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Week That Was

LRC Week That Was: Is The 2019 London Marathon The Greatest Ever? And If You Don’t PR, Keep Trying 24 More Times We start off with praise for the queen of the minor leagues of marathoning, then debate which London Marathon is the best ever before getting excited because Donavan Brazier has returned to action. Updated 1/23/19 with our Ridiculous Tweet of The Week.

Distance Group News

Brooks Gets Two New Signees, 2016 NCAA 1,500m Champ And Portuguese Olympian Marta Pen Freitas And 2:30 Marathoner Michele Lee Freitas joins the Brooks Beasts while Lee joins Hansons-Brooks.
Swiss Running Brand On To Sponsor Newly Re-Branded Zap Endurance Earlier this month it was announced that Zap Fitness lost their Reebok sponsorship, but now have a new name and a new sponsor.

Sunday Road / XC Action

Steeplechase WR Holder Beatrice Chepkoech And Uganda Teen Star Jacob Kiplimo Win At Seville, Spain XC Race Kiplimo beat out world 10,000m silver medalist Joshua Cheptegei by 16 seconds while Chepkoech dominated over Commonwealth 10,000 champ Stella Chesang and Euro XC champ Yasemin Can.
Asian 5,000m Champ Birhanu Balew And Meskerem Mamo Win Northern Ireland XC Race Balew beat a field that included Olympic 10,000 silver medalist Paul Tanui (who ended up 4th).
Kenya’s Cosmas Lagat (2:09:15) And Ethiopia’s Worknesh Alemu (2:25:45) Win Mumbai Marathon Despite warm conditions, both marks were the second-fastest winning times in the history of the race.

98 Days Away – The 2019 London Marathon Will Be Spectacular

MB: 2019 London Marathon Fields Are Released And Are Unreal – Greatest Women’s Field In History The women’s field has to be the greatest in history as it includes 7 sub-2:20 women, including the reigning champs of Dubai, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. It also includes Americans Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson and Allie Kieffer. The men’s field isn’t too shabby either as it includes the top 5 of our 2018 world rankings and is of course led by the GOAT – Eliud Kipchoge.

LRC Analysis The Greatest Women’s Marathon Field Ever, Is This Molly Huddle’s Last Chance To Run A Fast Time, & More Thoughts On The 2019 London Marathon Jonathan Gault also breaks down Chris Derrick‘s sub-2:10 and says that Eliud Kipchoge will slow down, eventually.

US Distance News

Molly Huddle Says She’d “Love To Run In The 2:22 To 2:23 Range” In London Talking about getting more marathon experience, Huddle said, “There definitely is a comfort level the more of these you do. You question yourself less. I’m getting a little braver and doing less calculating about how much farther I have to run.”
Asics Sponsors Allie Kieffer And Emma Bates At the same time, they’ve ended their 25-year run as a sponsor of the NYC Marathon, saying, “We’d rather focus on being associated with some of the best athletes in the world.”
*MB: Asics Signs Bates and Kieffer
Meb Keflezighi Does 30+ Minute Podcast Interview With Carrie Tollefson Meb talks about his upcoming book, life after retiring and his thoughts on Eliud Kipchoge trying to run a sub-2 hour marathon.

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Young Guns Ready To Replace Mo Farah, Three Sub-2:10 Marathoners At 1 Japanese High School, Canadian 5k Record Destroyed Some fast times have been produced the last couple of weeks with the Ethiopian 10k road records falling along with the NCAA 1k for women. Updated with improved 1k to 800 conversions.
*Discuss: 1 Japanese High School Coach Has Produced More Current Sub 2:10 Marathoners Than All of the United States

Russian Doping Updates

WADA Confirms Data Extraction From Moscow Lab Still Proceeding, But Admits Process Is Taking Longer Than Expected A WADA spokesperson said, “The quantity and complexity of the data, as well as the fact the servers and hard drives being accessed are not all brand new, means it is simply taking longer than originally anticipated.”
*BBC: WADA Gains Access To Moscow Lab 10 Days After December 31st Deadline
Well, He Just Lost Our Vote: WADA Presidential Candidate Phillippe Muyters Claims Russia Should Not Be Punished For Missing Moscow Lab Deadline This stance won’t help his popularity with most athletes.
Russian Athletics Federation Receives Authorized Neutral Status Applications From 133 Athletes 98 of them have already been sent to the IAAF for consideration.

Random / Bizarre News

The Vatican Launches Their Own Track Team With An Eye On The Olympics The 60-person team includes priests, nuns, workers and a 62-year-old librarian. The team’s president says they dream of seeing the Holy See flag flying at the Olympic Games.
*Runner’s World: Vatican Launches Track Team Made Up Of Nuns, Clergy, Swiss Guard, And Other Staff The fastest team member is probably Michela Ciprietti, who won the Vienna Half Marathon in 1:22:57.
Legally Blind Paralympic Qualifier Does His Mileage Around Town Dressed As Batman Kory Kennedy survived a car crash when he was young where he suffered a traumatic brain injury and had to learn to walk again.
MB: Matt Damon ran 13 miles a day on chicken breast for every meal to lose 60 pounds for a movie
Runners And Pedestrians Near Dallas Being Attacked By Coyotes
*DallasNews.com: Frisco’s recent string of coyote attacks is super weird, by urban wildlife standards
Chihuahua Dog Drops Half Her Body Weight Through Treadmill Runs And Healthy Dog Treats
Ever Wonder What Happens To All The Bananas After Big Road Races? Usually they are thrown out, but a company in Florida is using 14 tons of food scraps and turning it into electricity or fertilizer.

Dubai Is Thusday Night

LRC Dubai Marathon Slashes Prize Money And No Longer Is World’s Richest – Boston Now Claims Prize Money Crown Dubai has cut its elite prize money by more than half, from $816,000 in 2018 to $385,000 in 2019. Boston ($746,000) is now the richest prize money race in the world.

Non-Distance News: Bolt Retires Again

Usain Bolt Says His Pro Soccer Dream Is Over “It was a good experience. I really enjoyed just being in a team and it was different from track and field and it was fun while it lasted.”
Belgium’s Olympic Heptathlon Champ Nafissatou Thiam To Miss Indoor Season With Injury She tore a muscle in her left leg.

Weekend Indoor Results *All NCAA Results

World And Olympic Champ Katerina Stefanidi Opens Her Season With 4.74m Win At The Pole Vault Summit In Reno, Nevada She beat out US indoor champ Katie Nageotte on countback. 2017 NCAA champ Matt Ludwig won the men’s in 5.71m. Mondo Duplantis finished a ways back with 5.51m.
Grant Holloway Runs World-Leading 7.49 60H At The Clemson Invy In Florida In the 60m, Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown beat out teammate his Florida teammate Ryan Clark as both timed 6.62.
MB: Claudia Lane DNF and DNS in her comeback double after a fall

A Big Loss For The Running World

RunBlogRun: Run In Peace, Tommy Leonard – Thoughts On Tommy From Some Of The Sport’s Legends Quotes from Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Rod Dixon, Craig Virgin, Kathrine Switzer and Bobby Hodge.
RIP: Falmouth Road Race Founder Tommy Leonard Dies At 85 Bill Rodgers remembers Leonard, saying, “Tommy had the biggest heart of all runners. … Tommy was a rarity – a big giver, a big laugher. I think he was a Leprechaun. I’m so glad to have known him, and felt he was a friend.”
*MB: Tommy Leonard RIP- appreciation thread
Toni Reavis’ Tribute To Tommy Leonard “Tommy was the patron saint of running to thousands of people around the globe.”

Sunday Distance Action

Olympic 10,000m Silver Medalist Paul Tanui And Double Euro XC Champ Fionnuala McCormack Lead Fields For Antrim XC Tanui will have a battle with Asian Games 5,000m champ Birhanu Balew while this will be McCormack’s first race in a year since she took time away to have a baby. She’ll face 2018 10,000m world leader Pauline Kamulu and former NCAA champ Kate Avery.
Ugandans Joshua Cheptegei And Jacob Kiplimo Facing Off At Seville, Spain XC Race Cheptegei is the World 10,000 silver medalist while Kiplimo is unbeaten on the this winter season and ran a 26:41 on New Year’s eve. Commonwealth 10,000 champ Stella Chesang, steeplechase WR holder Beatrice Chepkoech and Euro XC champ Yasmine Can lead the women’s race.
Abera Kuma (2:05:50 PR) Going For The Course Record At The Mumbai Marathon Amane Gobena (2:21:51) is favored to defend her title in the women’s race.

More Virgin London Marathon

Former WR Holder Wilson Kipsang Added To London Marathon Field “This will be a comeback race for me. I’m focused on winning.”
Callum Hawkins And Andy Vernon Head British Charge In London This will be 2:10:17 man Hawkins’ first marathon since he collapsed during the Commonwealth Games. Charlotte Purdue leads the GB women.
Eliud Kipchoge Still Very Much Believes In The Sub-2 Hour Marathon “It’s possible. Once the human body sets the mind and focus, it will be attained and running under two hours is very much possible.”

NCAA Highlights From The Weekend

Penn State’s Danae Rivers Crushes Collegiate 1,000m Record With 2:38.58 At The Nittany Lion Challenge The previous record was 2:40.79 set by Kaela Edwards in 2017.
Two Indoor American Junior Records Go Down In The Pole Vault And 300m Stephen F. Austin’s Nastassja Campbell cleared 4.39m at Texas A&M while Virginia Tech’s Jacory Patterson ran 32.49 in the 300m.
Event-By-Event Top 10 Marks Of The Collegiate Weekend There were three sub-4:40 women’s miles led by Katie Rainsberger‘s 4:37.30
Jacory Patterson And Danae Rivers Get NCAA Athletes Of The Week For Their Respective Records

Doping News

Former Commonwealth 10,000m Champ Lucy Kabuu (2:19:34 Marathon PR) Gets Two-Year Drug Ban After Testing Positive For Morphine Athletics Kenya chairman Jackson Tuwei has claimed that from now on any Kenyan who has served a doping ban will not be able to represent the country internationally (effectively giving a lifetime ban).
Bahrain’s Former World Indoor 400m Champ Kemi Adekoya Is Provisionally Suspended After Testing Positive For Steroids
“Reasoned” Decisions Involving Russian Athletics In Sochi 2014 Doping Scandal To Be Published This Month CAS will outline why they overturned doping sanctions against 28 out of 39 Russian athletes who had been banned from the Olympic Games for life, with their results from Sochi 2014 being reinstated.

2019 Houston Half And Full Free Stream Tracking & Results

LRC Shura Kitata (60:11) And Brigid Kosgei (65:50) Win At 2019 Houston Half As Emily Sisson (67:30) Just Misses AR! The winners of the marathon were Kenya’s Albert Korir (2:10:02) and Ethiopia’s Biruktayit Degefa (2:23:38) as Tyler Jermann (9th in 2:13:29) and Kelsey Bruce (6th, 2:31:53) took top American honors. *Results *IAAF Recap

RRW Women Lead The Way In Houston With Fast Times In Half Marathon And Marathon Emily Sisson had mixed feelings about just missing the AR. “I think I was a little disappointed at first because I was so close to Molly’s record. I think I made some mistakes that cost me a bit, but tomorrow I’ll be pretty happy with it.”

Houston On The Fan Forum / Message Board

Looking Ahead To The 2019 Indoor Season

January 26: Sydney McLaughlin Making Her Professional Debut At The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix In Boston It’ll be her first race since 2018 NCAAs.
2019 IAAF World Indoor Tour Kicks Of Next Weekend In Boston A rundown of the six-meet series and how the points system works.
February 2: Dafne Schippers Will Lead The 60m At The Karlsruhe Indoor Meet
*World Indoor LJ Champ Juan Miguel Echevarria Will Be One Of The Headliners At The Karslruhe Indoor Meet
February 6: Trio Of World Pole Vault Champions Highlight At The Orlen Copernicus Cup In Torun Sam Kendricks, Shawn Barber and Pawel Wojciechowski will go head-to-head.
February 8: Two-Time World 200m Champ Dafne Schippers Will Make Her Spanish Racing Debut At The Madrid Indoor Meet
*Spain’s Oscar Husillos Will Renew His Rivalry With Luguelin Santos In Madrid These two clashed several times last year including World Indoors where Husillos beat out Santos, but both were DQed for lane infringements.
February 16: China’s World Indoor Silver Medalist Su Bingtian Will Take On GB’s Top 60m Sprinters At The Muller Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix He’ll face GB’s Euro 100m silver medalist Reece Prescod, world 4 x 100 champ CJ Ujah and Euro indoor champ Richard Kilty.
February 20: Jakob, Filip And Henrik Ingebrigsten All Racing The 1,500m At The Dusseldorf Indoor Meet It’ll be a stacked race with former World Indoor medalists Ayanleh Souleiman, Marcin Lewandowski and Jakub Holusa also in the field.

Pre-Race Houston News

RRW Emily Sisson Has Her Eyes On Molly Huddle’s American Half Marathon Record At Sunday’s Aramco Houston Half Marathon Sisson: “I’m going to take that as a compliment that (Molly) thinks I’m fit and ready to run fast.”

LRC 2019 Podcast #1: Houston Half Preview + LRC Answers The The Big Questions Ahead Of 2019 Season + Listener Audio & Fake Ryan Hall The LRC crew unveils its first podcast of 2019 and takes a look ahead at 2019, plus the great action at this weekend’s Aramco Houston Half, and for the first time has listener audio with some real and fake guests, and the threads of the week. Updated with time stamps.
*Discuss: Texas Runner Girl, Fake Ryan Hall and Fake Mike Rossi Joined Us on Our Podcast

LRC 2019 Houston Half/Full Marathon Preview: Hot Fields, Cold Temps, The American Debut For Sally Kipyego And The Return Of Kara Goucher Houston is always one of the highlights of the winter for US fans and this year’s races could be extra special as Olympic silver medalist Sally Kipyego races for the 1st time since declaring she’ll represent the US moving forward and Kara Goucher races a marathon for the 1st time as a 40-year-old.

LRC Parker Stinson Heads To The Houston Half Marathon With A New Coach: Dathan Ritzenhein Stinson and Ritzenhein have a relationship that stretches back a decade. They try not to worry about the fact that, should all go well, they’ll be racing each other for an Olympic berth next year.

Doping Updates

WADA Says They “Successfully Retrieved” Doping Data From The Moscow Lab Craig Reedie defended his decision to reinstate Russia, saying this wouldn’t have happened otherwise. We just don’t get the logic there.
MB: Lucy Kabuu Had A Bunch Of Ridiculous Excuses For Why She Tested Positive For Morphine She used the normal “tainted meat” excuse, but also tried to blame some of her fellow athletes, saying they spiked her drink or that she had a sip from their drink.
WADA Executive Board To Issue RUSADA Compliance Verdict On January 22nd This would follow a two-day meeting on January 14 and 15 in Montreal.

The Pre Classic Will Have A New Home For 2019

The Pre Classic Is Relocating To Stanford For 2019 Hayward Field will still be under construction, so the USA’s only Diamond League meet will be at Stanford for this year on June 30th.

British News

Athletics Weekly: Why Mo Farah Can Beat Eliud Kipchoge Kipchoge has won 10 out of the 11 marathons he’s run, but assuming he doesn’t retire, he’ll have to lose one day. But that day probably won’t be this April.
Athletics Weekly: Callum Hawkins (28:55) And Eilish McColgan (31:51) Set Road 10k PRs Over The Weekend
February: Laura Muir And Andy Butchart Among Athletes Confirmed For GB Indoor Championships
The Telegraph: UK Athletics Facing Leadership Crisis After Chairman And CEO Resign The CEO resigned months ago and now Chairman Richard Bowker has stepped down as he faced a vote of no confidence due to months of infighting and discontent.
British Long Jumper Jazmin Sawyers Talks About Her Move To The US To Be Coached By Lance Brauman She is in in the same Florida training group as Noah Lyles, Tyson Gay and Shaunae Miller-Uibo.

Kipchoge Vs. Farah At London

World Record Holder Eliud Kipchoge Will Return To Defend His Title At The 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon This means that Kipchoge will race against the previously-announced Mo Farah. The London event director Hugh Brasher says, “Everyone has been talking about another head-to-head between Mo and Eliud … I cannot wait to see who comes out on top.”