Great North Run

As part of the growth of the Beirut Marathon Association we are attending the Great North Run in Newcastle England, as guests of the organizers, Nova International.

The Great North Run is billed as one of the biggest races in the world with 50,000 particpants in a half marathon. The race will be particularly exciting as Paula Radcliffe will be making her debut back to racing at this event.

I'll keep you posted - the event takes place on September 30th...

Olympics 2008

Beirut Marathon Association is proud to be able to join in sending Edward Maalouf to the Summer Olympics next year in Beijing...

he is currently in training and has won many races and medals this year, including the silver medal at the world championships...

He is a handcycle racer and is Lebanese... we hope to see him race to Glory and the Gold Medal...

If you would like to join in co-sponsoring him, any amount from a $1 is great...just let us know and we will tell you how to get in touch...

Are you running?

We are...

everyday somewhere in Beirut there is a run... as we get nearer to the marathon lots more people are working towards their final preparations... you have about 12 weeks left to go - which is enough to start training for the marathon in November...

so... give us a call - or send an email... and we'll get you going...

cheers

Run with us in the TV Commercial Shooting

hi there everyone - if you wanna be in the TV commercial for the BLOM Beirut Marathon 07 (exclusive sponsor BLOM Bank and in association with Nike), then please come to the parking lot in Saifi Village, downtown Bierut on Sunday 19th August 07 at 10:00.

cheers
Mark

profile of Beirut 07

The course this year is for runners!!! The entire track has been run, many times, to ensure that it is the best that it can be. We have eliminated as many hills as possible, though with the geography of Beirut it is virtually impossible to avoid them all. The hills, as you can see from the profile, are mainly concentrated in two areas, at around the 32k and 34k mark. We will be providing music and entertainment on the hill to push runners up it... but based upon any track from the previous years, this one is a winner. We hope to see the marathon course record for Beirut broken this year for sure!

Heels On Fire in Lebanon

Welcome Pete to Lebanon... (www.heelsonfire.org) great website and well done for doing so much good for others.

We have plenty of runners out and about at different times... so please give us a call at the office on 05-959262 and ask for Mark, Wissam or Omar and we will be pleased to hook you up... we are preparing for the Amsterdam Marathon right now and so everyone has long runs two or three times a week.

Welcome to Beirut and if you have the time to pass by our offices to give us a personal interview, then we will print it in Running Middle East!

Cheers
mark

Running Middle East point of sales

hi there... Running Middle East is available in the book stores around Lebanon... if you email to md@beirutmarathon.org with your address we will send you a free copy of the next issue and put you on our mailing list - so if you dont find it in the market, just let us know and we'll get it to you...

cheers
Mark

Running Middle East

hey all you people.. Running Middle East is out again and it is awesome... Vivicitta race is well covered and the cover is a special edition with a fold out cover....


DO YOU WANT A FREE COPY OF THE MAGAZINE SENT TO YOU?????????????

JUST EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS AND WE'LL SEND YOU ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The next issue is coming up in the first week of August, if you have any marathon news or stories that you would like to share, then please let us know... you can email them, or even just call us on the phone and tell us what you think... we are ready...

thanks for your support and hope that you are running frequently...
cheers

keep on running

Well several things to say... First, if you plan to run the BLOM Beirut Marathon... now is the time to start your training... running in the early morning is fun and refreshing... and there are Beirut Marathon Association runners out and about every day somewhere in the city doing their running thing...

Most of us are training for the Amsterdam Marathon which is one month before the BLOM Beirut Marathon coz on Marathon day we have to work :-( too bad!! but we are working to give you a great day :-) yeah!!!

Personally very happy about my training by the way... I managed a new pb of 4k at 22mins flat and 46 mins for 8k.

I got tons of experience by running the London marathon and now I am even more fired up to get going... have a great training plan for anybody that is interested... just reply and I'll send it on!

cheers

hello annonymous blogger... thanks for the questions...

So, coming to the ranking, the position that I previously told you, refers to the ranking updated to March 25, 2007: of course things are have changed now after the big marathons results, which you can see from AIMS (link below). if you calculate them back I believe you will find the rankings at that time.

Regarding the ETHIOPIAN FEDERATION current year ranking, Shitaye is in position. 4 and Asnake in position n. 2 and they will partecipate to OSAKA IAAF WORLD CHAMP. in August.!!

Here is the ranking:

1 MELESE GASHAW 2h09,53 1 GETE WAMI 2h21,45

2 ASNAKE FEKADU 2h10, 27 2 MAGARSA TAFA 2h25,07

3 TESFAYE TOLA 2H10,45 3 DIRE TUNE 2h26,52

4 AMBESSE TOLOSA 2H11,15 4 SHITAYE GEMECHU 2h28,03

You can find also the world current year statitistics in the AIMS web site at this address:

http://www.aims-association.org/statistics/CurrentYearStatistics.htm

Gemechu is Ethiopian! As is Aznake... please see below...
WOMEN
2:23:12 Wei Yanan CHN 1 Seoul 18 MAR
2:23:48 Yumiko Hara JPN 1 Osaka 28 JAN
2:24:39 Mari Ozaki JPN 2 Osaka 28 JAN
2:24:43 Yuri Kano JPN 3 Osaka 28 JAN
2:25:08 Souad Ait Salem ALG 1 Roma 18 MAR
2:26:08 Xiaolin Zhu CHN 1 Xiamen 31 MAR
2:26:46 Hellen Kimutai KEN 2 Roma 18 MAR
2:26:52 Dire Tune Arissi ETH 1 Houston 14 JAN
2:27:19 Tafa 1 Dubai 12 JAN
2:27:25 Rose Cheruiyot KEN 2 Seoul 18 MAR
2:28:03 Shitaye Gemechu ETH 1 Treviso 25 MAR

MEN
TIME ATHLETE NATION RANK VENUE DATE
2:08:04 Lee Bong-ju KOR 1 Seoul 18 MAR
2:08:20 Viktor Roethlin SUI 1 Zuerich 01 APR
2:08:29 Paul Kiptanui KOR 2 Seoul 18 MAR
2:08:38 Laban Kipkemboi KOR 3 Seoul 18 MAR
2:08:45 Edwin Komen KOR 4 Seoul 18 MAR
2:09:36 Elias Kemboi ChelimoKEN 1 Roma 18 MAR
2:09:45 Daniel Njenga KEN 1 Tokyo 18 FEB
2:09:53 William Todoo RotichKEN 1 Dubai 12 JAN
2:10:12 Jose Manuel MartinezESP 2 Roma 18 MAR
2:10:23 Atsushi Fujita JPN 1 Oita 04 FEB
2:10:25 Jonathan Kosgei KEN 3 Roma 18 MAR
2:10:27 Philip Biwott KEN 3 Treviso 25 MAR
2:10:27 Fekadu Asnake Roro ETH 4 Treviso 25 MAR

Regarding the press, it is the press who writes what they write and of course we are unable to control the press... We always try to ensure that the data that we give them is accurate. Sometimes in the heat of the event the numbers can be quoted by anyone, but our official statement is that there were around 10,000 people participating in the event.

Hope this makes all clear... though I must inform you that we take the rankings at face value and I see that they are now two or three positions different from what we quoted... however, sometimes the results come late and the rankings change. The positions we quoted were in good faith, and I am sure that you will agree with me that a world ranking of 9 or 11 is fantastic and that runners coming to Zahle were truly of a world class standing.

thanks as always for your interest in our site... please identify yourself if you dont mind...
Mark