"I think after the next Olympics and other world championships, if I do extremely well in those I'll consider myself a legend. I want to be a legend, I want to make sure I get my M3 and all those other fast cars."

- Usain Bolt talking to reporters before his 200m at the Memorial van Damme in Brussels on Friday. It is being reported that Daegu, South Korea offered Bolt $500,000 to run the 100m there later this year.

Friday: Final Leg Of The Golden League - Memorial van Damme From Brussels *Entries *Results *Timetable *Watch Here Live Starting At 1:50pm Eastern

The Bolt Daily Telegraph

Track & Field First? Bolt Reportedly Receiving US $500,000 To Race In Daegu, South Korea We understand paying a top marathoner a half a mil to run twice a year, but this is rarified air for a 10-second race. Daegu is hosting the 2011 World Championships (we can't get over what a bad idea that is), so the more excitement he brings, the better.
*4 Golds In London? Bolt Says He'll Leave Event Decisions Up To Glen Mills While the headline claims Bolt will have a go at 4 gold medals in London, basically Bolt has said none of that. He does say he'd rather do the long jump than the 400m, but says preparation for 4 events will be very demanding.
*Bolt Says He Will Not Consider Himself A Legend Until He Has Many Fast Cars There is a reason this guy is popular.

Olympics Day 16 - AthleticsLRC Ritz Speaks USATF held a teleconference with Dathan Ritzenhein Tuesday afternoon and we quickly give you the highlights. We tell you what Ritz had to say about new coach Alberto Salazar and what event Ritz will focus on for 2012. Plus we tell you what Ritz's next race will be. Is an American 10k record run a possibility?
More: Indy Star: Bob Kennedy Not Concerned He Isn't Record Holder Any More Kennedy says it's "the closing of one chapter and the opening of another" and for his sake let's hope it's true as the same day the record fell his wife filed papers to run for mayor of Indy. *Denver Post: Ritzenhein" American Track Idol *Grand Rapids Press: Ritz Reaches Goal of 5k AR *Oregonian: Excerpts from Teleconfernece *USATF: More Excerpts

LRC
The Week That Was
This week we analyze Dathan Ritzenhein's 12:56 and try to tell you, "I told you so." We also argue that the IAAF would catch more drug cheats if they put the LRC community in charge and, lastly, we try not to forget Anna Willard and/or Shannon Rowbury.

Sept. 1 Recommended Read #1: Brief Chat With Kevin Hanson About Desireé Davila Kevin Hanson, who was so excited he lost his breakfast during Desireé Davila's amazing 2:27 11th place at Worlds, takes the reader through her running history. Amazingly, only one American woman has run faster than Davila in the marathon at a younger age, and that was Joan Benoit. Also, every time Davila - whose boyfriend has served as her only training partner leading up to Berlin - has put on a USA jersey, she has PRed.
Sept. 1 Recommended Read #2: India's Santhi Soundarajan Was Disqualified For Being A "Man" In 2006 - Says Nobody Fought For Her Time Magazine did a great job finding Soundarajan, whose disqualification left her, in her words, "physically and mentally totally broken."

IAAF Golden League Full Zagreb Results *Blanka Vlašic Jumps 2.08m *Vlašic Message Board Thread And Video Here Her 2.08 is the 2nd-best jump ever behind the 2.09m World Record, and apparently she almost jumped 2.10m, too. 2.08m is just under 6'10". Speaking of record-breaking women ... in case you missed it, Yelena Isinbayeva broke the women's pole vault WR 5.05m with a 5.06m (16'7") in the Weltklasse on Friday (of course, we overlooked everything but Ritz). That was the 15th time she has broken the record. *Zagreb Top Results: Cantwell 22.16m Shot Put Sets WL, Vlašic Jumps 2.08m
Oh, you were wondering about distance? Evan Jager ran 3:43 in a 3:36 race won by Belal Mansoor Ali.

Gateshead Results Gateshead was hit by rain and few of the times were fast. Lisa Dobriskey won the 1,500m easily after Erin Donohue made a move to the front with 400m to go. Americans had a great day overall, as Leo Manzano won the 1,500m, Christy Wurth-Thomas won the 800 closing in 58 over Berlin medalist Jenny Meadows, Nick Symmonds won the 800 and the sprinters did their job and picked up the winners' paychecks in mostly really slow times. The big upset was in the 3k, where Bernard Lagat couldn't kick with Ugandan Berlin 5k 4th-placer Moses Kipsiro, as Chris Solinsky was back in 6th. Kenyan 5k world champion Vivian Cheruiyot got the better of 10k champ Linet Masai in the 3k.
*More From Gateshead: Tyson Gay Wins 100m Into Big Headwind He's having groin surgery after the season.

2 IAAF Meets Are Monday

Aviva British Grand Prix *Start Lists/Results *MBoard Thread Here
Great Women's 3k, Tyson Gay & 12 Berlin Champs Highlight Aviva British Grand Prix
Plus the late addition to the meeting - Berlino!!! The women's 3k is unreal as it has the double Olympic Tirunesh Dibaba versus Kenya's 5k and 10k world champs, Vivian Cheruiyot and Linet Masai. Lots of Americans also are running, including Vessey & Willard in 800,  Manzano & Lukezic in 1,500, Solinsky & Lagat in 3k and Tyson Gay in 100.

LRC: Dathan Ritzenhein Breaks Bob Kennedy's American 5,000m Record In Zürich Amazed? So are we.

You'll Enjoy This
*LetsRun.com Homepage From 8 Years Ago HS senior Alan Webb was on the front page of the Washington Post and had just defeated Ryan Hall in a mile race, an email campaign was on to save UVA Men's track and message board posters were wondering if all the marathon courses in the '80s were short.
*How 20 Popular Websites Looked When Launched They must have forgotten to add LetsRun.com to the world's most popular website list.

Interesting Caster Semenya Articles Continue

Great LetsRun.com Offer 10% Off AND Free Shipping From RoadRunner Sports Click Here

Upcoming Races From The Marathon To 110m Hurdles

*Return Of The Road Warriors! Sammy Wanjiru To Race Sammy Kitwara In Sep 13 Rotterdam Half Marathon The 22-year olds get to duke it out. Yes, they would be redshirt juniors if they were in college in the US.
*Masai And Cheruiyot Headline Strong Women's Challenge 5k In Hyde Park On Sep 6 Paula Radcliffe holds the course record at 14:51. Berlin 5k champ Vivian Cheruiyot will race 2k Friday in Brussels and then 5k Sunday in London.
*Former WR Holder Liu Xiang Could Compete In Shanghai Against Terrence Trammell It would be great to have Liu Xiang back in good form.
*New Haven 20k is on Labor Day *Elva Dryer Interview *Anthony Gallo Interview Where He Talks About Training With Jack Daniels In Flagstaff *2008 New Haven Results
*Oregon XC Kicks Off Season On Friday Several LRC voters have the Ducks at #1 but how will they do without Galen Rupp? *Oregon Releases The Most High Tech Media Guide In NCAA Running History Recruiting and media attention have been really tough for the Ducks so hopefully this will help.

Already Happened:

USA 10km Trail Championships Were This Weekend In NC
Princeton grad and steeplechaser Michael Spence won the men's 10k in just under 40 minutes. Must have been a bit of a tough course.

Recent/Upcoming Record Attempts
*Haile G To Race Duncan Kibet In Berlin On September 20 Geb has the WR at 2:03:59 and Kibet, thanks to the unbelievable Rotterdam Marathon in April '09, is the = second-fastest marathoner of all time with a 2:04:27. Maybe this will keep Rojo from blasting Geb for not racing anyone.
*World Record? Princeton's Slovenski Brothers Clear 10' Pole Vaulting Off Unicycle Then they swallow fire and walk a tightrope over a pool of sharks.
*Ritz's Blog From August 31

We Agree: Usain Bolt Says Kenenisa Bekele Deserves More Credit The great sprinter says the great distance runner deserves a lot more attention and fame.

Your Tax Dollars At Work ... Paying For Runners
*Bank Of America Spending A Fortune In Advertisements For The BoA Chicago Marathon At least our bailout money is being used to support running!
*Briton Jenny Meadows Hopes For Lottery Upgrade After World Championship 800m Medal She's been living off of 15,000 dollars of funding a year.

Rat Study Demonstrates That Runner's High Can Have Withdrawal Symptoms At least that's what the headline says. The article is confusing. We'll see if you can figure it out.

Bolt Running 200m At World Athletics Final In Greece Bolt will be running in Brussels (200m), Greece (200m), China and South Korea before, we assume, calling it a season in October.

Economists' Take On The Cost Of Running And Why Running Is Worth It Is running actually a cheap sport like everyone says it is?

American Road Race Results From The Last Weekend Of August

*Chris Thater 5k Results From Binghamton NY The locals managed to break up the Africans pretty well this year on the super-fast Thater Memorial course.
*Tesfaye Bekele Wins Spirit Of Columbus Half Marathon In 1:00:38 That's a big-time performance with some solid names behind him.
*Hood To Coast Unofficial Team Results Team Brooks Beast won in just under 17 hours.

NY Times: Are Minimalist Shoes Taking Off?

Sad News: Former NCAA Champ And Olympic Bronze Medallist David Laut Gunned Down Outside His House Checking on a noise out back, he was senselessly shot.
*Editorial: A Senseless Killing *Investigation continues

Veterans Win Hokkaido Marathon As Woman's CR Is Set (2:25:10) Daniel Njenga faded in the heat but held on for a win in 2:12 as Kiyoko Shimahara won the ladies event. *IAAF Recap

Bolt Watches Real Madrid's Opening Match, Says He Can Run Faster In 100 And 200

Recommended Read: Amazing ESPN "Outside The Lines" Article On Flo Jo, Husband Al Joyner And Their Daughter Mary Unless you're a speed reader, it might take you an hour to read, but it is a powerful story.

Get Your Waffles Out Of The Attic: Cross-Country Season Starts Soon

Recommended Read: Interview With York High School Coach Joe Newton Newton touches 'em all in this fascinating read, including Abraham Lincoln and his former houseguest Arthur Lydiard. He says he never uses a computer and the key to coaching is saying each of his 225 runners' nicknames every day at practice. If you're a coach, you should read this article.