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Better Late Than Never

LRC Week In Review: Geb Vs. Wanjiru This week saw one of the greatest marathons we've ever witnessed with Sammy Wanjiru battling mano-a-mano with Tsegaye Kebede at Chicago for not only the Chicago title but also the $500,000 prize for the World Marathon Majors title. Wanjiru is the best marathoner in the world in our book and we compare his performances to Haile Gebrselassie's. Plus a look at the Commonwealth Games and more.

2010 Commonwealth Games Are History

• Kenyans Sweep Marathons At Commonwealth Games Australia's Michael Shelly didn't even go with the lead group but ended up with the silver.
• Moses Kipsiro Says Bring On Bekele - "I know I can beat him." In reality, the journalist sort of trapped him into saying it as at first he didn't even want to talk about the possibility of beating Bekele.
• India Breathes Sigh Of Relief As Commonwealth Games Come To A Close
• Host India Edges England For 2nd Most Gold Medals
• Steve Cram - Commonwealth Games Were Lacking In Many World-Class Performances
• Kenya Dominated Running Events

European 800 Champ Marcin Lewandowski Says Medals, Not Times, Are Key

New York City Marathon News (Or No News)

• Kebede Definitely Not Doing New York If he won it, he could still win the world marathon majors title but his team has decided it's not worth it.
• New York Marathon Offers Entry To Edison Peña - Chilean Miner Who Ran While Trapped Underground

RIP Antonio

Antonio Pettigrew's Death Ruled A Suicide He reportedly took a bottle of sleeping pills. He also reportedly told his wife to pray for him the day before his body was found. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

NYC News

• Updated: Ritz Out Of Denver Half Because Competitor Group Couldn't Find A Strong Enough Field For Him The Competitor.com website "broke this story" and reported that Ritz isn't running because his training is going so well and he did not need another race. Well, the Denver Post contacted Ritz and it turns out the reason is a compeltely different one. Ritz wanted a hard race before NYC and Competitor couldn't get him a strong enough field. Ritz didn't want to do a glorified training run (like Meb did at Rock N Roll San Jose), so he's not running. Incidents like this one are why we often don't link to stuff that is largely pr in nature (Ritz has a blog hosted on Competitor). We commend Ritz for being forthright with the Denver Post.
• Message Board Thread On Ritz Pulling Out Of Denver
• Jorge Torres Talks About His Low Key 2010 And Running NYC  In 2009, he got married and then his high school coach died and his mom was injured in a car crash. 2010 has seen tumult in his training group and the retirement of his twin brother.

World Half This Weekend

• Andrew Lemoncello Denied Visa For World Half Champs In China
• $245,000 In Prize Money ($30k For First At This Weekend's World Half Champs)

Can USATF Be Trusted To Get It Right?

• USATF Set To Name Man Whose Team Was Next To Last At ACCs As Olympic Coach 18 points over 21 events at ACCs is apparently enough to get Andrew Valmon the Olympic head job. We guess it's not that big of a deal since the US coach does little more than babysit, but it's certainly surprising. In 2009, Maryland scored 21 points, in 2008, they had 54 and in 2007 they had 30.
• USATF Officially Begins Search For Doug Logan's Successor

Distance News

• Say It Ain't So Martin Lel And Robert Cheruiyot Withdraw From New York City Marathon Sadly, Lel, who was the best marathoner on the planet heading into the 2008 Olympics, hasn't raced since then. The good news is the race has added 2:04:27 man James Kwambai.
• What Does It Take To Be An Olympic Marathon Champ? 111,000 Miles. A Look Back At Stefano Baldini's Glorious Career
• Provisional Entries For This Weekend's World Half Marathon Champs (PDF)

Monday's US 10k Road Champs *Results

Molly Huddle Wins Third Straight US Road 10k Title At Tufts Health Plan 10k For Women  Huddle capped a great 2010 with the the overall win by 5 seconds over Genoveva Kigen. Jen Rhines was 16 seconds back.

Non Chicago Road Action

• 2001 World 10k Champ Charles Kamathi Wins Eindhoven Marathon (2:07:38) In 3-Way Sprint We've watched the video a few times and still aren't sure he won.
• World Record Holder At 10k On The Roads, Leonard Komon, Runs 27:12 In Asics 10k In Berlin
• Paul Kosgei Runs 2:09:00 At Capri Marathon
• John Korir And Caroline Rotich Win BAA Half Marathon

10/10/10 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *LRC Chicago Recap With: *Top Results, *Winner Photos, *Live Thread & *Video Of Thrilling Final Mile With Toni Reavis Losing His Voice In Excitement

LRC Wanjiru Wins Epic Battle With Kebede, Shobukhova Dominates
In a epic, late-race, back-and-forth battle of attrition between the world's two greatest marathoners for $500,000, Sammy Wanjiru stamped his career as legendary with his 2nd straight Bank of America Chicago Marathon victory. This time Wanjiru had to dig deep to come back repeatedly against London and Fukuoka champ Tsegaye Kebede. In the women's race, front-running Atsede Baysa blew up in the final 10km as Liliya Shobukhova motored steadily to her 3rd consecutive World Marathon Major win, sealing a $575,000 $615,000 payday in the process. Americans Jason Hartmann and Desiree Davila impressed with PRs of 2:11 and 2:26 and 53-year-old Joan Benoit-Samuelson ran sub-2:50 for the 5th consecutive decade with a 2:47.

More: *Philip Hersh Chicago Tribune Article On Shobukhova Winning And Picking Up $615,000
*Joan Benoit Samuelson Runs 2:47:50, Just Missing Olympic Marathon Trials At 53 Runnersworld
*Chicago Tribune Article Top Americans Jason Hartmann And Desiree Davila
*Desiree Davila Leads US Women At Chicago As 3 Get In Top 10
*Sammy Wanjiru Outlasts Kebede To Win Chicago (And $615,000)
*US Men Take 11 Of Top 20

Recommended Read: Because Of $$$, Marathon Getting Younger & Younger Phil Hersh talks about how so many of the top contenders in Chicago are very young. There is a reason for that - $$$. Nowadays a 2:09 debut will get you $20,000 but a 13:00 will get you $250.
NY Times Profile Of 53-Year-Old Joan Benoit Samuelson She once promised her mother she'd stop running marathons when she quit smoking, but 20 years later, her mom isn't smoking but Joanie is still racing 26.2.
Elites Will Be Done Way Before 80-Degree Heat Hits Chicago Race director Carey Pinkowski: "I would imagine that the first two hours of the race should be very accommodating.. For them, it's going to be optimal opportunity to go fast."

LRC Men's Preview: The Best Chicago Ever? Wanjiru Vs. Kebede Vs. Cheruiyot And Crew This year's Chicago marathon may be the best ever. The men's field is absolutely loaded with the Olympic and defending champ (Wanjiru) taking on the Boston champ and record holder (Cheruiyot the Younger) taking on the hottest marathoner in the world and London champ (Kebede). Not to mention that there is a $500,000 match race on the side for the World Marathon Majors title.

LRC Women's Preview: Shobukhova, Mikitenko, 3 Strong Ethiopian Contenders And $500,000 Barring a big surprise, the world's top female marathoner Liliya Shobukhova will walk away form Chicago with at least $500,000. Will she walk away the champion in Chicago? Will a woman do what has not happened in over two full years anywhere in the world (go sub-2:22)? Can Americans Magdalena Lewy-Boulet or Desiree Davila crack the 2:25 barrier? And what about Joan Benoit? We've got your women's field covered.

Good News (Bad) From The UK

• Good News: Soccer Teams That Want To Use London 2012 Olympic Stadium Must Keep The Track
• UK Not Likely To Bid For 2015 Worlds After Government Says It Won't Back Bid The bad news is hosting the World Championships in track is a money-losing proposition. As this second article says, "Even the World Championships lose money, relying on state and city governments to underwrite losses as the price of the global attention they bring." How much could the budget gap be? £25,000,000 ($40 million). Crazy. If we were the UK government, we wouldn't put up the money either.

Roads Action

San Jose: Meb Tunes Up For New York With 1:01:45 Win In San Jose This was a glorified training run for Meb, as he had training partner Patrick Smyth with him for 10k and then was all alone. Up next for Meb - defending his ING NYC Marathon crown. Blake Russell won the women's crown and 49-year-old Linda Somers-Smith ran 1:13:31 for 2nd.
On The Boards: 1 Meb Keflezighi 1:01:45

Europe: Gilbert Chepkwony Runs 2:08:33 To Win Kosice Marathon, The Oldest In Europe At 87 Years

It's All About The Name: Coolboy Ngamole Wins S. African Marathon Champs In 2:16:19

The New Head Of USATF?

Bill Schmidt, Former VP Of Gatorade, Javelin Bronze Medallist In 1972, Would Accept USATF Job The board wants someone who knows something about the sport and has sports marketing experience. Schmidt meets the criteria.

3 Recommended Reads

• Mary Wittenberg Talks To Runner's World The interview is full of lots of great info.
  i. She hints that another international and a US star will drop out of a fall marathon soon. We wonder who it will be?
  ii. She reveals she's wining and dining the potential NY stars of the future, as Lisa Koll, Molly Huddle, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Evan Jager will watch NY this year.
  iii. She reveals Galen Rupp has been banned by Alberto from attending.
  iv. She talks about Doug Logan. *Wittenberg Photo Gallery
• The Science Of Sports Conjectures About Contador
• The Fastest Running Couple In The World?
  The WSJ Profiles New York Contenders Gebre Gebremariam And Werknesh Kidane The WSJ is suddenly full of running articles. We loved this quote from Kidane on her start in the sport: "I run to get the sheep, to get the goat, to follow with them very fast, but I don't know the meaning of running."

Fifth Avenue Mile Behind The Scenes

Story Of The Week!!! 4 college cross-country teammates from UMBC went up to NY to watch the 5th Avenue Mile. Before the day was over, they were holding the finishing tape and hanging out with some of their heroes. How did it happen? A GREAT read.

Pat Butcher: Patrick Makau Is Now The Man To Beat In The Marathon He's certainly the #1 in the world in our minds so far for 2010.

LetsRun.com's Endorses This Guy As Doug Logan's Replacement
South African Olympic Head Says He's Willing To Personally Clean Toilets To Insure India's Commonwealth Games Go On This guy clearly isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty and doing the grunt work. Certainly much better than what could be said of the old AAU guys.
*USOC Might Intervene If USATF Appoints Board Member CEO

Berlin Marathon *Live Thread *Splits

In Case You Don't Want To Know The Results
The Last Minute Of The 2010 Berlin Marathon:

***** **** Wins Berlin Marathon In Sprint Finish In 2:05:06 (Warning: We're about to reveal the winner's name) Despite rain, Patrick Makau won the race in a sprint finish in 2:05:06 over Geoffrey Mutai as Bazu Worku was close behind. The rain prevented a world record attempt, but Makau has established himself as a marathon star. Aberu Kebede won the women's race by over a minute in a slow 2.23.58.

Toronto Waterfront Marathon: Kenneth Mungara (2:07:57) And Sharon Cherop (2:22:42) Both Break Kenyan All-Comers Record At Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Canadian Reid Coolsaet ran 2:11:23 to make the Canadian Olympic standard by 6 seconds. Sharon Cherop got the women's winby 1 second over Tirfi Beyene with 2:22:43, which was faster than the winning time in Berlin.
*Message Board Discussion

Stop The Presses: Say it Ain't So: Menjo Loses At Lisbon Half Marathon, Mary Keitany Romps Races need to do a better job of promoting Menjo. We had no idea the LetsRun.com superhero was running. In case you have no idea what we're talking about, Menjo earlier this year soloed a 3:53 mile, a 12:55 5k, and the world-leading 10k.

Big Family News

Kara Goucher Gives Birth To Colton Mirko Goucher Congrats to Kara and Adam. Mom and baby are doing well after the baby was face up during delivery. The baby was 5 days early, which means Paula Radcliffe's second child is due in 5 days.

Galen Rupp Gets Married. Congrats to Galen and Keara.

World Half-Marathon Championships Are This Weekend *Prize Money/Course Map/Entries

*Men's Race Preview - Tadese Drives For Five
*Women's Race Preview Florence Kiplagat, the 2009, World XC champ, is the favorite.
*5 Storylines For This Weekend's World Half Marathon Championships The biggest is Zersenay Tadese drive for a 5th straight individual crown.

Oregon Related News

• Andrew Wheating Dreams Big As He Tries To Finish College 13 credits shy of his degree, Wheating will not run indoors this year.
• Rupp Haters Only Wish They Had This When Galen Was In Eugene
  Oregon To Wear Pink Singlets To Raise Awareness For Breast Cancer

After Running So Well In Chicago, Joan Benoit May Try For 2:46:00 Trials Standard In our minds, like a past winner of the Masters, she deserves a lifetime entry into the Trials. *Samuelson USATF Athlete Of The Week

Random US News

• Jim Ryun Wants HSers To Train Harder & Not Be Afraid To Try For Sub-4
• 2010 NCAA Champ Angela Bizzari Is Staying Around And Coaching Illinois This Year

Drug News - We Swear These Aren't Jokes

• Indian Race Walker Tests Positive At Commonwealth Games
• China Gets Serious About Doping Has Anti-Doping Book Translated Into Mandarin

Sports Govening Bodies To Face 30% Cut In UK

Menjo Caps His 2010 Season In Style By Taking Down Eliud Kipchoge And Shaheen To Win In Belgrade "Menjo" finished his remarkable 2010 season, during which over the span of 11 days earlier this year he ran a solo 12.55.95 for 5,000 meters, a solo 3.53.62 mile and a solo 26.56.74 10,000 meters, with a narrow win over Kipchoge. *Pre-Race Artilce On Historic/Scenic Belgrade Race That Is One Of Paul Tergat's Favorites

Chilean Miner Ran 10km A Day While Being Trapped Underground?

Tommie Smith Selling His 1968 Olympic Gold Medal He's not desperate for the cash but will take the $250,000 if he can get it. He does not have fond memories of the incident.

Commonwealth Games *Tuesday Results *Monday Results *Results Website

The Marathons Are Thursday, No Track Action Wednesday:
Australian Marathoners Inspired By Kerryn McCann She won gold at the last Commonwealths and soon after died of cancer.

More CWG News: Darren Campbell Writes About MLF Being An Animal, India's Emerging T&F Prowess
*Chaos Surrounding Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremonies
*Steeplechaser At Commonwealth Games DQed For Stepping On A Flower Pot To Help Him Get Over The Water Barrier Nice photo of his transgression at the link above.

Previous Commonwealths News

Tuesday: Silas Kiplagat Caps Incredible 2010 With Gold, Nick Willis Gets Bronze
*Mr. Clutch Mark Lewis Francis Walks Down Jamaican Anchor & Delivers 4 X 100 Gold For England The guy also brough it home at the 2004 Olympics.
*Brave Steph Twell Fights Kenyan Women To End In 5,000 But Ends Up 4th This article is a great recap of the ladies 5,000.
*Baddeley Disgusted With 6th In 1,500 Baddeley: "I ran that race like an idiot and there's no excuses for that."
More On 1,500: "If you're not familiar with the story of Silas Kiplagat, take a minute to read this excellent profile on him. Earlier in 2010, Silas in his first European race EVER ran a 3:29 1,500m, which was not only a 5-second PR but also the fastest time in the world in four years. Pretty amazing. On Tuesday, he capped his emergence with a Commonwealth Games Gold as countryman James Magut got silver and former Michigan alum and Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis got bronze.
More Tuesday: World Champ Vivian Cheruiyot Gets 5k Gold As Indian 4 X 400 Wins Gold Cheruiyot's win over Worlds silver medallist Sylvia Kibet was not a shocker but the Indian 4 x 400m gold sure was. The Indian women had a great meet.
*IAAF Recap: Double Wins By Langat, Kipsiro, Indian 4 X 400 Gold Highlight Final Day Of Indian Champs
Photos: Men's 1,500m *Tuesday Results
On The Boards: Letsrun poster makes the final of CWG 1500!

Monday: Nancy Langat Wins 800m To Go Along With Her 1,500m Gold The Olympic champ just edged Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand. Hamblin got silver in the 1,500m as well. This race had the Indian crowd going nuts, as Indian Tintu Luka opened a big lead on the first lap only to fade. The Indian female distance runners are having a good meet.
*Uganda's Moses Kipsiro Blasts 54-Second Lap To Complete 10k-5k Double Kipsiro is very good and the CWG are letting him and Uganda earn some accolades.

*Richard Mateelong Leads Kenyan Sweep Of Steeple The Olympic champs Brimin Kipruto and Ezekiel Kemboi filled out the medals.
*Milkha Singh Gives India Its First Athletics Gold In 52 Years She won the discus. Kenya got its first track medal of any kind in 52 years earlier in the week with a bronze in the 10k.
*Sally Pearson Wins 110m Hurdles To Get Her Commonwealths Gold Pearson is the woman who won the 100m only to be DQed after the race.
*Steve Hooker Gets Pole Vault Gold

*Nick Willis Makes 1,500m Final He was the last automatic qualifier but said he was just cruising.

*Women's 100m Champ Osayemi Oludamola Of Nigeria Flunks Drug Test
Results: Monday The CWG results website isn't that great, so we're trying to compile the results in one place.

Sunday: Kenyan Men Sweep 800m The Kenyans are performing well at the CWG so far.

Saturday: Kenyan Wins Men's 400 As Kenyan Ladies Sweep Steeple
Great Early Results For Kiwis Are Inspiring Nick Willis The defense of his 1,500 title starts on Monday.

Friday: Nancy Langat Gets 1,500m Gold At Commonwealths Langat is the best 1,500m runner in the world and she still unbelievably has never broken 4:00. The Olympic Champ got it done in India. We hope she goes undefeated the rest of her career never breaking 4:00.
*After Commonwealths 1,500m Bronze For 21-Year-Old Stephanie Twell, Her Future Is Bright

More: 400: Botswana Gets Its First CWG Gold Ever Thanks To Amantle Montsho's 50.10 Win
10K: Grace Momanyi Of Kenya Wins 10k Gold At CWG
110H: English, Led By Andy Turner, Go 1-2-3
Decathlon: Canada's Jaime Adjetey-Nelson Wins Commonwealth Games Decathlon
More Pearson Debacle: Sally Pearson Goes Back And Sits In Stands To Watch Commonwealth Games 100m Medal Ceremony
*Detailed Look At Sally Pearson's Ordeal
*Australians Says DQ Of Pearson Was "Payback" From English
4 X 400: Former NAIA Dickinson State Stars Leading Bahamian 4 X 400 Team At Commonwealth Games

Thursday: Chaos On The Track:
Women's 100m: Sally Pearson Wins 100m At Commonwealth Games Only To Be DQed Hours Later The IAAF board DQed her for a false start even though she false started after another athlete. So 2 people were DQed on the same false start. Video of race at link above or on right hand side of page.

Men's 100m:
*MLF On Cloud 9 After 100m Silver At Commonwealths

Condoms Are NOT Clogging The Toilets At Commonwealth Games The message boards were all excited about all the sex going on at the Games. Guess it wasn't true.

Wednesday:
Uganda's Moses Kipsiro Starts Commonwealth Games Off With Gold At 5,000m Over Eliud Kipchoge The track action got underway and the highlight on day 1 was a gold by Uganda's Moses Kipsiro. Kipsiro is the guy who kept Matt Tegenkamp from getting a WC bronze in 2007 and in '08 and '09, he was 4th at the Olympics and WC. The non-Africans took spots 5-8, as Chris Thompson was 5th, Collis Birmingham 6th, Ben St. Lawrence 7th, and David McNeill 8th.
*Kenyan Papers Recap Of Men's 5,000 Kipsiro: "I wanted this badly, badly, badly and God has given me the gift."

*Nick Willis Trying To Acclimatize To Heat By Wearing Extra Layers Of Clothing While Training In Hong Kong
*New Zealand's Female National Record Holder Nikki Hamblin (4:05.93) Also Training In Hong Kong She used to be a Brit.
*Australian Wrestler Gives Finger To Judges In Middle Of Gold Medal Match And Is DQed

Non-Chicago US Distance News

• Lananna For USATF Head? He Doesn't Rule It Out 100% This blog takes a look at it as well. We don't think track is quite as popular as everything thinks it is in Europe or that Wheating is a superstar in Europe and anonymous here.
• A Rich Man's Flagstaff: Ritz Living At Altitude, Flying Back To Oregon For His Long Hard Runs Seriously, move to Flagstaff.
• Article On Nick Symmonds And His 2010 Season A good read, but we're disappointed they didn't ask him about losing to Andrew Wheating twice this year. The article does confirm Symmonds is dating Maggie Vessey, which is supposedly old news.

Last Week's Week In Review

LRC Week In Review: Ryan Hall Drops Out And AJ Nation Sweeps America This week in our week in review, we look at Ryan Hall not running Chicago, we compare the NY and Chicago Marathon fields and we heap praise on AJ Nation making it big time on ESPN Game Day.

Catching Up With The Former And Present American 5,000 Record Holders + Nick Symmonds

• Recommended Read Ray Treacy Thinks Molly Huddle Can Run Even Faster Huddle was inspired to get into the sport by her dad.
• Shalane Flanagan Running 20 Miles More Per Week In Anticipation Of Marathon Debut In New York

Recommended Read Ben Johnson's Autobiography Seoul To Soul Is Coming Out Next Month And It's Going To Drop Some Bombshells Johnson hints that he thinks a rival shoe company spiked his drink in Seoul and says the sport is still dirty. link fixed

Lopez Lomong Back In Flagstaff Working On College Degree & His Own Biopic Film That Is Coming Out In 2012

US Champs *Results/Prize Money *Live Thread

US Men's Marathon Champs: Sergio Reyes Runs 2:14:02 To Win Twin Cities And US Marathon Title Over Jeffrey Eggleston By 7 Seconds It was Reyes' first US crown and the 7 seconds for the win were worth at least an extra $10,000. Debra Buzenesh won the women's title in 2:27:23, winning by nearly 8 minutes as she got the win here to go with her win in Grandma's.
*Minnesota Newspaper Recap
*Results
*USATF Recap

US Women's 10-Miler Also In Twin Cities: Katie McGregor Wins 2010 US Title McGregor won $10,000. If she had run 1:20 slower, she would have received $9,750 less, as the first 9 women were all within 1:20 of each other. *Results

College XC Heating Up *More Results *College Forum

• Wisconsin adidas Invitational
  Women: #11 Syracuse got by #29 North Carolina (89-98); Charlotte Browning (20:14) pulled away from Emily MacLeod to win. Full Results
  Men: #25 Indiana scalped host #6 Wisconsin (43-75); Donn Cabral (23:29) emerged late from a pack of 5 and held off Andrew Bayer for the individual crown. Full Results
  *Message Board: Adidas Wisconsin Invite Results
• Rocky Mountain Shootout
  Women: #13 Colorado went 1-2-3-4 overall and nearly got a Shootout shutout in the D1 scoring with 16 points to Wyoming's 48; Laura Tremblay was the top finisher with 20:29 (5.8k). In non-D1, Adams State (#1 D2) squeaked by Western State (#8 D2) with a 31-38 score; Kristin McGlynn led Adams with a division win in 20:56 (5th in all divisions).
  Men: #4 Colorado dominated the D1 division with 18 points; Joe Bosshard led the Buff charge with a 24:44 victory. Adams State (#1 D2) put 4 in front of perennial rival Western State's (#2 D2) 1st man to crush the non-D1 division; Ryan McNiff spearheaded the Adams assault with a 25:11 division win (3rd in all divisions). *Combined Results *Message Board: Rocky Mountain Shootout
• Greater Louisville Cross-Country Classic
  Women: Neely Spence (Shippensburg - #6 D2) took the Gold race in 16:33, the fastest time of the day. *Women's Gold Results *Women's Blue Results
  Men: Meshack Koyiaki (Columbus St. - #23 D2) led 11 others under 24:00 in the fast Gold race with a 23:21 win. *Men's Gold Results *Men's Blue Results *Message Board: louisville xc course Inevitable discussion about course accuracy. The Gold race did include some athletes with solid credentials, like former NCAA steeple champ Barnabas Kirui.
• Montana Invitational
  Women: Katrina Drennen (17:41) and her Montana squad emerged victorious. Full Results
  Men: (Altitude-adjusted) Sub-4:00 miler (3rd-placer in 2010 NCAA indoor mile) Patrick Casey led Montana State (receiving votes in national poll) to victory with a 24:27 win. Full Results
• Friday: Notre Dame: Women Results: #1 Villanova Over #5 Oregon, #2 Florida State
  Men: Oregon And Puskedra Win At Notre Dame. #5 Alabama Only 8th
  *Recap Of Oregon Win From Ducks Website Vin was pleased with the performances.
  *Puskedra, Centro Interview
  On The Boards: Notre Dame Results
• Paul Short: Men: UVA Over Georgetown At Paul Short
  Women: Georgetown Women Dominate Paul Short
  *Post-Race Interviews

Beppu-Oita Marathon Officially Accepting Female Applicants Women only participated in the race by special invitation in the past.

Post Ryan Hall Dropout News

• Ryan Who? Chicago Adds 2009 Boston Winner Deriba Merga As Well As 20-Year-Old 2:05:23 Guy Feyisa Lelisa To Field We wonder if these two are replacements for Hall. It's crazy to think they both could have been without fall marathons. Lelisa blitzed a 2:05:23 this spring at age 20.
• Ryan Hall Talks Extensively About Why He's Not Running Chicago His long tempos were getting worse instead of better and it's clear he's been having doubts for a while, yet less than two weeks ago, he told the Philly Inquirer he thought he was in better shape this year than last.
• Ryan Hall Thinks He's One Of The Most Consistent Marathoners In The World - Phil Hersh Wonders If He'll Ever Be A Winner

Catching Up With Four Top Milers

• Recommeded Read TFN Interview With Arkansas Sensation Dorian Ulrey The Razorback senior is pumped for his final year and reveals he is considering a move to the 5,000. People seem to forget this dude has run 3:35 in the 1,500 and was 6th at NCAAs in XC - that's near Alan Webb in terms of talent in our minds.
• A Brief Chat With Leo Manzano In the middle of the summer, he was wondering if pro running was his calling. Now he's realizing he's got the "coolest" job in the world.
• 18 Months After Cancer Diagnosis, Gabriele Anderson Runs 4:31 Mile At Fifth Avenue Mile
• 4 Kenyans In Japan, Including 2010 World Junior XC And 1,500 Champ Caleb Ndiku, Break 13:30 A 13:26 for Ndiku is pretty good for a 17-year-old.

3 Good Pre-Race 5th Avenue Mile Profiles:
*Alan Webb In The NY Times
*Recommended: Great NY Times Profile On Leo Manzano Leo talks about turning around his 2010 season and growing up very poor (his parents didn't really understand what it meant to go to college).
*Lengthy Profile On Nick Willis, His Upbringing In New Zealand And This Sunday's 5th Avenue Mile Written by a Kiwi who saw Nick run a race at age 7 (the article talks about Nick's family and how his mother died when he was 5).