Now for an article on a guy I'd like to read about...

Bernard Lagat competes in the 2006 IAAF World Athletics Final race in Stuttgart, Germany. /photo by Paul Merca (c), 2006

Former Washington State University standout Bernard Lagat is featured in a great article written by Luke Cyphers at ESPN The Magazine!

"He runs alone sometimes, out on a high Arizona plateau where towering timber opens onto mountain meadows. Herds of elk graze amid the splendor of the Coconino National Forest. "I see them all the time," Bernard Lagat says. "I try to scare them and make them run."

Lagat is about the least threatening person you'll meet. At 5'7'' and 134 pounds, he's a perfectly mannered gentleman with a perpetual look of knowing amusement. And yet for the past 10 years, he has been one of the top runners in the world, part of the line of Kenyans who've dominated middle- and longdistance events since the 1960s. In 2000, he won the 1,500-meter bronze at the Sydney Olympics. In 2001, he clocked 3:26.34 at a meet in Brussels, the third-fastest time ever. In 2004, at the Athens Games, he lost to Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in one of the most thrilling races in Olympic history. Now the 32-year-old Lagat is looking ahead to next summer in Beijing, where he could medal in either the 1,500 or the 5,000."

For the full article, go here...