Brief Chat With Philadelphia Marathon Champion, NC State Alum John Crews
Crews, 25, has run 3 marathons and won all 3 including his latest, a negative split PR 2:17 win in Philly to become the first American winner since Cornellian Brian Clas in 2000. LetsRun's Employee #1 finished 7 minutes behind Crews in 2nd.
UNC Miling Star Brie Felnagle On Her Return - Video Interview
Former NCAA 1500m champion, American record-holding DMR anchor and 4th-placer at NCAA cross country Brie Felnagle fell off the radar last spring when she skipped the NCAA outdoor track season. She tells FloTrack she took time away due to burnout and is excited for her final outdoor season coming
up.
Michael Johnson Blabs From Jamaica
Michael Johnson Says Bolt Should Shoot For Simultaneous 100, 200, 400 WRs; Says He Would Easily Beat Wariner (MJ is Wariner's Agent)
Former 200m and current 400m world record holder MJ is in Jamaica with BBC producers to make a Usain Bolt documentary. Easy for him to say, MJ pronounces Bolt could beat Americans LaShawn Merritt and Jeremy Wariner at 400m this year without much training.
*More on Usain Bolt: Swedish And IAAF Doping Expert, Former High Jump Great Arne Ljungvist Says Usain Bolt Is Absolutely Clean
Johnson Joins Chorus in Saying USA Track and Field is on Major Decline
Johnson did stop short of calling track and field 'dead' in America, probably an astute decision given US athletes won more medals than any other country in '08 and '09. And how about this for proof of track's immense popularity in the US? Turkey Trot Participation Surged Again in 2009
Profile of Australian Nikki Chapple Chapple had the best race of her career on Sunday when she won the Great Australian 15km.
Concise Recap Of Latest Pro XC Contests In Europe
Monday's Top-4 Distance Reads
1. Recommended Read: Brett Larner Answers LetsRun.com Message Board User - Compares US and Japan 18-22 y/o Distance Runners
JapanRunningNews' Brett Larner started a thread after 2009 Pre-Nationals comparing the NCAA runners to the comparably-aged Japanese runners who ran the Hakone Ekiden 20k trial. After receiving a lot of response from the LRC message boards who felt the honor and ability of American college runners was being questioned, Larner dug deeper to find stats on the best American and Japanese performances from 5000m to the marathon by runners aged 18-22.
2. HS Junior Aisling Cuffe Runs To Tremendous 45-Second Win At Foot Locker Northeast
Perhaps more amazing than the margin of victory was the margin of the new course record. Cuffe lowered the CR 21 seconds despite a wicked windy day with reported 40mph gusts.
3. Interview With UVA's Catherine White
White transferred to her home-state school last year from Arkansas and finished 4th at this year's NCAA championships. Find out interesting facts such as how White planned on spending her Thanksgiving break and how slow she planned to jog her local 5k Turkey Trot.
4. 2010's Athens Marathon Will Be The 2500th Anniversary of the Legendary Phillipides' Terminal Run From Marathon to Athens
The tough Athens Marathon course will be open to about 10,000 entrants for its October 31, 2010 race, Pat Butcher reports.
Same Day In The Global Press - The True Journey vs. The Shortcut
- Positive Thoughts Key To Top Athletes' Success This article is about the spiritual quest of the athlete and turning to positive thoughts to overcome challenges.
- Spanish Anti Doping Raids Find - To Nobody's Surprise - Many Top Cyclists/Athletes Possess EPO This article focuses on a race-walker Olympic medalist who decided to cheat, like many others, to gain superficial success.
Top Stars Pestered For Plans and Opinions
- Bolt Says Yohan Blake Will Be The Next Big Sprint Star Last week he was saying it was Antiguan Daniel Bailey.
- Paula Again Asked by Press About Her Pregnancy Plans 35 year-old Paula is planning on having a second child next season, but don't worry Britons, she's still planning on going for the gold in the London 2012 Olympic Marathon!
Recommended Read: Joash Osoro Profile - UPortland Runner Adopted By American Family From Kenya
Transient Professional Athletes Struggle With Real Estate Market We thought this was an interesting read.
US Distance Runners In Action On Thanksgiving
LRC Photos From Meb Keflezighi's Appearance In The Macy's T-Giving Day Parade With Miss America Meb on the event: "My
kids couldn't sleep, I couldn't sleep ... I was so excited, I thought I was running a major event this morning." Perhaps Meb asked Miss America questions such as, "Now that you are Miss America, what will you do to help solve the home foreclosure crisis?"
Manchester Road Race Searchable Results We are surprised how deep the men's field was.
*Top Results:
Men: 1. Haron Lagat 21:40; 2. Patrick Smyth 21:41; 3. David Jankowski 21:44
Women: 1. Alemtsehay Misganaw 25:26; 2. Amy Rudolph 25:27; 3. Teyba Naser 25:31
An NCAA Meet To Remember
LRC Prediction Contest Scores *DII Contest
Results: *Men's Ind. *Men's Team *Women's Ind. *Women's
Team *LRC: Updated And Expanded Photos More coverage below.
Nike Coaching Award Goes To ... Alberto Salazar!
Salazar Named Nike Coach Of The Year By USATF Sure, it's a little comedic that it's an award sponsored by Nike, but Alberto Salazar has done a fantastic job coaching and mentoring Amy Yoder-Begley, Galen Rupp, Kara Goucher and Dathan Ritzenhein, to name a few.
LRC Threads: *Salazar - Named Nike Coach of the Year by USATF *Meb wins NYCM, Rowbury medals at Berlin WC, and Al Sal didn't coach them yet he gets NIKE Coach of the Year?
NCAA D1 XC Championships Results & Post-Race Media Coverage
Results: *Men's Ind. *Men's Team *Women's Ind. *Women's
Team *LRC: Updated and Expanded Photos
LRC Prediction Contest Scores
Column Of 2009 Champions
Dave Smith Explains Team And German Fernandez Performances Apparently, world junior indoor mile record-holder German Fernandez was struggling with an injury, but ran the best he could for the team. Smith credits Girma Mecheso - who struggled all year - with the clutch performance of the meet for Ok. St.
Don't Know Angela Bizzarri? Here's Your Chance To Learn About A Top American Runner
- FSU Coach Karen Harvey Says Bizzarri's Dream Come True Could Not Have Happened To A Better Person Harvey (wife of Canadian miler Kevin Sullivan) now coaches Susan Kuijken, who dramatically surrendered the lead in the final moments, but coached Bizzarri as a freshman at Illinois.
- Angela Bizzarri's Profile From Illini Website Bizzarri almost made the US Worlds team at 5,000m last year but still thought she hardly had a chance at winning Monday.
Halls Gave Away Their NY Prize Money To Their New Charity
USATF Give 2009 Visa Humanitarian Award To Ryan and Sara Hall
2 Days After Global Tim Montgomery Story... Marion Jones Is Playing Basketball
Marion Jones Is Out Of Prison and Training For the WNBA
London Times Columnist Tells The Story of Arranging the Prison Interview With Tim Montgomery
Another good read that follows two excellent stories on Montgomery (see below).
Drugs and Sport
Pharmaceutical Company GlaxoSmithKline Will Pay £10 Million To Build/Operate Drug Testing Facility For London 2012
Some drug testing advocates are hailing the investment, but some are questioning what concessions might be made to the company after such a large gift.
100% Good Doping News: WADA Ready To Unveil Athlete Biological Passport Program on Global Scale
Tiger Woods Not Coming Clean
"Wild Thing" John Daly Urges Tiger Woods To Tell The Truth
Imagined conversation: "Tiger, and I'm speaking from experience here..." - John Daly
Recommended Watch: Tiger Pulls Out of His Own Tournament
A great segment from Bob Ley's Outside the Lines compares Tiger, his fling and the cover-up to Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Also a former GQ mag writer talks about the last extensive sit-down interview with Tiger (10 years ago) and why Woods' PR people won't let reporters close to him anymore.
Previously: From World's Fastest Man To Prison - Two Of The Most Interesting Reads You'll Find All Year
Recommended Read Tim Montgomery Talks About His Relationship With Marion Jones
Montgomery pulls no punches in describing the real Marion Jones (not the cute, crying Marion Jones on Oprah). Really a fascinating read.
Recommended Read Tim Montgomery Talks About Why He Cheated, Life In Jail, His Regrets And Lessons
Montgomery describes dealing heroin and crack on the streets as a kid, being completely jealous of Maurice Greene (who he then claims was using drugs), and the rough stuff he went through as he moved from prison to prison.
High School XC - Foot Locker Regional Highlights *NE Results *South Results *Midwest Results
*Northeast Results Aisling Cuffe wins NE regional by 46 seconds, sets 21-second course record.
*LRC Northeast Region Photos
*South Results Texan Craig Lutz just missed GTown star Andrew Bumbalough's course record running 14:36 in the South Region. Junior Chelsey
Sveinsson (left)
won the women's race. Sveinsson was 4th at Foot Locker nationals as a sophomore last year and now has qualified 3 times.
*LRC South Region Photos
*Midwest Results As expected, indoor track/triathlon star Lukas Verzbikas won the Midwest regional. Megan Goethals
won the region for the 2nd straight year while senior Emily Sisson qualified for her 4th Foot Locker national championship race.
LRC Thread 1: Footlocker is going to have a "Big 4" all from a different region!!!
LRC Thread 2: Has Nike's NXN ruined Footlocker National?
International Weekend Racing Highlight:
Günther Weidlinger Wins Great Australian Run While Sammy Wanjiru Finishes 4th
Weidlinger is the man who owns every national record from 1500m to marathon including steeplechase. He ran 2:10 for the Austrian marathon national record 5 weeks ago while Sammy Wanjiru won the Chicago Marathon 7 weeks ago. Wanjiru was clearly not himself after arriving late to Australia because one of his children back in Kenya fell sick.
Surprise: Britain's "Retired" Hayley Yelling Makes Comeback A Few Weeks Before European Cross
Potentially Big NCAA Cross-Country News
*Washington Women's Assistant Kelly Strong Resigns After 7 Years Strong was the assistant to head coach Greg Metcalfe.
*LRC MBoard Thread On Kelly Strong Resigning
*Kendra Schaaf Wins Canadian Senior XC Title
Schaaf was runner-up at NCAAs for the University of Washington and added a senior Canadian crown to her 2
junior titles.
*Canadian Sheila Reid Basking In Villanova NCAA Team Title
Reid has come back from a torn labrum to lead Villanova to a team title. She talks about the team nature of the sport and coming back from a long layoff.
More HS: Nike Cross Regional Results Courtesy Of DyeStat
- Joe And Jim Rosa Go 1-2 At Nike Northeast
- Delaware's Tatnall Girls Win Nike Southeast
- Otis Ubriaco And Lizzie Predmore Win Nike NY Fayetteville-Manlius girls wallop Saratoga who are considered one of the top-5 women's xc teams in the country (score 41-77).
- College Coaches Look Here: All Nike Xross Nationals Team and Individual Qualifiers Announced
Weekend International Results
- Ben Kipruto and Reuben Kosgei Sprint To 1-Second Final Margin In Florence Marathon
- World Champions Gebremariam and Linet Masai Win Comfortably In IAAF XC - Spain
- Ernest Kebenej Sets New Course Record In Nyeri Half Marathon - Kenya
- Mercy Cherono Wins 3rd Kenyan XC Series Race
International Races/News
- Interesting Marathon Debut: 2000 And 2001 Olympic And World Champ In The Steeplechase, Reuben Kosgei, Meets 2 Sub-2:10ers In Florence Kosgei attempted a marathon as a trial run earlier this year and stopped at 25k.
- XC Season, Pro Style - 2nd Major European XC Meet Is Sunday In Spain XC World Champs are in Poland coming up in 2010 before the next champs in 2012.
- No Fallout From Jamaican Berlin Training Camp Spat Asafa Powell and company will not be sanctioned for missing the JAAA pre-Berlin training camp. Originally, the JAAA was threatening to kick the whole MVP Sprint Club off the Jamaican Worlds team. Jamaica would have had about 6 fewer medals had the IAAF not stepped in.
2 Positive Stories For American Track Fans
1. US Decathlete Trey Hardee Wins $30,000 For IAAF Series Win Hardee, being lifted by his competitors after his surprisingly dominant World Championships win in Berlin, gets a great prize for basically being the most consistent decathlete in the world in 2009.
2. Recommended Read: HS Junior Joe Rosa Runs 14:56 At Holmdel 5:07, 4:48, 4:33 were Rosa's mile splits on the legendary NJ course. He's a junior and his twin brother Jim Rosa became the 2nd-fastest ever on the course in 15:15.
Think Bolt Is Dirty? Foremost World Anti-Doping Expert Doesn't
Argument Ender? Swedish And IAAF Doping Expert, Former High Jump Great Arne Ljungvist Says Usain Bolt Is Absolutely Clean These quotes come from one of the most informed doping experts in the world, who has handled many of Usain Bolt's samples and results. Expert: "Usain Bolt is completely clean. We have so much of his data which cannot be manipulated."
LRC: The NCAAs That Were The Week That Was focuses on one thing for the most part, as last week the world of US distance running was dominated by one thing: NCAA cross-country. We break it all down for you and tell you who flopped (a ton of teams/individuals), who excelled (very few), and what to expect in 2010. Along the way, we talk about mid-d runners Andrew Wheating and Dorian Ulrey, give major props to Gina Procaccio and to the one team that seemingly did well on Monday (Villanova) and tell you why close to 75% of women All-Americans and 60% of men All-Americans had better start getting nervous.
Amazing Day-After Interview With Jenny Barringer
2009 NCAA D1 XC Championship Results
*Men's Team Results
*Men's Individual Results
*Women's Team Results
*Women's Individual Results
D2: *DII Men Complete Results
*DII Women Complete Results
D3: *WTeam *WIndiv
*MTeam *MIndiv
NAIA: Results
Vin Lananna Post-NCAAs
NCAA Champ Angela Bizzarri
Usain Bolt's ESPN Commercial Released
New LRC Readers' Book Reviews
From Last To First, A Race Like No Other, And See Dane Run From Last To First is the autobiography on English marathon record holder Charlie Spedding, A Race Like No Other is NY Times Writer Liz Robbins' take on the NYC Marathon, and See Dane Run recounts a guy who ran a marathon a week for a year.
Recommended Reads - You Can Buy The Books Online
One for the Mind: Running Within
One for the Soul: Best Efforts