Quote Of The Day

"I just want to say that I'm the first sophomore, but my age is a junior, so I just don't want to disrespect the other athletes."

16 year old Lukas Verzbicas pointed this out after his 15-second crushing of the Foot Locker Championships. In 31 runnings of the Foot Locker Championships only 2 juniors have won the boys championships. Watch the video interview below. 

1. Foot Locker Cross Country Championships *Boys Results *Girls Results *LRC Photos

LRC Recap/Results: Sophomore Lukas Verzbicas Smashes FL Finals

*LRC Photos Verzbicas looks scary good.

*Race Video of the Girls 0.2 Second Finish

*Boys Results

*Girls Results

2. European Cross Country Championships

3. Honoloulu Marathon Recap and Results

4. USATF Club Nats

USATF Club National Cross-Country Results
Zap Fitness men, led by David Jankowski and David Nightingale, won the men's team race. Boulder Running Co./adidas won the women's race. Serena Burla took the open individual women's race.
*Recap

"Tiger Zoo"

Gillette Decides Tiger's Face Is No Longer The Best A Man Can Get
Gillette statement makes a "mach-ery" of Tiger: "As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs."
*Employee #1's preferred Tiger coverage: Bill Simmons Writes

Listen Now - LetsRun.com Training Talk Webcast
1st Episode Featured Guest: Coach John Kellogg
Click on the "play" button below:
 

LRC Training Talk Article 1 - Is Your Training Repeatable?
In 2010, we at LetsRun.com hope to make a huge push to talk more about training.

Over 100 Journalists Surroud Liu Xiang As He Wins Season Finale At East Asian Games In 13.66

Caster Semenya's Test Results Will Be Kept Secret, But IAAF Will Pay For A Surgery If She Wants It
Seems likely they're not going to allow Semenya to compete in female races unless she gets some sort of operation. The IAAF are willing to pay for the expense of a surgery.

Marathon News

Kiyoko Shimahara Returns To Honolulu Marathon As Favorite To Win Again Shimahara's 4th marathon of '09 doesn't mean her others have lacked quality. She ran 2:25 to win Hokkaido and 2:28 to beat Catherine Ndereba at Yokohama.

Japanese 27:41 10ker Announces Intent To Race Marathon In February Yu Mitsuya ran 27:41 as a 20-year-old.

Marion Jones News All In One Place

Marion Jones, Ekaterini Thanou, Tanya Lawrence Bad Girls - Nobody Gets The Gold

IOC Makes Gutsy Decision And Refuses To Award Gold Medal In 2000 Sydney Games 100m
This is the first time in Olympic history a gold medal will not be awarded in an event.

Outta The Clink - Marion Jones Making WNBA Attempt

Victor Conte Tells It Like It Is, Says Women Getting Marion Jones' Medals Were Likely To Have Been On Drugs
"Back in 2000, there was no independent anti-doping federation in place for several of the countries which have female athletes that will now receive medal upgrades ... Back then, it was very easy to circumvent the drug testing procedures."

Victor Conte Talks With Track Journalist Duncan Mackay About Marion Jones Refusing To Come Clean Fellow Ex-Prisoner Victor Conte On Marion Jones: "Marion knowingly used drugs and I'm sure she knows it was a mistake. But, I believe Marion is continuing to make a mistake by not coming forward with the entire truth."

Tim Montgomery Talks Candidly About His And Marion's Marriage From His Prison

Another "Hard Luck" Story - Former Sydney 4 x 4 Gold Medalist Calvin Harrison

LRC The Week That Was Once again, we recap the action for you from across the globe, whether it's the high school nationals in Oregon of the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan. Along the way, we introduce you to a ten miler where 90 people broke 50 flat and give you the cure to stress fractures. And since we feel greatness comes in pairs, we talk about Usain Bolt & Tyson Gay, Alan WebbGalen Rupp, Chris Derrick & Craig Virgin, Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson, plus Marion Jones, Gina Procaccio, Jenny Barringer and others.

Wednesday's Best

1. Gavyn Nero Heads To Baylor From Trinidad And Tobago - As A Middle Distance Runner
Nero ran 3:47 at the CARIFTA Games and since Georgetown's spots were filled, he headed to Baylor.

2. Rarity: An Interesting Sports Autobiography - Andre Agassi's "Open"
When this book came out, all the talk was about Agassi admitting he did crystal meth with his assistant named Slim during a dark part of his career. But Agassi, who does a 4-minute video interview at the link, and his co-author/ghostwriter J.R. Moehringer produced a legitimate, honest book that says a lot about what kind of insanity goes into creating the world's "best" athletes.

3. Recommended Read: Nobby Hashizume Writes About The History Of Fukuoka Marathon

4. Albuquerque HS XC Runner Gave Bone Marrow To His Ill Brother 12 Days Before NXN
With their 3rd man weakened after sharing bone marrow with his leukemia-stricken brother, Albuquerque finished 5th at NXN.

Training Advice From US Star

Nicole Teter Mentions Her Best 800m Year Came After 3000/5000 Strength Work

Berlino Meets His Match

World Indoor Championships (Doha, Qatar) Announce Mascot "Saham" Who Is A Caracal

Saham
, an athletic but cute cat, is the first track mascot ruler in the post-Berlino epoch. His creators have made up an amazing story for him. It is a touching tale as Saham, the eldest of three in his family, "learnt at an early age, from his grandfather and father, that sport is more than just performance. It is a calling and one that requires dedication, honesty to one’s self, and an ingrained spirit of fair play. Saham is a proud Qatari and partakes in all its traditions — he plays the Nai with passion, loves sport of all kinds, likes going out on excursions with his friends, and even likes keeping fit by running on the Corniche at sunset." We were about to say... he BETTER play the Nai and run on the Corniche or else he is no proud Qatari!!

News From The UK

The End Of Kenyan Distance Dominance! Rugby Mania

Kenyans Select Linet Masai As Woman Athlete Of The Year While Men Are Second To Rugby Players

BBC Audio Interview With Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius

Foot Locker Pre-Race (If Sveinsson Held On For 5 More Meters We Had Both Winners)
Our Take: On the boys side, the typically senior-dominated race may come down to a rare battle between a junior in NXN champ Craig Lutz and sophomore '09 track sensation Lukas Verzbicas. After an amazing high school class in 2008 (German Fernandez, Chris Derrick, Luke Puskedra ...), it looks like 2011 will be the next year of top-end talent, as juniors went 1-5 at NXN. LRC Pick: Verzbicas over Lutz
*Craig Lutz Shooting To Be First To Win NXN And Foot Locker
*Lukas Verzbicas Profile Leading Up To Foot Locker Champs This Weekend That photo to the left comes from Verzbicas' freshman year in high school.
Track and Field: Nike Outdoor Nationals
The girls race will bring 4 undefeated girls from 4 different regions together. Megan Goethals, Aisling Cuffe, Chelsea Sveinsson and Molly Grabill are the "Big 4." LetsRun.com voters like lightly-raced Sveinsson over course record smashing Cuffe (34%-30%), while Grabill is basically running on her home turf and Goethals is the top returner from 2008 AND is the only senior.
LRC Pick:
'08 NXN Champ and 4:18 1,500m runner Chelsea Sveinsson

Recommended Read: Feature On 2004 Foot Locker Champ Ken Cormier
Arizona's Ken Cormier became the surprise 2004 FL Finals champ before going to Arkansas and becoming a XC All-American. But somewhere, things didn't feel right and Cormier went home and decided to enlist in the Marines. After serving the US in Afghanistan, Cormier is back and talked to Dye Stat ESPN RISE writer Dave Devine, who wrote a great piece about the guy who went from 73rd in his FL region to the National Champion.

Sunday: European Cross-Country Championships

New Result From Australia - Zatopek:10 - Australia Track 10,000m Champs

Collis Birmingham Takes Narrow Win at the Zatopek:10, Aussie 10,000m Champs 5 women finished between 32:19 and 32:29. Last year's Zatopek champ and NCAA star David McNeill suffered from a side stitch and faded during the last 2k as Birmingham ran 28:04 ftw.

Shalane Flanagan Will Run Half Marathon In Houston
After earning an Olympic Bronze and snagging every American record she can on the track, Shalane Flanagan has said she is looking for a new challenge. The first step comes January at the Houston Half.
*Brief Chat With Shalane Enlightens Us To Her Plans

LRC Must-Read: The Power Of Positivity - Wesley Korir Feature In Louisville's Courier Journal
Korir's story is absolutely incredible. He finished 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2008 and then did the impossible by winning L.A. in 2:08, taking home $160,000 in the process. This story is about his life in Louisville working as a handyman fixing toilets and sinks and things and even has a picture of the new house he bought.

Top 4 Kenyans In St. Jude Memphis Marathon DQed But Still Paid After They Accidentally Chop 200m Off The Course
The prize money is pretty big in Memphis (5,000, 3,000, 2,000), so the race ended up paying out 10 grand extra to make up for a 200m mistake caused by misplaced traffic cones.

Victor Conte Tells It Like It Is, Says Women Getting Marion Jones' Medals Were Likely To Have Been On Drugs
"Back in 2000, there was no independent anti-doping federation in place for several of the countries which have female athletes that will now receive medal upgrades ... Back then, it was very easy to circumvent the drug testing procedures." We're not saying every sprinter in 2000 was on drugs, but WADA and the IOC did not have strong policies in place that affected every country back in 2000.

MORE: When We Cheat, Nobody Wins: International Olympic Committee Makes Gutsy Decision And Refuses To Award Gold Medal In 2000 Sydney Games 100m
This is the first time in Olympic history a gold medal will not be awarded in an event, as the tainted top 2 - Marion Jones and Katerina Thanou and their greedy coaches, doctors and managers - have attempted to make a mockery of sport in their careers.

Doctors Marvel At Liu Xiang's Comeback From Achilles Injury
Liu Xiang walked off the Olympic track in 2008 but has found his way back to top form in just over a year.

Marathoner Of The Year? Definitely Not By Name Recognition

Tsegaye Kebede Averaged 2:06 For Three Marathons Over 8 Months In 2009
Kebede - who ran 2:05:20 in London, 2:08 in Berlin and 2:05:18 in Fukuoka - has us thinking he might break the world record sooner than Sammy Wanjiru.

Lukas Verzbicas after winning Foot Lockers

Girls Finish At Foot Lockers

Galen Rupp And Alan Webb In Nike Spoof Ad

Best Race Of The Year? Maggie Vessey At Pre

Cross Country: NCAA Championships LRC: The NCAAs That Were The Week That Was focuses on one thing for the most part, as last week the world of US distance running was dominated by one thing: NCAA cross-country. We break it all down for you and tell you who flopped (a ton of teams/individuals), who excelled (very few), and what to expect in 2010. Along the way, we talk about mid-d runners Andrew Wheating and Dorian Ulrey, give major props to Gina Procaccio and to the one team that seemingly did well on Monday (Villanova) and tell you why close to 75% of women All-Americans and 60% of men All-Americans had better start getting nervous.

2009 NCAA D1 XC Championship Results

*Men's Team Results
*Men's Individual Results
*Women's Team Results
*Women's Individual Results

D2: *DII Men Complete Results
*DII Women Complete Results

D3: *WTeam *WIndiv
*MTeam *MIndiv

NAIA: Results

New LRC Readers' Book Reviews

From Last To First,  A Race Like No Other, And See Dane Run From Last To First is the autobiography on English marathon record holder Charlie Spedding, A Race Like No Other is NY Times Writer Liz Robbins' take on the NYC Marathon, and See Dane Run recounts a guy who ran a marathon a week for a year.

Recommended Reads - You Can Buy The Books Online

One for the Mind: Running Within
One for the Soul: Best Efforts

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