World record holder to skip Olympic marathon

Yeah, that and the whole having-to-qualify thingy.

Well, I know this is not CoJ so please excuse the rant.

This really bums me out because when Ryan Hall wins the Marathon, there are going to be a bunch of naysayers who suggest that he was only able to do it because Geb was MIA. (Never mind that the rest of the field, not to mention the US Team are all world class marathoners)

I hear what he is saying about the pollution and a loss of 1-2% of lung function after running a damaging race though. Should be very interesting to see how he does in London after another 4 years of getting older. (If the effects of aging end up slowing him down anyway)

When you are as fast as Geb you can just hold your breath for 10K.

I've heard of people running a marathon backwards and walking a marathon, but  I've never heard of skipping a marathon.

A bunch of my colleagues and I were discussing the Bejing Games during breakfast last summer at USATF Nationals.  One of the gentlemen is originally from China.  He said he would not be surprised if the government mandated no driving from a certain period prior to the Olympics and until the games are over.  He said this way the government will do away with traffic congestion and the affects of vehicle related emissions.  Interesting concept to say the least.

The gov't would do ANYTHING to make the city/event look good.  But due to the geographical location, they cannot prevent extreme high temp and sand storms in the summer. 

It would be really interesting how the Games would turn out.