What's On The Weekend

Domestic front -- Pre-Nats!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack
The Brooks Pre-Nationals Invitational, the biggest meet of the collegiate regular season, will be held at Indiana State’s Gibson Championship Cross Country Course on Saturday.

Meet website
Cross Country Town USA site

Schedule (all times Eastern)
11:00 AM Women’s Blue Division (#3 Florida State, #6 Arizona)
11:35 AM Women’s White Division (#5 Georgetown, #9 Colorado)
12:10 PM Men’s Blue Division (#1 Stanford, #12 Princeton)
12:50 PM Men’s White Division (#4 Colorado, #8 Portland)

Flotrack will be doing a live webcast of the meet from 10:30 AM to 4 PM. They will be using a brilliant three-camera setup: one on the leaders, one on the lead pack, and one “eye in the sky” cam from atop the pressbox.

Flotrack’s preview show is scheduled for this afternoon.

Other college meets

Dathan Ritzenhein was going be tuning up for the ING New York Marathon at Sunday’s Rock N’ Roll Denver Half Marathon, but he dropped out due to a lack of competition.  So there's no reason to pay any attention to that race.  And there's pretty much nothing else on the domestic front either (save, of course, college XC action).

International

The IAAF World Half Marathon Championships will also take place on Friday night through the streets of Nanning, China. You can watch it live at UniversalSports.com. (It's actually Saturday morning over there.)

Women's race: 8:30 PM EDT
Men's race: 9:00 PM EDT
Prize money, course, and other details
Press conference highlights

The men's race is tough, with World #1 Zersenay Tadese, #2 Sammy Kiprop Kitwara, #6 Wilson Kiprop and #7 Silas Kipruto.  IAAF men's preview and Joe Battaglia's five storylines

The women's race isn't quite as deep with just two top-ten runners: #9 Peninah Jerop Arusei and #10 Dire Tune.  #12 Florence Kiplagat is the favorite.  IAAF women's preview

Team titles are expected to be a war between Ethiopia and Kenya.

Three IAAF Silver Label Road Races go off this Sunday: the Amsterdam Marathon in Holland, the Intercontinental* Istanbul Eurasia Marathon in Turkey, and the Gyeongju International Marathon in South Korea.

*If you’re hoping for Dolph Zigler to show up and defend his championship, you’re probably thinking of the wrong Intercontinental title.

Track on TV
Diamond League Brussels rerun, 2:30 AM Saturday on Unviersal Sports
Endurance, 6:00 AM Sunday on The Movie Channel Xtra
Running the Sahara, 11:35 AM and 6:10 PM Saturday and 5:40 AM Sunday on Showtime Next