2008 Women's Olympic Marathon Trials

Boston was the center of the marathon universe this past weekend. As usual, the Boston Marathon was held on Patriots Day. On Sunday, about 150 women competed in the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials. Deena Kastor (left) placed first with a masterful, come-from-behind performance.

But Joan Samuelson (right) was definitely the crowd favorite. Nearly thirty years after winning the 1979 Boston Marathon, she ended her competitive career just like she began it -- running down Bolyston Street wearing a Red Sox cap. Finishing in 2:49:08, she set a new American record for the 50-54 age group.

More photos in this set on Flickr.
 

2008 Boston Marathon

More photos in this set on Flickr.
 

Fenway Park

The American Institue of Architects recently posted an appreciation of Fenway Park and other historic buildings. If you follow the preceding link, you can view a short video of Fenway. The video features photos from the Flickr community including my May 2007 photo of the Sox championship banners.

That's so cool.
 

Signs of Spring

Or maybe just signs of the end of winter. Either way, it's worth celebrating ...

Moon Shots

Pictures from Germany

I've just returned from a business trip to Germany. Luckily, I had some spare time to visit and take pictures in Speyer, Heidelberg, and other beautiful spots. Here's a sample. As I find the time, I'll be adding more trip photos to this set on Flickr.

The Library of Congress on Flickr

Last week, the Library of Congress uploaded a small percentage of its photo collection to Flickr. The photos are from the 1910s, 30s and 40s. According to the Library's blog, this small pilot project has two goals:

If all goes according to plan, the project will help address at least two major challenges: how to ensure better and better access to our collections, and how to ensure that we have the best possible information about those collections for the benefit of researchers and posterity.

In other words, they want viewers to enjoy, comment on, and tag the photos in their collection. They hope to learn previously unknown facts about the people, places and other subjects in these photos. They may have to wade through some sophomoric comments to get to the facts, but I think this is a great idea. I hope the experiment is a huge success.

And by the way, the photos are gorgeous. Check out the Library of Congress photo stream for more.