ING NYC Marathon Is Sunday

LRC Men's Preview: The Five Men That Could Win The 2012 ING New York City Marathon As New York turns its attention to cleaning up from Monday's devastating hurricane, it's time to break down the 2012 ING NYC Marathon pro men's field. Who will win: Wilson Kipsang? Moses Mosop? Martin Lel? We continue the tradition on LetsRun.com of discounting the chances of America's best marathoner, Meb Keflezighi.
*Kim Smith Looking To Improve On Her 5th Place NYC Finish From 2010 & 2011
*This Isn't' Even Counting The Dopers: Dozens Expected To Try And Cheat On Sunday An average of 30 to 40 runners are disqualified each year.
*Saturday: NY Times Article Reveals That Alberto Salazar Thinks The Problem With Mary Cain's Form Is Her Arm Motion And Wants Her To Increase Upper Body Strength Salazar: “There is no wasted motion in her legs. All we have to do is get her stronger from the belly button up.” Her first race under him is Saturday's Dash to the Finish Line 5k.

Storm Updates: NYC Marathon Still On

2012 BMW Frankfurt Marathon Is In The Books *Top 30 Results *Official MB Thread *Tracker/Leaderboard

LRC WR Holder Patrick Makau Battles Back To Win As Meselech Melkamu Debuts With Win On Women's Side The weather was near-freezing so the WR attempt was out at the start but Makau showed he's a champion by battling back after getting dropped several times, including before halfway. The 2nd-fastest woman in history at 10,000 had a very successful marathon debut to win the women's title.
*
Pat Butcher's Frankfurt Recap Makau: "My legs weren't working today. They just weren't reacting. But I found the strength in the end."

On Eve Of WR Attempt, World Record Holder Patrick Makau Rips Report That Sort Of Linked Him To PEDs *Discuss
*Reavis: Is Doping Widespread In Kenya?
*Original "Allegations" Here Note the "allegation" is that Makau buys supplements but specifically not EPO at a place that sells EPO in Kenya.

More Results From The Weekend

More Sunday Action

Olympic News

International Stuff

Marathon News: Mo Farah Wants To Do 10k-Marathon Double In 2016; Alan Webb Might Run One Next Fall

International News

Big News: All Charges Against Two-Time Olympic Steeple Champ Ezekiel Kemboi Are Dropped After Woman Voluntarily Withdraws Her Complaint She says no money exchanged hands but she simply felt ostracized for bringing charges against a Kenyan hero. "I want to go back to university to pursue journalism and I have forgiven Kemboi out of my own free will. I have not been compensated whatsoever but I've just decided to forgive him."
*MB:
Discuss

More: *
Capital Sport  *The Daily Nation *The Standard

Vault:
LRC Relive Kemboi's Historic 2nd Olympic Win Here - Is He The Greatest Ever?
*LRC 2011 World Champs Win Was His 3rd Global Title

Sunday Results: Amsterdam, Birmingham, Des Moines, US Army Ten Miler, Gyeongju

Mo Farah Gets A Visit From His Twin Brother Hassan In England

Recommended Read: For The First Time Since They Were Separated At 8 Years Old, Hassan Farah Visits Mo In England Mo, talking about his daughter, said, "She's taught [Hassan] 'fat ass, big bum bum' because she says he's a fat version of daddy."
*Twitter Post/Photo From Mo

Kenyan News: Brother O'Connell Gets Honored

US & Worldwide Distance News

Alberto Salazar, Nina Kuscsik And Miki Gorman To Be Inducted Into NYRR Hall Of Fame Maybe we're biased, but Alberto should have been inducted by himself this year. Way more a legend than Kuscsik and Gorman. Plus if there is an annual induction ceremony, with 2-3 people a year, soon they'll be out of people.

NYRR's Mary Wittenberg

Rec. Read: Lengthy NY Times Piece On NYRR President Mary Wittenberg: "Running INC" Since taking over at the NYRR, Wittenberg has more than doubled the club's revenue. No one in our opinion has done more to promote running as a pro sport in America. Most of the criticism in the article is from those who say the NYRR has gone too far from the "grass roots" the club started with. Wittenberg: "We're not sorry we're successful. To our critics, we say, we want you to come along."
*Mary Wittenberg To Receive Sports Leadership Award From The March Of Dimes New York Division
*MB: Wittenberg article in the NY Times

Ridiculously Deep Fields Set For November 3rd NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k *Full Elite Start Lists

Elite Field Announced For November 3rd NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k And Includes 17 Olympians Men: Chris Solinsky, Alan Webb, Matt Tegenkamp, Lopez Lomong, Evan Jager, Ben True, Andrew Bumbalough, Chris Derrick, Luke Puskedra, Cam Levins, Leonard Korir and German Fernandez. Women: Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher, Molly Huddle, Jen Rhines, Lisa Uhl, Kim Conley, Sheila Reid and Neely Spence. *Full Elite Start Lists

2012 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *Top 30 Results/Splits *Live Thread

Men Full Recap Kebede 2:04:38 Course Record, Ritz 9th 2:07:47 updated Tsegaye Kebede scorched the second half in 1:01:44 to run 2:04:38, a course record by nearly a minute. Dathan Ritzenhein ran a more than 2-minute PR of 2:07:47 to become the third-fastest American in history but amazingly that only got him 9th.

Women Full Recap Baysa Edges Jeptoo In A Thriller Two-time Paris champ Atsede Baysa and Rita Jeptoo battled all the way to the line. They both raised their hands but Baysa was the winner. Renee Metivier Baillie's marathon debut was great as she's now #8 all-time in US history at 2:27:17.

LRC Ritz Runs A Big 2:07:47 PR To Become Third-Fastest American And Finish 9th Dathan Ritzenhein ran a solid race to become the third-fastest American ever. That only got him 9th place in the race, but this was a big step in the right direction for Ritz.

BMW Berlin Marathon *Yahoo Photos *Video Of Berlin Finish

Even If They Fixed The Race, Athletics Kenya Boss Congratulates Mutai And Kimetto The WMM should disband its $500,000 first place gimmicky prize going forward if this is the outcome that is encouraged. LRC's recap and message boarders are quoted extensively in the article.
*
Km-By-Km Splits In Berlin Updated

LRC
Geoffrey Mutai Wins?* Berlin And World Marathon Major Title In Bizarre Finish (AKA Did Dennis Kimetto Let Geoffrey Mutai Win $500,000?) The 2012 BMW Berlin Marathon was a masterpiece on the men's side until the final 2km. The fastest marathoner ever, Geoffrey Mutai, and his training partner and breakout star in 2012, Dennis Kimetto, were putting on an exhibition, running side-by-side with each 5km faster than the one before it and on world record pace. Then the wheels fell off and there was the sprint for the finish. The problem is the mad dash for home never occurred and that left some wondering what the hell happened? Were they both completely trashed or had Kimetto deferred to Mutai, helping him win $500,000? Aberu Kebede won on the women's side for the 2nd time in a PR of 2:20:30.

LRC Does Politics

LRC Meet The Man Who Changed American Politics Started The Paul Ryan Marathon Controversy LRC Poster and 2:29 marathoner Bill Walker started the thread that made Paul Ryan's marathon time a matter of national discussion. Until now, Mr. Walker has received no credit for his contribution to the American political landscape. Meet the man behind it all. Plus learn who he's voting for.

Saturday:
LRC Mo Farah Completes The Double As The British Fans Go Wild The British fans got what they wanted on the final day of Olympic track competition (marathon tomorrow is on the roads and doesn't end in the stadium) as Farah won a tactical 5,000. Bernard Lagat came up just short in his quest for his first Olympic medal for the US as he was 4th, Rupp 7th and Lomong 10th.
*MB: Official men's 5000m thread *That was the worst 5000m final in an Olympics ever

Friday

W 1,500: LRC Disaster Strikes Twice As Morgan Uceny Gets Tripped Again And A Former Doper Wins Gold Disaster struck twice in the 1,500 final. First at the bell when, unbelievably, Morgan Uceny was sent sprawling for the second straight year. It struck again a lap later when a former doper won gold and her compatriot, who has gone from 4:18 to 4:01 this year, nabbed silver.
*Pat Forde: "Saddest sight of the Games"
*Woods: "Half a lifetime of preparation, of dreaming, shattered in an instant."

Usain Bolt Wins 200 To Become A "Legend" Bolt became the first man to win the 100 and 200 at back-to-back Olympics and become a legend in his own words. We thought he was already a legend. After leading the Jamaica 1-2-3 sweep, Bolt trashed Carl Lewis, saying he has "no respect for him" as a result of Carl's thinly-veiled drug allegations at Bolt.
More Bolt-Lewis: *Bolt Rips Lewis

A Legend Passes Too Young

LRC Eight-Time US Cross-Country Champion Pat Porter Dies In Plane Crash Updated: We've added a great photo of Porter with 3-time World XC Champ Lynn Jennings.
*Authorities: "There are no indications as to what may have caused this accident." Porter and his 15-year-old son and a neighbohood friend have perished.

Olympic News: 2012 Through 2016

Other International News

NYC Marathon Updates *MB: NYC marathon and hurricane

RW Q&A With Deena Kastor On Coming Back From Recent Injuries To Win The LA Half She also talks about only running competitively for 1 or 2 more years and wanting to win one more major marathon like Boston or NYC before she retires. She and her husband are taking over the Mammoth Track Club and she's looking forward to coaching other elite runners in the future.

Japan Distance News

US Olympians In The News

Good Read: Phil Hersh Piece On Al Carius, Who In 47 Years Has Coached North Central To 14 DIII National XC Titles & Was Named "Coach Of The Century" Washington University coach Jeff Stiles: "It's not like he is some mad scientist or amazing guru. Al is passionate, and people follow passion."

NCAA XC Conference Action Is This Weekend *All Results

On The Sabbath: Big 10: *Results *Discuss
*Wisconsin Men Take 14th Straight Big 10 Title
IU's Zachary Mayhew won over Wisco's Maverick Darling and Mohammed Ahemed. NCAA 1,500 champ Andy Bayer was 4th.
*Michigan Takes Big 10 Women Title Sara Kroll
won individually.

Saturday: PAC-12: Men: #2 Colorado Men Comfortably Defeat #3 Stanford And #8 Oregon That's 2 for 2 in the PAC-12 for Colorado. Arizona went 1-2 as expected but finished 7th. *Boulder Daily Camera *Results
Women: Jordan Hasay Leads #3 Oregon To Win In The Toughest Conference In The Country Over #5 Arizona, #4 Stanford & #6 Washington *Results
Hasay was the runner-up as Stanford's Kathy Kroeger got the win. Hard to believe it's Oregon's first conference win since 1995.
*MB:
Discuss *Post-Race Hasay Video

Big 12: Oklahoma State Men Dominate For 5th Straight Title
Five in the top 8 for OSU. *Results *Discuss
Women: National #2 Iowa State Cruises *Results

Heps *
Results *HepsTrack.com
*#7 Cornell Women Roll By Going 1-2-3 Up Front Congrats to friend of LRC Artie Smith, coach of the Big Red.
*#23 Princeton "Upsets" #10 Columbia & Wins In A Rout As Vig Gets Heps Title #1 We write "upsets" as it's hard to call it an upset when you are winning for the 6th time in 7 years and 4 of your top 5 broke 9:00 in the 3,200 or steeple in HS and you have 8 sub-9:00 high school 3,200 guys on the roster. *Heps 2012 Highlight Video
*MB: Discuss

ACC: *
Results/Discussion
Men: #22 V. Tech Men Upset #14 FSU And #18 Duke To Win 1st-Ever Title The unranked UVA men got 2nd.
*#1 FSU Women Win

Patriot:
Congrats To The Lehigh Men, Who Claim 1st-Ever Title - Navy Women Win

Recommended Read:
Blogger Incredibly Previews/Predicts Virtually All The Men's XC Conferences

Two Biggies Were Friday - SEC & Big East
Big East: *Results

 MB:
Syracuse Men Win For 4th Time In 5 Years / GTown Women Win As Nova Goes 1-3 But Finishes 4th
*With Syracuse Going To ACC Next Year, Redshirt Frosh Champ Martin Hehir Will Go Down In History As Only Undefeated Big East Meet Runner In History

SEC: *Results
*
SEC Report: Arkansas Men And Florida Women Win SEC Cross-Country Titles Texas A&M's Henry Lelei won the individual race in 23:29.95 as Kentucky's Cally Macumber won for the women in 20:23.29.
*Quick Q&A With Henry Lelei Asked what sport he'd play if he wasn't a runner: "I would like to play golf; you don't use a lot of energy. You just walk around and hit [the ball]."
MB:
#30 Florida Women Upset #12 Arkansas As Heavily-Favored #9 Arkanas Men Win

MB:
SEC distance stock skyrockets / xc predictions
MB: Anyone got a live results link to the SEC XC champs this morning?
MB: Who is timing the SEC meet

Who's The #1 Team In The Land? The Coaches Say Okla. State, You Say It's Colorado

LRC Mark Wetmore's Colorado Buffaloes, Florida State Women The New #1 In The LetsRun.com NCAA Cross-Country Polls Florida State is shooting for its first national title and Colorado Buffaloes hope to get back on top for the first time since 2006. Plus we have conference predictions for the major conferences.

Other US News

Olympic News: Tip Of The Day Is Don't Bring Your Olympic Medals To A Night Club

(Kenyan) Doping News

Speaking Of Dopers ... Updates On Christian Hesch

Other US News

Lots Of Lance Armstrong News

Memo To All LetsRun.com Fans - You Now Have As Many Tour de France Titles As Lance Armstrong

Cycling Feds Strip Lance Armstrong Of 7 TDF Titles & Bans Him For Life "The UCI will strip him of his seven Tour de France wins. Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling. He deserves to be forgotten in cycling."

Insurance Company Wants Its Money Back "Mr. Armstrong is no longer the official winner of any Tour de France races and as a result it is inappropriate and improper for him to retain any bonus payments made by SCA."

US High Schoolers Mary Cain And Sarah Baxter Get Some Press

Christian Hesch Admits To Taking EPO, And Other Drug News

2012 World Half Is In The Books *Results *MB: World Half Thread

Zersenay Tadese Dominates World Half - Wins Record 5th Title Tadese put on a show at the 5k mark and won by 32 seconds.
*LRC US Men, Led By Top-20 Showings By Augustus Maiyo And Luke Puskedra, Finish 4th
*
South Africa's Stephen Mokoka Moves From 16th At 15km To 8th At Finish
*
Amateur Kawauchi Is Top Finisher & Japan Running News Brett Larner Rips The Entire Japanese System As A Result How can a self-trained guy who has won two marathons in six weeks beat the best of the Japanese corporations?

Ethiopian Women Stun Kenya And Win Individual And Team Titles

The Kenyan women had the five best times in the field but someone forgot to tell that to the Ethiopians, who went 1-2 to win as Meseret Hailu (68:55) edged Feyse Tadese (68:56).
*LRC Shalane Flanagan Falls Off Early - Fades To Disappointing 25th Place Finish As US Women Finish 5th Flanagan went out in the top 10 at a sub-70 pace but ended up in 74:41 as just the third US finisher.

Recommended Read: 27 Years Later, Twin Cities Marathon Record Of 2:10:05 Still Belongs To A Single Father Of Three Who Had A Full-Time Job & Didn't Go College As He Wasn't Fast Enough For A Scholarship

LRC "Non-Running" Running Photo Of The Week

LRC LetsRun License Plate Spotted In Texas: What Does It Mean? A car (Porsche?) in Texas has been spotted with a 26.2 sticker and a LTS RUN license plate. We assume the owner has run a marathon, but more importantly ... do they come to LetsRun.com? Of course they should, but we want your help in unraveling this mystery.

Olympic Track & Field *Daily Schedule/Results *Complete T&F Schedule *LRC Check Prediction Contest Scores/Change Picks

W 5,000: LRC Meseret Defar Stunningly Stops The Coronation Of Tiruneh Dibaba The script was all set. Tirunesh Dibaba was to complete the "Double Double" and become the first women track athlete with four individual golds. Only thing was, the person making history ended up being Meseret Defar.

Thursday

800 Could Be Was Epic:
LRC
David Rudisha Becomes A Legend By Winning Gold With A World Record In The Greatest 800 Race In History updated David Rudisha went after in London and delivered, as he became the first person to break 1:41 in the 800. The rest of the field went after Rudisha and delivered as well as 7 of 8 runners PRed in a truly epic race where places 1-8 set new all-time best time-for-place marks. Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds became the 2nd and 3rd Americans to break 1:43 and amazingly neither medalled.
*MB: Rudisha 1:40.91 WORLD RECORD!!
*Epstein: How low can Rudisha go in 800?
*Science Of The Sport Analyzes The Olympic 800 Final And Rudisha's Race Strategy

LRC Duane Solomon And Nick Symmonds React To Their Historic Olympic 800s That Leave Them Short Of The Medals The sub-1:43 club has two more Americans. Unbelievably both of them will leave London without medals. Nick Symmonds ran faster in the final than he thought was humanly possible for him.

LRC Column/Editorial: Sarah Attar Makes Olympic Track And Field History For Saudi Arabia In 800m, But Is It Enough? Imagine the outrage if the South African delegation made its black athletes walk behind the whites and told them to not give interviews or mingle with whites."It's time for the IOC to stop supporting sexism. Gender discrimination should be treated no differently than racial discrimination. ... How about for a start, the Saudi women come out first at the closing ceremonies? Come out before anyone else enters the stadium, that would be a step in the right direction."

Monday

400 Final: 19-Year-Old Kirani James Wins Grenada's First Olympic Gold In The 400 Luguelin Santos took silver and Lalonde Gordon bronze. Kirani James is Mr. Clutch at age 19. Incredible.
SI: US 400m Dynasty Comes To An End

Goodbye, London

Getting High Praise In The Email Inbox:
LRC Mediocre Great Britain: You Lived Up To Your Name "For a country where pessimism is now part of the national consciousness, the Olympics were a resounding success. Not okay, not pretty good, but truly Great ..."

At Least Track Is Popular Somewhere: In The US We're Excited When Track Gets On TV; Meanwhile The European Championships Drew 156 Million Viewers

US/NCAA News

More News

UK News: Meet Charles van Commenee's Replacement

The People Have Spoken And They Want Pat McQuaid Out

NYC Marathon News

Armstrong, The Tour de France, And The UCI

US Track Olympians In The New News: Lolo Jones & Tianna Madison Make US Bobsled Team

Usain Bolt

International Running Stars: "The First Running Video Game" *Trailer On YouTube

Kenya Says They Will Start Supporting Former Athletes Who Now Live In Poverty Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba: "These sports men and women put the image of the country on the international the map yet they have been forgotten."

News From The UK/Ireland

Class Act: David Rudisha Travels With Colm O'Connell To Coach's Irish Hometown - Says He's Honored To Visit "For years I have wanted to visit the hometown of my coach." *Video Of Rudisha In Ireland
*Brits Are Upset That American Christain Taylor Will Now Train In Britain On UK Tracks Under Coach Just Hired By UK Athletics - Rana Reider I guess someone should remind them that Mo Farah trained in the US on US tracks.
*London 2012 Is Set To Come In Almost $639 Million Under Budget Don't let that fool you into thinking they got it on the cheap - now it only cost $14.26 billion.
*Britain's Stephen Way Comes From Behind To Win World 50k Trophy In Thrilling Fashion As Fellow Brit Helen Taranowski Claims Women's Win

Dopestrong

Episode #3 Of On The Run (Sponsored)

Usain Bolt Planning His Next 4 Years

Usain Bolt Makes SNL Cameo During Vice Pres. Debate Skit *Article

The NYC Marathon Returns To Live Television

ESPN Going All Out On Coverage Of ING NYC Marathon It's a fact sporting events of signifcance are shown on live national TV (or tape delay prime time in case of the Olympics). The ING NYC Marathon is back on ESPN2 this year and ESPN2 is going all out on its coverage announcing today that Sports Center anchors John Anderson and Hannah Storm will lead the broadcast. With the way ESPN works, this also means you'll likely see some pre-race and post-race coverage. Tim Hutchings and others on the broadcast as well. Unfortunately no Toni Reavis.

2012 Fifth Avenue Mile Photo Gallery

LetsRun.com T-Shirts Hit The Streets Trails

LRC High School Team Dominates In LetsRun.com T-Shirts If you're going to run fast, you should also look good doing it. That's what the Blue Valley Northwest XC team did in Topeka, Kansas as they sported their new LRC T-Shirts and swept four of the top 10 places last weekend. With Wejo no longer competing, maybe we should sponsor them.


LRC Guest Columnist: Lactic Acid - Is It All That Bad?

LRC From Time Magazine To NBC Commentators: Why is everyone still so confused about lactate (and exercise physiology)? LRC guest scientific contributor, PhD Matthew Goodwin, takes a look at some common exercise physiology misconceptions. His #1 target: The idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness.

Nick Symmonds' Beer Mile AR

Saturday Photo Gallery: Usain And Mo

Day 7 Olympic Photo Gallery: Rudisha And Bolt

Day 4 Photo Gallery: King James, Felix Sanchez, Jenn Suhr, Women's Steeple

Day 3 Photo Gallery: Men's 100, Men's Steeple, Women's 400, More