The Coolest Race of All Time

A great find by letsrun.com: This is footage of the 2010 Belgrade Race through History won by Mystery Man and blog favorite, Josphat Menjo. I can't say enough about this race- the cobblestones, castles, knights dueling and wielding swords to direct traffic, and so on. If you think the Boston Marathon is historic or that Franklin Park is scenic, well this one just blows those away.

If you want to learn more about Menjo and why he was running at obscure races (DL said he wasn't fast enough) and ran a 10,000 meters unpaced (he'd rather pocket their money) check out this fine read by Pat Butcher: http://www.globerunner.org/blog/?p=451 .
In this Belgrade race, Menjo defeated Eliud Kipchoge who recovered from a mid-season bout with Malaria (now, that might explain his mid-season funk) to finish runner up here and at the Commonwealth Games. How about those Kenyans? Tomorrow, I'm going to write a more general column on rules and discretion in sports (anti-doping, officiating, in track, the NFL, the NBA et al.) and how I think the sports world's obsession with rules is killing discretion. Have a great weekend, all.