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Big Road Action This Weekend

• Sunday: 5th Avenue Mile Start lists here. Jenny Simpson and Nick Symmonds are both racing with a ton of other US stars. Message board prediction thread here.
  *Big Moves For Shannon Rowbury Who's Boyfriend Proposed To Her In London This Summer And Is Moving To Portland To Be Coached By Alberto Salazar She's racing the 5th Avenue Mile today and then going to search for wedding dresses with Kleinfeld Bridal (of Say Yes to the Dress fame).
  *Morgan Uceny returns to US to race 5th Avenue - has bags backed as she's not going back to UK now that Terrence Mahon is out as UK coach
  
  
• Sunday: Downtown CVS 5k USA Champs Tegenkamp and Solinsky both running. Molly Huddle and Infeld. Message board prediction thread.
• Kenya’s Leonard Komon (The Second Fastest Ever Over 10 Miles) Is Favorite To Win His 3rd Straight Dam tot Damloop Title This Sunday He faces three runners who who finished in the top eight in the Moscow 10k in Abera Kuma, Kenneth Kipkemboi and Nguse Amlosom as well as sub-60 minute half runner Peter Kirui. 2-time World 5000 silver medallist Sylvia Kibet defends her title with her younger sister Valentine (71 half0, Filomena Chepchirchir (2:25 marathon) and Joyce Chepkirui (67 half) in the field.
• Russia's 2:10 Man Aleksey Sokolov The Favorite At The Siberian International Marathon On Sunday Russia's 2:31 woman Yevgeniya Danilova will take on Ethiopia’s Meseret Mengistu (2:29) who is coming off a marathon less than 2 weeks ago.
  
  
• Saturday: RRW Preview Of Cow Harbor 10k In Northport, NY: Mo Trafeh Goes For His 5th Straight Title Against Fernando Cabada; Alisha Williams Defends Hers From Stephanie Rothstein Bruce And Mattie Suver
  
  
• Friday: World Champs 10,000 Bronze Medalist Paul Tanui Wins Japan Corporate Champs 10k In 27:26 Doricah Obare won the women's race in 32:02.

What's Next?

LRC After Just One Year On The Job, Terrence Mahon Is Out As UK National Distance Coach He's returning to the US and the question naturally becomes, "Why did he leave and what's next for Mahon?" Mahon has emailed and said Uceny and Willard will both soon doing altitude training in Mammoth with support from the Mammoth TC.
*RRW Morgan Uceny Coming Back To USA To Train Under Terrence Mahon link fixed
*The Times: UK Athletics in a state of flux with exit of Terrence Mahon
*Athletics Weekly: Terrence Mahon to leave UKA
MB: After one year on the job, Terrence Mahon is out as UK national distance coach and will return to US

Sprint News

• Glasgow Herald Writer On Farah/Bolt 600 Meter Clash: "It worries me that this is what track & field evidently feels it has to resort to in order to grab attention of the public." This race probably won't happen, but if it did would non-track fans even care? We'd like to see it for the same reason we'd like to see Bolt race David Rudisha over 400.
• Usain Bolt: I stay away from dating 'English ladies' for fear of appearing in the British press Bolt said, "Over the years I've got into trouble three times after liking English ladies. All of sudden I'm the paper, my whole story is in the paper, so I've taken note of you English ladies, so I'm very careful. I stay away from English ladies."
  
• Jamaica's World 200 Silver Medalist Warren Weir Says He Felt A Lot Of Pressure Going Into Moscow To Prove That His Bronze From The Olympics Wasn't A Fluke

Lighting Bolt News: Bolt Says He Might Not Retire After Rio 2016

• Video: Usain Bolt Reconsidering Plans To Retire After 2016 Olympics Because Of His Fans' Reaction To The News "I am definitely reconsidering [retiring after 2016]. I think my fans especially have really voiced their concern about me retiring."
• Usain Bolt Says He Would Probably Only Run The 200m If He Decides To Compete At The 2014 Commonwealth Games Some random side notes: he says he now avoids dating "English ladies" because he always ends up in the paper, he doesn't like politics, and he wouldn't want to be a coach because he knows athletes can make you crazy.
• Usain Bolt, A Big-Time Manchester United Fan, Does Puma Ad With Rival Team Manchester City's Star Player Sergio Aguero Afterwards, Aguero said, "[Bolt] showed some skills though. He is not good enough to play for City, but I think he would have a good chance of getting into the United team."
• Bolt Says He Thinks 9.4 Is Possible

NCAA XC

• Oklahoma State Men & Providence Women Stay No. 1 In Updated National XC Rankings
• USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA XC Preview: #5 Arkansas And #6 Tulsa Men Will Race At Saturday's Missouri Southern Stampede

Competitor Group Still Making News

Competitor Group To Get $125,000 In Corporate Welfare From City Of Raleigh

Pat Rizzo: Why I Ran RnR Philly And How I Will Deal With CGI In The Future Rizzo already had planned to use the race as his final prep before Twin Cities. However, in the future, he won't be participating as he's irate that the company that he's worked for as an UNPAID volunteer for years is knifing the sport in the back.
*MB: Labor lawyers: How is it legal for Competitor Group to use volunteers without paying minimum wage at races?

Doping News From Jamaica

• Jamaican Prime Minister Reassures World Anti-Doping Agency That Drug Testing Will Be A Big Priority
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Said Many Athletes Believed She Was On Drugs This Season "Some thought I was on drugs for me to have done what I did. ... How I can have such a long season and still go at the end of the season and run so fast?"
• We 100% Agree: 14-Year-Old 200m English Schools Champion Says Drug Cheats Are "Shameful" And Should Immediately Be Given Lifetime Ban
• Russian Aathletics Federaion Handed Down Two-Year Bans To Long Jumper Tatiana Kotova And Hammer Thrower Kirill Ikonnikov The 36-year-old Kotova was the 2000 and 2004 Olympic LJ third placer and is getting banned for a test of her 2005 WChamps sample.

Administrative News

• MB: Boston sells out - 65% of registrants female
• L.A. County Supervisors Unanimously Vote To Urge The United States' Olympic Committee To Support 2024 LA Bid
• 2013 European 60m Champ Tezdzhan Naimova Banned For Life For 2nd Doping Offense
• New IOC President Receives Warm Welcome At New Office
• *Germany's Thomas Bach Has Moved Into His New Office As IOC Head
• New Australian Prime Minister Promotes Sport To Cabinet Level Responsibility For Health Minister
• 14 Affiliiates Walk Out Of Athletics Kenya Reconciliation Meeting
• Sports, Arts And Culture Cabinet Secretary In Kenya Tells Warring Factions In Athletics Kenya To Settle Their Differences
• Fraser-Pryce's Pocket Rocket Foundation Hands Out Seven Scholarships To Student Athletes
  *SFP's Scholarships Were More Than $980 Each

Elites In The News

Column: 3 Years Ago, Ryan Gregon And Andrew Wheating Seemed To Be The Future Of Middle Distance - What Happened?
*MB: Webb = a runner of sporadic brilliance? Are you joking Mr. Len Johnson?

Ezekiel Kemboi To Retire After 2016 Games We guess this means he's not moving up to the marathon?

Former Olympic And World 400H Champ Melaine Walker To Be Inducted In Texas Athletic Hall Of Fame

Speaking Of Elites, Do Elites Matter?

• Toni Reavis: The Slowing Down And Dumbing Down Of American Running Culture Nowadays, even Boston qualifiers have no connection to the elites. Agent Brendan Reilley: "I think we've had too many years of the John Bingham (Waddle On, Penguins) philosophy. John is a nice guy, a very entertaining and eloquent speaker, but there seems to be little in the sport these days to carry the runners that John has gotten off the couch to the next level of aiming to run faster and treat our events like RACES."
  *Bingham Responds In Comments Section: "I guarantee that the first 'elite' to show even a LITTLE interest in the rest of the pack will become a hero overnight."
  MB: How to justify competitive running at the amateur/hobbyjogger level?
• More Toni Reavis: Races Need To Stop Hiring "Fast People With No Entertainment Value"
• The "Big 5" Think So: PRRO Offering New $24,000 "Bump Up" Bonus For Next Season A runner who wins Peachtree plus one of the following four races (while being top 3 in the other 3) - World's Best, Bloomsday, Boilermaker, Cherry Blossom - will win a $24,000 bonus.
• Seems Like Elite Athlete Support To Us; Maybe They Need A New PR Person Rock 'N' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon Paid For Travel For 16 Athletes, Hotels For 14 More And Comped 90 Entries And Paid Prize Money

Some Entertainment For The Weekend

LRC LRCers In The Real World #1: Rojo Calls Into America's Top Sports Radio Station, Admits To Drinking, Host Says On Rojo Analysis, "On a stupid scale of 1 to a 100, that's at least a 99." The intersection of the running world and the real world fascinates us. With that in mind, we present to you a new ground-breaking investigative series on LetsRun.com: LRCers in the Real World. We lead off with LRC founder Robert Johnson (Rojo) calling into America's Top Sports Radio Station and trying to break down the Dallas Cowboys Week 1 win over the Giants. It gets interesting real quick. Did Rojo prove on the air what some of you have long suspected - that he's an idiot? Or would his genius be secretly revealed?
More Friday Entertainment From The Boards:
*Rocky Balboa ran 30 miles during "Rocky II" training scene. Explained and detailed
*Triathlete punches woman en route to win!!!
*The best peanut butter is...

Marathon News: Where Will 2016 US Marathon Trials Be?

• Cincinnati, Houston And Los Angles The Three Finalists Bidding To Host The 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials
• Good Read: Daily Relay Q&A With Jason Hartman Hartman shares that he thinks his best marathon was when he won the 2009 Twin Cities not long after coming off 12 weeks in a boot for a stress fracture and gives some interesting insight into his relationship with Dathan Ritzenhein who was his high school teammate.
• World Marathon Majors Fall Preview: Berlin, Chicago, NYC
• World Steeplechase Champion Micah Chemos Wants To Move To The Marathon After Rio 2016 She'll be running her half-marathon debut at this December's Baringo Half Marathon in Kenya.

Coming Soon / 2013 New York City Field Announced

• Coming November 6, 2013: LRC Geoffrey Mutai, The Fastest Marathoner In History, Will Battle World And Olympic Champ Stephen Kiprotich And Ryan And Meb At 2013 ING New York City The NYRR released the whole field and we give you stats on everyone and break it down for you.
• LRC The Top Two Women's Marathoners In The World, Priscah Jeptoo And Edna Kiplagat, To Clash At 2013 ING New York City Marathon - Kara Goucher Is Out With Injury The women's race in New York should be stellar as the London champ will clash with the former NY champ and current two-time World Champ. Plus, will Croatia's Lisa Stublic be the top American? ... Yes, we wrote that on purpose.
• RR: Kara Goucher's Blog Post On Pulling Out Of NYC: "Letting Go Of A Dream" "I will continue my 100+ miles a week running on my AlterG treadmill and keep thinking about one special moment at the 2008 Olympic games when Constantina Dita of Romania became the Olympic Marathon Champion at the age of 38. You see, I will be 38 in Rio 2016. And I still believe."
  *MB: Discussion of New York City Marathon elite fields - Mutai vs. Kiprotich (plus Meb and Ryan) and Jeptoo vs. E. Kiplagat - No K. G
  *MB: Kara Goucher OUT of 2013 New York City Marathon
• NYRR Profile Piece On Japan "Citizen Runner" Yuki Kawauchi, Who Is Racing NYC This Year We guess NYRR are trying to reach out to non-runners by comparing Kawauchi to a one-man football team since he's one of few Japanese runners to not run for a corporate team.
• Next Month: Desiree Davila Excited To Return To Marathon In Berlin - Hopefully The First Marathon She Finishes In 20 Months
• Friday: 8th RUN@WORK Day And 2nd Annual RUN@School Is Friday, September 20, 2013
• Sunday: Elite Field For Sunday's CVS Caremark Downtown 5K - Cragg, Tegenkamp, Solinsky, Huddle And Hastings To Headline Two sub-13:00 guys. Not bad.
  MB: 2013 CVS 5K Discussion - Who you've got? Bumby, Teg, Solinsky, Braun or Chelanga? Huddle or Infeld?

1964 Olympics In Tokyo Were Held In October, But Will Be In August In 2020 - Will It Be Too Hot? The average high is 87.8 F (31 C). *Avg Temperature In Tokyo By Month

USA Today's Amazing Races To Run Before You Die Mesa Falls Marathon in Ashton, Idaho, the Emerald Run, the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run and Honolulu Marathon are the only US races.

Interesting Masters News

• Profile Of Ed Whitlock - The 82-Year-Old Reluctant Hero Of The Marathon, Who Is Racing 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Next Month Also racing is 64-year-old Yoshihisa Hosaka, who will go for 2:42:44 record.
  MB: Wow: Ed Whitlock has run a 1:38:11 half-marathon at age 82
• New Goal For Masters Sprinters - The 400 Meters Run-Your-Age Club

Random News, But These Links Make The Cut On A Slow Thursday

• Two African Javelin Throwers (One Egyptian, One Kenyan) Were in Top 8 At Worlds Thanks To Finnish Coach Petteri Piironen
• Blessing Okagbare Thanks Nigerian Governor For Making Her Success Possible - Says Best Is Yet To Come
• UK Athletics "Getting Creative" With Ways To Get Athletics Into The Inner City With The Launch Of A Compact Athletics
• 30th IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Talks To Pole Vault Legend And World Record Holder Sergey Bubka
• 2014 Japanese Track Nationals To Be Held In Fukushima

Action We Missed

• 113 Days After Giving Birth, 2008 And 2012 Olympic Javelin Champ Barbora Spotakova Is Competing Well We're more impressed that she won the Olympics in August and had a baby in May.
• From Last Weekend: Dylan Wykes And Lioudmila Kortchaguina Won $1,800 For Running 29:42 And 33:57 Last Weekend

Pro News

• 5 Days Ago On Our World-Famous Message Boards: Shannon Rowbury to OREGON PROJECT!
• Want To Be A World Champion? The Telegraph Shares What They Believe Are The "9 Key Elements" Of Mo Farah's Running Form That Make Him So Fast Results came from biomechanics experts from the University of Oxford and look at everything from foot strike to arm position.
• Video: How To Run Like Mo Farah Dr. Jessica Leitch cautions, though, that "There is no right way to run, neither is there a one size fits all solution for optimal running gait. What works for Mo might not work for everyone and may even lead to injury."
• David Rudisha's Coach Colm O'Connell Talks About Doping: "Of course they're always the, I use the word 'mediocre,' ones who use to try and get the extra edge." No, we're pretty sure even many of the top guys are looking for "an edge."
• Quadruple The Fun: UK's Triathlon World Champ Non Stanford Thinking About Doubling Triathlon-10,000 At 2014 Commonwealth Games She ran a 32:39 10k in March, which is under the Commonwealth Games "A" standard, but the qualifying window didn't open until April.
• Future Pro? DyeStat Article On High School Junior Alana Hadley, Who Is Passing On Her XC Season To Focus On Making The Olympic Trials Marathon For 2016 She's running 100-110 miles/week and will be going for the 2:43 "B" standard at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on Nov. 2. The youngest ever Marathon OT competitor in 2012 was 22.

Random But Interesting

• Man Who Was Evicted For 1964 Tokyo Olympics To Be Evicted Again For 2020 OlympicsHe is being evicted, as his apartment complex is being demolished for the Olympic stadium. The same thing happened to him back in 1964. Hard to blame him when he says, "I have a kind of grudge against the Olympics."
• How Many Times Have You Heard The Old "I Couldn't Drive As Far As You Run"? Well, If Someone Said That To You In Moscow, They Might Be Right Data shows that on a Friday night, sub-3 hour marathoners could outrun traffic in Moscow, as drivers would need more than 3 hours to cover the 26.2 mile route.
• The Bahamas To Spend $3.5 Million To Host The IAAF World Relays In 2014 And 2015 If you haven't heard previously, the relay races will include the 4 x 100m, 4 x 200m, 4 x 400m, 4 x 800m and 4 x 1,500m ... no DMR.
• Interesting: A Pictorial History Of adidas Shoes