Marathon

If fall is marathon season, then September and October must be half of that.Not only are veteran marathoners and newcomers to a 26-mile, 385-yard trek increasing their weekly mileage -- from 40 to 50, from 50 to 60, and upwards for the diehards. And not only are they lengthening their weekly long run.Many of them also are throwing in a half-marathon for good measure.The Philadelphia Distance Run half-marathon, run nine days ago, and the Westminster Road Runners Club's Bachman Valley Half-Marathon and RASAC's Harmony Half-Marathon, to be run Sunday, are good examples.

Sometimes, successful marathon running means backing off when pressing on seems the only way to go.For Robert Yara, one of those times came last week, and as a result, come Sunday, Yara will be running in his second marathon in 15 days."

It comes as no surprise that Monika Bachmann probably will be running in next year's Northern Central Trail Marathon.The 29-year-old resident of Comus in Montgomery County has two second-place finishes and a pair of first-place runs in the race, including a 3-hour, 28-second finish 10 days ago.That one was good enough to break the women's course record by almost 14 minutes and improve her personal record for the marathon by 12."I had not been marathon training," says Bachmann, a doctoral candidate in international history at the London School of Economics.

RUNNING HAD never appealed to Harry Fogle, director of special education for elementary schools in Carroll County. When he was in high school, Fogle groaned the most when the coach bellowed, "Take another lap around the track, boys." Fogle has never been a morning person either. "Eleven o'clock is morning to me," he said. But for the past three weeks, Fogle has risen before the sun every Saturday and most other mornings to do the previously unthinkable: run. Fogle is a member of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training.

As 20,000 runners began their mad dash to Boston on Monday, Dr. Malissa Wood, a cardiologist, four-time marathoner and co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Women's Cardiovascular Health Center, was setting up shop in the corner of the medical tent at the finish line. As soon as they finished, 25 amateur runners strolled (or hobbled) over to Wood's corner to let her sample their blood. They also got a noninvasive test to see how well their hearts worked after the stress of running for four hours.

The 2007 Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival might have Lake Montebello return to the marathon course, but it won't have the defending champion in the women's half-marathon. Lyubov Denisova, who won the 2006 half-marathon by more than two minutes, has been banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations for two years. A posting on the IAAF Web site lists Denisova testing positive for two banned substances, Prostanozol and testosterone, in a random out-of-competition test conducted March 20. Lee Corrigan, the organizer of the Baltimore Running Festival, said yesterday that Denisova tested negative for banned substances last October here.

Conditions were nearly perfect for Saturday's 15th Last Train to Boston Marathon: temperature in the 50s and a drizzle that cooled off the field of 194.The only drawback was a fog that blanketed the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground and prevented the lead runners from keeping an eye of their closest competitors on the four-loop trek around the arsenal.But save for a wrong turn on loop one that cost John Duffy 2 1/2 minutes and dropped him to fifth place, not even the fog was much of an impediment as Duffy ran off a 3-minute, 41-second victory over second-place finisher Robert Yara.

The Oct. 15 Baltimore Running Festival has attracted a record total of entries, and the number getting their heart rate up near the Camden Yards staging area could exceed 10,000. The half-marathon reached its capacity of 4,000 last month. More than 3,100 have registered for the marathon, and they'll be accompanied by at least 440 four-person relay teams. The 5K has nearly 1,200 entries. The fifth annual Festival will award more than $100,000 in prize money, the bulk up for grabs in the Under Armour Marathon.

Baltimore fans of Peter Jackson's extended DVD cut of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will get their first chance to see it on the big screen when it plays the Senator Dec. 5-11, followed on the 12th by the extended DVD version of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (due out on disc in November). But Dec. 16 is the date for true believers in the Tolkien trilogy: back-to-back screenings of both prints will precede the local premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Jim Driver found a unique way to celebrate May Day this year.Driver, a runner for 22 years, a "serious one since 1986," had run four marathons, but never had gone beyond the 26-mile, 385-yard distance. He turned 50 on May 1, and to commemorate the event, he decided to try 50 miles."It's something I had been thinking about for about a year," Driver said last week.The Northern Central Railroad Trail from Ashland to the Pennsylvania line served as his footpath. He began his ultramarathon at 6:30 a.m. and, 10 hours, 53 minutes, 23 seconds later, successfully had managed his course.