© 2008 Ed Bagley

They ran the 112th Boston Marathon Monday (4-21-08). The triumph was that Robert Cheruiyot (try to say something close to Cherry-ott) of Kenya won his 4th Boston Marathon. The tragedy was that America hardly noticed.

Cheruiyot won the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 7 minutes and 45 seconds. He ran alone for the last several miles. Cheruiyot won the Boston Marathon in 2003, set the course record while winning in 2006, and won in 2007, making this year’s victory his 3rd straight and 4th in 6 years.

Excuse me while I inhale deeply due to boredom.

Two guys from Morocco finished 2nd and 3rd and two guys from Ethiopia finished 4th and 5thall of them have unpronounceable names. Imagine a Nike ad saying, “Run to Victory with Nike. Like Bouramdane, Boumlili, Asfaw and Adillo do!” Notice how American it sounds, and appreciate how difficult it can be to market foreign runners with foreign names in America.

No one seems to have the clarity to recognize it or nerve to say it so let me be the first: national track meets and famous marathons in America have sunk to a new low in interest because America cannot seem to produce American-born runners who can currently win signature events.

This is the short evolution of the oldest continuously running marathon in history: American Clarence DeMar won his 1st Boston Marathon in 1911 and his 7th in 1930. American Bill Rogers won his 1st in 1975 and his 4th in 1980.

A KenyanIbrahim Husseinwon in 1991and this year Robert Cheruiyot won. In between Hussein and Cheruiyot, Kenyans have won the race 14 times in 16 years and 16 times in 18 years, losing only to a South Korean in 2001 and an Ethiopian in 2005.

This year, when an American finished 10th, it was called a miracle in some running circles. Americans have not done squat in recent years.

Among 32 elite runners previewed as possible winners in this year’s competition, not a single American was even mentioned as a possible winner in our wildest imagination. More than 25,000 runners qualified for this year’s run and 98% finished.

If you are wondering, an EthiopianDire Tune (I swear I did not make her name up)won the women’s Boston Marathon. The first 5 women finishers were from anywhere but America.

Cheruiyot picked up $150,000 (the most ever) in prize money. Cheruiyot is a super guy and a world class runner. His main concern Monday was running 2 hours, 7 minutes and change because he wants to represent his countryKenyain this fall’s 2008 Olympic Games.

Just because he won in Boston does not mean he will be part of the 3-man Kenyan team. Four other Kenyans have run UNDER 2:07 this year in major competition. Yikes! This just shows you how dominate the Kenyans are in worldwide marathon competition. Interestingly enough, no Kenyan has yet won gold in the Olympic games even though it is their specialty.

Unfortunately for Cheruiyot and track and field and running in America, the foreign dominance in winning here has created a marketing nightmare. It is flat out difficult, nay impossible, to market world-class foreign athletes on American soil, no matter how much they win or how many records they set. Nobody in America seems to care.

I found the USA Today coverage of the Boston Marathon buried on page 7 in the Sports Section Monday. There was frankly 6 pages of more interesting sports news to read than some foreigner winning the Boston Marathon again.

There are no major track meets on prime time television anymore, only the Olympics gets major coverage. The venues that used to draw thousands of fans now sit empty by comparison. There is little, if any, coverage. Big time sponsors run the other direction when meet directors come calling.

It happens because America cannot seem to produce runners anymore that are worth a crap. They just are not competitive and cannot win events like the Boston Marathon if their life depended upon it.

Do not blame the foreign runners who once were poverty stricken and then found a way to win in America and go back home like a new-found millionaire. The foreign runners were hungry. Making a living in America is easy. We do not seem to have any would be runners left who are hungry enough to train harder and smarter and beat the foreign runners.

We also do not seem to have a coach in America who can motivate our runners to get up off of dead center and do something spectacular. There is currently not a runner in America that can handle heavy marketing and promotion because there is no one out there that can deliver when it counts.

The fact that Americans think they cannot beat Kenyans is rubbish. They once thought that it was impossible to run a mile under 4 minutes too. Kenyans BELIEVE they can win; Americans do not think they can win. I just want to get up and slap some sense into our American runners and coaches.

We did not become the greatest nation in the world because we had our eye on second place, or because we wanted to make a big deal out of finishing in the Top 10 at Boston.

I really think this is not about raw talent. We must have at least a dozen talented runners among 300 million people. I think our lack of world-class American runners is more about a lack of desire and determination. The marketing problem is not going away, and the fans and sponsors are not going to come back big time until America produces American-born runners who can win against the best the world has to offer.

As a lifelong runner and one who enjoys running for running’s sake, I am distraught that our runners have become such colossal failures on the world scene.

Online Dating brings you together. Chat, get to know each other then arrange to meet in arguably the most beautiful city in Australia, Sydney. But where to eat? Online Dating Sites suggests some first date ideas in Sydney.

Sydney, Australia, is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Sydney is very much dominated by its enormous harbour and absolutely stunning beaches running for kilometres along the city’s eastern edge. Sydney is the oldest city in Australia and this is very much reflected in the “convict” architecture of the inner city. Due to the multiculturalism of Sydney, the city is very cosmopolitan, and has an astonishing array of foods and restaurants from around the globe. Sydney is also the second largest gay city in the world.

So many locations! So many styles of restaurants! We have compiled this article to make a first date restaurant selection a little easier. Move on from chat stage of the online dating process and hook up in person.

Expensive Restaurants. (Get out the Platinum Card.)

The inner city of Sydney offers plenty of choices for fine dining. Select from restaurants situated right on the world famous Sydney Harbour, or opt for a restaurant housed in a building featuring the rustic, sand stone colonial architecture. The Rocks is an area located right in the middle of Sydney City itself. This is a meeting place where the Harbour and old character buildings adjoin each other. Totally impossible to select just the one restaurant from this location.

Circular Quay is another ideal area to have dinner in Sydney. There is plenty of public transport and you are right on Sydney Harbour. We liked the Oyster Bar due to its helpful staff, fantastic views, and diverse menu. Why not take a ferry ride after your meal to finish off the perfect first date? Bistro Lulu in the inner city Eastern suburb of Paddington offers an intimate ambiance and a fantastic French menu. If you want to blow your date away with a superb vista over the entire city of Sydney, then Forty One Restaurant is the venue for you. This restaurant is open for dinner Monday to Saturday and is located in the Chifley Tower in the centre of Sydney city.

Cheap and Cheerful. (You won’t need an overdraft.)

Sydney is famous for its plethora of cheap and cheerful eateries. These are perfect for the financially challenged, and for those who don’t necessarily want to make their date uncomfortable by throwing the cash around on the first date. If you are going the cheap and cheerful alternative we recommend selecting a restaurant with plenty of character.

Radio Cairo definitely fits the bill with its ambiance and fantastic food. The menu for this eatery in Cremorne is based, not surprisingly, on North African cuisine. This restaurant gets a big tick for character and tasty food at an affordable price. Its location means that after your meal you can cross the road and catch a movie at the Orpheum, the only remaining Art Deco Cinema in Sydney. You can even grab a coffee or drink in this celebration of past architecture.

The Wet Paint Cafe in Bronte Beach, the eastern suburbs of Sydney also gets a big tick. This eatery features affordable Cajun style food with a touch of romance in the candlelit surrounds. One word, try and book a table for the front as the back of the cafe is a bit space challenged. Oscar’s near Darling Harbour is another great location as they have comfortable lounges you can settle back in with your date after your meal. This bar/restaurant/pub offers mid week specials with the bubbly and lobster being a steal.

Use this article for some great first date restaurant suggestions. Your online dating first encounter needn’t be a trial. Sydney, Australia offers a huge variety of restaurants for the new couple to select from.

Ethiopia is the widely recognized home of Arabica coffee. Unlike many other countries that carefully partition their coffee plantations, Ethiopia is the only country where even wild coffee trees account for the active harvests. But one thing in common about premium gourmet coffee, their beans are all hand picked and not machine harvested.

The downside to Ethiopian coffee is that due to wild coffee trees accounting for parts of their harvests, their products have some rough sediments that may slip into each cup especially when a percolator or French Press is used. Ethiopian coffee is best served using a filtered, drip coffee maker.

Aside from tracing their origins to the Arabica, many of today’s premium coffees owe their rich and unique taste to geography and nature. Here are three of the world’s finest which trace their roots to Arabica:

The Ethiopian Harrar coffee. This type of coffee is grown in the eastern part of Ethiopia. Being an arid area, coffee from this region are traditionally dry. Its fruit is allowed to dry on the bean then milled to remove the fruit and husk. Due to this drying process of allowing air to circulate around the coffee, a fruit flavor is retained. In fact, some coffee reviewers have described Ethiopian Harrar as remarkable and complex with a hint of wine simply because of this sweet, fruity flavor that borders on blueberry interacting with the aroma.

Hawaiian Kona coffee. Another one of the world’s top coffee types grown in the Kona coast of Hawaii. This Hawaiian offspring of Arabica found its way into the Kona coast by way of Brazil when a missionary first planted it in the region in the early 19th century.

The Kona region is not as hot and dry as Ethiopia but rather tropical. Days are sunny with some rainy afternoons. What probably contributes most to the Kona bean’s distinctness is the rich volcanic soil on which it grows. Like Ethiopian Harrar, Kona coffee is sometimes identified by a flavor that hints of wine which is probably due to the same fruity property it shares with its African cousin.

Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee.This coffee type is grown in mountainous areas that reach 5,500 feet and these are known as the Blue Mountains. The climate is similar to the Kona region, cool in the day but with much more rain. Because of its height, it is not uncommon to see mist and cloud covering much of the Blue Mountains. The locals say that it is the interaction of the mist with the coffee plants that give their coffee a bluish-green hue. Unlike Kona though, the Blue Mountains are not volcanic but its soil is made rich by its sheer altitude.

Coffee beans were not indigenous to Jamaica. It was in 1728 that its governor brought the first Arabica beans into the islands from Martinique. And almost 300 years later, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is one of the world’s finest and rather hard to find at times.

As you can see, the Arabica bean has travelled the world and is already rooted in many parts. The images of Ethiopia are sometimes sad, with pictures of babies being held by their mothers all reduced to only skin and bones as a result of crushing poverty. But to those who are fortunate to find work picking the coffee berries, they have become a source of blessing for all coffee enthusiasts.

You may own the top of the line coffee maker, you may drink from the shiniest of cups, but were it not for the sweat and labor of these Ethiopian farmers, there would be none of the best coffees that money can buy.