The Starting Five

New York Marathon Winner Tests Positive For Performance-Enhancing Horse

Get the full story here.

A friend just emailed me these Qs & As:

      Q. What do you call 47 millionaires sitting around a TV watching the
      Super Bowl?
      A. The Washington Redskins.

      Q. What do the Redskins and Billy Graham have in common?
      A. They both can make 70,000 people stand up and yell “Jesus Christ.”

      Q. How do you keep the Redskins out of your yard?
      A. Put up a goal post.

      Q. Where do you go in D.C. in case of a tornado?
      A. To FedEx Field – they never have a touchdown there!

      Q. What do you call a Redskin with a Super Bowl ring?
      A. Senior Citizen

      Q. What’s the difference between the Redskins and a dollar bill?
      A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

      Q. How many Redskins does it take to win a Super Bowl?
      A. We may never find out in the 21st century.

      Q. What do the Redskins and opossums have in common?
      A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.

If you think the annual JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon in Washington County sounds tough, you should see what it looks like (here).

Even a non-hockey fan like me can appreciate this. Wow!

I don’t get out to many high school football games these days.
I spend most football Fridays in the office, holding down the fort and putting the sports section together with colleague Dan Kauffman.
The last high school football game I went to was on Sept. 1, 2006, when I witnessed Cumberland Valley’s 45-0 beatdown of my alma mater, Chambersburg, in David Carruthers’ debut as Trojans coach.
Carruthers — a coaching legend in Maryland — must have wondered what he was getting himself into with Chambersburg in the tough-as-nails Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division.

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What is it with these Mercersburg Academy runners?

First, James Finucane runs with Alan Webb in Sweden (story here). Then Neb Osman goes and hangs out with the greatest distance runner of all time, Kenenisa Bekele, in Ethiopia. Learn more about Neb’s adventures here.

We need to quit napping around here and start writing more blog posts.

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Now this is a race I’d love to see. At 600 meters, I’d probably put my money on Bolt. At 700, probably Bekele. Here’s the AP story:

BRUSSELS (AP) — Who is track’s greatest runner? Long-distance star Kenenisa Bekele wonders what it would be like to race sprinting great Usain Bolt.
“If Usain agrees, if someone wants to organize this, I am ready,” Bekele said Thursday, a day before the Memorial Van Damme Golden League meet.
Bolt, of Jamaica, is the reigning world and Olympic champion and world record-holder over 100 and 200 meters. Bekele, of Ethiopia, is the reigning world and Olympic champion and world record-holder over 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
The idea would be to find a middle ground — between 600 and 800 meters.

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The recent RivalsHigh 100 national high school football rankings include four teams from Pennsylvania and three from Maryland.

Two of the Pennsylvania teams are from the Mid-Penn Conference — No. 43 State College and No. 99 Bishop McDevitt. One of the Maryland teams is from the MVAL — No. 93 Linganore.

West Virginia got no love.

Check out the complete list here.

The first 5K Race for the Nation last August would have been an excellent race even had Billy Mills not been the master of ceremonies.
But Mills’ presence made it a main event.
Mills — who famously won the 10,000-meter run at the 1964 Olympics — will be back this Saturday morning, Aug. 15, for the second edition of the race.
On Friday, Aug. 14, he also for the second year in a row will be speaking at Chambersburg Area Middle School from 6-7 p.m. His talk is open to the public and free of charge.
If you can’t attend both events, try to make it to one. American sports legends don’t pass through our area every week.
I haven’t spoken to Mills this year about his trip. But we chatted quite a bit last year.
The story I wrote last year about him coming to Chambersburg is here. My blog post about our phone conversation is here. And here is what I wrote after about his inspirational speech the night before the race.
The race Web site is here.
Below is a photo of Mills and my young son Walker after last year’s race.

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