Quote Of The Day

"I love running so much, but at the same time I'm realistic. If I can't make it as a pro, then I'll go into coaching or business."

"You see, I want to become a better runner than my father. But I'm determined to become a better man."

- US sub-4:00 miler Darren Brown in a must-read article from John Brant and Runner's World. Darren is running the mile tonight in the Music City Distance Carnival.

2009 NCAA Meet Is Fast Approaching

LRC: 2009 NCAA Men's Preview We break down the men's mid-d and distance events plus the relays, 100, 400 and team competition for you.
LRC: 2009 NCAA Women's Preview We break down the men's mid-d and distance events plus the relays, 100, and team competition for you.
LetsRun.com's 2009 NCAA Prediction Contest After reading our previews, we dare you to see how your knowledge stacks up against that of the very brightest - the LetsRun.com community. Who has truly the best knowledge of NCAA track and fied? Enter the contest and find out. Get your friends and compete in your own group. And because we are kind hearted souls, a perfect distance ballot will net you $20,900.

Doha, Rabat, Hengelo ... Now Turin - "Cocky" Kaki's Win Streak Continues *Photos

*What's Next In Europe? Warsaw Meet Preview

*Yelena Isinbayeva Decides To Vault In London - Media Explodes With Articles "You know you're a track star when ..."
*Yelena Coming To London To Vault - Bolt To Sprint

LRC: The Week That Was This week we get ready for Usain Bolt to move to the 400, break down the Reebok Grand Prix in depth, give props to Tyson Gay and heap praise on Anna Willard. We also sadly have to officially write off Alan Webb for 2009 (with a tiny asterisk). The facts show clearly, if anything, Webb is getting worse as the season goes along.

*Glen Mills Impressed But Not Intimidated By Gay's 19.58 We want to give Glen Mills an honorary LetsRun.com degree for being such a good coach.
*Writer Excited About Gay Vs. Bolt
*World's Fastest Female Sprinters Jeter And Williams To Face Off In Eugene With Golden Girl Fraser American Carmelita Jeter is slowly building quite a name for herself.

*IAAF's Prefontaine Classic Preview Not quite the caliber of the LRC's A Fan's Guide to Pre.

Twittering Is New Obsession Of Many - LetsRun Says: Don't Twitter. Run!

NCAA Meet Starts In Less Than 1 Week - Expect Aggie/Duck Team Battle

*Texas A&M Aggies List Their NCAA Track & Field Squads
*Tough Luck: Oregon Javelin Thrower Tears Her ACL At Regional Meet Our NCAA analysis is coming out this weekend, but until then we'll give you a preview: it looks like Oregon and Texas A&M are going to be tight on both the men's and women's side at NCAAs.

Dexter Lee's Agent Upbeat For His Client's Potential The young Lee has run 10.31 and has come through big at world juniors. Reebok has decided to give him a contract and hope he goes big after some developmental years spent studying in the US.
Part 1: The Next Bolt? 17-Year-Old Jamaican Double World Champion Dexter Lee Goes Pro For Reebok

Profiles Of New York Mini 10k Entrants Led By Catherine The Great

Boston And New York Want To Host Olympic Trial Marathons Again, But Want It Cheaper

Brief Chat With Deena Kastor Runner's World

Free Self-Help Tip: Exercise Elevates Moods Of Test Subjects For 12 Hours After We were thinking maybe this study means we should go running in the morning rather than waste 8 hours of "elevated mood" sleeping. Or you can just run 12 hours apart every day and always be happy.

Wall Street Journal Writer Asks: Can Ivy League Sports Teams Get Their Luster Back? LetsRun.com asks: Did we miss something? We didn't notice the luster was gone. The writer assumes that because Harvard can't compete with USC in football that Ivy League sports have something wrong with them. We disagree but it's still a worthwhile read.

Berlin World Championship News

*Mucho Moolah: $7 Million+ In Prize Money Awaits World Championship Top Finishers Plus add $100,000 for any world record you break (which won't happen in a distance event).
*Kenya Requiring Only One 10,000m Trial For Worlds Seems like they want their 10k guys like road world record holder Micah Kogo a little fresher for the last 400m when either Geb, Bekele or Sihine of Ethiopia have been blowing them away.
*Good Hengelo Recap From Kenya - Beijing Champ Brimin Kipruto Brimming With Confidence He doesn't usually run as fast as Paul Kipsiele Koech, but he sure wins when it counts.

British Running News

*Paula Radcliffe And Mara Yamauchi To Provide Strong 1-2 Punch For GB WC Marathon Team *Paula Passing Up Payday To Run Berlin World Championships Having Paula in the race immediately makes it more compelling.
*Dwain Chambers Has Invitation Revoked From Small German Track Meet Dwain is finding it very tough to find races.

Interesting Japanese News From Brett Larner

*New Tokyo Marathon To "Feature" 10km-Long Underwater Tunnel Section This will undoubtedly be a good place for runners to employ tunnel-vision focus.
*5 Japanese Runners Save The Life Of A Fellow Marathoner Suffering From A Heart Attack On The Course This may be the only time it is deemed honorable for a Japanese runner to drop out of a race.

Prefontaine Classic Brings In The Stars *TV On NBC 2 - 4 pm Eastern Sunday, June 7

*LRC: A Fan's Guide To The 2009 Prefontaine Classic
We break down the events in great detail in chronological order. Print this handy guide out and sit down and enjoy the NBC telecast. The meet is going to be great as the fields are so stacked that we had to pick a 2008 US Olympian to finish dead last in one race. The Bowerman mile is top notch with Asbel Kiprop and Haron Keitany. "Sadly we think it's a higher probability that Alan Webb is a DNS than that he breaks his high school PR in this race."
*MBoard: Will Lagat Get AR In Men's 3k?
*
Pre Meet Website Including Event Previews *LRC Preview
*Anna Willard Going For 1500m This Weekend Against Barringer Before Moving Up To Steeplechase
*MORE ON PRE BELOW

Must Read On Barry And Darren Brown - Father/Son Sub-4:00 Darren's father Barry Brown was one of the leading members of the Florida Track Club along with guys like Marty Liquori, John L. Parker and Frank Shorter before taking his life when Darren was a child. Amazing read about an amazing kid giving it a go as a professional runner.

Good News: Augusta State (GA) Adds Cross Country As A Sport

1:48.66 For Robby Andrews At NJ Meet Of Champs - Full Results A LRC reader wrote to us saying the NJ MOC was sick and he was right.

Kenyans Do Race-Walking! Photo Evidence In The Link

More Pre Articles

*Yuriy Borzakovskiy Ready To Begin Summer Season At Prefontaine
*Too Good To Be True: Gay Not Running 100m At Pre
*Asafa Powell Says Ankle Will Get Stronger With Racing
*Another Great Piece On Overshadowed Olympic Champion Dawn Harper
*High Jumper Jesse Williams Thriving In Track Town USA (TM)
*
1:47.68 HS Senior Elijah Greer Going For HS 800m Record At Pre
*Asafa Powell Gets Chance For Redemption Sunday At Pre Against Tyson Gay
*Pamela Jelimo, Nancy Lagat And Janeth Jepkosgei Lead Kenyan Charge To Pre Meet Add 1,500m star Asbel Kiprop and 3:30 guy Keitany to the 9-strong list of Kenyans competing in Eugene.
*Nick Symmonds Returns To Pre, Where He Made A Big Splash In 2007
*A Look At The History Of Foreign Athletes Coming To The Pre Meet

*National Running Day Celebrated In New York With Deena Kastor
*NYTimes Article On DNF'ing In A Marathon Vs. Struggling To Finish

*USADA Rips Danica Patrick For Saying It Ain't Cheating If You Don't Get Caught
*Not Big In The US Press: Dwyane Wade Accused Of Doing Variety Of Drugs The NBA, through an almost fool-proof anti-drug policy, have avoided the steroid/HGH scandals besetting the MLB and NFL. Wade is suing the accuser for $10 million for libel. The accuser sounds like a sleaze.

Some Interesting News Today

1. Usain Bolt On Hand As Glen Mills Officially Launches His Racers Track Club We were thinking that it's probably not a coincidence how well the Jamaican sprinters have been running. Glen Mills, who has coached many of them and many of their coaches plus guys like Kim Collins, has been at it for 30 years and seems to have the sport figured out at the "genius level." We're happy to see him get more funding for his club.
2. Bryan Green On Why NCAA Regionals Are A Good Thing LetsRun.com is going to have more to say about the NCAA regional qualifying system in a few days, but until then this is a really good start.
3. Absolutely Inspiring: Iraq Marathon Honors Fallen Soldiers David Ungrady did a great job reporting on a race that clearly meant the world to the soldiers who were able to run it in 100 degree weather ... and then work a full day on the base.
4. This might be the funniest news of the day: Upcoming Toronto Track Meet Featuring Bolt's 100m Debut Has Failed To Get Insurance Against World Record Insurers wanted no action on the Toronto meet unless the time barrier was set at 9.5! Meet was hoping for a million bonus for a Bolt WR. Nobody would take that action!

The Future

*1:47.68 HS Senior Elijah Greer Going For HS 800m Record At Pre
*Portland HS Mile Race To Feature Robby Andrews It's being billed as a sub-4:00 attempt on June 13th.


National Running Day Was Wednesday

Tell Us What You Did On National Running Day

Hengelo Meet Sizzles

*LRC Recap *LRC Thread *Hengelo Results There were some unexpected results in Hengelo including Kenenisa Bekele dropping out of the 1,500, and some super performances including another impressive win by the man to the left (Abubaker Kaki) and a sub-4:00 run by Gelete Burka. Americans Reese Hoffa and Dwight Phillips had tight contests with international stars Thomasz Majewski and Irving Saladino plus all 3 steeplechase medal winners from Beijing squared off. Find out more in our recap including who became the first man under 13:00 in 2009 (you will be surprised).

NCAA Regionals

Amazing Page: All Regional Results On One Page

Busy Weekend Photos

*Freihofer's 5k Run For Women PhotoRun
*San Diego Rock 'N' Roll Marathon PhotoRun
*Reebok Photos PhotoRun
*Hengelo Photos Durand Photo
*NCAA East Regional Photos PrettySporty

Sign Up: Cornell's Summer Track/XC Camps Featuring LetsRun's Rojo

*Cornell Track & Field Camp July 12-16
*Cornell Cross-Country Camp July 26-30
Experienced D1 Coaches. Cornell Athlete Counselors Including NCAA Qualifiers. A Lot Of Fun. Stay In The Dorms. Eat In One Of The Best College Dining Halls. Every Event Covered. Distance Runners Welcome At Both. All Skill Levels Welcome.