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Inside Look At Mammoth Track Club Running Times Many of our readers are interested in knowing more about the training of Ryan Hall, Jen Rhines, Deena Kastor, Anna Willard, Scotty Bauhs and the rest of Terrence Mahon's Mammoth Lakes group. This is the most informative article we've seen yet. There is a reason American distance running is improving: coaches and athletes are working full-time to get better.
*LRC Message Boards: RYAN HALL ANNOUNCEMENT

*IAAF Kawasaki Super Meet Recap - Gay Wins In 10.13 The Kawasaki Super Meet brought in a few stars including Tyson Gay, Felix Sanchez, Allyson Felix and Reese Hoffa. Times and performances were nothing to write home about but we're sure the Saki was goooood.
*LRC: Photos From The Kawasaki Meet!
*Results From Super Meet In Kawasaki Japan

*Usain Bolt Camp Dismisses Mega $$ Offer Saying Bolt Is Still Puma Sounds like the offer is there but Camp Bolt needed to please the current sponsors. In case you missed it, Usain Bolt was reportedly offered a $100,000,000 long term endorsement contract by a crazy Chinese company.
*Agent Ricky Simms Says Usain Bolt Is The Highest Paid Track & Field Athlete Of All-Time Even Before The Latest Offer Meanwhile most NFL punters make more per year than Bolt.

Deriba Merga Is Officially A World Record Holder - IAAF Ratifies His 41:29 15k Split From RAK Half Marathon

Water Cooler Conversation Starter
16 Siblings Complete Same Marathon In Under 5:30 It's rare enough having 16 siblings these days, let alone all 16 of them running the same marathon!!

Are People Insane? Usain Bolt Offered $100,000,000 Contract By Chinese Firm We're speechless.   
*UK Guardian: Usain Bolt And Skepticism Go Hand In Hand

NCAA Track Regional System Scrapped And New Super Regional Locales Announced 200 schools in the east, 100 schools in the west. *MBoard Thread

Jim Hage Asks "Is Haile Still Great?" After He Won His 4th Straight Berlin Marathon In 2:06:08 After going out in 1:01:44 and breaking the world 30k world record en route to the 26th fastest marathon of all-time (of which he has run a whopping 6), Employee #1 is shaking his head at the question in disbelief.

Dathan Ritzenhein And Amy Yoder Begley Lead Recently Announced Team USA Half Marathoners Buzz: US fans will be really interested to see how Ritz does in this race.

After Berlin 10k Snub, Japan-Based Kenyan Gideon Ngatuny Turns Down Athletics Kenya The paper tries to make it seem like Ngatuny snubbed Athletics Kenya after they invited him to run the world half marathon but really his sponsors won't let him run as the Chiba Ekiden is more important to them.

LRC: The Week That Was Last week was quite a week, as Ryan Hall got ready for New York, the #1 and #2 marathoners in history squared off in Berlin and some sprinters ran really fast in Shanghai. We break it all down for you and tell you why Ryan Hall most certainly is NOT the favorite for NYC and tell you how 9.69 is not as fast as 9.71.

Recommended Read: Candid And Unbelievably Interesting Interview With Brad Hudson Really, there are about 20 quotes of the day in this interview alone, as Hudson talks about not wanting to coach Dathan Ritzenhein, predicts Alan Webb will run 12:50 and may win Olympic 5k gold, opines on why Americans are good at running again and offers excellent training advice to anyone looking for the "key" to running fast.

Recommended Read: Fascinating Article On How Harder Aerobic Running Makes Mice Smarter Mice forced to run at faster aerobic paces on mini mouse treadmills performed better in cognitive tests than mice allowed to run at their own pace on a rodent wheel. Maybe we should all be running light tempo runs before big mental tests.

Abnormal Fare And Fodder

• 2 Super-Fast New British Trains To Be Named After Seb Coe And Kelly Holmes Is the Dwain Chambers Express next?
• Inspiring: Cross-Dressing British Comedian Eddie Izzard Completes 43 Marathons In 52 Days It goes to show where there is a will, there is a way.
• Is The Bee's Waggle Dance Too Good To Be True? New Evidence Upends What Was Previously Seen As Fact
• Why Not? Some Great Photos From Leadville 100 Ultra Race

For Wild Weekend's Results, See This Column

WOW: Tyson Gay Ties Bolt's Beijing 100m WR With AR 9.69 And Carmelita Jeter Hops Marion Jones With PR 10.64
*Shanghai Track Meet Results
*Video Embedded To The Right
We know we're a distance-oriented site, but since there weren't any records on the roads, we have to give a headline to the most underappreciated sprinters of all-time: Tyson Gay and Carmelita Jeter. Both are the 2nd-fastest of all time.

LRC: Ryan Hall Looking Good For New York *Photo Of Ryan Hall Crossing The Finish Line Ryan Hall hammered a 4:27 13th mile to win the 2009 ING Philadelphia Distance Run in 61:52.
*Ryan Hall Wins His 1st And Catherine Ndereba Her 7th Philadelphia Distance Run Race Press Release
*Ndereba Sibs Almost Pull Off Double Win Philadelphia Inquirer
Olympic Marathon champion Constantina Dita finished 10th on the women's side while Josh Cox nabbed 6th for the men.
*Mboard Thread On Race

LRC Special American High School Student Travels To Addis And Trains With The Ethiopians - Entry #1 - Kenenisa Bekele!?! A friend of LetsRun.com traveled this summer to Ethiopia. Determined to continue his preparation for the fall cross country season, Nebiyu Osman found a high-altitude training group in Addis Ababa that took him in. His stories, video, and 9-part journal entries offer the reader a chance to learn about the homeland of some of the world's greatest runners. Although we had not planned to share the stories beforehand, we found them so interesting that we wanted to release the entries 1-by-1 in a sort of mini-series. In this episode Neb finds his Ethiopian coach.

Recommended Watch: Wonderful Interview With Haile Gebrselassie Where He Talks About The Importance Of Coaching Gebrselassie is clearly a very talented runner and he also is great at communicating the important aspects of training.

Sad News - Deaths In The Running Community

• Teenage Wisconsin Boy Dies Of Natural Causes During HS Cross Country Practice
• Bill Shelley Passes Away - Took Care Of Sunken Meadows CC Course For Over 40 Years

LRC Interview With Wisconsin Coach Mick Byrne Wondering if Wisco can contend? Get all your info on the #4 LRC-ranked team in the NCAA straight from the boss. Graduating Stuart Eagon, Matt Withrow and Christian Wagner, Wisconsin looks for some help from the best freshmen and redshirt freshmen in the country and a couple of All-American veterans. Byrne talks about his team, "the best cross-country course in the country" (NOT in Terre Haute, but Madison) and his fundamental training advice. Enjoy.
LRC Season Preview: Young Badgers Earn #4 LRC Ranking

LRC Exclusive: Cornell Medical Student And Exercise Physiologist PhD Matthew Goodwin Explains The Caster Semenya Case In A LetsRun.com Exclusive Commentary Dr. Goodwin explains the science behind sex determination, the probable cause of Semenya's sexual ambiguity, and his reasoning for why the IAAF should award two women's 800m gold medals if Semenya is determined to be "too male" to compete as a female in further competitions.
*Science Of Sport: Semenya Timeline Of Lies And Drama 
*London Times: Caster Semenya Is Real Victim She will be a victim if everyone keeps telling her she is one.
*Chuene's Fate May Be Decided Thursday
*Writer Cautions Press And Public To Check Their Semenya Outrage
*Hurst Asks Is Medal Worth Young Girl's Sanity Two more interesting Caster Semenya articles. The first one (from South Africa) sort of bashes Sydney Telegraph writer Mike Hurst (he who published the "leak" from a source close to the IAAF saying Semenya will be banned) and the second one is by Mike Hurst.

Weekend In New York City? Catch A Great Road Mile

*Star-Studded Fields Announced For This Weekend's 5th Avenue Mile In NYC Sub-13:00 Americans Bernard Lagat and Matt Tegenkamp battle World Athletics Final medalist Leonel Manzano and many more studs on the men's side. The women's race can be billed as a USA vs. England battle with Hannah England and Lisa Dobriskey facing off with Christin Wurth-Thomas and Shannon Rowbury.
*Long Profile Of 5th Avenue Mile Participant And World Silver Medalist Lisa Dobriskey

Looking Forward And Looking Back

• 98-Year-Old Runner One Of Many Highlights From Toronto's Scotiabank Marathon This Weekend
• Steve Hooker Talks About His Amazing Berlin Gold Performance On Basically One Good Leg His vault performance was one of our favorite moments of Berlin.
• Warm Praise For Van Commenee Thanks To Berlin Medal Haul Amazing what a charismatic leader can do.

Berlin: Gallant Geb Goes For It But Bonks Beyond 35k!
*LRC: Beautiful Race Photos From PhotoRun

The Great Haile Gebrselassie's Final Words From Berlin Catch Haile's parting words and some final reflections on one of the most congenial sporting personalities in the modern era. Longtime athletics writer Pat Butcher is on assignment in Berlin.

*Video: Post-Race Chat With The Most Happy Competitor Ever The great one went after the WR in a major way, hitting halfway in 1:01:44 and staying on pace until 35k. Even Haile G couldn't keep the pace and he ran the next 5k in 15:57 (5:07/mile) and had to settle for a 2:06:08 win. In hindsight, the heat may have been too much or the pace a little too quick. He did get rewarded with a new 30k WR.
*IAAF Recap With More Haile Quotes
*Science Of Sport Coverage Here See where it all fell apart for Haile G in his 4th, and most daring, Berlin win.

Must-Read: Semenya Uproar Shifts To Lying Officials In Sporting Drama Of The Decade

*SA Paper Shock Headline: "Chuene Is A Liar Who Was Willing To Sacrifice A Young Woman's Future For A Medal."
*Mr. Secretary General, We Agree!!! The secretary-general of the ruling African National Congress, Gwede Mantashe, said all ASA officials "should be gagged before they make matters worse." ASA Boss Leonard Chuene admits he and the rest of ASA have been lying about their ignorance of any pre-Berlin tests on Caster Semenya.
*World War 2.5? Officials Call For Chuene's Head! But not until he undergoes invasive gender testing.
*Too Late: Leonard Chuene Apologizes
*Earlier: Unearthed Emails Show Indisputable Proof South African Athletics Boss Is Lying About Semenya Knowledge
This whole episode demonstrates why good journalists and a free press are so important.

Berlin Post-Race

*Berlin's Live Blog Here
*LRC MBoard Here
*Race Re-Broadcast On Internet Here *Race Will Be Re-Broadcast On Universal Sports TV At 5 pm EST (Now On Directv #604) Let's hope it's rebroadcast then as, like competitor.com, universalsports.com blew it, as the supposed "live" internet stream was more than 45 minutes delayed, leaving LRC fans irate.