Olympian Kara Goucher to Run Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon

Inaugural event kicks off city's annual Rose Festival; sold out race attracts nearly 14,000 entrants; Kevin Rudolf to headline finish line concert at Tom McCall Waterfront Park

PORTLAND, Ore. - (May 16, 2012) - Olympian Kara Goucher will lead a sold out field of nearly 14,000 runners though the streets of East Portland for the first running of the Rock 'n' Roll Portland Half Marathon on Sunday, May 20. The inaugural event will kick off Portland's celebrated Rose Festival, with 20 live bands performing on 14 entertainment stages positioned along the route.

Mutai, Kilel Win Wild 115th Boston Marathon

Men's champion produces fastest marathon ever; Davila women's runner-up and Hall fastest American all-time under near perfect racing conditions on historic point-to-point, downhill course

By Jim Gerweck, Running USA wire

BOSTON - (April 18, 2011) - The 115th running of the Boston Marathon on Monday turned out to be one of the record books - it just depends on which ones you want to rewrite.

Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai, 29, ran the fastest marathon in history - 2 hours, 3 minutes, 2 seconds - a time 57-seconds faster than the world record set by Haile Gebrselassie at Berlin in 2008 and an almost incomprehensible three minutes better than Robert Kiprono Cheryuoit's course record of 2:05:52, which was deemed virtually untouchable when he set it last year. Mutai's mark will not count as a world record, however, because the Boston course exceeds the IAAF limits on drop and separation from start to finish. Similarly, Ryan Hall's fourth place U.S. course record 2:04:58 won't erase Khalid Khannouchi's 2:05:38 from London 2002 as the U.S. record. In short, the Boston course is not record standard.

But none of those technicalities can fully take away from the incredible performances that 26,964 runners crafted on the roads from Hopkinton to Boston, pushed along by an aiding tailwind and running under near perfect temperatures in the mid-50s.