Mark your calendars:

We're still two weeks away, but here are the start times for the Olympic marathons.  However, I believe these start times are a.m., not p.m.

Men's:  Saturday, August 10th, 1:00 CDT
Women's: Sunday, August 11th, 1:00 CDT

There's no word yet as to how much TV coverage the races will get, nor do we know if they'll be available on free TV or NBC's Peacock streaming service. They may also broadcast the races on a time-delay basis.

Eliud Kipchoge's fifth appearance at the Olympics, and his 2016 and 2020 gold medal victories, will certainly bring a lot of attention to the men's race.

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Quickie: The Christmas in July 5K photos have been posted here.

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MISSOURI AMERICAN WATER MR340 (posted July 23rd)

The MR340 race across Missouri on the Missouri River started Tuesday morning in Kansas City.

Links to race updates, tracking, social media and other resources can be found here.

Wednesday evening update:  Thirty-eight hours after the race started, a two-man team and a solo female racer are closing in on the finish line in St. Charles.  To give you an idea how impressive that is, many, many racers have yet to reach Jefferson City, over 200 miles from the finish line.  The race officially ends Friday evening. 

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Badwater 135 Ultramarathon results: This year's overall men's winner finished in 23:29:00.  That was four hours ahead of the second-place, and top female, finisher.  It was also two hours behind the course record.

Pete Kostelnick, a past Badwater winner who once held the previous course record of 21:56:32, finished 19th overall, in 35:28:55.  It was 2016 when Pete set a course record.  These past eight years haven't been kind to him.  (Bear in mind he's only 36 years old--an age where he should still be competitive.) 

At age 48, Harvey Lewis, another former Badwater winner, may be past his peak, too.  He finished in 36:41:22, placing 27th overall. (He finished in 27:06:49--good for fifth place--last year, and 25:50:23 in 2021, when he was the overall race winner.)

Links:           Website          Facebook page

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WEEKEND EVENTS FOR JULY 27 - 28

Local racing is on hiatus until October.

Here's what is happening around the state this weekend:

Columbia:

Show-Me State Games Cross Country 2K/5K, Saturday
Show-Me State Games 5K/10K Road Race, Sunday

Springfield:

Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners' Sweatfest Dirt 66 Trail Run 5K/10K & picnic, free, Saturday

Republic:

Republic Tiger Triathlon, Saturday

Kansas City and vicinity:

Rock Island Trail Half Marathon & 5K, Saturday
Midnight Run 5K/10K for Special Olympics, Saturday night

St. Louis and vicinity:

Kimmswick 5K, Saturday

Springfield, Illinois:

Lake Springfield Triathlon (Half iron, Olympic and sprint distance options), Saturday

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY 5K RUN/WALK (posted July 21st)

Race results:   By finish order    By division

The race photos are posted here.

A race report is coming.

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Weekend races, July 20 - 21:

The Get Your Butt Kicked @ Route 66 6-hour race in Eureka (west of St. Louis) Saturday evening was ruled by the geezers. Of the top 10 finishers, six were age 55 or older. Our friend from Columbia, Andy Emerson, was the youngest of those six, and finished second overall (of 88 competitors), completing 39.0 miles. The 58-year winner went 1.4 miles farther than Andy.

Not surprisingly, results haven't yet been posted for any of the events of interest at the weekend's Show-Me State Games. SMSG will get around to it eventually.

The Tour de France was a virtual blow-out this year.  The (now) three-time winner, Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia, had a 6-minute, 17-second margin of victory at this year's race.  That may not sound like a lot for a 21-stage race, but for the TdF, it's big.  Pogacar won five of those stages.   A big raspberry goes to NBC for moving almost all of its TdF coverage to its Peacock paid streaming service.

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Vol State 500K (Sunday morning final update): 

This year's Vol State 500K is in the bag. 

Of the 121 starters, 81 (67%) reached the finish line.

Eight of the finishers cross the line within the last 12 hours of the race.  The final finisher cut it close, finishing with just 2-1/2 hours to spare.  The oldest finisher was 75 years old.

Links:   Race tracker   Facebook page    Website

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Weekend races, July 13 - 14:

Mid July is not the best time of year to hold a half marathon in MIssouri, yet there were three held this post weekend. Not surprisingly, participation was rather sparse at all of them. The Donot Stop Half Marathon in St. Joseph was the largest of the three, with 25 finishers, while the half marathons at Branson's Great Bacon Race and the Miner Tough Weekend each had 17.

July, on the other hand, is a great time of year to entice runners with a pair of free sunglasses. The Sunglasses Run 5K in Kansas City had 397 finishers on Saturday, making it the biggest running race of the weekend. Big Shark's New Town Triathlon in St. Charles had about the same number of participants.

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