Tyson Invitational on ESPN today (2-4pm)

You can get your track fix today on this rainy Sunday as ESPN will show the Tyson Invitational from Fayetteville, Arkansas.

For you distance fans, you will get to see Galen Rupp's indoor American Record as he recorded a blazing 13:18.12 to finish 2nd. That time surpassed Doug Padilla's record from 27 years ago (13:20.55). Interestingly enough, one of the runners that was defeated in that race was Alberto Salazar who led most of the way but ended up in 4th place. Salazar has been Rupp's "mentor/coach" from his days in high school.

Padilla (born in Oakland, CA and pictured to the left) may not be a familiar name to current runners but in his time, he was one of the best distance runners in the world. His 3000m. time of 7:35.84 in 1983 still ranks as one of the fastest times for an American runner. He finished 5th in the 5000m. at the inaugral World Championships in Helsinki in 1983. He went on to finish 7th in the same distance at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. For those of you that have run at the Mariner Invitational, Padilla is also the man behind the scoring system (www.runnercard.com) at that meet.