Quote Of The Day

"The days spent in a hotel room before a championship race can be daunting on the mind of an athlete. When all one wants to do is think about something besides the race, the options are typically limited to cards, homework, and cable television. There is no escape from the wait.

Now add to that fidgety mindset a coach who is every bit as anxious for that gun to go off as you are. In other words, Jerry's own worries, the well-founded observations that he'd learned from years of coaching, the same ones that kept him up at night as he cautiously calculated who was on or off their game, had a habit of trickling down to his athletes. He was at times too attached to the race and its result and as athletes tend to do, they followed suit.

Mick on the other hand seems to have it pretty figured out these days. After spending over 20 years in the NCAA, those trivial concerns don't seem to plague him as much any more ... and if they do, he's savvy enough to keep them to himself. And the good spirit and genuine excitement Mick brings around is contagious. It's the same spirit that Mick's athletes have felt confident and calm with all season long, the same one that has seen them have one of the most dominant regular seasons of any collegiate team ever. But how will it all end?"

- Former Wisconsin Badger Ryan Craven contrasting the coaching styles of former Wisco coach Jerry Schumacher and current Wisco coach Mick Byrne, both of whom he ran for, in an article that has resulted in an explosion of activity on the message board as several former Badgers took the piece as a hit job on Schumacher and have come to his defense. We'll find out how it ends on Monday when the Badgers try to live up to their #1 ranking - a ranking they didn't live up to a few times under Schumacher.
More: *Simon Bairu Blasts Ryan Craven *Lost all respect for BAIRU and SOLINSKY

Week That Was

LRC Geoffrey Mutai Amazes Again, Adam Goucher Retires, & Lukas Verzbicas Calls It Quits We go behind the scenes to take a look at the last two weeks in the running world, which included the NYC Marathon, Adam Goucher's retirement, and Lukas Verzbicas leaving Oregon mid-season. Plus we take a look at the Phil Hersh-Ryan Hall spat and compare Hall to Tim Tebow.

Bureaucracy News

Sprint News

Olympic Marathon Trials 60 Days From Today

Meb Says Of Olympic Trials Competitors: "They Better Be Nervous."

Cool Video Board: Race Ryan Hall At NYC Subway Stop We saw this on RunnersWorld but Gizmodo and Reddit have picked it up and the YouTube video has over 200,000 views.

Shoe News

Alan Webb Still With Nike

Look Out, Nike: Kenyan Brand Kourage Launched Of course Nike and Kourage both don't have a chance since Puma has partnered with little LetsRun.com for the LRC Puma Faas Challenge.

Post-IAAF Athlete Of The Year Awards Gala News

Random News

IAAF Meetings

Usain Bolt And Sally Pearson Are Surprising 2011 IAAF Athletes Of The Year And $100,000 Richer Vivian Cheruiyot won just about everything she ran but it wasn't enough. Yohan Blake was pretty damn good but journalists must have had trouble giving it to a guy they figured would lose if he raced Bolt.
On The Boards: BOLT did NOT deserve to win IAAF-AOY

We're Glad He's Alive

Personal Crisis Likely Led To Disappearance Of UAA Star Runner He went missing in near 0 degree temperatures for 2 days and was found with frostbite.

Three Cheers To London And Qatar

London To Host 2017 Worlds And Qatar Made Sure They Paid A Ton To Do It More money for the sport is a good thing, although we think the British taxpayers could be on the hook if things don't go as planned. London, however, says it will sell $1 Billion in Sponsorship.
*Doha Got London To Guarantee £4.5 Million More At Last Second
*Although Qatar Lost London 2017, It May Get 2020 Olympics And has the 2022 World Cup.
*Denise Lewis On Seb Coe: "Lord Coe's speech made the hairs on my neck stand up."
*Australia's Gold Coast Gets 2018 Commonwealth Games

Bureaucratic News - Radcliffe's Record Stands

Big Drug News

Veronica Campbell-Brown Breaks Ties With Coach

2011 ING NYC Marathon *Men's Results *Women's Results *Viewing Info *Flash Yahoo Photos

LRC 2:05:06!!! Geoffrey Mutai Caps Year In Style An unbelievable year in men's marathoning had an appropriate finish, as the Kenyan man who had the most unbelievable of all years, Geoffrey Mutai, smashed the previous NYC Marathon record by a stunning 2:38 - that's two minutes and 38 seconds. If it wasn't the greatest 2nd-greatest men's marathon performance ever, you'll have to tell us what was. American Meb Keflezighi hung with the leaders for 20 miles after a blistering 63:16 1st half and ended up with a much-deserved PR. Mutai picked up $200,000 by winning, but the big financial winner was runner-up Emmanuel Mutai, who won $635,000 ($500,000 for the WMM title).

LRC
Mary Keitany Beats Herself The women's race was full of gut-wrenching drama, as Mary Keitany went out in a crazy 67:56. The problem was she came back in 74:42, as unheralded Firehiwot Dado (Rome Marathon champ) got the win.

LRC Post Race Interviews: Meb And His Coach Bob Larsen Talks About His PR Despite Throwing Up Plus the winners Geoffrey Mutai, Firehiwot Dado, men's and women's top 3, Ed Moran, Molly Pritz, Lauren Fleshman and Bobby Curtis.

NYC On The Boards:

NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k *Results

LRC Chris Thompson, Sara Hall Win, Ritz Is 3rd (link fixed) Hall continued her fine fall campaign with the win in this race that serves as a huge NYRR recruiting tool. Most importantly for US distance fans, Dathan Ritzenhein did well and emerged from the race healthy (link fixed to story with Hall interview).

LRC Healthy Ritz Talks About Marathon Trials, His Track Ambititions And More After double foot surgery in March, a healthy Ritz ran what was likely his only race before the Olympic Marathon Trials in 10 weeks. He talked about his preparations for the Marathon Trials, his desire to run faster on the track, and showed he stil has a lot of fire: "The talent's still there. I'm still young. I'm 28 so hopefully I just keep getting better."

College XC News - 2 Great Articles

NCAA XC *More Conference Coverage Here *College Forum Here

SEC: Arkansas Men, Vanderbilt Women Win SECs Easily Eric Fernandez and Kristen Gillespie of Arkansas got the individual crowns.

Big 10s: Ignore The Rankings, We Have A Favorite For NCAAs Wisconsin Men Win 13th-Straight Big 10 Title In Dominant Fashion The Badgers made a mockery of the rest of the Big 10 by scoring 17 points vs. a talented Indiana team. *Results *MB: Big 10 Talk
*Michigan State Women Repeat In 3rd Closest Big 10 Meet In History 55 to 61 over Michigan. *Women's Results

PAC-12s:
Wetmore Works His Magic As Colorado Sweeps *Results The PAC-12 is the new super XC conference. The CU men edged Stanford, and the women, who were only picked 4th coming in in the latest LRC polls (and 6th in the national coaches polls), pulled the upset.
*Colorado AD Is Particularly Thrilled As Colorado Had Won One Game In All Sports In PAC-12 Until The XC Titles "Just what the doctor ordered," according to the AD.
*Wetmore Gives His Teams A Grades For Their Showing - Refuses To Give Out A+ Since Colorado Isn't In The Ivy League & Doesn't Practice Grade Inflation "I would give it an A and an A and that's as high as I get. This isn't Harvard," Wetmore said.
*
Katie Flood Surprise Winner At PAC-12s
*
Stanford's Jason Dunn Disappointed A 5th Man Didn't Step Up
*
Lananna On His Young Squad: "I thought the guys did a pretty good job."
On The Boards: PAC-12 Update Thread
*Craig Lutz > Lukas Verzbicas *Bad day for Hasay?

Big 12s: German Fernandez And Oklahoma State Win Men's Crowns
Iowa State Wins Womens
On The Boards:
GERMAN FTMFW

Heps: Princeton Men, Cornell Women Win In The Snow!
Congrats to friend of LRC Artie Smith for his first conference title. And if you want to see what can be done in terms of conference coverage with almost no budget, check out this link. *Heps XC On The Boards

Big East:
Villanova Men Win Convincingly, Women Edge Providence (Results)
*
Marcus O'Sullivan Impressed By Men's Win: "We had an unbeatable effort today."

ACC:
Florida State Women Dominate, NC State Men Edge FSU Kendra Schaaf dominated on the women's side as Ryan Hill won on the men's. *ACCs On The Boards *Kendra Schaaf is back!

West Coast Conference:
Portland Pilots Amazing 32-Year Conference Win Streak Is Snapped In Year 1 Of Legit Competition - BYU 25, Portland 32 More NCAA On The Boards: BYU vs. Portland Portland's 32-year conference XC streak came to an end.

Former Wisconsin Runner Ryan Craven Thinks Mick Byrne's Relaxed Approach Is Ideal For NCAAs The former Badger who ran for both Mick Byrne and Jerry Schumacher has written an article that has caused the message board to explode as he compares the styles of the two coaching icons and comes to the conclusion that he thinks the more relaxed Byrne style is better for NCAAs. A few former Badgers, including Simon Bairu and Chris Solinsky, have come to Schumacher's defense and all hell has broken loose. LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson tried to calm everyone down by chiming in with a post saying different things work for different teams and situations.
*MB: *Simon Bairu Blasts Ryan Craven *Lost all respect for BAIRU and SOLINSKY

Villanova Alums Trying To Get Former World Record Holder Sydney Maree Out Of South African Prison Last month's Philadelphia Inquirer feature on Maree has motivated some people to try to help. It appears he may be sleeping on the floor due to overcrowding.
From October:  Sydney Maree: Villanova's Fallen Hero

Nick Symmonds Talks About His Leading Of The "Occupy USATF Movement" We feel Symmonds and the athletes' pain but don't think the lack of advertising space on a singlet is the key reason why athletes don't have big endorsements. Sports stars get endorsements and most runners aren't stars. Buick was never on Tiger Woods' jersey, McDonald's never on Lebron's.

Elite Field For Fukuoka Marathon Is Released - Includes Zero Invited Ethiopians or Kenyans The field does feature Alistair Cragg and Andrew Lemoncello and a few Japanese-based Kenyans including Japanese 10,000 all-comers record holder Josphat Ndambiri, who smoked world champ Jeilan on Nov. 3rd.
*RRW Release With Full List Of Names And PRs

More Marathon News: Meet "The Other" Hansons-Brooks Female Runner - 34-Year-Old Dot McMahan The mom deserves some props as she's run 2:31.

We 100% Agree: NYTimes: Complicated Training Plans, Focus On Foot-Strike Often Turn Off Beginning Runners - For Beginning Runners, Advice Can Be a Hurdle As one man said, "(Training plans) are so complicated.I thought, 'Oh my God, it's just running.'"

Heather (Dorniden) Kampf Talks About The Most Amazing Race Ever Put On Youtube, Pan Ams And More If you are having a bad day and think you can't accomplish something, please watch this video.

College XC/Track News

*42 Years Ago From Tuesday, Lindgren Edged Pre At PAC-6s
*(Boston) Marathon Monday Ranked One Of Best College Traditions At Boston University Day drinking is a plus for most people, including this student. "Definitely, the wildest and most out-of-control moments in my college life have been Marathon Monday and Halloween. I mean on Marathon Monday you have the day-drinking, and it's spring time so kids are kind of going a little nuts because it's finally warm in Boston."
*An Incredible Hire:
Allen Johnson Hired As Air Force Assistant We wouldn't have even made him interview.
*Maryland Track Alums Vent To Washington Times About Possibly Losing Program

Panel Calls For Cutting 8 Sports At Univ. Of Maryland, Including XC & Track
Says something about our sport when Maryland's head coach Andrew Valmon is the 2012 US Olympic Head Coach. Renaldo Nehemiah went to Maryland and they won every ACC title from 1956-1979. Now they'll be the only ACC program without a track team. Maybe Under Armour can help save them. *Message Board Thread To Try To Do Something

More Verzbicas (From A Triathlon Perspective)

Slowtwitch (Triathlon Website) Takes A Look At How Lukas' Stepdad Ended Up Being His College Coach Now And Finds It Kosher
At Least We Agree: Posters On Slowtwitch Forum Criticizes Lukas For Leaving Oregon In Middle Of Season

Lukas On The Boards:

Random Distance News

NCAA Regionals (Top 2 In Each Region Automatically Make NCAAs) *College Forum *Results Here (& Below)

It's Official: Oregon, Arkansas & W&M Men Stay Home, As Do Providence Women
2011 DI NCAA Cross-Country Qualifiers Announced The Oregon and Arkansas men will have one runner at NCAAs, but that's better than the Providence women and W&Mary men, who will have no one at NCAAs. *DIII Qualifiers *MB: "Official" NCAA At Large Thread
*Two Weeks Ago: Arkansas' Head Man Bucknam Gets Extension Through 2015-16
*Chad Hall Taking Ryan Hall's Advice & Enjoying His Senior Season "(Ryan's) encouraged me throughout all my seasons, but especially this one. Kind of just, 'Get out and enjoy it. Do your best and leave the outcomes up to God.' We've both dealt with disappointments and stuff. His message to me is about having disappointments and coming back and doing well."
*Getting Hammered On Running Blogs, Lukas Verzbicas Seeks Comfort By Doing Q&A With Triathlon Blog Not surprisingly, not a single question as to how his ex-Oregon teammates feel about his decision, which resulted in them sitting at home. *MB: Lukas speaks

Weekend Pro Action

NCAA Regionals Were Saturday

Big-Time Traditional Powers Stay Home - Arkansas & Oregon Plus William & Mary Are Left Home On The Men's Side - The Providence Women Stay Home For 37 years in a row, you could count on the Arkansas men making NCAAs. Not anymore, as they stay home for the first time since 1973. The Providence women, who were ranked #5 in the country without even running at full strength in most meets, aren't going for the first time since 1988, the William & Mary men since 1996. And because Lukas Verzbicas quit on Oregon, the Ducks aren't going on the men's side for the first time since year two of the Vin Lananna era.
MB: *
LV officially screwed Oregon over

West: Men: Stanford Edges Portland, Oregon 6th, Lawi Lalang Wins Women: Washington, Jordan Hasay Win
Discuss:
XC West Regional results *Can Lawi Lalang be stopped? *LV officially screwed Oregon over

Mountain Region: Miles Batty Leads BYU Over Colorado Women: New Mexico And Colorado Tie
*Lananna Happy With Duck Women - Calls Men Young
MB:
BYU And Miles Batty

Great Lakes: Men: Wisconsin Time Trials It And Still Wins Women: Danielle Tauro Leads Michigan Over Michigan State

Mid Atlantic: Men: Georgetown, Donn Cabral Win Women: Villanova And Georgetown Tie
MB:
Mid-Atlantic results?

Midwest: Men: Ok. State Edges Oklahoma Women: Iowa State Dominates
MB:
Midwest

Northeast: Men: Syracuse Men Upset #8 Iona Women: Syracuse Women Edge BC On the Boards: NCAA I Northeast Regional

South Central: Texas Over A&M, Arkansas Only 3rd Women: Arkansas Over Texas

Southeast: Men: Ryan Hill Leads NC State To Win Women: UVA Edges NC State, Kendra Schaaf Cruises
*Could the region that got 6 teams last year come away with just 2 this year?

Pro XC: Nicholas Togom Wins His 2nd Kenyan XC Event Of The Year

North American Distance Triathlon News

Phil Hersh Talks To Lukas Verzbicas After He Quits On Oregon 3/4 Of The Way Through The Season Lukas' stepfather (a triathlon coach) reportedly wanted him to stay longer at Oregon. If this is Lukas' decision, then he deserves to be treated as an adult and criticized for quitting on his teammates.

Doping News

Post-NYC News

He Will Be Missed Adam Goucher Retires Goucher is having knee surgery on Friday and says his competitive racing career is over. We've always said that one way to judge whether a runner's career was a good one or not is simple: Were They Good Enough That They Could Retire Or Just Quit? Goucher certainly is retiring, as he had an INCREDIBLE career - Foot Locker champ, NCAA champ indoors, NCAA champ outdoors and NCAA champ in XC, USA champ in XC and track and an Olympian. Goucher is a runner at heart and we wouldn't rule out seeing him in the 2016 Marathon Trials.
*MB: Adam Goucher retires

Great News: Missing Alaska Anchorage Runner Found Alive 2.5 Days Later Marko Cheseto went missing at 7 pm on Sunday morning and was found at 3 am Wednesday with big time frostbite. No one is really sure what happened and he may lose his feet, but the great news is he's alive.
*MSBNC: Not Wearing Hat Or Gloves, Shoes Were Frozen To His Feet & All He Could Say Was "911" The report also says he was upset about his teammates' suicide but has near a 4.0 GPA.
*Student Newspaper *Coverage From Britain
Previous: Kenyan Athlete Feared Dead In Alaska

Nick Willis Says Simple "Over-Hydration" Cost Him In Daegu

NYC Coverage Continues *Video Highlights

  • Recommended Read: Track & Field Superfan: "Five Things We Learned In New York" "This year, however, we've really seen what you can get out of a lack of pacemakers: interesting races. All the races on pancake-flat courses that use a 'flying V of pacesetters' end up being solo efforts against the clock. Great headlines, boring viewing. ... Competition, joy, pain, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. An outcome not determined until the very end. The reasons we compete and the reasons we watch competition. You can't have these with pacemakers."
  • With Nothing To Prove, Meb Keflezighi Still Affirming His Greatness Meb says he doesn't like to "Tweet" about his training, but he has a training log that goes back to 1993.
  • "Kenyan Athletes Rule The Roost In Big City Marathons" Kenyans have won 83 out of the 100 marathons this year and hold the top 24 positions in the world marathon rankings. Paul Tergat: "My fear is that Kenyans may be restricted in future marathon races as we have seen in the past."

Frankfurt *Larger Image Of Kipsang At Finish

Frankfurt: Oh-So-Close: 2:03:42 - Wilson Kipsang's World Record Assault Comes Up Just Short IAAF The world of marathoning continues to be simply amazing on the men's side.
*AP Recap Levy Matebo was second (2:05:16) and Albert Matebor third (2:05:25) as the women's CR was broken by Mamitu Daska (2:21:59).
Pre-Race: Last Year's 2:04:57 Course Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Says World Record Can Fall At Sunday's BMW Frankfurt Marathon Kipsang may be getting a bit ahead of himself, but he's very good. More on Kipsang here.

Trying To Inspire The Next Generation

Monday's Quote Of The Day: "Who did I beat? I beat the demons within me." - Billy Mills in a Washington Post profile. Good read.

Gary Reed Hopes To Bring Track Back To Life "I don't know that a lot of people want to admit that, but I know it's dying. The next generation is really struggling. The numbers from junior to senior are falling off like crazy and I, as someone who got my whole life from track, would love to leave the sport better off than what I found it."

Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *Results *Yahoo Photos

LRC Moses Mosop A Superstar, Liliya Shobukhova Becomes Second-Fastest Woman Ever Updated Moses Mosop dominated the final miles in Chicago after Wesley Korir tried to make it interesting. Russian Liliya Shobukhova ran 2:18:20 to become the second-fastest woman ever. American Ryan Hall ran 2:08:04 for 5th. Great for any other American marathoner, so-so for him.

LRC: Wesley Korir Impresses With 2:06:15 Second Place In Chicago The former Louisville Cardinal broke the race up with a surge at 30km. Afterwards, he revealed what he was trying to do.

Ryan Hall Says He Needs More Time At Sea Level To Work On Turnover RW

LRC Non-Quotes Of The Day From 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Hall talks about what 2:08 means, Canova talks about the world record.

LRC Quick Recap With Men's Splits: Moses Mosop Breaks Course Record At 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon, Shobukhova Runs 2:18:20

Time is Running Out First 50 in the LetsRun.com Puma Challenge to be welected this week. Want a free pair of Puma Faas shoes. Tell us why your worthy of the challenge.

NYC Men's Photo Gallery

NYC Women's Photo Gallery


NYC Marathon Men's Highlights

NYC Women's Highlights

Meb Talks About His PR And Answers The Question Whether He Actually Runs In Skechers (More Here)

Ritz On The Marathon Trials, His Training And The 10k (More Here)

Friday's NYRR Live Show: Elite Men - G. Gebremariam Sounds Confident

LRC NCAA Polls Open

LetsRun.com NCAA National And Regional Polls Open Tell us who the top 10 teams are in the country and who the will make nationals in each region.

Week In Review

LRC Week That Was: Wilson Kipsang's Near Miss, US Men's Marathoners Vs. Frankfurt, Mark Wetmore And CU At PAC-12s And The Wisconsin Men At Big 10s We take at look at Wilson Kipsang's near world record run in Frankfurt, discuss how the entire history of US men's marathoning was eclipsed in Frankfurt and then turn to a discussion of NCAA XC action.

Wilson Kipsang Just Misses World Record (And Coolest Finish Of A Marathon We've Seen)

Training Corner (More In The Training Forum)

BMW Berlin Marathon Photos! Makau Takes Geb's World Record

Great Deals

A Scintillating Men's 10,000 Finish (US Visitors Only)

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Great Deals

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