He'd Better Do Insanely Good At WChamps (or we'll call bull**** or will say he left his race in practice)

"Dathan Ritzenhein exceeded the U.S. record for 10 miles on Monday in a workout."

- opening line of Doug Binder's update in The Oregonian on newly crowned US 5k record holder Dathan Riteznhein's training prior to next weekend's World Half Marathon Championships. Binder claims Ritz recently ran 45:03 for 10 miles IN PRACTICE. 45:03 for 10 miles isn't out of the realm of possibility for Ritz, as it "equates" to a 12:57 5k, 59:50 half marathon and 2:06:11 marathon. *LRC MBoard thread on Ritz's workout here.

A Brief Chat With Shannon Rowbury

Fantastic Training Interview With Marius Bakken
Bakken offers the key to becoming a good distance runner: long, high-intensity, aerobic running.

Website Ranks Potential 2016 Marathon Courses

*Full ING NYC Elite Fields Men's side is insane, women's lacking star power.
*Meb K Headlines Rock n Roll San Jose Half This Sunday Meb will face Luke Humphrey, Bolota Asmerom and Josh Cox. Magdalena Lewy Boulet is the clear favorite on the women's side.
*Wow: Meb K and Asmerom Join Hall, Sell, Torres, Lehmkuhle As US Elites Entered In NYC Marathon US men will get to stack up against intl. super studs Martin Lel, Marilson Gomes Dos Santos, Hendrick Ramaala, Jaouad Gharib, Patrick Makau, Paul Tergat and James Kwambai.
*NYRR American Elite Preview

Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Is October 11 - Elite Fields 11 days until Sam Wanjiru runs his first big race in America against a very good African field. Deena Kastor and Irina Mikitenko match their sub 2:20 pb's on the fast course.

LRC The Week That Was What a week yet again. The off-the-track headlines dominated as we learned that running can make you smarter, Usain Bolt was or was not offered $100 million, Leonard Chuene continued to embarrass South Africa and another running-related book started to gather positive press. In terms of action, the Canadian soil marathon record fell and the milers blazed in NYC.

Edwin Soi Wins Scicli 10k Over Micah Kogo A rare tactical road race, as the course is run on 1km loops with a 300m hill run over cobblestones. On Sunday, the course was wet, meaning the opening kilometers were passed in around 3:00!

He's A Komon! Leonard Komon 27:10 Road 10k In Utrecht
That's fast!

Cow Harbor 10k Race Results - Mo Trafeh And Katie McGregor Win US Only $$
Jason Lehmkuhle was second on the men's side behind Trafeh, who made up for his narrow loss to Brett Gotcher at the New Haven 20k by picking up $3000 in Northport, NY.

Sad News: Northern California Boy Dies After Cross-Country Race In Very Hot Weather It seems like he laid on the ground for a few minutes before bystanders noticed he was in really bad condition. Temperatures were well over 100 degrees on the day.

Zersenay Tadese Set To Run Birmingham World Half Marathon And Defend His Title Tadese is a 3-time winner of the event and you may recall pushed Kenenisa Bekele very hard in the Berlin 10,000m race on the track, where both men ran under 27:00.

UPSET SPECIAL! Andy Baddeley Surprises (!) And Shannon Rowbury Caps Great 2009 At 5th Avenue Mile updated Baddeley, who was injured earlier this year, won in 3:52 despite only 2.5% of LetsRun voters picking him for the win. Overwhelming favorite Bernard Lagat got 65% of the vote but came in fourth in the Big Apple behind Leo Manzano and Boaz Lalang. Shannon Rowbury (4:24) continued her excellent season on the track with a big win over Lisa Dobriskey and Sara Hall, who had a photo finish for second. *LRC PHOTOS
*5th Avenue Mile Results 15 men break 4:00!
*NYRR Coverage Page
*LRC: MBoards: 5th Avenue Mile

Simeon Williamson To Train With Bolt Again Training with a Bolt, unfortunately, does not make one a Bolt.

Stanford Dominates Home Meet Against Easy Competition They look good on the men's and women's side.

Ridiculous

Caster Semenya - Press Conference *South African Track Head Chuene Gets Unanimous Vote Of Confidence And Will Stay In Job  Chuene wants to know what he did wrong and says he lied about knowing about sex tests to protect Semenya. Complete BS. How does lying about the tests protect her in any way? It only protects his ass. He also has accused the whole affair of being the work of racists and for good measure said IAAF officials told Semenya to fake an injury. Someone should look into that claim, but this guy already has been shown to be a liar.
More: Is Financial Mismanagement At Athletics South Africa The Real Problem?

*Latest:
Now Caster Semenya's Lawyers Set Sights On Lying Chuene

*
Butcher Blog - South African Athletics Administrators Show No Integrity Tough to disagree with that statement.

*SA Today Editorial On Semenya


*Chuene Asks Where Did He Go Wrong?
Everywhere.

Writers Give Haile G No Love!

*Len Johnson Writes About The Berlin Marathon Being Anti-Climactic We think the race had a climax. The acme was the point in the race when the legendary protagonist going for the unbelievably fast record suffered in the elements and torrid pacing and was reduced to very mortal 5:00 miles. The drama was a tragi-comedy (because Haile always makes us laugh) versus a heroic finish. News flash to the world media: RECORDS AREN'T BROKEN IN EVERY RACE. This isn't swimming.
*Jim Hage Asks "Is Haile Still Great?" After He Won His 4th Straight Berlin Marathon In 2:06:08 After going out in 1:01:44 and breaking the world 30k world record en route to the 26th-fastest marathon of all time (of which he has run a whopping 6), Employee #1 is shaking his head in disbelief at the question.

Kenyan News:

Derek Redmond Says Usain Bolt Will Break 400m World Record

Inside Look At Mammoth Track Club Running Times Many of our readers are interested in knowing more about the training of Ryan Hall, Jen Rhines, Deena Kastor, Anna Willard, Scotty Bauhs and the rest of Terrence Mahon's Mammoth Lakes group. This is the most informative article we've seen yet. There is a reason American distance running is improving: coaches and athletes are working full time to get better.
*LRC Message Boards: RYAN HALL ANNOUNCEMENT

*IAAF Kawasaki Super Meet Recap - Gay Wins In 10.13 The Kawasaki Super Meet brought in a few stars, including Tyson Gay, Felix Sanchez, Allyson Felix and Reese Hoffa. Times and performances were nothing to write home about but we're sure the Saki was goooood.
*LRC:
Photos From The Kawasaki Meet!
*Results From Super Meet In Kawasaki Japan

*Usain Bolt Camp Dismisses Mega $$ Offer, Saying Bolt Is Still Puma Sounds like the offer is there, but Camp Bolt needed to please the current sponsors. In case you missed it, Usain Bolt was reportedly offered a $100,000,000 long term endorsement contract by a crazy Chinese company.
*Agent Ricky Simms Says Usain Bolt Is The Highest Paid Track & Field Athlete Of All Time Even Before The Latest Offer Meanwhile, most NFL punters make more per year than Bolt.

Deriba Merga Is Officially A World Record Holder - IAAF Ratifies His 41:29 15k Split From RAK Half Marathon

Dathan Ritzenhein Reportedly Runs Faster Than US Record For 10 Miles In A Workout
*Message board thread on his run.

Sammy Kitwara, The Man Who Fears No Runner, Will Get The Chance To Be Crowned World Champion In Birmingham Half Marathon

LRC: Check out ALL the Photos From The 5th Avenue Mile PhotoRun.net caught photos of many of the world's top milers who ran in one of New York's most interesting running events.
LRC Philly Distance Run Photos We are glad to see some nice photos after watching the race over the internet via the Ryan Hall-cam.

LRC Special American High School Student Travels To Addis And Trains With The Ethiopians - Entry #4 - RAB Rugby In this journal entry, Neb goes with the training group for a crazy game with no rules that can sort of be called "rugby".

Former Dartmouth HEPS XC Champ Jarrod Shoemaker Wins World Duathlon Title

Caster Semenya / Leonard Chuene Saga

Bribe$, Mascots, Robots, World Political Leaders, Public Opinion All Being Taken Into Account In Final Hours Of 2016 Olympic Decision

Forget Godzilla - Tokyo has a new threat towering over it *Video Preview Of Competing Cities For 2016 The "winner" between Rio, Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago will be announced by the IOC on Friday.
*Fox TV Ordered NOT To Run Program Where Chicagoans Voice Anti-Olympic Opinions
*Update! Obama Headed To Copenhagen With Mrs. Obama To Stump For Chicago Turns out the first man and lady will board Air Force One and make the trip to Denmark to show the IOC how much the US wants the Olympics.
*Picture, left: Giant transformer "Gundam" built for some crazy reason to help support Tokyo's bid.

Usain Bolt In New York

F1 Grand Prix of Italy - Race *Bolt Cheers On Yanks As They Sweep Sox And Lock Up AL East
*Bolt's Visit In Brooklyn's Walt Whitman College Only Fills Theater Halfway
*Some Jamaicans Don't Feel Bolt Deserves "Order Of Jamaica" Honor This writer defends Bolt's hard work and contributions.
*What Is The Second-Fastest Land Animal Behind The Cheetah? It's Not Usain Bolt

We Completely Agree: Sports Commentators Need To Not Bore Us With The Obvious

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon - Mungara Sets New Course Record

*Kenya's Kenneth Mungara Wins Toronto In CR 2:08 And Amane Gobena Wins Women's In 2:28
*Top 3 Men's Finishers Beat Canadian All-Comers Record In Cool, Rainy Toronto
*52-year-old Joan Benoit Samuelson finished 2nd in the women's half marathon in 1:22.

From Akron, OH: Kenyan Man Comes To America To Earn Road Racing Money To Send Home To Family, Wins Akron Marathon In 2:27

Interesting Interview With Jujitsu Purple Belt (And American Distance Running Torch Bearer In The Lean Years) Todd Williams Worth a read!

Friday's Action From Daegu, S Korea

Tyson Gay 9.94 Victory Over Asafa Powell Gay and Powell both continued their fine post-World Championships running, as Gay ran 9.94 for the win into a headwind. Carmelita Jeter continued running unbelievable times as she won the 100 by OVER half a second. World 1,500m champ Yusuf Kamel won the 800 and Nick Symmonds' 2009 campaign likely came to an end with a 7th-place finish. Allen Johnson was 4th in the hurdles and one has to wonder if this was the last race of his incredible career.
*Results Notice the results website has a picture of Usain Bolt on it even though he didn't run the meet.

A Nice Look At The Great Career Of Stacy Dragila The recently-retired vaulter was certainly a pioneer, as she won the first-ever women's pole vault at indoor Worlds, outdoor Worlds and the Olympics.

Upcoming Events:

NYC: World Champ Jaouad Gharib, Worlds 3rd-Fastest (James Kwambai) And Half Marathon Star Patrick Makau Added To NY Field The blurb in the NY Times has no mention of American Ryan Hall being in the field. Any concern about NY watering down its field to help Ryan Hall out is completely gone. Hall will have his hands full.

Next Month: Sammy Kitwara Named To Kenyan World Half Marathon Team This guy is the best runner you've never heard of and he'll get his chance to take on the best at a World Champs for the first time. He should have done it on the track at Worlds last month.

Recommended Watch: Wonderful Interview With Haile Gebrselassie Where He Talks About The Importance Of Coaching Gebrselassie is clearly a very talented runner and he also is great at communicating the important aspects of training.

LRC Exclusive: Cornell Medical Student And Exercise Physiologist PhD Matthew Goodwin Explains The Caster Semenya Case In A LetsRun.com Exclusive Commentary Dr. Goodwin explains the science behind sex determination, the probable cause of Semenya's sexual ambiguity, and his reasoning for why the IAAF should award two women's 800m gold medals if Semenya is determined to be "too male" to compete as a female in further competitions.
*Science Of Sport: Semenya Timeline Of Lies And Drama
*London Times: Caster Semenya Is Real Victim She will be a victim if everyone keeps telling her she is one.