Haskins will start Friday by speaking to students at Bellerive Elementary about hard work and discipline at 2 p.m.

Then, Haskins will return to her alma mater, Parkway South, on Friday evening and will have her uniform retired at halftime of the football home opener. Sarah, who graduated in 1999, was a state champ in both cross country and swimming. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. South is at 801 Hanna Road in Manchester.

The High Ridge Fire Department will cook a pancake breakfast for Sarah and the public Sunday from 9-11 a.m. Sarah will autograph photos and Olympic gear and there will be a silent auction to raise money for the two charities that she supports, Train 4 Autism and Jenny’s Light for PostPartum Depression.

The fire station is at 2842 High Ridge Boulevard. Call 636- 677-3371 for more information.

After the breakfast, Sarah will head to the Cardinals game and and lend a hand at the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk.

She’ll head back to Colorado Springs next week, in desperate need of a break after all that do-gooding.

Here’s the note. She means business:

“Registration for the Lewis and Clark Marathon and Half Marathon closes on Sunday, September 7th, at 11:59PM. Registration close is final, and absolutely no late registrations will be accepted. So… no dawdling. No dilly-dallying. No tarrying! If you plan on participating in the Lewis and Clark events, be certain to sign up today!”

Click here to go to online registration.

E = estimated finisher total; complete results unavailable

5K: 9,400 E Manufacturer’s Hanover #3, New York, NY
39,012 E Race for the Cure, Washington, DC
8K / 5 Mile: 18,500 E Al’s Run, Milwaukee, WI
23,688 LaSalle Bank Shamrock Shuffle, Chicago, IL
10K: 25,300 E Crescent City Classic, New Orleans, LA
55,253 E Peachtree Road Race, Atlanta, GA
12K: 72,500 E Bay to Breakers, San Francisco, CA
40,362 Lilac Bloomsday Spokane, WA
15K: 6,667 Cascade Run Off, Portland, OR
11,336 Gate River Run, Jacksonville, FL
10 Mile: 3,545 Bobby Crim, Flint, MI
17,584 Army Ten-Miler, Washington, DC
20K: 1,648 Big Boy Classic, Wheeling, WV
3,921 Dam to Dam Des Moines, IA
25K: 2,902 Old Kent River Bank Run, Grand Rapids, MI
4,833 Fifth Third River Bank Run Grand Rapids, MI
Half-Marathon: 5,038 Philadelphia (PA) Distance Run
29,213 OneAmerica 500 Festival, Indianapolis, IN
Marathon: 21,244 New York City New York, NY
38,607 ING New York City New York, NY
Women-Only: 5,897 L’Eggs Mini Marathon 10K, ew York, NY
10,789 E St. Luke’s Women’s Fitness Celebration 5K, Boise, ID

Read the complete report.

But the folks at GO! St. Louis have already opened online registration for their family fitness weekend, April 18 and 19. It’s not too early, for the following reasons:

1. Registration for the endurance events - marathon, half-marathon and marathon relay - has been capped at 15,000. The half-marathon came close to its max of 10,000  last year and is likely to go over this year.

2. You save money if you register before Sept. 30. Marathon registration is $70 and increases to $80 on October 1. The half-marathon fee is $55 now, $60 after October 1. The marathon relay is just $200 per four-person team but increases to $220 on October 1. The April 18 events: a 5K, children’s fun runs and mature mile, range from $10 to $25.

3. If you sign up now, you’ll be making a commitment to 7 1/2 months of fitness.

The only event for which online registration is unavailable is the Read, Right and Run marathon, for students in kindergarten through eighth grades. The program is offered through schools, but the kids will get moving pretty soon.

Why not join them?

But Brigette is returning to St. Louis this weekend to cheer on her SLU cross country teammates at the Washington University Big River Running Early Bird meet on Saturday at Forest Park. Since the Brigette Schutzman Festival of Miles in April, SLU has hosted another fund-raiser for Schutzman, which has allowed her to buy a Bioness L300 device that helps correct her walk.

Don’t be surprised if Brigette inspires not only her teammates but every competitor at the meet.

Phase III deals with trends in road racing. The trendiest of distances is the half-marathon, as it has been for about the last decade. 5Ks still account for about 40 percent of all participants in road races, about 3.4 million runners, but the biggest jump in number was in half-marathons, up 10 percent over 2006, to about 650,000 participants.

And following a two-decade trend, women’s participation continues to grow. In 1987, 21 percent of all finishers in U.S. road races were women. By 2007, their percent hovered around 50 percent. More interesting the increase in the total number:  791,000 female finishers in 1987 to nearly 4.4 million in 2007.

Other interesting nuggets:

Runners in the 20-29 group make up a bigger percentage of racers than five years ago. Perhaps more of the high school runners are sticking with it?

34 percent of runners say their favorite distance is the half-marathon.

Runners in the masters division — euphamism for the over-40 crowd — make up a smaller percentage of runners than five years ago.

But total the number of finishers is are up in all age groups by average of  4 percent over last year.

Check out the full report.

But how about Dathan Rietzenhein? Anybody remember back before the trials, when Ritz was saying that he probably would prefer to run the 10,000? Wonder how he feels about that now, after finshing ninth.

Two Americans in the top10: two under 2:12. Not too shabby.

Nor was the performance of Brian Sell, who finished 22nd.

Think back a decade ago. Who would have predicted such a strong showing by American men in the marathon? Goes to show that the Hansons-Brooks people, the ZAP fitness  bunch, Team USA Minnesota, the groups at Mammoth Lakes and in Eugene know what they’re doing. More opportunities for post-collegiate runners leads to better performance.

Bravo.

Check it out here.

Here’s a better idea. And it takes six feet, running really fast. Michael Powell and his beloved, Kathleen Wilson, will exchange vows Saturday in Forest Park during their weekend run. Powell expects the ceremony and the run to last “about a quarter-mile, just as long as it takes to say our vows.” Presiding will be the honorable Darrell E. Missey of Hillsboro, Mo., himself a runner.

The lovebirds met online in a running forum and Kathleen moved to St. Louis from Connecticut about two years ago. Michael, 55, has been a competitive runner since his days at Central High. Kathleen, 53, started racing just two years ago.

In addition to their commitment to fitness and each other, we admire their frugality. They’re eschewed the traditional gown and rented tux. Instead, they’ll don running shorts and matching singlets from Big River Running, which Powell said owner Ben Rosario sold them at a 50 percent discount.

He, too, must be a romantic at heart.

“We’re not young people,” Powell said. “We’ve both been married before. But now, I’ll have somebody to run with for the rest of my life.”

Sure beats the Jumbotron.

Freudenburg was selected based on his performances at the previous world mountain marathon championships, third in 2006 and eighth last year. This year’s race will be 12K uphill.

For more information on the U.S team and the championships, click here.