May Be Dying, But Still Awesome

"You're covering a dying sport in a dying medium."

- Jim Dunaway to USA Today newspaper track and field journalist Dick Patrick in 2007. Patrick writes an interesting article about how he has seen the sport change in 30 years.  

Penn Relays Coverage *Startlists/Results
*LRC Fan's Guide/How to Watch: Thurs • Friday • Saturday

Track and Field: 115th Penn Relays LRC Thursday at Penn Relays Preview Penn 2010 - World's most energized track meet has top stars and drama on tap. Our LRC Fan's Guide should give you everything you need to know about the Relays. Thursday: College women's DMR, HS Girls 3k and Distance Carnival should entertain.

LRC Friday Preview - Oregon Vies For Crowns In Men's DMR And Women's 4 x 1,500 Plus HS 3k Oregon's presence at Penn adds flavor to collegiate distance relays.

LRC Saturday Preview - 4 x 400s, Usain Bolt, A Sub-16 Attempt?, A Great Pro DMR And Hopefully An Oregon-PSU 4 x 800 Need we say more? Saturday will be amazing.

*USATF Previews USA vs. The World Events At Penn Ryan Gregson, Leo Manzano, Asbel Kiprop and more in men's DMR.

*Rival Jamaican Camps Split 4 x 1s, Bolt vs. Powell On Anchor Should make the race closer, as the MVP and Mills group will compete with each other and the better-than-solid Walter Dix, Irovy Williams, Shawn Crawford, Mike Rodgers US team.

*UsainBolt Is Raising Interest In Penn Relays To All-Time High Apparently Bolt is the one who wanted to go to Penn so he could perform in front of the crowd.

NYRR's Cal Brutus Hamilton Invite Friday *Heat Sheets

Cal and NYRR Present: Brutus Hamilton - Galen Rupp Opens with 5k

*Men's 5000 - Bolota Asmerom will pace Rupp... remainder of heat looks way overmatched.

*M 10,000 - Yuki Sato (~27:30) and Brett Gotcher (2:10 debut) stand out.

*W 3000 - Loaded w/ Rhines, Begley, Rowbury + top-end field.

Drake Relays Pro/College/HS Events *Schedule/Results

Caster Semenya Says Athletics Are "Nothing" To Her Controversial teenager says having a career as an athlete is like gambling as she opens the Caster Semenya Training Center.

Spanish Leader Passes: 21-Year IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch Dies In Barcelona At 89

For Oliver ...

Premiere Of HBO's Magic & Bird: A Courtship Of Rivals - Arrivals

Basketball Great Vlade Divac Named Serbian Olympic Committee President

Truly. A great moment in sport.

Boston Marathon: *LRC Boston Thread *Boston Marathon Website's Men's Coverage *Boston Marathon Website's Women's Coverage *Results/Splits *LRC Photos

LRC Excellent Read Leading Elites Satisfied After Record Day In Boston - Inside Story Find out what the elites were saying after the fastest-ever men's Boston and another thrilling women's finish. Ryan Hall quotes Vin Lananna, Cheruiyot talks about Cheruiyot, Erkesso hangs on, and the scoop on Tune, Goumri, Merga and Meb.

 
LRC Fan Favorite: Boston Marathon Photo Album Our slide show might be the best way to quickly replay the biggest moments from Boston.

Boston Director Dismisses Worries About Cheruiyot Briefly Running On Path During Record Race Good common sense. This is not a 1980 Rosie Ruiz situation.

LetsRun's Complete Boston Coverage

LRC Commentary: What Impressed Me Most: Boston 2010 LetsRun.com's Wejo gives his impressions on what stood out for him from Boston 2010. Was Cheruiyot's run the most impressive marathon ever? Who was the most impressive American on Monday?

*LRC Boston Marathon Update Thread

*Results, Intermediate Splits From Boston Site And Press Room

LRC Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot Wins In 2:05:52! Erkesso Survives On Women's Side! Yes, a 2:05 in Boston has now occurred. Cheruiyot battled last year's champ Deriba Merga until past the 24th mile mark and then it was just him against the clock, as the 21-year-old made history in Boston. American Ryan Hall ran faster than any American ever has in Boston to finish 4th, as Meb Keflezighi ran a very game race ahead of Hall for most of the race and finished 5th. Teyba Erksesso looked to be well on her way to a blowout win in the women's race but in the end, she held on by the narrowest of margins. Cheruyiot, aka Robert the Younger, is a different person than the 4-time Boston champ Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, aka Robert the Elder, and Omar Ahmed.

*Photos

Men Quotes: Cheruiyot The Younger Runs To Surprising Boston Record Win
Women Quotes: Teyba Erkesso Wins Yet Another Thrilling Women's Finish in Boston

American Groups
*Team USA Minnesota Places Lehmkuhle 9th And Vega 12th
*Hanson's Brothers Get 2-Out-Of-3 Across The Line In Nice Times

*LRC Inside Look At The Day Before Boston Find out what Meb's knee injury is like, the #1 destination for a running fan in Boston, who is the most popular woman runner in Beantown, and who the co-author of an upcoming biography on Meb will be.

LetsRun.com Training Talk With F-M Coach Bill Aris

LRC Learn From The Best We talked to one of the top HS coaches in the land, Bill Aris. Aris is the coach of 4-time National Champions girls Manlius XC and the original Stotans of '04, the boys team that finished 2nd at the inaugural NXN. Aris talks about magically motivating his HS runners to do magical things, his new pro team and whether or not his prodigy Alex Hatz will go sub-4:00 this spring. Plus, he discusses the runner who may be more talented than Lopez Lomong, what he thinks about people who criticize successful HS runners who struggle in college, and more. We've transcribed the 90-minute podcast into 4 parts if you don't want to listen to it all.
*Page 1: Introduction, What is the Stotan Lifestyle, Percy Cerutty, The Process is the Goal, and There is No #1 Runner
*Page 2: Getting Kids to Buy Into the Program, Logistics of Running a High School Program, What to Do With People New to Running, Weekly Mileage
*Page 3: (No Magic) Workouts, Strength Training and Doubles, Collegiate Success, and Running as a Part of Life
*Page 4: Stotan Racing Team, Lopez Lomong vs. Dominic Luca, Alex Hatz and the Sub-4 Quest

Virgin London Marathon is Sunday *Boards: Men's Betting Odds

Dave Bedford and London Spend $250k But Get Every Elite To World's Best Marathon! Not even an apocalyptic cloud of Volcanic ash covering Europe is going to stop the 2010 Virgin London Marathon from being hands-down the highest-quality 26.2 of the year.

Interesting Read: Kazhakstan-Born Irina Mikitenko Not Exactly Adored In Germany Irina Mikitenko is the returning London champ, but at 37 years old, can she compete with fast-closing Shobukhova of Russia?
Iceland Volcanic Ash Travels to Europe
Kibet And Kompany Airlifted From Africa Good picture of the Kenyans in casual gear.

Japan-Based Mara Yamauchi First Elite To Reach London After 6-Day Travel Hell

 Kenyans Seriously Concerned About Travel-Weary Legs And Volcanic Ash-Ed Lungs This will probably be a situation where they run better than expected.

*Pre-Volcano: London Talk On The Boards: Tadesse will destroy Geb's Marathon WR
*Martin Lel Pulls Out Of 2nd Straight London

Distance Runner News

Bolt Daily

Usain Bolt Will Make 100m Season Debut In Daegu May 19 The man is doing the IAAF a huge favor with this move.
*Wired Mag Investigates Possibility Of 40mph Human You'd have to be wired to think a human will run 40mph as Bolt only hits 27.

Need A Grip? UKA Can Help You Get One - Random News

Australian Athletics Championships: Day ThreeLRC The Week That Was We figured we should do The Week That Was ahead of time so people will have something to read while watching the Boston marathon and so we'll have time to work on our Boston coverage. In this week's weekly recap, we take a look at a lot of the pros who had their outdoor openers. We give props to the amazing Tyson Gay and wonder whether he can beat Usain Bolt and we talk about the most unheralded performer in American track and field, Dan Huling, and wonder if Dan Lincoln should be getting nervous. We also give props to Molly Huddle for a big PR and a Thumbs Down to last year's surprise, Maggie Vessey. We also compare Ryan Gregson to Alan Webb and show you how in one week East Africa can equal a lifetime of production from America in the industry known as the marathon.

LRC Eddy Lee Does It! Becomes Most Famous Sub-4 1,500m Male Of All Time In case you didn't visit LetsRun.com over the weekend, Eddy Lee went sub-4 for 1,500m on Friday, the same day his 2.5-year-old thread "My goal of sub 4:00 1500-I will not stop until I reach my goal," reached 1,500 posts. Lee's quest shows that dreams do become reality and the training resource that LetsRun.com is.

BAA Miles *Results

Andrew Baddeley, Morgan Uceny Win Soggy BAA Invitational Miles Andy Baddeley overcame Ethiopian Marcos Geneti with less than 20m to go to win in 4:08 (not bad considering the wet roads and tight turns). Morgan Uceny looked great and won comfortably over big-time crowd favorite Sara Hall.
*LRC Photos Nice pictures of Josh Cox winning the 5,000.

Sanya Richards(-Ross) 800m Debut

2:10.74 According to this thread, that is what she ran in high school on 4 x 800s.

Update On The Other Pros

College Results

Mt. SAC *Results

Saturday: Results: Maggie Vessey only ran 2:06 in the 800m, as Canada's Diane Cummins got the win. Former NCAA champ Tyler Mulder won the men's 800 (meet still going at time of writing).

Friday Results: American junior record holder Molly Huddle runs PR 15:05 to get 2nd behind Sally Kipyego in the women's invitational 5,000 and steepler Daniel Huling won the men's 5k in 13:24. The Puma Mile setup was exciting, as Derek Scott won over Liam Boylan-Pett, both in 4:00.xx, as the men caught women's leader Barbara Parker with 150m to go (Puma coverage with video).

Thursday Results: Bernard Lagat's brother and former NCAA stud Robert Cheseret could only manage 6th in his comeback, as William & Mary's Jon Grey won the 10k. Cheseret did break 29 minutes. Give him 6 weeks and we bet he's sub-28. Olympian Billy Nelson only ran 8:52 in the steeple. A current CU buff - Emma Coburn - won the women's steeple.

2010 Mt. SAC Race Video: Here (announcers, can't scroll) and Here (no announcers, can scroll to end of races).

Golden Diamond League

Bekele Not Done - Signs On For Rome Golden League
*Boards: IS KENENISA BEKELE FINISHED?

More Boston

Latest Boston Elite Press Coverage:
*Interview With Meb Keflezighi's Nutrition And Performance Coach Dr. Krista Austin Boston Globe
*Interview With Japan's Boston Entrant Yurika Nakamura
*Hall Has Our U Maine Writer Friend Convinced That A Breakthrough Is Coming And apparently the LetsRun voters!

Americans Look To Win Boston On Patriot's Day

Improving The Sport - NYRR's Lottery And Watching World XC

LRC Improving The Sport - NYC Marathon Lottery And World XC Ideas This is hopefully the first in a series of articles on what we can do to make our sport better off. Instead of just being critical, we're proposing ways to improve our sport. If you have any suggestions for our sport, please email us.

Cheruiyot The Younger And Merga Party In Boston Proving "That No Matter The Culture, We Distance Runners Are Among The Geekiest In Society." More Here.

Exciting Boston Women's Finish

Tom Brady Congratulates His Sister At The Finish Of Boston