Quote Of The Day:

"What were you thinking about when you were lying down between jumps?" asks her mother, Madelynn.

"You wouldn't want to know," says Bonnie.

- Excerpt from the best read of our day, an essay by Sports Illustrated writer Gary Smith on Texas track athlete Bonnie Richardson. One of 14 in her graduating class, Richardson twice won the Texas Class A Track & Field Championship by herself, garnering a ton of attention that Richardson quite frankly didn't want. Thanks go to a letsrun.com reader for sending us the link. See a video interview with Flotrack after her second state win here. Richardson is now a freshman at 2009 NCAA outdoor team champion Texas A&M.  

Best Read In The Industry: LRC's Week That Was Last week was a little light in terms of big events, so we highlight the efforts to save the Millrose Games, tell you how the LetsRun.com audience is the smartest on the planet, talk about Pre-NCAAs and give out lots of free training advice.

Bolt Bowls Cricket Star - Like LeBron James Striking Out A-Rod? Usain Bolt played a charity cricket match and the verdict is that he is actually a remarkably good cricket player. We're thinking his performance is akin to hitting a double and single off Tim Lincecum or striking out Derek Jeter in spring training.
*Bolt's Cricket Performance Receives Rave Reviews
*Usain Bolt "Bowls" Pro Cricket Star Chris Gayle

Article On Barefoot Running - Dallas Morning News Thanks to the NY Times Bestseller Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, many eager runners are trying barefoot or "natural" running. There are no secrets to running success, but trying barefoot running seems to help some people think more about posture and biomechanics and reminds us we don't need to spend $150 on a pair of shoes to enjoy running. Almost every casual runner we talk to asks us if we run barefoot.
New Book:
"Something In The Air" By Richard Hoffer - 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games And American Defiance Mixed review from LA Times.

LRC
American High School Student Travels To Addis And Trains With The Ethiopians - Entry #7 - Use Your ARMS! We are back with the latest chapter in Neb Osman's journal entries from his dream trip to Ethiopia this summer. In this episode, Neb's running motion stands out in a crowd as he trains with Ethiopian national team members.

Kenya 
Wanjiru Will Face Zersenay Tadese And Patrick Makau In Stellar Jan 7 Half In Abu Dhabi $300,000 will be on the line for half marathon aces.
*Some Kenyan Athletic Camps Come Under Fire The article points out that Kenya's training camp system has some problems with sexual misconduct and corruption, which can come as no surprise given the money involved with distance running in Kenya. To suggest Ethiopia's system is perfect in comparison, as this article does, is ridiculous.

NCAA Men's Poll Have PAC-10 Stanford/Oregon At 1/2 And Big XII OkSt./Colorado At 3/4
Good conference battles coming up!

Yokota Breaks Japanese 15-Year-Old National 800m Record In 1:46.16 The Japanese have great marathoners and some great 100m runners, so how is their mid-distance so relatively slow?

Ross Tucker, aka The Sports Scientist, Talks About Fatigue And The Brain
You have to be in a "sciency" mood for this writing and video, but Tucker is on the forefront of scientific study of things like pacing that are very important to distance runners.

US News - Upcoming ING NYC Marathon

Recommended Read: Bolota Asmerom Talks Running As He Prepares For New York City Marathon Asmerom has been a man of near-misses and impressive performances. Can he hit it big in New York City on the second try?
*Tatyana Petrova, Russian Track World Medalist, Hopes To Replicate Fellow Track Star Liliya Shobukhova's BoA Chicago Win In ING NYC
*Ryan Hall's Latest Blog Goes Deep - Changing Perspective To Take In Every Moment
*Grete Waitz, Joan Benoit And Deena Kastor To Speak Together In NYC 3 marathoning greats will talk on Thursday night at 6:30 pm in Manhattan's Times Center.

Dathan Ritzenhein Writes About Why His Half Marathon Showed Him The Old "Ritz" Is Back About 70% of LetsRun.com readers were more excited about Ritz's 12:56 than his bronze at the World Half, but Dathan is clearly more thrilled with his ability to compete aggressively in Birmingham.

USATF Head Vows To Help Save Millrose Games
*Article From Armory Website With Photos, Video Someone email us if we are wrong, but hasn't USATF been involved with this meet for years?
*Doug Logan Blogs On Why The US Has Lost Its International Athletic Political Capital On a different topic, Logan insightfully discusses why he thinks the US can't land the Olympics and other major intl. sporting events. A worthwhile read.

NCAA News
DII Shippensburg's Neely Spence Wins Lock Haven Meet And Beats West Virginia Stars
Spence now has two high-quality wins in a row against serious D1 competition. Two weeks ago at Paul Short and this weekend at Lock Haven/Penn State. On Friday, she took down WVU's NCAA All-Americans Keri Bland and Marie Louise Asselin.
*D1 Regional & National Rankings

Big Weekend Of NCAA Action *LetsRun.com NCAA Polls Are Open Again For Voting *Oct 15 Rankings

Pre-Nats
Blue Men:
Luke Puskedra Wins And Leads Oregon To Victory Over #2 NAU And #3 Alabama Puskedra had a subpar opener but returned to form to lead Oregon. It's worth noting, however, that NAU star (and World Champs runner) David McNeill had a subpar day, finishing as NAU's 6th man. If he was only NAU's 3rd man, they would have beaten Oregon.
Results: *Team *Individual
Thread:
Oregon Men Win Blue Race in an Upset !!!

Blue Women: Jenny Barringer Leads Colorado Women To Surprise Win At Pre-Nats
If anything, this weekend was vindication for the knowledge of LetsRun.com viewers, who ranked both the Oregon men and Colorado women much higher in the LRC National Cross-Country Polls than the coaches. The Buff women were only #19 in the country. Barringer crushed the field as expected, but her teammates backed her up very well for the win over Florida State and #4 Oregon (who finished 3rd).
Results: *Team *Individual
Thread: Jordan Hasay THIRD at Pre-Nationals to Jenny Barringer and Susan Kuijken!
*Mark Wetmore Interview

White Men:
Chris Derrick Defeats Samuel Chelanga, Stanford Cruises At Pre-NCAAs Chelanga opened up an early lead, but Derrick attacked the course the 2nd half and got the win.
*Team Results *Individual Results
Thread: Post Pre-Nats who is now individual favourite?
*Chris Derrick/Elliot Heath Interview

White Women: #1 Washington Women Cruise At Pre-Nats Illinois' Angela Bizzarri got the individual win. The Huskies cruised without PAC-10 runner-up Mel Lawrence.
Results:
*Team *Individual

Pre-Nats Combined Men's Scores


Chile Pepper: Oklahoma State Crushes Field At Chile Pepper With German Fernandez Only 11th
*Men's Individual Results *Men's Team Results *Women's Team Results: Texas Tech Women Cruise At Chile Pepper
Thread: Chili Pepper Invite: Fernandez injuries?

Friday

Virginia Men And Emil Heineking Defend Turf, Take Down Syracuse Heineking won by 20 seconds over the talented field at "Panorama Farms."

Penn State National Cancelled! (LRC Boards) Half a foot of snow in mid October was apparently too much, as message board posters wonder if former Nittany Lion coach Harry Groves would have cancelled the meet. Some teams headed to nearby Lock Haven University to race instead.
*Penn State/Lock Haven Women's Results
*Rojo's Cornell XC Wins At Lock Haven

LetsRun.com Pre-NCAA Polls
The LRC voters aren't buying into Stanford at #1, as they chose Oklahoma State men and Washington women as the top teams in the country heading into a big weekend of action.

US Road News From The Weekend

Iowa Simon Sawe Wins Des Moines Marathon After Passing Train Turns Marathon Into A 400m Sprint The second place runner caught him during the train crossing, so Sawe had to outkick him after waiting a minute for the train to pass. We know all about Sawe's closing speed as he outkicked LRC co-founder Wejo in 2000 (see photo) and his advice after the race helped Wejo lower his 10k PR by over a minute in his next race.

Detroit
Teacher/Coach Nick Stanko Beats Hansons/Brooks Runner Chad Johnson In Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon
*Three More Runners Die, This Time In Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon *Autopsies Inconclusive
*Great Gesture:
Joe Shay Offers Support To Families Of 3 Men Who Died During Detroit Marathon Joe is the father of US star Ryan Shay, who died unexpectedly during the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Providence
Super Talent Kim Smith - NZ Half Marathon Record Holder - Making Permanent Shift To Marathon Providence RI's Kim Smith lowered the Kiwi half record by a minute in Birmingham. She targets April's London Marathon as her first big marathon performance.

Erin Moeller Signs 4-Year Deal With Mizuno Moeller was tenth at the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials.

Columbus
Marathon Top Results, Recap And Quotes - Records Set In Half Marathon

Denver
Marathon And 1/2 Marathon Results, Recap And Quotes
*Man Completes Denver Marathon After Diving Accident Leaves Him Paralyzed

International News

*South African Ruling Party Demands IAAF Gender Test Results Be Nullified Mike Hurst for Sydney Telegraph
*IAAF Head Lamine Diack Flying To South Africa To Talk With Athletic And Political Officials

Video Of Usain Bolt Playing Cricket
BBC video is short but shows Bolt bowling (pitching) and he looks like he's pretty good. There's another video in our right column that shows him batting.

Fascinating Article On The Almost Century-Old Rivalry Between adidas And Puma These two major brands began in the same town in Germany over 80 years ago but split when the better-looking of the co-founder brothers allegedly slept with his brother's wife.

Big Weekend For Japanese Collegiate Runners

*Hakone Ekiden 20k Qualifier Yields 11 Sub-1 Hour Performances By Japanese Collegiates Brett Larner of Japan Running News reports on an amazing race.
*LRC: Larner On The Boards: "NCAA XC is nice and all ..."
*Hakone Ekiden Trials From The Inside Swiss runner Christian Sommer ran the Hakone trials and wrote about the experience.

Million Dollar Man: Sammy Wanjiru Will Race Zayed Intl Half Marathon On Jan 7 For Chance At $300k Purse (Pat Butcher reports) Sammy Wanjiru won $175,000 in Chicago, will earn $500,000 for the World Marathon Majors overall win, and could win another $300,000 in January.

UK Athletics' Charles Van Commenee Names New National Event Coach For Endurance
George Gandy coaches big-time miler Lisa Dobriskey and will help Ian Stewart at the top of the distance coaching ranks.
*More Interesting UK News: 76-Year-Old Briton Runs 111 Miles In 24 Hours In "Self Transcendence Run"

Weekend Road Action

Amsterdam: Unheralded Gilbert Yegon Breaks Haile G's Course Record By 1 Second, Eyerusalem Kuma Wins  It was a good day for men's debutantes as Yegon won and Elijah Keitany was 2nd in his debut. Yegon was cramping at the end as this video shows, but he just nipped Gebrselassie's course record. On the women's side, Kuma won by over 2 minutes and Hilda Kibet, sister cousin of World XC Champ Lornah Kiplagat and sister to world 5000m silver medalist Sylvia Kibet, was third in 2:30:31 in her marathon debut second marathon attempt.
*Results

Beijing: World Champion Bai Xue Wins Slow Race, Kenyan Samuel Mugo Wins In 2:08:20 PR The race served as the Chinese National Games as this article indicates and Bai was content to just get the win. This was Mugo's 2nd big win in China, as he won Xiamen in 2:08:51 in January.

Portugal:
Gebrselassie Runs 1:00:02, Takes Down Wanjiru's Course Record At Oporto Sportzone Half Marathon In Portugal

Saturday On The Roads: Former 2-Time NCAA XC Champ Saimon Bairu And Former Stanford Star Malindi Elmore Win Canadian 10k Road Titles

Interesting

Top Arizona HS Team Forfeits Season After Coach Loses His Job Over Refusing To Tell A Volunteer Coach Who Was In US Illegally He Can't Coach Anymore

Random But Interesting News

Semenya Update

One Of Our Old Favorite Websites Deadspin Highlights "Skirt Chaser 5k" There should be more events like this.

Brief Chat With Jorge Torres Olympian Jorge Torres talks about his race plans for New York (hoping for 2:10-2:11:30), his Mom's 100% recovery from her car wreck, and his training partners in Boulder, including 2:12 man Jason Hartmann (profile here). Good read.