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Here is a compilation of photos from the 2011 Boston Marathon (and expo).  The Marathon takes place on April 18, 2011.

Most of the photos below were sent in to us by Run It Fast contributor Chris ‘The Beast’ Estes.  Chris is running his first Boston Marathon. He qualified in just his third marathon, the Tupelo Marathon in Tupelo, Mississippi.

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The lonely miles stretch through the long night. It is nearing midnight, and I’ve been running seventeen hours; I have seven more to go if I’m going to turn in a respectable time for a 100-mile distance. Around three dozen of us are strung out along dirt roads on this out-and-back course across the Kansas prairie.

So widely spaced are we, no runner’s light is visible to the front or back. Vehicles and houses are rare. I run alone, as I like to do. No human turns me from what I want to see and hear, or alters the thoughts I think.

The running has affected my sight. I can distinguish shapes but details are quite blurry—the Heartland 100-cum-American Impressionism.

Read the full post by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE

Photo by Monte Lowe

Say you eclipse five state records in one race; say they were yours to begin with; say you run a 15K at 5K pace. Then you try to explain it. But you can’t explain it. It sounds like a lie, but it is true. So you end up calling it a miracle. What else could anybody call it? You might as well put that word in the title, too.

I reprised this race again on Saturday, just four days ago, but not with the miraclous results of that earlier time. At Saturday’s start, Running Journal magazine with this story in it had just appeared. That timing was no accident.

Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE

With this post I broach a topic I’ve avoided ever since I started this blog: me.

So this is new. But it is not an enduring change. It is an exception, and I’ll soon shut up about the boring topic and return to my policy of staying quiet about the ever-indulgent “me.”

So, what brought this on? Why did I think anyone in the whole round world would want to read about what you will find below?

I had a pretty good year.

As a racer, that is. Maybe a remarkable year. My annual racing report summarizes it. I decided I’d put it up for whatever informational, instructional or inspirational value it may hold, and maybe it holds none. But if you are a racer also you may find it interesting. Or maybe not. Anyway, here it comes.

Beat it if you can.

Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking HERE (Race Results and State Records)

Photos from the 2010 Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville’s Harpeth Hills.

Ben Schneider won the race with a time of 2:38:27 (Full Story).

Traci Falbo was the fastest female finishing at 3:21:20 (Full Story).

Many elite and freak runners were at the Monkey this year, in addition to Ben and Traci, including Dallas Smith, Chuck Engle, Josh Hite, Michael Henze, Naresh Kumar, Angela Ivory, Gary Krugger, Morgan Cummings, Catie Caldwell, Chris Estes, Meredith Smith, and Samantha Green among many others.

(Check back later for more photos…maybe)

Morning comes to Barcelona.

The window in our seventh-floor room faces south, overlooking dark patios and balconies of apartments below. The crescent moon hangs low and a pale glow washes the eastern sky. It’ll be daylight soon. Our time is near. The marathon Albino and I’ve long aimed at will start at 8:30 this March morning, just two hours from now. I open the window and stick out my hand, the old anxious question about the weather. Barcelona hums and answers: perfect, calm and warm.

Albino and I meet our bunch in the lobby for the walk to the race. Alejandra, Jorge’s gracious wife, who is not running today, carries my camera to make pictures for me. We drift up Gran Via, a loose collection of six warriors. Morning is creeping over the city. There’s no sense of rush. Eduardo, the youngest of us, strolls with me, the oldest. Today he makes his first marathon attempt.

“How do you feel, Eduardo?”

“Pretty good. A little nervous.”

“Don’t worry. That will fly away as soon as the race starts.”

“I know.”

Read the full story by Dallas Smith by clicking Here

Photo, Jim Clark

The horde of hollow-eyed ghouls making a death march along Cookeville city streets next Saturday will turn out to be a pack of sleepy-eyed runners competing in the 2nd Annual Haunted Half Marathon. For some, the worst nightmare ever; for others, a glory-dream…

Dream? One dream weaver will be Angie Clark. No scar-faced guy with blades for fingers will catch her. The Celina native, now living in Sparta, follows a rigorous training program, regularly running farther than the race’s unlucky 13.1-mile distance…

The race goes to the fit, the trained. Others fall behind, some way behind. Bad luck for those poor wretches. Laggards will be arrested and thrown into the pit where porta potties are pumped…

Read the full story by Dallas Smith on his website by clicking HERE

- Photo by Kathy Piper -

This I didn’t know when I went: Each year they have a “special guest,” and this year it was little four-year-old Emma Smith, who was born with spina bifida and who is my great niece.

I’d never been to the Race for Jordan, had never run any race in Carthage, Tennessee. Driving down that morning I could not have known I was heading for an intersection of racing and family.

It was not the normal date for the race. The seventh running had originally been scheduled for the first Saturday in May. That was a day of storms. Dangerous lightning forced cancellation, and the race was re-scheduled for June 12th.

But I had not known any of this prior to the Sunday before the race, and the way I discovered it then was unlikely: I went to a family reunion…

To read more of Dallas Smith”s story: CLICK HERE ‘Turnaround’

Two women of different generations, different backgrounds, will join in common cause next Sunday when the Upper Cumberland’s second annual Komen Race for the Cure 5K kicks off. Hundreds of runners will join them. The 5K starts at Tucker Stadium at 2:00 p.m., September 26. Race village opens at noon.

Local runner Jill White is half the age of Nashville’s Margie Stoll. Mrs. White was reared in rural Smith County and has always lived in Tennessee, while Mrs. Stoll lists the urban locations of St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as her past homes. Both women are seasoned athletes. Their paths converge next Sunday.

Mrs. White attended the Komen 5K last year. Her blond hair was just then growing back out, and she wore a baseball cap for cover. Despite her recent bout with breast cancer, she may have won that race. She thought she was the first cancer veteran across the finish line. Then she realized she’d failed to put the timing chip on her shoe. “No chip, no time,” is the warning all racers know. “I was so mad!” she says.

Don’t count on her making that mistake this year.

She learned competition early, when she was growing up on the family farm near Gordonsville. Her father put up a basketball goal. He showed her how to shoot a hook shot. The hook shot didn’t take, but other shots did……

Read the Rest on Dallas Smith’s Running Blog HERE

(Below is an excerpt from a short story by elite runner Dallas Smith. Click the link at the bottom of this post to read the rest full story.)

The King of Caribbean Marathons and a Boy Who Wanted a Watch by Dallas Smith

It seemed likely I’d never find Jason. A couple months after I’d sent an e-mail inquire to the race director, I quit thinking about it. Then a message suddenly arrived from Gail Jackson. “I know that kid,” she said.

A month later, Oraine sent a letter thanking me. He liked to draw, and he included a pencil-drawn portrait on green paper. In his letter he said, “If there is anything you want me to do for you in drawing don’t be afraid to ask.”

Read the Full Story by Dallas Smith on his website by Clicking HERE