Newsflash: Marathons can be dangerous

We're into the fall marathon season, and on Sunday that meant another victory for Kenya -- in this case, Daniel Rono in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Unfortunately, it also has come to mean time for another one of these sad stories -- a 41-year-old runner collapsed and died less than one kilometre from the finish of the half-marathon.

I don't know of any organization or website that collates marathon fatality statistics (if there is one, let me know and I'll post it at the bottom as an update). But there is no doubt they have become much more common in this age of larger fields, where more has brought in a whole new range of issues, not all of them particularly positive: Taking shortcuts in the name of getting a medal; Race bibs for sale (NYT subscription required) to the more high-profile, high-demand races; Experienced grumps upset that all these people have spoiled their cosy party. Walk into any running store, and among the GPS units and the hydration kits on offer, chances are there are marathon clinics that promise to get you to the finish line.

As Randy Starkman noted in the story linked earlier, the death of Martin Poyser marks the third year in a row someone has died in running at one of Toronto's two fall marathons (the second, the Toronto Marathon, goes two weeks from Sunday). And while this particular case may be just an example of the explanation thrown out by organizers -- the bigger numbers mean it's just the percentages catching up, running is actually quite safe, there's nothing we can do, etc. -- here's a case where someone actually suggests there are other factors involved:

Peter Donato of Toronto, a veteran race promoter who runs marathon clinics, said there are a lot of runners who overstep what should be their limits and those are the ones who usually get into trouble.
"Some just try to do too much too soon," he said. "If you look at where a lot of trouble happens, it's A-types who work 50 hours, don't eat too well and are egged on by their ego.
"I do a lot of talks and get a lot of questions and I just end up shaking my head thinking, 'You don't know what you're doing.' They don't take the proper approach. I don't think that's the sport's fault."

I have no idea what happened here (in the Sun's reports this morning, there's the suggestion that the runner had completed the full marathon last year.) But I do know this: Getting ready for a marathon requires a lot of time and commitment, including building a proper base before you get into an actual training programme. If you're contemplating running a race -- of any distance where you're going to be pushing yourself beyond your own limits -- consider a local running club instead of one of those shoe-store clinics, where you'll be surrounded by experienced runners more than willing to help you (and as a bonus, there's no suggestion you buy some shoes while you're there).

But most important of all: see your doctor first to find out if there are any pre-conditions that might increase the risk you're taking. Get a complete checkup.

Related: Waterfront Marathon Crowns Joggling Champ.

Update (9-27): Martin Poyser, 41: Hair stylist travelled world.

Into the weekend: Materazzi is back

Recovering from the birthday hooley at JABS Mansion, I'm afraid the blog has been a bit spotty the last couple days (picking cheesies out of the carpet and scraping Orange Crush off the walls is a little time consuming).
So we're going straight into the weekend here, after watching all of about 30 seconds of this morning's Ryder Cup coverage on TSN -- "The Ryder Cup is underway!" said the excited announcer. Tiger put his tee shot into the water. Colin Montgomerie strode up next, looking more and more like good old Keith Appleyard, the crowd went nuts ...

BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

The glamour, the excitement, the shoes: It's the Ryder Cup.

And off that bit of excitement, that's enough golf, thank you. On to some links and the usual other stuff before the fumigators arrive:

One last look. Marco Materazzi, and his suddenly bulletproof, buttproof chest, has a new shoe commercial out in Italy.

One last read. The Guardian's Richard Williams has seen the Zidane movie that JABS has been all over, and likes it just as much. It opens in the UK next week:

Any conventional film about Zidane would include the astonishing 20-yard volley that won Real the European Cup final on its return to Hampden in 2003, plus the two he scored with his head in the 1998 World Cup final. It would examine, through the use of super-slo-mo, the technical tricks that were particular to him, such as the roulette, in which he deceived a defender by turning his body through 360 degrees, dragging the ball forward with the sole of his boot while in mid-pirouette, facing the way he had come. It would analyse the gift of balance that enabled this heavy-set man to move with such lightness and grace. It would investigate his childhood among north African immigrants in a poor quarter of Marseille; it would catalogue the transfers that took him from Cannes to Bordeaux as a teenager, then to Juventus of Turin and finally to Madrid.
This new film does none of these things.

That's undoubtedly why the guy in the Zidane shirt was among the few walkouts during last Friday's screening at the Varsity (oh, and one more link regarding a release of the film here in NA from one of the co-directors: "This film could certainly play on pay-per-view TV. But we're hoping for theatrical." Let's hope.)

One more film note. Katie Holmes to play Posh in a new Becks biopic? (Thanks to The Offside.)

Weekend assignment. Another tough question tackling the prickliest issues of the day, but that's what we do. Picking up where J.E. Skeets at The Basketball Jones left off, is Pryzbilla the highest Scrabble-scoring name in pro sports today?
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed reader John Richardson sends in this handy dandy score generator and an early entry that rolls into the lead: Wozniewski.

Sports around town. The OHL season is back on, and Brampton and St. Mike's play their home openers tonight. And on Sunday morning all over the place, it's the Scotiaback Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Watching. Toronto at Calgary, Saturday, 7 p.m., CBC. Forget Ricky Williams. I wanna see Pinball in Coppley and Malcolm in Canali (good catch, Boatmen Blog).

Punters' corner. Ready or not, here's your recreational-purposes-only picks. After a second straight 2-3 week, it's time for a shakeup. I've brought in my dawg Jinks to make the choices, either kibble (visitors) or cookies (home):

BUFFALO (-5 1/2) over Jets. The dawg is nuts.
Cincinnati (+1 1/2) over PITTSBURGH. The dawg is hungry!
Jacksonville (+7) over INDY. The dawg is calming down, a little.
Chicago (-3) over MINNESOTA. Jinks barked on this one. Best bet, that.
N.Y. Giants (+3 1/2) over SEATTLE. This is pushing it. I'd never make this pick. Two in a row on the road? Plaxico would have something to say about that.

 

Nash and Straw go back to school

A couple of links hanging over from yesterday's e-mail box around the theme of Back to School:

First, there was Steve Nash's return to his Santa Clara alma mater over the weekend for a ceremony retiring his No. 11 with the Broncos -- and his, er, speech, which True Hoop's Henry Abbott has a problem with:

When PR professionals are making their pitch to Nash, vying to represent him, they will show him the video of that performance and explain how they could have helped him make it so much better without hampering his personality or honesty in any way. I'm no fan of slick, packaged, BS, PR-centric presentations, but I'm prepared to believe Steve might benefit from seeking out some kind of happy medium.

On one level, it's just Nash being the usual retiring, it's-not-about-me Canadian -- "but enough about me, let's talk about me -- I guess." But Henry makes a solid point. A few thought-out remarks would've been better than this lame effort.

And oh, there's this one, sent along from a reader -- Darryl Strawberry, available for school visits (bidding at $260 this morning). With his rap sheet, there would certainly be lots to talk about in the way of "valubable life lessons."

Whatever happened to the pennant race?

JABS is one year old today. As Brent Musburger would say, "you are looking live at post No. 475". Which means, well, nothing. Just look how much has changed:

Eric Miller/Reuters

Brow-mopping times for the Tigers.

The Jays are still out of the playoff race.

The Leafs are still Stanley Cup longshots.

Joe Theismann is still in the broadcast booth.

So it's oh-for-three right there. But this much is different: Whatever happened to the pennant races? Go back a year on this date in the American League, and it was a virtual nightly swap shop. My PVR was shiny-new, and I was getting up at 5:30 a.m. to skip through the previous late-night takings. Here's how the divisions looked in 2005, with a parenthetical nod to where they are this morning:

AL East on JABS inauguration day: Boston were up on the Yankees by a half-game (this morning: Yankees up by 11, can clinch division tonight here in Toronto).

AL Central '05: Chicago were up by 2 1/2 over folding-chair Cleveland (this morning: Folding-chair Detroit up by a half-game on Minnesota, Ozzie Guillen 5 back).

AL West '05: Angels were up by 1 1/2 on Oakland (this morning: Oakland by 6 on Angels).

AL wild-card '05: Cleveland up by 1 1/2 on New York (this morning: Minnesota by 4 1/2 over Chicago).

On Monday night (of this year), we had the game of the year. But it was in the NL's only race of note, three time zones away. Last year, we had the game of the year every night.

These things happen in cycles and it's unwise to draw any conclusions other than it's been a humdrum September in the AL. Except for those Tigers, of course, there has been little going on to stir the pulse. And it's hard to get too enthused about watching a collapse, especially when it's the Tigers.

COLIN MCCONNELL/TORONTO STAR

Tiger Stadium, Oct. 4, 1987.

They still register here, though not as much as once was the case. One of the casualties of the move to a three-division format has been the Tigers-Jays rivalry. Southwestern Ontario remains very much Tigers territory, and replacing Detroit with Tampa Bay in the Jays' divisional schedule rotation was like Bill Murray out and Jackie Mason in.

A little story, at least the Coles Notes version, on anniversary day: in 1987, with the Jays and Tigers closing in on what promised to be an epic season-ending series at Tiger Stadium, I was working in Bermuda and set up the use of a friend's "love nest", equipped with a satellite dish, so I could shut myself off for the weekend -- and the front end, a four-game series at Exhibition Stadium the weekend before -- in isolation, total concentration and Cheesies. But on the Friday morning as it was all getting underway, the first hurricane to hit the island in 24 years showed up, rain pouring into my bedroom and the shutters banging away at 6 in the morning. The first thing I did that afternoon after it passed, trees down and houses busted up all over, was phone my friend with the hideaway house, then phone every pub I could think of that had a dish to make sure the game would be on that night. Hey, I had priorities.

All the satellite dishes were gone, blown away, and stayed down. I ended up listening on the porch to the whole story -- noodle around at Retrosheet for the grisly evidence -- on Armed Forces Radio, Frank Tanana fading in and out, then the '87 Jays doing the last fadeout of all. The most heart-breaking finish to a heart-pounding pennant race to ever hit these parts, and I never saw any of it -- maybe saddest of all, we'll never see its like again.

Related: The '87 Tigers had former Jay turned Jay killer Doyle Alexander on the mound, courtesy of what's become known as the worst trade in Detroit history.   

Domi retires

This comes as no surprise if you spent any time watching the Leafs last season, but Tie Domi will make it official this afternoon and retire from the NHL.

I can't remember a Toronto player who divided the fan community (or the dressing room, according to the rumblings) more than Domi. Minimally talented, a knack for self-promotion, a little guy who took on everyone and never backed down, businessman and philanthropist, a cheap shot artist, a political operator, Don Cherry's binkie, an actor -- and one of the longest-lasting hockey enforcers around, a species now on the endangered list, if not graduated on to at risk of extinction.

A few Youtube and other links to refresh your memory:

A young Domi takes on Bob Probert in 1992.

Domi in Philly, 2001.

Goonblog pulls one out from the time capsule, a 1993 ranking of the best fighters in the game.

Another season begins

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

They're back and scrappin'.

The place: Paupers, Bloor east of Bathurst, early evening, Monday night.

The story: While A.J. Burnett is cruising through the lower end of his first run-through the Yankees order on the TV over the bar, a fellow walks up and addresses the bartender. "Can you put the Leafs game on?"

The time: 7:48 p.m.

Postscript: The satellite dish at Paupers wasn't working so, no, there was no Leafs "action." But I've got 7:48 p.m. in the pool for first "Can you put the Leafs game on?" question of the season.

Beat that, kids.

Zidane: Some thoughts

Friday's showing of Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siècle (A 21st Century Portrait) surpassed my lofty expectations, and was the perfect example of why an annual like the Toronto International Film Festival keeps people coming back. You're never quite sure what you're going to get, good or bad, and this, happily, was one of the good ones.

This is a film that will likely not achieve wide release (so far, nothing in that regard) and I wonder how effective it would be on television's smaller screen -- not nearly as arresting, I reckon, as it proved on the Varsity's wide screen. While not trying to explain Zidane like a traditional documentary would -- there's not a world of dialogue, and about the only thing the great French star says is "hey" or "here" as he prowls the green -- it instead focuses on his every move during an April 2005 Real Madrid match at the Bernabeu. In the end, it's the portrait of the footballer at work, far more impressionist exercise than sports doc. At its best, it's utterly mesmerizing.

Robert Di Zio, a teacher and coach at Senator O'Connor, picked up one of the tickets on offer at JABS last week, and checks in with his "film-inspired observations" here:

In soccer, as in life …

We find the truly fascinated, fascinating.
We spend most of our time without the ball.
Be ready. Know it might be your moment; don’t be surprised when it isn’t.
Walk. Speed and power are effective only because they’re contrasts.
Never touch the ball twice when once will do. Don’t touch it once if none will do.
Give up the ball, trust. Don’t stop trusting when you don’t get it back.
Smile … but only when you mean it.
When you could swear ‘it’s about you’, give your head a shake, it’s not.
Worthwhile time is never remembered linearly.
Keep intermissions short, bad things happen when you’re not playing.
Spitting is forgivable only when you’re playing hard.
Play as if the final score is easily forgettable, because it is.

Film’s final caption:

(in soccer there is) “almost magic, then nothing”

untrue

“almost magic” is everything

I couldn't have said it near as well myself. Many thanks, Rob.

Into the weekend: Catching up on Clinton

Time to wrap it up here and head to the movies. Let's head straight into the usual roundup.

One last read. The current issue of the New Yorker includes The Wanderer, a lengthy profile of Bill Clinton that's a fantastic must-read (but not available online). It opens with Clinton in Berlin for the World Cup final, and the former president's initial reaction to the confusion surrounding Zidane's head butt deserves a footnote:

Clinton was instantly forgiving of Zidane and wondered what would become of him. He recalled Gao Hong, the goalie for the Chinese women's team, who, in the 1999 World Cup final, gave up the decisive penalty kick to Brandi Chastain, of the American team. Gao had played brilliantly until that point but, like Zidane, she had to return home and endure the consequences of her defeat.
"I identify with people who get beat up," Clinton said. "I remember that game like it was yesterday."

The footnote? Gao got up quite well. She left China a couple years later, coming to the U.S. to play in the women's pro league, then moving on to Canada. She currently works here in Toronto, at Ontario Place.

One last look. Arsenal and Manchester United get round 1 of their renewal on Sunday morning. In anticipation, let's go back to 2004, an infamous year in the rivalry, and this Happy Birthday Wayne Rooney! bilingual commentary.

Sports around town. Neate Sager advises this may well be the weekend U of T ends its 35-game winless streak in pigskin -- that's almost 2,000 days worth. The Blues host the Waterloo Warriors Saturday at 2 p.m. at Birchmount Stadium, although just the thought of the Blues playing home games at Birchmount puts me off. Up at Woodbine, it's the Woodbine Mile, Sunday afternoon in beautiful downtown Rexdale.

Watching. Of course it's Arsenal-Manchester United, Sunday at 11 a.m. on Fox Sportsworld. For a little background on this particular bun throw (really, it is), go here.

Punters' corner. Recreational purposes only, of course, after a 2-3 opening week:

RAVENS (-12) over Oakland. In week 1, Art Shell took out his QB for safety's sake, not a very good sign.

Browns (+10) over BENGALS. Wave 'em high.

DOLPHINS (-6 1/2) over Bills. I don't get it -- since when is a pulled hammy a season-ending injury? Oh, now I get it.

JETS (+6) over Patriots. Pennington's got his marbles.

JAGUARS (+1 1/2) over Steelers. Monday nighter. Keep choppin' wood, Jags.

An early take on the Raptors

With the annual Leafs goring already underway, thoughts in this tiny corner inevitably turn to ... basketball.

Marc Stein, one of my faves, gives his rundown on NBA off-season activity, and skipping down to the Stein line on for the Raptors, it's almost as if he's reading my mind: "I definitely wouldn't expect a playoff berth in Year 1, after so many changes and given the inevitable struggles awaiting the NBA newcomers, but the plan already has won Chris Bosh over."

BILL KOSTROUN/AP

Headed back to the lottery?

A couple of weeks back I was out for a jar or two with Skeets and Tas, The Basketball Jones twins, and the subject got around to the Raptors -- hell of a surprise, that -- and how many games they might win this season.

I said 27, same as last year. As they picked their eyeballs out of the witbier and wondered if my glass was spiked with something, I went on to say I wouldn't be surprised if they won fewer than that (They won't, but I just wanted to see those eyeballs drop out again. I tried it again here in the office today, with boy wonder editor Spencer, and he had the same reaction. Honest, try it yourself with your friends if you don't believe me. It's great fun.).

To explain: As Stein says, there are too many changes here to expect a big jump in W's -- not just newcomers to each other, but newcomers to the league, its lifestyle and the sheer length of the season.

A new point guard, only two returning starters, a No. 1 overall pick who will need some time, a forward in Garbajosa who will need more than some time to adjust to playing faster players man-to-man (forget the world championships -- it's a different game over there, and to expect an instant fit here in the NBA's different environment requires a huge leap of faith equivalent to expecting USA coaches to actually, you know, scout their opponents), a coach who goes into the season with one year left on his contract and no groundswell building anywhere to give him an extension . . . There's more, but training camp is nearly three weeks away, and no use throwing all the caveats out there at once. My No. 1 player to watch is Joey Graham - the lower he ends up on the depth chart, the farther ahead this team is on its growth curve.

Despite that seeming gloomy assessment, this season should be nothing but very interesting, even watchable -- certainly more watchable than the dreck and turnover from the past three seasons or so. Colangelo's experiment, going heavily Euro including the hiring of an assistant GM will make this team one of the most scrutinized in the NBA. And the world. If it pays off, how long will it be before a Euro-raised head coach -- a Pesic, say, or David Blatt, to just throw out two names purely off the top of the head -- gets an NBA gig? Not long at all.

So bring it on, I say, 28 wins or no, because for the first time in a long time, there appears to be a Toronto GM in charge who actually has a plan, and it's actually quite different and worth paying attention to. It may even work -- but not just yet.

The latest in logos

There was a little stirring this week with the debut of FC Barcelona's new kit, with its UNICEF sponsor logo part of the deal. And good on 'em for that - pretty good week for Barca, too, with that emphatic Champions League opener.

But frankly, they've got nothing (and plenty, actually) on Stambridge United, barred from playing in their local club league after their new shirt featured a sponsors' crest that read "The Referee's a W*nker":

Club officials said they had been told not to discuss the ban. But writer Chris (Turner), 41 — who was on Southend’s books as a schoolboy — said: “I think it’s absolutely absurd.
“They played a few games with the shirts on and it caused a laugh.
“The strips are part of a sponsorship deal worth thousands and are certainly not meant to be offensive — you can hear the chant at every football match in the country.”

So if I pay enough money, I can have basically anything splattered across my team's chest - if it's commonly heard in the stands? Interesting logic, that. Tons of possibilities.

(Thanks to Sunaya Sapurji of the petroleum-based product division for the latter link.)