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Quote of the Day:
"
The young people (in Kenya) wanted to know how to get to America. The people who were old wanted to know how they can help their kids come to America. And they wanted to know how Americans live, because people in Kenya have this big mentality of America being heaven on Earth. They believe you get everything in America. I had that mentality before I came here. …I told them that life is not easy in America. You have to work hard for it. You cannot just sit down and get milk and wine and honey. You have to work hard."
-Wesley Korir, Louisville's hope for the individual crown at the Big East Championships this weekend. The difference between America and Kenya is in Kenya if you work hard you may still be in the same predicament 30 years later.

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Book Review: Running Within
Want to improve your mental outlook on running? Then Running Within is the book for you. Read our review of this excellent book.
Recommended Reads
Looking for a good running book ? Read our mini-reviews and suggestions

We interview one of our own:
LetsRun.com's Rojo talks about coaching at Cornell

8 Days and Counting:
*
Khannouchi Dealing with Racing in Orthotics for First Time, Training During Ramadan In the article he says he still could represent Morocco in the 2008 Olympics. If that's the case, he should lose all of his American records. But don't count Special K out from wearing the U-S-A in Beijing. If anyone can make the team after a 1:05 half marathon it is him.
NY Times Starting to Pay Attention:
*
Ny
Times Looks at Elite Runners And Their Marriages to Other Elites (They'll be 7 Couples in NY Next Weekend) Ryan Shay says, "In college, a lot of distance runners are obsessive-compulsive, and I didn’t want to deal with that"
*
The Brooks Hanson Guys Give You Advice for Running Your Own Marathon New York Times

US Women Get Some Love: Terrence Mahon Outlines Deena's 4 Year Training Plan Leading Up to 2008 Olympics Interesting look at her goals.
*Kara Goucher Came a Long Way to Her World Championship Bronze in 10k

Ambulance With Dying Runner in It Got Lost on Way to Hospital  So many people were going down to the heat that ambulances from the suburbs had to be brought in.

Drug News: Unnamed Australian Track and Field Athlete Tests Positive
*China's Sun Yingjie's 2 Year Drug Ban is Over She was the 4th woman under the 2:20 barrier.

*Australian Swimmer Refuses to Give Name of Swimmer Who Offered Her Drugs If she wanted to write an article about the athlete she should turn over the name to anti-doping authorities. We turned over the name of a marathoner who was supposedly using EPO when a video was presented to us (the athlete is still competing).

On the boards: How Great Can the Detroit Marathon Become?
*Time to Boycott Marathons
For some reason we're supposed to boycott marathons because there are too many people running slow.

More Weekend Action: Great Recap of Gyeongju International Marathon In Korea Where Kimbia's Charles Kibiwott Lost by 1 Second in 2:09:45 A nice detailed recap by Matt Taylor
*Former CU Start Payton Batliner Wins 2007 Amica Insurance Breakers Marathon 2:27 was his time.

Trials News:
*Great Read on Ryan Hall's Early Training
Ryan told his dad he wanted to go on a 15 miler with him in the 8th grade. His dad said sure, but no whining. The rest is history.
*Great Brian Sell Video
*NYC's Own Anthony Famiglietti Gives Video Tour of Olympic Marathon Trials Course
Nice video.
*Hanson's Runner Mike Reneau Has Only Been Running 3 Years Since a Layoff and He Could Surprise at Trials
*Meb Keflezighi Audio Interview

A Look at Steve Jones, Alan Culpepper, and Pete Julian's Tempo Sports Training Club in Boulder

Kenyan News: Athletics Kenya Trying to Get Its Books in Order After IAAF Freezes $100,000 Payment over Concerns About Accounting Associated with World XCs
*Athletics Kenya Trying to Monitor Training Camps, Road Races in Country

California High Schooler Katie Dunn is Setting Course Records for #1 Ranked Team in California

Anticipation Building for Paula Radcliffe's Run at 2007 ING NYC Marathon The race features a great matchup of Radcliffe versus Ndereba. Only 18 men in the Olympic Trials the day before have a faster pr than Radcliffe.

On the boards: Rename the Treadmill

Gebrselassie Running Part of Detroit Marathon Sunday

This Weekend: Jason Mbote Wants Sub 2:07 at ING Amsterdam Marathon IAAF
*
Watered Down Beijing Marathon This Weekend IAAF

*
Aniko Kalovics Set to Defend Capri Marathon Title This Weekend IAAF

Final Day Recap of World Military Games

Stefka Kostadinova's High Jump World Record Has Laster 20 Years and She Says It's time to Be Broken

Even if Kenyans Were Blindfolded They'd Still Beat Most People Kenyan Francis Thuo Sets Blind Half Marathon World Record of 70:01 He's aiming for the world record for the blind in the marathon of 2:31:31

Ever Wonder Why There Is No Prize Money In The Olympics? British Olympic Organizers Getting Heat for Revealing Consultants Will Be Getting Over $120 Million

World Champ Bronze Medallist Shadrack Korir Upset At World Military Games

Zimbabwe Olympic Official Speaks About Marion Jones "It's really unfortunate that such a great athlete like Marion Jones chose to embarrass herself by taking banned substances. She was great looking and very convincing in her denial." We think in Zimbabwe they've got some bigger things to be worrying about.

The Champ:
*
Culpepper More Relaxed Heading into 2008 Trials The defending champ has a new training group, a new coach, and is ready to go for the Trials.
*Runnersworld Interview With Alan Culpepper
More Trials:
*Pete Gilmore Podcast

Pat Tyson Coaching High School Team in Eugene

Boulder, Boulder, Boulder:
*
Fr
ank Shorter, Mark Plaatjes Talk About Olympic Marathon Trials The article has a chart with the results of the 2004 Trials reminding us that Trent Briney ran a 2:12 at the Trials. Anything can happen 3 weeks in NYC. dailycamera.com
*
Denver Post Article on New Training Group in Boulder: Tempo Sports Steve Jones is the coach, Alan Culpepper the headliner athlete, and Pete Julian is the founder.
*Chasing Glory Vide on the New Boulder

Kimbia's Dieter Hogan Gives His Thoughs on Chicago Performances

LetsRun.com NCAA XC Poll Voting Open
The PreNCAAs no doubt shook up the rankings a bit. Give us your top 10 in the country and tell us who will win each of next week's conference meets.

Dublin Will Host 2009 European XC Championships
More Irish News: Webb's Coach Raczko Giving Seminar on November 3rd in Dublin, Ireland

World Road Running Champs Sunday:
*Results
Zersenay Tadese Goes Sub 59 to Defend His World Title
Zersenay Tadese
kicked away from a four man pack at 57 minutes to defend his World Road Running Ccrown. The title goes nicely with his World XC title from March. Showing a sub 1 hour half marathon is no longer what it once was, NYC champ Marison dos Santos ran 59:33 and was 7th.

More on Tadese: "It felt like the whole of Eritrea was running with me"
Women: Preview Kiplagat, Kastor, Kenyans to Battle for Crown IAAF

*Lornah Kiplagat Ready to Defend Her Title at World Road Running Champs

Men: Preview: Defending Champ Tadesse Has His Hans Full With WR Holder Wanjiru, Others Should be a great race as the half marathon depth has increased tremendously the last few years.
*Atsushi Sato, Who Seko Says Can Run a 2:05 Marathon, Leads Japanese Team at World Road Running Champs
If Seko says he can run 2:05 look out.
*Press Conference Quotes from World Half Champs IAAF

On the boards:
*
Josh Cox 2:22 Marathon in Training
*
Big Ten Network Not Showing Cross Country

Itati, Asiba Win 2007 Under Armour Baltimore Marathon Each sex has nearly $40,000 in prize money yet only 1 man broke 2:20. $18k goes a long way in Kenya.

Houston Marathon Foundation Launched

LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Men
Unvelievable:
Invuti Wins Unbelievable Finish in Chicago
Words don't do it justice just watch the video above.
*Chicago Tribune Recap of Ivuti's Narrow Win

It's hard for words to describe the greatest finish in (Chicago) marathon history. It came down to two time world champ
Jaouad Gharib and former track/xc star Patrick Ivuti, fresh off his 59:27 half marathon. Gharib surged ahead going up a slight incline down the finishing straight. Ivuti then battled back and took the lead on the downhill. Gharib dug back and retoook the lead as they barreled towards the finish and the two guys still standing there with the finish tape which is only about 5 feet wide. Ivuti surged back right at the finish and it was too close to tell but Ivuti got the win. Hot weather took its toll on everyone.
*Video: Patrick Ivuti Talks About His Narrow Win In Chicago

London Champ Martin Lel, London Runner Up Goumri To Race at 2007 ING NYC Marathon Remember the days when NY was 2nd class to Chicago?
*Video: Watch the Incredible Sprint Finish in London this Year (Final Quarter Mile of arguably the greatest men's marathon ever)

Post of the Week on the Message Board A guy wrote in talking about possibly passing out at the Chicago Marathon because of low blood pressure in the heat and then the author of the scienceofsports blog came onboard and helped explain the situation. Interesting Read.

Lengthy Video Interview With Gebrselassie with Sean Hartnett After His World Record Hartnett knows his stuff so we're sure this is a great interview without even watching it. Hartnett knows virtually every top runner in Kenya and Tergat turned to Hartnett for advice prior to moving to the marathon.

Victah Sailer's Berlin Marathon Photos See Geb make history.

AL OERTER 1936-2007 The death of this legend basically is being ignored in the US but thankfully the NYTimes gave him the homage he was due in this tremendous article by Frank Litsky on Oerter. And we like Oerter's anti drug stance and honesty (admitting to trying roids in 1976). When he quit competitive throwing he said, "The drug culture had taken over."
*Daily Telegraph in Britain Remembers Al Oerter

*Kansas City Star Remembers Al Oerter

*More Oerter: *
Message Board Thread
*
More on Oerter from Florida Paper
*Article on Oerter and His Painting: "I know this won't sound right but painting is the same dadgum thing I found in training for the Games"

LetsRun.com 2007 World's Coverage:
*Sunday Homepage
Ndereba marathon
*Saturday Homepage
*Friday Homepage Tyson Gay
*Thursday Homepage Lagat
*
Wednesday's Homepage Lagat
*
Tuesday's Homepage Bekele 10k
*
Monday's Homepage Tyson Gay
*
Sunday's Homepage Dibaba/Goucher 10k
*Saturday's Homepage
Kibet Marathon

Conference Cross Country Action This Weekend:
*AJ Acosta Still Adjusting to Running Cross Country in College
The article acts like he hasn't been very successful in college. Perhaps the author doesn't understand how big the jump from high school to college is. As AJ Nation says, "I wasn't ready to compete with the big boys".
*Nice Profile on Wesley Korir, Louisville's Hope for the Big East Crown

Previous XC News:
LetsRun.com NCAA Polls Oregon and Stanford #1 Heading into Crucial Conference Action
Arkansas on Track for 34th
Straight Crown Our esteemed viewers did not move preNats winners UTEP or NAU ahead of Colorado or Wisconsin, but they did move the Princeton women to #2. They expect Arkansas to continue one of the greatest streaks ever in the sport and win its 34 straight conference crown. Mark Wetmore's male CU Buffs should get their 12th straight.
*
Conference Meet Previews from CSTV
*
Pac 10 XC Preview pac-10.org
*Jerry Schumacher Addresses the Media

On the boards:

*How Far Have the Big 4 Fallen? Arkansas, Wisco, Colorado, and Stanford have dominated NCAA cross for 2 decades, yet the highest any is ranked is #5 (in the coaches' poll, not letsrun.com)
*Big East Predictions
*
Heps XC Predictions
*Michigan Will Beat Wisco

Spira CEO Writes an Open Letter to Letsrun.com Readers You know the company that is dependent on USATF "banning" it's shoes.
*LetsRun.com Readers Respond With an Open Letter to the Spira CEO

Indy Classic Marathon Basically Cancelled
No one on letsrun.com who read this thread can be surprised. Reading about the incompetence may scare anyone who hasn't done it before from putting on a race.

Gebrselassie Talks About Running First 10 Miles of Detroit Free Press Marathon into Canada "This one, one day, I believe can become big like Chicago, New York and Boston"

Scott Bauh, DII Star, Turning Heads With his 1:03:04 Half Marathon Clearly he looks like the real deal.

Boniface Kiprop to Face World's Champ Luke Kibet in Great South Run on Sunday

Jamaica's Maurice Smith Wants Gold in Decathlon in Beijing

Weekend Marathons:
7 Go Sub 2:08 in Amsterdam as Emmanuel Mutai Wins 2007 ING Amsterdam Marathon in 2:06:29
Remember when the world record for 10 years was 2:06:50? Former UT star Kamiel Maase ran 2:08:21 for a national record but only finished 9th

Beijing: Nephat Kinyanjui Wins Beijing Marathon in 2:08:09, 19 Year Old Chen Rong Wins Women's Division Probably faster than the winnning time you'll see in the heat at next year's Olymics.

Italy: Aniko Kalovics Successfully Defends Capri Marathon Title, Stefano Baldini Runs 25k at 1:05 Pace in Preparation for NYC IAAF

Dresden: Morgenpost Dresden Marathon Plagued by Rain and Cold as Shvetsov and Kuta Win IAAF

Former Boston Champ Rita Jeptoo and World Half Runner Up Mary Keitany To Go After $50,000 Prize At Road Mountain Race in Nigeria Next Month It is one of the richest road races in the World and is starting to attract non mountain running talent.

World Champ Luke Kibet to Run in Singapore in Standard Chartered The Greatest Race on Earth Series We're surprised the World Champ isn't heading for a bid payday in Japan but the Standard Chartered Races are perhaps now trying to get some top stars with appearance money instead of just their series prize money (they've reduced their overall firstplace team prize by $300,000).

Let the Hoopla Begin: LetsRun.com
Thousands of Spectators, The Greatest American Field Ever Assembled, and Much More: America's Top Coaches Brad Hudson, Keith Hanson, and Terrence Mahon Talk About the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials

Hudson's Athletes Doing "Much, Much, Much Harder" Training
Teleconferences are usually pretty boring but since the greatest American field ever is assembling in New York in two weeks we've broken down for you the highlights of what America's top coaches are saying about the Olympic Marathon Trials and their athletes' preparations. Learn how Brad Hudson's athletes have done "much, much, much harder" training for this marathon than anything else, learn about Brian Sell's 150+ mile weeks, predictions of hundreds of thousands of spectators, how USATF was "inept" at developing marathoners, and much more including Jason Lehmkuhle no longer being a darkhorse candidate at the Trials.
*Audio Highlights and Full Teleconference If You're Into That
O
n the boards: Is this the greatest collection of American distance talent ever in one race?
More Marathon News:
*
Meb Keflezighi Celebrating 20 Years in America
*
Dathan Ritzenhein Interview
*
Ryan Hall Interview

Comrades Record Holder Leonid Shvetsov Battling Kenyans In Dresden Marathon This Weekend Shvetsov, who has a 2:09 pr and was 13th at the 2004 Olympics, drops down in distance to square off against a slew of Kenyans at the 26.2 mile distance.

Jo Pavey Pulls Out of Next Week's Great South Run Due To Groin Injury Benita Johnson has pulled out after running in the super hot Chicago marathon. Former Olympic champ Fernanda Ribeiro has been brought in as a replacement.

IAAF Freezes Grants Aimed For Athletics Kenya As Over $90,000 For World XC Still Not Accounted For Meanwhile, the Japanese have already turned in their audit of the world track championships which just happened.

USOC Considering Leaving Colorado Springs We doubt too many athletes will miss it.

Asian Champ Samuel Francis Wins World Military Games 100 in 10.10

News We Purposely Didn't Mention This Weekend: Spira at the Marketing Gimmick Again A "Defy the Ban" road race when the shoes aren't even banned yet. The race was run off a cliff.

Bekele Will Try and Get Revenge on Zersenay Tadese at Edinburgh XC in January on Worlds Course

Marion, Marion, Marion: Lauryn Williams on Marion: "My favorite saying is it's not my mess, but I'm willing to clean it up"NY Daily News
*Lauryn Williams Writes About Media Focusing on Drugs
We don't blame her for being upset after being ignored all year and then getting 7 interview requests when Marion tested positive. ESPN ignores track and then focuses on Marion.
*Sanya Richards Writes about Marion Jones She talks about preachers fondling children and corrupt politicians.

Kenyan World Road Running Team Home Returns Home (The Article Says Kenya Got 14 of 16 Medals We Guess They Are Counting The Team Golds as 10 Medals)
*More in Depth Article on Kenya World Road Running Team
Kudos to Patrick Makau who ran 59:02 for the silver. It was his 4th sub 1:00:00 half of the year.

Race Car Driver, Alex Zanardi, Who Lost Both Legs in Car Crash to Hand Cycle NYC Marathon

Kenyan Newspaper Has Editorial on Marion Jones "She wasn't the fastest and most graceful female athlete, after all but just another cheat pumped up to the brim with performance-enhancing drugs." Meanwhile American journalists are calling for the legalization of drugs.

IAAF Letting You Vote on Athlete of the Year IAAF

Clearly We're Bored as We're Putting Up Triathlon News:
Ironman
: Chrissie Wellington Pulls Huge, Huge Upset to Win Ironman We know nothing about the sport so we'll take their word.
*Chris McCormack Finally Wins Hawaii Ironman

*Triathlete Wins $420,000
And this wasn't the Ironman.

Lornah Kiplagat 1:06:25 World Half Marathon Record at World Road Running Champs For the 2nd year in a row Kiplagat set a world record at the champs as she ran 1:06:25 in a dominating performance. American Deena Kastor ran 1:09:38 but was only 16th as the Kenyan women continue to raise their game.
*More: A confident Kiplagat absorbs her perfect day in Udine

LA Times Joins 'Legalize' Steroids Debate
*Kate Schmidt, Former Bronze Medallist in Javelin, Says Legalize Drugs But only in "acceptable" quantities. And we're not supposed to get on Marion Jones because everyone is cheating. And we're supposed to lay off of Ken Lay and Enron since a lot of people cheat on their taxes.
*Helene Elliott Points Out the Flaws in Schmidt's Arguments

Big Weekend of NCAA Action:
*Pre NCAAs:

Women: Stanford Cruises, Princeton Pulls Shocker
Two time defending national champion Stanford came in and delivered as expected winning the Women's "Blue" Race, but the story of the day were the Princeton women. 0 athletic scholarships, but a dominating performance to win the White Race, defeating Colorado.
*Women's Blue Race Team Results - Stanford Wins/FSU 2nd
*Women's Blue Race Individual Results - Susan Kuijken Wins As Her Team Gets
*Women's White Race Team Results - Princeton Women Shock The Field
*Women's White Race Individual Results - Jenny Barringer Wins

Men: McDougal, Lomong Win, Oregon Still Sitting Pretty
No team emerged as a strong contender to #1 Oregon (Although if Iona's Matthew Kiplagat was still on the team, Iona could easily be #1 in the country as they would have had five in the top 20). The 2 favorites for the individual national crown, Josh McDougal and Lopez Lomong, both won their races. Lomong's range is truly incredible and the only thing left for him to do before turning pro is to win the NCAA title.
*Men's Blue Race Team Results - NAU Edges Iona
*Men's Blue Team Individuals - Lopez Lomong Leads NAU To Team Title

*Men's White Race Team Results - UTEP Edges Colorado
*Men's White Race Individual Results - Josh McDougal Wins, Sets Course Record
The layout was as fast as it ever has ever been as the weather was perfect and the times superfast.
*Flotrack was on hand with some video coverage
*Chile Pepper XC Results Arkansas men, Texas Tech women dominate
*Penn State National Invitational

Alan Webb on Hand at DIII Meet Supposedly was on hand with his girlfriend. Webb's presence caused more than one letsrun.com to get star struck.

Interesting Article in NY Times on Running Economy (No registration required to view)
It explains why Alberto Salazar was faster than Joan Benoit in simple terms and has some nice quotes from Jack Daniels.

Roberto Madrazo Says He Never Intended to Finish Berlin Marathon (with Victor Sailer's Photo of Madrazo's Finish) Check out the photo of the dude finishing above. He's got on full sweats.
*Mexicans Not Surprised by Cheating Allegations Versus Madrazo New York Times

LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Women
Unbelievable
Adriana Pirtea Blows It

Just watch the video above. Shorter video here if you're impatient

*
Chicago Tribune Recap of Ivuti's Narrow Win
Adriana Pirtrea, a runner basically no one has heard of (including ourselves) (she did finish 2nd at an NCAA indoors once), was on her way to winning the Chicago Marathon. She had been clear of Berhane Adere for miles. Pirtrea, as she took the final turn, was high fiving the crowd. She had a 15 second lead with 58 seconds of runing left. Little did she know that Adere had overcome whatever problems she had had and was quickly making up ground. Pirtrea never looked back and was strolling into the finish thinking about her career changing win. Meanwhile, Adere was in an all out sprint on the other side of the road. She flew by Pirtrea and Pirtrea had no chance to respond. A truly incredible turn of events as Adere made up a 15 second deficent in 47 seconds. Watch it to believe it.
*Former Yalie Kate O'Neill 3rd in Her Debut

*Wheelchair Race Decided by 1 Second All the races in Chicago were close.

We're Not Joking: RunnersWorld with Extensive Olympic Marathon Trials Section The editor, Amby Burfoot, was a Boston Marathon champ back in the day, and has done a good job. You learn that Brian Sell looked good in the Olympic Trials simulator in Central Park, Khannouchi is fasting for Ramadan, Josh Cox is running 150 miles a week, and more.

Paula Radcliffe, Roger Banister, Kelly Holmes on List of Britain's 50 Greatest Sports Losers Times of London We'd love to be on that list. Perhaps someone can tell us who Britain's greatest winners are.

Drugs: Dick Pound Criticizes Former IOC Head Juan Antonio Samaranch for Not Doing Anything Against Drugs Memo to Dick, no one was doing anything about drugs then.
*Victor Conte Says Roids Don't Cause Teenage Suicide, Barry Bonds Won't Be Indicted