Quote Of The Day


"Everybody says (it's a matter of) how much do you want it, but I think it's how much do you love it. And I love to train and I love to race. I think anybody is out there who has those problems if you love to train and love to race, you'll find a way to get back out there."

- Dathan Ritzenhein in a lengthy piece on LRC after we sat down with him last weekend after his disappointing 4th place finish at the Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston.

The Big Interview: Dathan Ritzenhein

LRC Ritz Reflects On The Trials, His Years With Alberto, And Looks To The Future 24 hours after Dathan Ritzenhein just missed making the 2012 the Olympic Marathon team, a frank but more upbeat Ritz sat down and talked with LetsRun.com. He looked back on the Trials race ("I ran pretty good. It just was not enough.") and back on the last three years with Alberto ("He is a very smart, very passionate guy more than anything. He will find the way." and "There's been many times when we've screwed up.") before looking ahead to both the immediate future ("The Olympics is everything.") and farther down the road ("I do love the marathon, but I think I love being good better ... I want to succeed at what I'm going to be best at."). A confident Ritz has big plans for the future. A must read (or watch) if we can say so ourselves. Plus we give you splits of the last 3.2 miles in Houston.

London Marathon Goes To Iten

Virgin London Marathon, Which Made 2012 Athlete Announcements In Kenya, Is Giving Back To Iten, Eldoret Communities

LRC Photo Of The Day: Virgin London Marathon Fields Announced From Iten, Kenya We didn't realize London was in Iten to announce its 2012 fields. Very cool.

Yesterday: London Does It Again Emmanuel Mutai To Try To Defend London Title Against World Record Holder Patrick Makau & Slew Of Other Top African Talent

Trouble In Ethiopia

Update: Ethiopian Athletics President Says Bekele Will Be Allowed To Compete At Olympic If He Shows Up For Training

"Let me run for another country," Says Bekele After Federation Bans Ethiopians From London 2012
The article includes a lot of quotes from superagent Jos Hermens, who said the following about Haile G: "Haile is not on the banned list, but he is a very wise man ... Maybe he has gone along to one or two sessions and shaken a few hands."
*Bekele Offers Excuse For Not Reporting To Camp - "I'm injured." Even though Bekele competed earlier this month, he says he's still hurt. "My injury is quite serious and I would not be able to bring back the performance of old for the time being. I'm only receiving a combination of treatment and training at the moment. It will take weeks before I return to ordinary training, and some two to three months before I return to competition."
*LRC Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, And 33 Other Ethiopians Banned By Federation The Ethiopian Federation has raised its iron fist and banned 35 of its top athletes, including top stars Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba for not following orders and reporting for national team training as they get ready for London 2012. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but ultimately we think the athletes are stronger than the Federation. *List Of 35 Banned Athletes

If Only All Drug Cheats Were Treated This Harshly
British Sprinter Gets 4-Year Ban For Doping Because She Took Multiple Drugs And Then Made False Allegations Against Testers In Her Defense
If you don't think drugs work, realize she went from 12.0 in 2008 to 11.4 in 2011.

Bring Back The Mile Officially Launches For years, we (and many in the sport) have wondered why the mile isn't the #1 distance event in the land and why it's not run instead of the 1,500 or 1,600. Finally, someone has decided to do something about it.
*Bringing Buzz Back To The Mile *Discuss *Like On Facebook

The Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team *MB: Kenya's Marathon Squad first cut

US Pro News

LRC Jenny Simpson Talks About Winning Worlds And Looks Ahead To 2012 Jenny was on a teleconference to talk about her 2011 Championships, her upcoming indoor campaign, and the 2012 season. She was the World Champion in 2011 despite having a lot of setbacks. What's in store for 2012? Plus in a rare LetsRun.com moment, we have some praise for Mary Slaney*, who ran 4:00.8 as a 21-year-old at Madison Square Garden. Who says you can't run fast at the Garden? *We usually point out Slaney has a drug conviction on her record and receive hate mail.

Really, IAAF? 2009 African Jr. 800 Champ Mohamed Aman Geleto DQed For Being Too Young There are WRs set by essentially known dopers which still stand, "17-year-old" Kenyans winning World Junior titles, but they choose to focus time and energy on DQing a 15-year-old from 2009 because he was 10 days too young. Priorities?

Martin Fagan Gets 2-Year Ban

Recommended Read: NY Times Article On Australia's LJer Mitchell Watt, Who Quit Track For 5 Years But Came Back And Got 2nd At The World Champs Apparently he was convinced to keep competing by a "12 page email" from his coach.

US Men's Olympic Trials Marathon News *LRC Vote Totals *Men's Results *Women's Results *Mile-By-Mile Splits *Yahoo Flash Photos *LRC Puma Prediction Contest Scores Coming

LRC Men's Marathon Trials Analysis And Reaction The 2012 Trials race was a classic. We throw some love to the top 3, ponder Ritz's future in the marathon, tell you who had the best debut, and tell you who that guy you never heard of was. Plus we talk about Meb's 74-year-old badass dad and look at the fortune of some old timers who didn't make the team, Josh Cox and Dan Browne, in addition to the ones who did (Meb and Abdi).

Sunday Update:
24-Hours-Later Update On Ritz: "I do love the marathon, but I think I love being good better." Ritz indicated he still loves the marathon and is not done with it. He also said, "I ran pretty good yesterday."

Race Recap:
Meb Keflezighi Captures 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon Title

NY Times Recap: Meb Over Hall, Abdi Grabs 3rd Spot
The race lived up to the billing as the top four all broke 2:10, whereas previously there had only been one sub-2:10 in OTM history. After a blistering first half (63:25), Meb Keflezighi got his 2nd PR in 69 days, as he ran 2:09:08 to win over Hall (2:09:30). A resurgent Abdirahman (2:09:47) hung on for the final Olympic spot in 2:09:47 over Ritzenhein, who broke 2:10:00 for the first time (2:09:55). In the process, Meb became the first American to make an Olympic marathon team 8 years after making it previously. Abdi had no idea until we talked to him that Martin Fagan, whom he trained with some this winter, had reportedly tested positive for EPO.
LRC
Trials Live Thread Here


More Trials: *Meb's Coach Bob Larsen Not Surprised Meb Won LA Times
*Ryan Hall To Meb And Abdi: "I watched you guys make the Olympic team when I was in high school."
*After coming up eight seconds short in Olympic marathon trials, Ritzenhein ponders future Denver Post There is a message board thread on this as well. We talked to Ritz on Sunday.
*Somebody ought to lose their job at Nike, Meb Keflezighi wins Olympic Marathon Trials

Trials On The Boards:

Lance And LIVESTRONG

Outside Magazine Article Accuses LIVESTRONG Foundation "If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the famous nonprofit donates almost nothing to scientific research." *MB: Livestrong expose in Outside magazine

Patrick Makau Reacts To Renato Canova's Comments That His WR Will Be Broken This Spring Makau: "It makes me wonder if the record is a preserve for some region, tribe or runners. What shocks me is that some people are speaking ill of me just because I broke the world record ... Let us not talk much but redeploy our energies on good training and skills that will power our legs to do the talking."

Alan Webb's Comeback Begins

Raffi Cote = Matt VanDenHengel
Alan Webb Returns With A 1:55.02
And Loses To A Senior From Gwynedd-Mercy College Whose PR Is 1:53.53
In his first race since April and his first race since dumping Alberto Salazar, American mile record holder Alan Webb busted the rust with a 2nd-place 1:55.02 performance in a race that was won by the previously unknown Matt VanDenHengel. For everyone writing off Mr. Webb, we remind you that "talent doesn't go away" and that two years ago, Galen Rupp similarly lost to a freshman walk-on in January in the 800 in a 1:54 race. Since then, Rupp has run 13:06, 26:48 and 60:30.
*Alan Webb Interview With Ian Brooks: "I had to start somewhere."
More: MB: *Webb runs 1:55.02 today at Armory *Alan Webb's 800m In 1:55 Was A Good Thing *Webb spotted in 800 at Armory *Rupp loses to freshman walk-on at 800

LRC Todd Morgan And Pete Watson To Be New Women's And Men's Cross-Country Coaches At UVA

Stars On the Comeback Trail

Sad News

Frank Horwill 1927-2012 Horwill founded the British Milers Club and coached Tim Hutchings (most of you in the US know him as the the really good British announcer on track TV broadcasts; his real claim to fame was a 4th in the 1984 Olympic 5k). BMC Remembrances here.
*IAAF Remembrance Here

The Running Story Of The Year

Japan Running News Recaps The Life And Career Of Sammy Wanjiru Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita: "The people who were supporting Sam were only motivated by the money flowing around him, not from the heart, and they didn't give him the kind of support he really needed. You hear a lot of disturbing things about his family too, his wife, and I can't help but think that he should have had more people around him who cared about his soul."

XC Action: Foot Locker *Boys Results *Girls Results *Boys Photos *Girls Photos *Full Girls Race Video *Full Boys Race Video

LRC Boys: Cheserek Outkicks Futsum For The Win This race lived up to its hype as the top 2 African-born stars went mano-a-mano until the final 100m. After a cat-and-mouse 9:50 opening 2 miles, their last 1.1 was run at a pretty quick pace (4:31 mile pace), but the winning time of 14:51.5 wasn't close to Reina's 14:36 CR.

LRC Girls: Molly Seidel Turns Back Tough Challenge From Erin Finn Seidel was the favorite, undefeated in 2011, but Finn was the top returner and Finn made it super-interesting as she opened up a big lead and even managed to regain the lead once Seidel caught her.

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Men: LRC Wisconsin Badgers Take Control Early As Lawi Lalang Dominates Lawi Lalang waited until 5k before deciding it was time to crush the competition once and for all, while #1 Wisconsin showed no fear and put a stranglehold on the competition from the very beginning and held off a belated charge from Oklahoma State and a surprising Colorado team as the Cowboys tried to three-peat. American Chris Derrick took home individual runner-up honors to cap a brilliant career in style. *Discuss

More: Wisco #1: *Give 'em five: Badgers lay claim to program's fifth national title *Krause earns redemption as Badgers storm to fifth national title host.madison.com
OSU #2: *Dave Smith Calls Loss "Disappointing" - But Expected www.okstate.com
Colorado #3: *Wetmore Calls Medina Most Improved Runner In Country www.denverpost.com *CU Coach Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs 3rd-Place Run
Individual: Coach Li - I Think Lalang Would Have Got Course Record If He Was Pushed www.arizonawildcats.com

Saturday's Track Action *NB Pro Results *NB Men's Mile Video

NYC: Andy Baddeley Wins New Balance Elite Mile In 3:57, Edward Cheserek Runs 4:02 Cheserek's time was the second-fastest indoor mile by a student enrolled at a US high school.
*Strymar Livingston And Najee Glass Both Break 27-Year-Old High School 500m Record

Some Great Vaulting
New Olympic Favorite?
19-Year-Old Brit Holly Bleasdale Becomes An Olympic Contender With A 4.87 Vault (#2 Ever Indoors) She then took a crack at 5.01, the world record. Meanwhile, Yelena Isinbayeva, the only woman ever over 5.00, opened with a 4.70 vault.
*Brad Walker Goes 19 Feet At Pole Vault Summit *PV Summit Results

Germany: David Storl's 21.24 Put Edges Reese Hoffa And Christian Cantwell In Germany

US: Texas A&M Men, LSU Women Win Dual (Results)

Saturday XC

Kenyan Armed Forces Champs: 35-Year-Old Mark Kiptoo & World Marathon Bronze Medalist Sharon Cherop Win Kenyan Armed Forces XC Champs With no World XC this year, it will be interesting to see how many Kenyans run the Kenyan XC Championships. Former World XC Champ Joseph Ebuya faded here to 24th.

N. Ireland: Antrim International XC: Fionnuala Britton Holds Off Gemma Steel, Mike Kigen Wins His Third Straight IAAF

Virgin London Does It Again!!!

Way Harder To Win Than The Olympics
Emmanuel Mutai To Try To Defend London Title Against World Record Holder Patrick Makau & Slew Of Other Top African Talent In addition to those two, 5-time world marathon champ Martin Lel will compete. In total, a ridiculous 10 - yes, TEN - sub-2:05:30 guys are in it.
*Race Takes Place Exactly 16 Weeks Before Olympics

Former NCAA Runners In The News

1st IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting Of 2012 Is Next Weekend's US Open Meet At MSG The Millrose meet at the Armory didn't make the cut. *Series Website

White Lightning Lemaitre Says Schedule Is Too Tight, He Won't Try 100-200m Double In London

Recommended Read: Meet Jack Johnson - The Former Equipment Manager At Minnesota Lived A Simple But Beloved Life

RR#2 Former GA State Champ Jarry Wallace Is Pumped For Paralympics After Having His Leg Amputated After A Bad Case Of Compartment Syndrome

A Really, Really Bad Year Can Even Happen To An Elite
After Horrible 2011 That Included Injury, Illness, Divorce And A Med School Rejection, 2-Time World Champ Jana Pittman Is On Comeback Trail Even the greats have bad years.
*Pittman Says If She Can Get Into The Fnal, She Knows She's "a very good competitor."

Random Distance News

This Weekend And Beyond ... Get Excited For Bernard Lagat Vs. Silas Kiplagat Vs. Gan Komen At MSG

US Women's Olympic Trials Marathon News *LRC Vote Totals *Men's Results *Women's Results *Yahoo Flash Photos

Flanagan Over Davila, Goucher Gets Third As Top 4 All Break Old OTrials Record Flanagan (2:25:38) pulled away from Davila (2:25:55) and Goucher was third in 2:26:06. Amy Hastings broke the old Trials record at 2:27:17 but didn't make the team. Deena Kastor was 6th in 2:30:40.

Sunday Houston

Luke Puskedra Runs 1:01:36 Half Marathon Debut As Feyisa Lilesa Picks Up $17,500 With 59:26 Course Record The Oregon Duck's half marathon debut was super-impressive on a day where all 4 course records were broken in Houston (Tariku Jufar 2:06:51, Alemitu Abera 2:23:14 and Belaynesh Oljira 1:08:26 outkicking Boston Champ Caroline Kilel). Recap and interview with Puskedra on his decision to try a half in the college season.
More: IAAF Recap Interesting to note that Tariku Jufar missed basically a year of training in 2009 after being hit by a car while training.
*
All Four Records Broken In Houston

A Crushed Simon Bairu Fails To Qualify For Canadian Olympic Marathon Team, Will Turn Focus To Track Nice article from Canadian Running Magazine. Wejo's not sure he has ever seen an athlete as emotionally disappointed after a race as Simon was.

International XC Track News *Yahoo Photos From Seville

Vivian's Win Streak Comes To An End: Linet Masai Crushes Cheruiyot In Seville XC Vivian's last lost was in an XC race to Masai in Nairobi a year ago.

Alan Webb News

  • Ray Flynn Says Alan Webb Is Happy & Healthy With Vig "He's with a good coach and he loves Jason (Vigilante) and he's happy now. And he's healthy for the first time in a long time. He needed somewhere to start. Jason's philosophy is to race him, put him out there, with the view that his goal is the Olympic Trials. I think that Alan's still young. He's done a lot in his career at a very young age. And I fully expect him to be a contender next summer."
  • Alan Webb Talks For 11 Minutes After His 1:55 800 Video also on right.

Centro In The News

LRC Matthew Centrowitz Signs Endorsement Contract With Nike & Joins Alberto Salazar's Nike Oregon Project Nike stepped up to the plate and kept the former Duck in the family. What was a surprise is that he's joining Alberto's group (although he'll get assistance from collegiate coach Andy Powell). *Discuss
*
Matthew Centrowitz To Make Pro Mile Debut And Headline Wanamker Mile Field No, he will not be competing on the boards in MSG against the king of Millrose, Bernard Lagat. That would be too simple and too good of an idea for the sport. This is the Armory meet, not the US Open. Centro says he's way ahead of where he is last year. The article says (implies) his father and sister will be competing in the meet as well. We can't imagine his dad is actually competing.

2012 BUPA Edinburgh XC Race *Leading Results *Video Highlights *Start Lists *Meet Website

Asbel Kiprop Makes A Statement As Kenenisa Bekele Finishes A Distant 11th At BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross-Country Kiprop, the Olympic 1,500 champion, cruised to victory over the 2008 Olympic steeple, 5k and 10k champs, and showed he's intent on being the first since Seb Coe to defend an Olympic 1,500 title. European XC champ Fionnuala Britton won the women's title.
*IAAF Recap: Kiprop Totally Dominant On Last Lap
*Bekele Suffers But Seems Unfazed How bad was Bekele? Well, 5 Brits beat him, including one who was doubling back from the 8k, but Bekele was confident afterwards: "I'm not serious for this race. At this time of the year I don't want to be in very good shape. It is too early. It is a long time to the Olympics. I want to build up slowly."
*Bekele: "I lack fitness." "I was not confident before the race. But it's a long time until the Olympics and it is too early to be in better shape."

Great Marathon News

The Weeks That Were

LRC Tirunesh Dibaba Returns, Dunbar Follows In His Dad's Footsteps & Meb Tries To Make The Olympic Team On 41 Days Of Running In case you've been (like us) more focused on the Holidays than keeping on top of the limited action in the world of running over the last two weeks, we are here for you. From the return of Tirunesh Dibaba to Meb trying to make the Olympic team off of 41 days of running to some high-profile transfers, we've got you covered.

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Women: LRC Georgetown, Reid Win Tight Battles Six women kicked for home over the last 400m of the race but in the end it turned into the duel many expected and Sheila Reid of Villanova got the narrow win over Jordan Hasay. The big surprise was in the team's race, where the Georgetown women, who were only third at Big East, won by eight over Washington as #1 Florida State faltered and finished 4th. *Discuss

More: *Georgetown Gets Its First National XC Title GUHoyas.com
*Washington Comes Up 8 Points Short GoHuskies.com
*#1 FSU Finishes 4th & Coach Karen Harvey Pulls No Punches "I felt like I was watching a nightmare. I really thought there was no way this is happening." www.seminoles.com
*Wetmore Says 11th-Placed Colorado Women Purposely Peaked For PAC-12s, Not NCAAs www.denverpost.com
*The FSU Women Finished Fourth And The Men 12th At NCAA Cross-Country Championships www.seminoles.com
*Lananna Says Hasay's Runner-Up Finish Was A Big Step Forward As She Didn't Get Antsy & Kick Too Early www.oregonlive.com

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.

The Big Interview With Ritz (Full Story On This Here)

Bob Kempainen In All His Glory (Thank You Natural Running Center For Sending This)

More Trials *More Yahoo Photos

LRC The Week That Was: Jan 9-16, 2012 Instead of looking back, we start by using last week's Trials as an excuse to look ahead to the 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials. We name names and give you 5 leading early contenders for the 2016 Olympic marathon team. Then we return with 5 parting thoughts on the 2012 Trials, plus our Road Race Of The Month, our Email Of The Week and more, including a plea to Dathan Ritzenhein to not give up on the marathon quite yet.

LRC Analysis Of The Women's Olympic Trials Marathon We break down the action from the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. Sure, we praise Shalane, Desi and Kara, but what about Wendy Thomas, Alisha Williams and Linda Somers-Smith, who ran faster at age 50 than she did at age 30 to win the Chicago Marathon? Plus a look at Deena and Amy Hastings.

LRC Advertising Partner CharityBets, Which Launched On LetsRun.com, Gets Mentioned In Sports Illustrated

Deal Of The Day

Meb Keflezighi's Book With Dick Patrick FREE For Kindle Owners With Amazon Prime $16.49 in hardback form.

Worth A Look

*Is Mo Farah Taking A Gamble By Doubling 5k/10k At The Olympics? Really the interesting parts of this article are some understandably bitter quotes by '84 10k silver medallist Mike McLeod, who was the only "clean" athlete to finish in the top 3.

UK News

*RR: Some Updates From Paula Radcliffe She talks about training in Kenya with Mo Farah, her thoughts on the 2012 Olympic Marathon, and having to miss her daughter's birthday. She says, "My gut tells me it's going to be a good year. I guess your gut only knows so much. So we'll see. But I'm feeling good. I'm feeling strong."

US Non-Trials News

Previously Unknown PSU Freshman Robby Creese Sets Collegiate Record & Destroys US Jr. Record In 1,000 Running in the 1st individual race of his collegiate career, Robby Creese, who came into the meet with modest PRs of 1:54.00, 4:10 and 9:17, went through 800 in 1:51 and slammed home a 28 to get the CR by running 2:19.53. In the process, he obliterated Robby Andrews' old American JR record of 2:22.28. Unbelievable. Also PSU's 1:45 man Casimir Loxsom bettered his own school record in the 600 by running 1:16:66. *Creese Bio *MB Discussion: Creese's Record Run *PSU Mid D Training

*Robby Andrews Staying To Compete For Virginia
*Lukas Verzbicas Drops Out Of His Olympic Distance Triathlon Debut
*Nick Symmonds' Arm Tattoo Goes for $11,100

Ritz: "I'll have to turn my attention back to (the track) and focus on that definitely for the short term but maybe for the long term." OTB: "Ritz's 4th place a blessing in disguise?"

After Making His 4th Straight Olympic Team, Abdi Abdirahman Finds Out Martin Fagan Tested Positive For EPO (More Here)

The End Of The Line For Deena? (More Here)

Joanie Inspires

The Puma Team Answered Your Shoe Questions

Running Shoe Question And Answer You had questions and the team from one of our sponsors Puma answered them on them boards.

Trailer For "ITEN - The Town Of RED Dust"

NCAA Women's Photo Gallery

NCAA Men's Photo Gallery (500+ Photos)

Training Corner (More In The Training Forum)

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

Universal Sports Back To Top