An update about Buchanan High School graduate Fernando Cabada, who is now a professional distance runner paid by Reebok ...

On Sunday, Fernando finished fourth at the USA Half Marathon Championships in Houston. His time was 1:03.40. Look, I have proof. He had been back in Fresno for a while, then training in Arizona. Now he's living and training in Colorado with coach Steve Jones, who once held the marathon world record in the '80s.

For those of you wondering who Fernando Cabada is, I've been trying to link to the column I wrote about him two summers ago, but apparently it's in the Fresno Bee archives and I'm not going to pay the $2.95 to refresh your memories.

(Quick column summary in the wake of cheapness ... Fernando was really fast in Fresno. He went to the University of Arkansas to be fast there. He didn't like it, came home and started laying tile. He got inspired, took a train to North Dakota to run at little school. The coach there went to some other little school in Virginia. Fernando followed and won a whole bunch of NAIA national championships. Fernando is very close to his mom, who is also an achiever and an overcomer of obstacles. His dad has done some prison time, and continues to do so last I heard, though I'm told by people that he has his moments and cares for Fernando very much. Fernando is cocky and brash and funny and a guy you'd love to spend the day with, which always catches reporters off guard because most distance runners are introspective and polite and quiet and all that. Now you're caught up.)

Is anyone else thinking all of my columns should just be one-paragraph summaries?

I did that column in the summer of 2006 about Fernando competing in his last college race, which happened to be the NAIA championships, coincidentally in Fresno. And of course the next day he was declared ineligible for talking to an agent or something, and didn't even run. Nice work, Mr. Columnist.

Since turning pro, Fernando set the American record in the 25k at a race in Grand Rapids, Mich., (1:14:21), and then ran a ridiculous 2:12:27 marathon in Japan. It's supposedly the seventh-fastest marathon debut by an American in the history of Americans. No proof of that. I just keep reading it so it must be true.

He slumped a little bit toward the end of 2007, running a pretty average marathon at the World Championships and finished 50th, a race he says was hot and muggy.

Next race up for Fernando: Feb. 16th, the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego. (The top nine qualify for the World Cross Country Championships in Scotland.) After that, he says, he's running the 10k at the Olympic Trials this summer in Oregon.

You'll know more, when I know more.