LetsRun.com

More on NYC Cancelation

• Non Mob Mentality: Sports Illustrated Headline: "New York divided over decision to cancel marathon in wake of Sandy " A more nuanced read from friend of LRC David Epstein.
• AP: Mayor Reverses Course Cancels Marathon
• NYTimes: "Opposition became nearly unanimous" Simply not true. The people who wanted the marathon to go on were way less vocal and many people were indifferent.
• Runners Express Shock, Anger and Relief After Months of Training New York Times
• NYTimes: Wittenberg’s Actions Met Head On by Critics
• NY Post Article That May Have Led to Cancelation of Marathon Muckraking at its worst. Photo of NY Post cover blasting marathon Friday here.

American Corner

LRC Meb Keflezighi Leads the American Hopes at the 2012 ING New York City Marathon A strong American field is led by America's top marathoner, Meb Keflezighi. Meb says his preparations for New York have gone better than his other two marathons this year (Olympic Trials victory and 4th at the Olympics), but things have been far from perfect. What does that mean for Sunday?

LRC A Look at the Ten American Men’s Contenders Not Named Meb Remember when Ritz got over a hundred grand to make his New York debut? There's a guy with pr's very similar to Ritz making his debut this year at New York and it has only made a ripple. An unsponsored American got 4th at Boston this year. Plus, Abdi Abdirahman.

More:

• Profile Of Brett Gotcher Who's Made A Big Change Ahead Of NYC By Moving From Altitude In Flagstaff Back Home To Santa Cruz, California He has done his last month before NYC doing marathon paced workouts at sea level.
  
• Amy Hastings Has Been Looking Forward To Doing NYC Since She Was In College "For the track, it really is every four years when its important. But for the marathon it's different. ... you also have these Majors that are huge every year. It's really cool to be a marathoner because you get this excitement with every race."
  
• American Athletes Voice Their Support For NYC And The Decision To Still Hold The Marathon Quotes from Jason Hartman, Amy Hastings, and Julie Culley.
  
• The Trailer Podcast: Interview With Lauren Fleshman Who Shares Her Predictions For NYC
  
• Past NYC Champions Alberto Salazar, Nina Kuscsik And Miki Gorman Inducted Into NYRR Hall Of Fame

NYC And Hurricane Sandy

• Mayor Bloomberg Says NYC Marathon Won't Divert Resources From Relief Effort He expects electricity to be restored to all of Manhattan by race day, freeing up "up an enormous number of police."
  
• Columnist Echoes Bloomberg: "This city is a city where we have to go on." "Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of trust. For most of us, there's no simple way to measure either the sanity or the success of going ahead with the race, other than to be able to say at the end that you finished. But the only way that happens is if you start."
  
• There Will Be Logistical Changes, But The Course Will Stay The Same Julie Culley joked "If they want to cut all the tangents, I'm fine with that."
  

Previous NYC News

• NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Says The Marathon Will Go On As Scheduled “The bottom line is, some people said you shouldn’t run the marathon. There are an awful lot of small businesses that depend on these people. We have to have an economy.”
• LRC Mary Wittenberg Upbeat That The 2012 ING New York City Marathon Will Be Held
• USA Today Article With Reactions (Both Positive And Negative) To Mayor Bloomberg's Decision To Not Cancel The NYC Marathon Includes quotes from Meb Keflezighi and Molly Pritz. Meb said, "Hopefully we can be the sunshine of what's going on with the storm."
• NY Times: Marathon Is Set to Go On, Stirring Debate Staten Island borough president James Molinaro: “My God. What we have here is terrible, a disaster. If they want to race, let them race with themselves. This is no time for a parade.”
• Sad, But Recommended Read: Father Running NYC Marathon To Honor His 7 Year Old Daughter Who Died From Cancer She passed in June, 4 days after giving him an entry into the 2012 race as a birthday present.
• USA Today Columnist Says Mayor Bloomberg Is Making A Big Mistake Not Canceling The Marathon
• Historic Van Cortlandt Park XC Course Hit Hard By Hurricane Sandy Includes pictures of many trees down over the course that is supposed to host the Foot Locker Northeast Regional meet on November 24th.
  
• Hurricane Sandy Strands Transcontinental Runner Chris Nicholas In New York City He is attempting to be the first person to run across the country twice in a year.

Previous NYC Marathon News

• 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.
• Mary Wittenberg Says NYC Marathon Will Go On Despite Storm "We will keep all options open with regard to making any accommodations and adjustments necessary to race day and race weekend events."
  
• NYRR Board Member: “There will be a marathon. I don’t know how many thousands of people will run it, but I will say with confidence that 47,000 people will not be that number." This NY Times article paints the best picture of the damage and logistical problems NYRR faces in putting on the marathon
• Mayor Says Subway Might Not Be Running Again For 4 Or 5 Days
• New York Post Claims Marathon Could Be Pushed Back From Sunday
• USA Today: Despite The Closure Of Airports, Subways, And Central Park NYC Marathon Will Go On
• Julie Culley Distracted Ahead Of Her Marathon Debut As She Knows Many Affected By Storm "I feel guilty for not making more of my day. I went on a run today, and my heart felt so heavy, it was almost like I spaced out and woke up a couple of miles later."
• OTB: Looks like NYC Marathon (not) cancelled *NYC marathon and hurricane *If they have the marathon this weekend it is going to be a BIG MISTAKE.

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.

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

• Alan Webb Has Moved Back To Portland And Says He Could Run A Marathon As Early As Next Fall He's done with middle distance and moving up. He ran the first 100 mile weeks of his life and hasn't selected a training group yet, but has run with Jerry's Schumacher's group. *MB Thread
• Alberto Salazar Talks About Mo Farah Doing The 10,000-Marathon Double In Rio 2016
• Meb Keflezighi On His 4th Place In London And NYC Next Weekend "I was pushing the last two miles or so to get into fourth place. When you hear about people [in the top three] who get caught [for drugs], I want to be the guy in fourth."

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

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

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.

• Kimetto: "I was not expecting to finish close to him since I knew I could not beat him, but I'm delighted with today's performance."
• Race Broadcast: "If anything, it may be a pre-planned thing, you know."
• Science Of Sport's Analysis Of Berlin

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.

NYC Is NOT Sunday

2012 ING NYC Marathon Is Canceled A joint statement from Mayor Bloomberg and Mary Wittenberg said, "While holding the race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division.  The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination.  We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it."

On the Boards: Mary W Seems Open to Idea of Having Pro Race at a Later Date
*Video of Mary W Answering LetsRun's question about the pros

NYC Athlete News

The Runners Start To Turn Over Their Cards
LRC Who Is The Favorite? Three Of The Men’s Race Favorites Reveal Their Fitness The London marathon champ, Wilson Kipsang, talked very confidently at the press conference on Wednesday as did the undefeated Stanley Biwott. Moses Mosop, on the other hand, said he's only 80-85% ready to go, but the last time he was that fit - he set a CR in Chicago. Renato Canova, who no longer coaches Mosop, seemingly thinks Biwott is the man to beat.

Saturday's NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k Cancelled So too is Friday night’s Opening Ceremony.

LRC New York Road Runners Create and Give $1 Million to NYC Marathon Race to Recover Fund; Rudin Family, ING Give Another $1.6 Million We at LRC are glad to see the race go on Sunday. The mayor made his call and the race is going forward. Sure there are critics, but if the race was cancelled there would be critics as well.

Women's Preview: The Five Six Women That Could Win The 2012 ING New York City Marathon We break down the strong New York women's field led by favorite and Olympic champ Tiki Gelana. Will Edna Kiplagat challenge? Can Kim Smith figure out the marathon?
*In Her Debut Japan Marathoner Kayoko Fukushi Went Out Hard With The Leaders But Crashed And Collapsed 4 Times Before Finishing She's improved since then (2:24 for 3rd in Chicago 2011) and is looking to do well in NYC.
*Last Year Molly Pritz Was The Top American In Her Debut With A 2:31 And Is Going For Something Sub-2:28 This Year She arrived before the storm hit, making a 14 hour drive from Detroit when her flight was cancelled and has been doing workouts on the hotel treadmill. *NYRR Article On Pritz
*Kim Smith Arrives Safely In NYC; Says She Expects Changes To The Course

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.
*Moses Mosop Says He's At About 85% Fitness Due To The Achilles Injury That Kept Him Out Of The Olympics
*Kenyan Stanley Biwott Is Undefeated In His Five Races This Year And Is Hoping To Become The 10th NYC Champ To Come Out Of His Training Camp
*Moses Mosop, Wilson Kipsang, Stanley Biwott, Sharon Cherop And Edna Kiplagat "Faced A Marathon Just To Get To NYC" They took a flight from Nairobi to London to Boston and from there drove to New York, getting there Wednesday.
*Wilson Kipsang Benefited From Training With NYC CR Holder Geoffrey Mutai In His Buildup For New York
*Quotes From The NYC Marathon Elite Athletes Scrambling To Make New Travel Arrangements To Make It To NYC On Time

Other Non-NYC News: Lance Could Lose His Olympic Medal

• What Goes Around Comes Around: Irsh journalist Launches Criminal Action Against UCI President Pat McQuaid & Hein Verbruggen The UCI, McQuaid and Verbruggen had originally launched a lawsuit against Kimmage but last week suspended it.
• IOC Looking Into Possibility Of Stripping Lance Armstrong Of His Bronze Medal From Sydney 2000 The issue is the 8 year statute of limitations law.
  
• NCAA Sets Future Sites For Cross Country, Indoor And Outdoor Championships For Division I, III, And III The DI 2014 indoor championships will be held in Albuquerque, N.M which will be the first time the meet has ever been held at altitude.
• USATF Announces 2012 Hall Of Fame Class One is Pat McDonald who is recognized as the oldest Olympic champion in history, winning the 56-pound weight throw at the 1920 Games at the age of 42.
• IAAF Profiles Italian Triple Jumpers Fabrizio Donato & Daniele Greco Who Finished 3rd And 4th In London Donato is retiring and will pass down the torch to Greco to continue Italy's TJ success.
  

International News

• Uganda: Olympic Marathon Champ Stephen Kiprotich Will Get Back To Work This Month By Helping Uganda Prisons Try And Defend Their Inter-Forces Games Title
• Ireland: Athletics Ireland Head Cross Country Manager Anne Keenan-Buckley Quits She said she resigned "because of my disillusionment with the high performance management and the direction it is taking".
  
• Kenya: Patrick Makau's Frankfurt Victory Gets Him Nominated For Kenya's Safaricom Sportsman Of The Year Award Other nominees include David Rudisha, Ezekiel Kemboi, Julius Yego (javelin thrower), Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang.
• Japan: Japan's #1 Female Marathoner Kentaro Nakamoto (6th In London) Gets Back On The Roads With A Stage Win At The Grand Tour Kyushu This is an eight-day, 50-stage, 732.2 km ekiden around Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu.
• Jamaica: TV Interview With Jamaican Olympic Champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
• IAAF Online Diary: Veronica Campbell Brown Says She's Resumed Training

NYC Marathon Updates *MB: NYC marathon and hurricane

• Wilson Kipsang Says He Feels Completely Recovered From The Olympic Marathon And Is Ready To Go For NYC This Sunday Kipsang is mostly self-coached as he takes advice from experts such as Renato Canova, but then listens to his body and modifies things as needed.
• Geoffrey Mutai Has Already Won The Men's World Marathon Majors Title, But NYC Will Decide Who Wins For The Women It's between Mary Keitany, Edna Kiplagat and Sharon Cherop. Keitany is in the lead, but not racing so if Kiplagat or Cherop win they get the overall title; if they finish 2nd or worse then Keitany wins.
• WSJ: NYC Marathon Lead Car Serves As An Effective Recruiting Tool To Move Shorter Distance Elites Up To The Longer Distance It worked on Kara Goucher, who said, "It literally changed the course of my career." Luke Puskedra and Neely Spence are riding this year.
• Mary Wittenberg Doesn't Expect The Storm To Have Any Effect On Sunday's Race
• NYC Marathon Runners Being Given The Option To Defer Their Entry Until Next Year If They Cannot Travel Due To The Hurricane However, they will have to repay their entry fee again for 2013.
• ESPN Broadcasters Excited To Be Announcing The NYC Marathon On Live TV For The First Time Since 1993

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.

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.

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."

Christian Hesch Admits To Taking EPO, And Other Drug News

• NY Times: Christian Hesch Admits To Taking EPO This is a perfect example of how cheating doesn't just happen at the top level of the sport. There are guys who ride under the radar and take away prize money from other deserving clean athletes. And his arguments that he ran the races clean because the EPO was "out of his system" is ridiculous. Doping can benefit you for years.
  *Hesch Writes Public Apology For Doping *RW Article Detailing How Hesch Initially Denied Doping
  *MB: Christian Hesch doping article in the NY Times/Competitor.com
• Armstrong's Lawyer Challenges Accusers To Take Lie Detector Test, But Then Says Lance "Might" Be Willing To Take One His lawyer said the only reason Armstrong would refuse a lie detector test was because he had "moved on." Yeah, okay.

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.

The Greatest 800m Ever?

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

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 ..."