Quote Of The Day

- American Dathan Ritzenhein, talking after fading to a 62:34 4th-place finish in the BUPA Great North Run. It was a tough day for the US's top two half marathoners in history as American record holder Ryan Hall was way worse - running only 63:55 in Philly - and Hall didn't even go out hard. Ritz hit 5k in 14:09 as compared to Hall's 14:40. Ritz hit 10k in 28:53 as compared to Hall's 29:31.

Great North Run And CityGames *Mile-By-Mile Splits For Leaders *Elite Photos

Haile G Remains Undefeated As Adere Repeats! *LRC Thread On Race Haile G still has got the goods as he put on a great show and crushed the field in poor conditions in England. He remained undefeated in 2010 and won by almost 2 minutes in 59:33 as American Dathan Ritzenhein was 4th in 62:34.
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Everyone In Britain Would Love To See Haile Win Olympic Marathon In 2012
More From Britain:
Craig Mottram & Hannah England Win Distance Races At Great North CityGames Craig Mottram won the 2-mile by 1 second in 8:31. *LRC MB: Mottram wins 2 mile over Birms...Bads...Thompson...and No Farah
*In Commonwealths Tune-Up, England Beats Australia 5-4 At Great North CityGames
*Special Portable Track Makes CityGames Possible

Former NAIA Star Aaron Rono (3:58.18) & Carmen Douma-Hussar (4:35.60) Win Grandma's Minnesota Mile *Minnesota native Garrett Heath and Amy Mortimer were the runners-up.

Commonwealth Games-Related News

Recommended Read 10 Years After Speeding To Olympic 100-Meter Glory, Marion Jones Is Now Teaching Others (And Herself) To Slow Down Before Making Big Decisions Australia's Daily Telegraph has written a very long piece on Jones, who is busy giving speaches to schools and writing a book due out Oct. 24th.

Inspiring Read Former World Jr. Champion (And Galen Rupp's Workout Partner) Julius Achon Is Helping Children One At A Time In War-Savaged Uganda

Minnesota Native Garrett Heath Hoping To Win Grandma's Minnesota Mile *Race Website

Commonwealths Are Approaching

Recommended Reads About 1,500 Men

More 1,500 Talk
*Nick Willis Talks Up His Chances For Commonwealth Games On New Zealand Radio
*Steve Cram (The Socialist?) Gives Interview On How To Manage Money The headline claims he's a socialist but if you read the piece, he's far from it.
*As Commonwealth Games Approach, Australian Columnist Wonders "What Happened To Australia's Mid-D Depth?" Lots of people at the start of the year, but now many are injured.

We Guess A Dane Having The WR Was The Equivalent Of Stolen Livestock
*Thousands Greet David Rudisha As The Warrior Returns Home "Whenever a moran goes to war, the way Rudisha did, he is given such a reception on his return, especially if he successfully seized back the stolen livestock."
*Rudisha's Prized Gift Is A Framed Photo Of His Father Being Celebrated For Returning With Olympic Silver In 1968

Doug Logan In The News

LRC: Why Doug Logan Is Out At USATF And Where It Goes From Here LetsRun.com co-founder Weldon Johnson offers his analysis of the Logan dismissal. The outsider likely had zero built-in allies in USATF, which even USATF admits is an organization that is inherently "dysfunctional" in its setup. And when an outsider, not an insider, over-promises and possibly under-delivers, he's immediately thrown to the curb as no one's got his back. Regardless, the key thing to focus on is not why he's gone but what type of person does USATF hire to replace him and how do we prevent history from repeating itself as it appears the initial search process was poorly done.
More Logan:
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Phil Hersh: How The Logan-Hightower Relationship Went From Kiss-Kiss To Kiss-Off In The Last Year
*
Logan Replacement Likely To Come From Within Sport
*SI Claims Logan Secured $10 Million-A-Year Deal With Nike If that's the case, they couldn't be too far off their $12 million goal for sponsorship for 2010.

Random Interesting Distance-Related Links

Random Interesting Non-Distance-Related Links

Decathlon News

Good News

Dick Patrick Wins NYRR George Hirsch Journalism Award

Week In Review

PARIS - JULY 06:  Alan Webb of USA celebrates his victory from Mehdi Baala (R) of France
in the men's 1500m during the IAAF Golden League at the Stade de France on July 6, 2006 in Paris,France.  (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) LRC Week In Review: Webb, Lukas V, Nelson, Ritz, Culpepper And Miss Universe Runner-Up This week, we start things off by telling you how hard it is for Americans to medal in this day and age of African domination by showing you there is more Kenyan talent entered in an obscure marathon in the Netherlands than has ever existed in the US. We then give unsolicited coaching advice to Alan Webb and Asbel Kiprop, give props to American Tim Nelson and compare him to Dathan Ritzenhein and Alan Culpepper, talk about triathlon stars of the past and present, and finally introduce you to Asafa Powell's future wife - the runner-up at the Miss Universe pageant. All of that and we introduce you to a new star of the sport.

Foreign News

Bye Bye, Doug - We Hardly Knew Ya ...

Stephanie Hightower For USATF CEO? The USATF president won't rule out being considered. If she's selected, it seems to us it shouldn't be a $450,000-a-year gig.

Apr 24, 2010; Philadelphia, PA, USA; USA Track
& Field chief executive officer Doug Logan attends the 116th Penn Relays at Franklin Field. Photo by Image of Sport Photo via Newscom Doug Logan Out At USATF Logan, who less than two years ago was a unanimous pick by the search committee to be USATF CEO, was canned by the USATF board on Monday. We're shocked he was fired, especially considering USATF may owe him a $1$2 million severance. It'll be interesting to see why the board fired Logan. Logan's biggest problem (besides the dysfunctional organization that faces every CEO of USATF) may have been promising way too much. We thought the whole "Project 30" report was a waste of time about a non-existent problem. Nonetheless, we gave Logan props for letting the Olympic Trials go to the highest bidder. We want to see what the board says on this one. If you'd like to comment on Logan's firing on or off the record, email us or post in our forums in the threads below:
More: Washington Post: Logan Vowed To Clean House And Now He's The One Shown The Door
NY Times: Steph Hightower Says It's Halftime Between Olympics And Time To Make Changes
Reuters: Board President Steph Hightower Admits She Didn't Vote For Or Against Doug Logan When He Was Hired How a board member could not have enough info is ridiculous - either for them personally or the search process in general.
Chicago Tribune: Next Guy Had Better Be At Least $2 Million Better Than Logan
On The Boards:
USA Track & Field dumps CEO Logan *Farewell Doug Logan, we hardly knew ya... *Deena Kastor Comments

Commonwealth Games News

Lukas V Update

Foot Locker Champ Lukas Verzbicas Goes From 42nd To 4th On 5k Run Leg At World Triathlon Junior Champs

DecaNation Meet *Results

NCAA XC

Penn State: Penn State XC: Georgetown Women Win, Princeton Men Edge Georgetown
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Men's Penn State Results (Donn Cabral Wins)
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Women's Penn State Spiked Shoe Results

Former NCAA Mile Champ Sean Jefferson, Now A Pro Triathlete, Wins Indiana XC Meet We had no idea he had "gone to the dark side" last year.

It was a slow XC weekend, but the USTFCCCA website has more results.

Saturday Was A Really Slow News Day And We Are Trying To Find A Few Links That Might Interest You

Sponsored Post

CLIF SHOT® ROKS™: Protein Bites For Recovery We at letsrun.com have always personally loved Clif Bars and the Clif Bar story. It's a company, independent to this day, started by a dude who on a 175-mile bike ride said, "I can make something better" and he did. Clif Bar's CLIF SHOT® line is all about delivery great-tasting, scientifically-backed, all-natural and organic sports nutrition to performance athletes. CLIF SHOT® BLOKS™, CLIF SHOT® Energy Gel and the newest CLIF SHOT ROKS provide athletes with the essential nutrition for their training and racing needs. Read more about this all-natural recovery product and a little more about the incredible Clif Bar Story (the founder started shaking when he was about to sell his company for $120 million and instead kept it private).

Usain Bolt's Book Gets Rave Review For Its Marital Advice

Philly Half & US 5k

Philly: LRC Matthew Kisorio Slays Gebre Gebremariam As Ryan Hall Struggles 5k man Matthew Kisorio showed that Gebremariam is beatable after all, but it takes a 4:24 3rd mile to do it. Ryan Hall was never a factor and struggled mightily (63:55) as Brett Gotcher (62:50) was the top American, but he was beaten by former NCAA runners Simon BairuAlistair Cragg, Wesley Korir and Shawn Forrest.
Pre-Race:
Hall Very Confident: "I wasn't totally in top-notch shape last year, but I think I'm in better shape this year."
LRC
Meseret Defar Wins As Shalane Flanagan Runs 68:36
2004 Olympic 5,000-meter champ Meseret Defar's move up to the half marathon was a successful one as she defeated the hottest road racer on the planet in a sprint finish to get the win as Shalane Flanagan became the 4th-fastest American in history.
More: Defar Wins As Heat Bothers Flanagan
Pre-Race: *
defar VS flanagan....who ya got?

Providence/USA 5k: LRC Molly Huddle And Robert Cheseret Win 5k Titles
American record holder Molly Huddle got a comfortable win on the women's side but on the men's side, it was newly-naturalized US citizen Robert Cheseret who got a surprise win. Don't know Cheseret? He's Bernard Lagat's brother as well as the guy who was able to beat Dathan Ritzenhein for the NCAA title even though he fell down in the middle of the race.

A Brief Chat With Shannon Rowbury The 1,500 star will end her season in New York on Sunday.

Weird: Pro Meet In Kawasaki Japan Has No Distance Races You'd think given the Japanese love of distance running that would be the highlight. Instead, it was highlighted by Christian Lemaitre in the 100m.

Random Links

Sprint News

The Ultimate Honor - 1st Lydiard Legend Marathon Takes Place Today The race will retrace the legendary Waiatarua route. *Marathon Website

Local Council Demands That 2012 Olympic Marathon Finish In The Stadium *Radical Changes Proposed To Olympic Marathon Course That Would Result In The Runners Not Finishing In The Olympic Stadium The Olympic stadium finish is one of the hallmarks of the Olympics but the proposed new course features loops in the famous part of London with the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge.

More BUPA Great North Run News

Doping Allegations

Our Apologies In Advance ... More Bolt

Australian Rugby Union Player Wins Gatorade 100m Bolt In 11.10 That seems like a slow time for the fastest rugby player in Australia. Bolt was on hand to give his training tips and talk to the press. He did run a celebrity relay.

*Bolt Says He Wants To Run 9.4, Refuses To Go Shark Diving
*Usain Bolt Takes His Show To Australia's Football And Rugby Players smh.com.au
*Video Of Bolt And Footballers In Australia
*Cathy Freeman Honored With Plaque At Sydney Olympic Park

Distance News Before This Weekend's Great Half Marathon (And 5k) Action

This Weekend - Incredible Half Marathon Action

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia celebrates as he crosses the finish line of the 10K race during the Madrid Marathon April 25, 2010. REUTERS/Susana Vera (SPAIN - Tags: SPORT ATHLETICS)UK: Gebrselassie Vs. Martin Lel Vs. Ritz At Great North Run Americans may not be too familiar with the Great North Run, but it gets over 50,000 entrants and is a big deal in Britain and this is the 30th anniversary. Michael Johnson is doing a BBC special on the run this Sunday. But all we care about is the fields it has and it does a good job of culling interesting matchups. They seem to use the same model that the NYRR uses.
Women: Mara Yamauchi Vs. Berhane Adere, Irina Mikitenko And Constantina Dita At Women's Great North Run
On The Boards: Hey Brits Explain The Great North Run To Us Once they wake up, they'll help us out.

Previously Mentioned:
Philly:
Meseret Defar To Make Her Half Marathon Debut Versus Shalane Flanagan Defar raced infrequently in Europe this summer but won the 3k at the Continental Cup last weekend. Doubtful she's been doing much half training, but she has run 14:12 for 5k.
Men: Ryan Hall Vs. Gebre Gebremariam Vs. Abderrahim Goumri Gebremariam, the 2009 World XC champ, has been tearing up the roads in 2010, winning everything in sight. Hall, however, has the best half PR of the group.
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defar VS flanagan....who ya got?

New: Washington DC:
Catherine Ndereba To Run Sunday's Inaugural Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon Ndereba may be on the back nine of her career, but she won the Philly race last year. Steve Nearman, former running writer for the Washington Times (the guy who broke the story on Alan Webb making $250,000 a year out of college), is the race director of this new race.

Villanova And The Ducks Go To Washington

Drug Cheats Rejoice

104 Baseball Cheats Can Breathe Easier Tonight As Court Rules Government Illegally Seized Records Of Their Positive Drug Tests

Underdogs Rejoice Man With 15th-Best PR Wins Japanese University 5,000 Title

Random News

Drug News

Former University Of Iowa NCAA Standout Racheal Marchand Tests Positive For EPO Marchand was fifth at the NCAA XC champs in 2008 and quit her job this past year to train full-time for the 2012 Olympics for Puerto Rico. We and everyone else are bit late on this story, but this message board thread is all over it.
*Racheal Marchand Wins XC Race, Refuses To Talk To Reporter, Her Mom Blasts Reporter In Comments Section
*Flashback: Racheal Marchand Quits Her Job As A Drug Rep To Train Full Time For 2012 Games
On The Boards:
Former NCAA standout EPO busted

Jamaican Editorial On Drugs Says Don't Go The Way Of USA "One recalls that not so long ago, Jamaicans would scoff at the achievements of American athletes within the context of their pervasive use of performance-enhancing drugs. While this has indeed been verified over time, we have to safeguard against a similar tarnishing of our yet favourable international sporting image, in the face of these mounting drug-related incidents."

Sprint/Field News

Marathon/Half Marathon News

This Weekend In Philly Meseret Defar To Make Her Half Marathon Debut Versus Shalane Flanagan Great matchups on the men's and women's side. We're glad to see the Rock N Roll Series wants to stay in the competitive running sphere. Defar raced infrequently in Europe this summer but won the 3k at the Continental Cup last weekend. Doubtful she's been doing much half training, but she has run 14:12 for 5k.
*
defar VS flanagan....who ya got?

This Weekend In Philly
Ryan Hall Vs. Gebre Gebremariam Vs. Abderrahim Goumri Gebremariam, the 2009 World XC champ, has been tearing up the roads in 2010, winning everything in sight. Hall, however, has the best half PR of the group.

Brendan Foster Reflects About The Great Run's 30 Years Of Greatness Haile G will make his great run in the 30th year. The race is the world's largest half marathon and Europe's most popular race.

Sprint News

Rock N Roll Marathon People - Please Read This
One Of New Zealand's Most Popular Road Races Only Costs Just $15
It also only has 400 people and is 66km long but we like it.

Desiree Davila Talks About Her Preparations For Chicago She's running Chicago instead of NY, which also is the US champs, and could give her a $40,000 payday (Shalane Flanagan, however, is running NY).

Athens Marathon Celebrating Its 2,500th Anniversary This Year

Bolt/Powell Gossip/News

Drug News

IAAF To Reject Slap-On-Wrist Punishment For Shelly-Ann Fraser They're reportedly recommending a 6-month suspension. Considering she hasn't competed this summer, we don't see the difference.

Mottram On The Comeback Trail

One We Missed From The Weekend: Craig Mottram Beats Sub-28 Guy Chris Thompson In Britain In Road 10k Mottram, however, is not on the Australian Commonwealth team despite the fact he's rounding into form at the perfect time.

Recommended Read Meet Joe & Jim Rosa The twins from New Jersey are two of the best high schoolers in the country. Brad Hudson thinks Joe Rosa's Holmdel course record equates to the 13:30s for 5,000 as a junior in HS.

Train Smarter

You Can Still Talk About Logan

Aussie News

Usain Bolt Dancing Like Michael Jackson

Last Lap (Or Full Race) Of Lagat's 3k American Record (It's Super-Impressive)

More On The Boards

Willis 3:35, Webb 3:36

Recent Photo Gallery: Milan

Continental Cup Day 1

Of Possible Interest On The Boards

Congrats To One Of The Good Guys

Pete Julian Named Washington State XC Coach Julian was one of the guys who helped bring the US XC Champs to Boulder.

NCAA XC Glorified Practice Season Underway (More Results Here)

Tyson Gay 9.92 Over Nesta Carter (His Last 20m Is Sick)

Great Deals

Rudisha's 1:41.01!!!!!

Webb's 3:41 Win In Antwerp (More Here)

Rudisha Over Kaki In Brussels

Random Distance News/Profiles

*A Look At The "Little Killer" Course In Connecticut
*Molly Huddle Interview
*Arkansas' Shawn Forrest Living The Dream
*Athens Marathon Celebrating 2,500th Anniversary Of Battle Of Athens

Final Lap Of Men's 5k: Solinsky 12:55.53!!! More Coverage Here

Great Deals


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