two Hour Marathons

It’s taken a lot of restraint to resist jumping on every new article that speculates on when a human being will break two hours for the marathon. there have been some great articles, and some not-so-great articles.

One of the better ones was the extended info-graphic created by Alex Hutchinson for Runner’s World. Alex Hutchinson is beginning to earn my respect.

http://rw.runnersworld.com/sub-2/

Dumb Statistics

It could be a full-time job writing about mis-begotten statistical claims.

I originally thought I’d write a complete post on a recent knuckle-headed study by RunKeeper purporting to compare runners in cities across the U.S. However, some things are so mind-numbingly facile that it takes a lot of time and effort to mock them adequately. Maybe when cross country is over I’ll return to this one, but in the mean time, you can read about it yourself and make a list of all the things wrong with this “research.”

http://bdcwire.com/speed-demons-massachusetts-has-the-fastest-runners-in-america-according-to-running-app-data

As always, thanks for reading and commenting on the blog.