2010 NYC Marathon This Sunday *Acclaimed Fred Lebow Documentary Comes Out Saturday *Trailer (Also Embedded On Right)

LRC Gebrselassie And Tergat Share The Stage 10 Years After Sydney The NYRR has taken traditionally boring press conferences to a new level this year giving them Sports Center-like coverage. Friday was the best of the week, as Paul Tergat was on hand to introduce his good friend Haile Gebrselassie and they talked about their careers and Geb's chances on Sunday.

*Recommended Read: Alberto Salazar Talks To Sports Illustrated Salazar talks a lot about the professional environment he provides his athletes, whom he wants to treat running like a full-time job.
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Behind The Scenes, The NYC Marathon Is A Miracle Of Logistics 1,694 portable toilets make the show run.
*For Elite Women Having A Bad Day, It Can Be A Very Lonely Race The rest of the field starts 30 minutes behind them. They really should have them start an hour later.
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Quiet Mary Keitany Ready To Speak With Her Feet In NY
*Interview With Ritz On His Chances In NYC
*Road Star Gebre Gebremariam Ready For Marathon Debut
*Emmanuel Mutai Ready To Vary The Pace To Beat Geb
*London Runner-Up Inga Abitova Ready For NY
*Six Years After Winning In NY, Hendrick Ramaala Thinks He Can Win Again
*Kim Smith Likes Her Speed And Chances If It Rains
*Running New York A Priority For Geb

Previous NYC News

*Chilean Miner Edison Pena Meets The Media And Haile G Pena may end up being the biggest star of the weekend. Hard to believe but he seems a natural with the media just like Geb, who was waiting at the airport for Pena. Catch Pena on Letterman late Thursday night. *USA Today Article On Pena
*Japan's Arata Fujiwara Is A Pariah To Some - A Stud To Us The guy who forsook the Japanese corporate system has big goals and may end up as the first non-African in New York. He wants to improve on his 2:08:40 PR and if he does, he might win. *NY Times On Fujiwara *Brett Larner Rides On Plane With Fujiwara & Says He Wants To Win New York - He's Broken 2:10 3 Times
*London Runner-Up Emmanuel Mutai Says, "I Am Prepared For Sunday." It seems like he is as he comes into the race after a 5-month buildup, whereas he only had a 3-month leadup to London.
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Ritz's Training Intensity Has Gone Up Since Getting Crushed By Geb In Half Marathon - Ritz Did 10 X Mile In 4:32 With 2 Minutes Rest
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Canada's Simon Bairu Likes Challenge Of New York Being His Marathon Debut THe bigger the pressure, the better Bairu feels he performs. He says he's been training to run 2:10-11 but isn't preoccupied with time.

Non-Athlete NYC News:
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Professor Warns The NYRR Iphone App May Kill Spontaneous Enjoyment Of Watching Race
*Rojo Gets Quoted In Wall Street Journal Talking About A 2nd New York Marathon He had no idea that Competitor - a for-profit company - was behind the 2nd race. If he had known the article was really about a private company trying to get $1 million in public subsidies, he would have been less supportive. A monkey could make money on a race in New York with 7-figure public subsidies. They should either let the NYRR do the race or bid it out.
*Down The Backstretch Reviews Meb's New Autobiography Written By Dick Patrick
*Universal Sport's 10 Things To Look For At NYC MARATHON

Previous NYC News

Happy Bday!! The Marathon Turns 2,500

Frankfurt: The Marathon Welcomes Another Guy To The 2:04 Club / Fast Times Across The Board (2:04:57/2:23:25) In ideal weather, Wilson Kipsang defeated Tadese Tola with a superb 2:04:57 (#8 all-time) and Caroline Kilel (2:23:25) took home the women's title over several notables in an event where the top 8 women and 8 of the top 9 men set PRs (two 2:09 debuts). For Kipsang, it was just his 2nd marathon after a 2:07:10 debut in Paris. *LRC MB: FRANKFURT MARATHON 2:04:57 !!!!!!!!!!!

Kenya:
Unknown David Barmasai Runs 2:10 At 5,500 Feet To Win Standard Chartered Marathon In Kenya

Athens: Kenyan/Lithuanian Win Athens Marathon On 2,500th Anniversary Of Battle Of Marathon *Reuters Recap Of Athens Marathon

Marine Corps: Women: Janet Cherobon Wins In 2:42
Men: Jacob Bradosky Wins In 2:23

Oregon HS XC Coach Charged With Sexual Assault

Big Names, Big News

Eddy Hellebuyck Comes Clean!!! The former American road star wants to clear his conscience and has admitted he used EPO back in 2004. An absolute must read as he talks about a pervasive drug culture and has specific doping allegations against Leonid Shvetsov (which aren't a surprise to the knowledgeable LetsRun.com viewer).
*LRC MBoard: Eddie Hellebuyck "'Yeah,' he says, 'I did it.'"

Silas Kiplagat Wants The World Record
"I want to run a sub-3:28 in the next season."

*Dathan Ritzenhein Q&A Part 1 (His 12:56 5k, What's Different With Alberto And More)
*Dathan Ritzenhein Q&A Part 2 (What Went Wrong In NY In 2006) He says he learned about not running out of fuel. Cynics might also argue he learned that in the marathon, you get paid for hype, not performance (at the time he got one of the largest appearance fees in US history).

Tokyo A Major To Be?

Gebrselassie To Run Tokyo Marathon In February A lot of stars lock up their next marathon prior to running their current one so a bad performance cannot knock their appearance fee.
*AIMS President And Tokyo Marathon President Hiraoki Chosa Gets IAAF Order Of Merit The big news is buried in the article and is that the Tokyo Marathon had 335,000 applicants for its lottery for the marathon. The Japanese are mad about the marathon.
*Paco Borao Of Valencia Marathon Selected New AIMS President

News from Africa

Reese Witherspoon Loses Race To 5th Grader

Altitude Tents, Underwater Treadmills And Anti-Gravity Treadmills Aren't Enough
Nike/Alberto Have A New Gadget They Are In Love With - Cryotherapy The rest of you will have to settle for a cold stream or ice bath.

5 Recommended Reads

Rojo Speaks

Rojo Speaks: Support For Ryan Hall And The Role Of A Coach Rojo is back with a column in support of Ryan Hall's coaching change and he tells you quite a few things. He tells you how many seconds a coach is worth, even talks about Roger Clemens and has some good points. A highlight: "Now that Hall has left the MTC, lots of people are throwing out names as to who he should get guidance from. I haven't read a single person mention the name Andy Gerard - the head guy at George Mason. That doesn't surprise me, as his cross teams at George Mason aren't all that great. But the fact of the matter is when Gerard succeeded the masterful recruiter Vin Lananna at Stanford, Gerard orchestrated one of the finest performances in NCAA history. If Stanford had lined up against the entire rest of the NCAA in the team scoring, the score would have been Stanford 24, Rest of the NCAA Teams 31."

Rupp

Now Married & Settled Into New Home, Galen Rupp Hoping Focus On Strength, Not Speed, Will Pay Off Big Time In 2011 LRC visitors should write this sentence down and use it as their only training mantra: "Looking back, I wasn't doing as much (strength work) as I should have been. I did lots of speed stuff, but without strength it's useless." That being said, many LRC vistiors may be horrified to learn that for Rupp, strength doesn't just mean mileage - it also means weights - and Rupp has gained several pounds of muscle in his upper body.

Update Ryan Hall To Be Self-Coached, Will Train In Various Locations (link fixed) Ryan says over the years he has "developed a keen body awareness, which I will use on a daily basis, as well as advice from various experts, and prayer to ultimately shape my training." Ex-coach Terrence Mahon would not comment publicly at this time but may later. *Joe Battaglia: What The Heck Is Hall Thinking?

Random/Interesting Non-Running But Running-Related Sports News

LRC Men's Preview: Will Geb Win It? The one knock on Haile Gebrselassie is he has not defeated a top-notch marathon field or won one of the top 5 marathons (London, Chicago, Boston, WC/Olympics) in the world. He gets his chance Sunday in New York as he faces a star-studded field that features, among others, World Champ Abel Kirui and defending champ American Meb Keflezighi, who could be challenged by the resurgent Dathan Ritzenhein. We break down the field and give your our picks.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 11:  Mary Jepkosgei Keitany of Kenya LRC 2010 ING NYC Marathon Women's Preview: Can A Debutante Beat This Crowded Field? The women's field is wide open and hard to predict. The defending champ Derartu Tulu is back and we give props to her amazing career and then guarantee she won't win. Picking the winner, however, is very hard. Boston champ Teyba Erkesso is going for her third marathon win of 2010. And then there are the debutantes - Mary Keitany, the half marathon ace who hasn't lost a half in 3 years, and American Olympic bronze medallist at 10k, Shalane Flanagan.

Recommended Reads Sportsmanship At Its Finest - HS Team In Oregon Forfeits Its Qualification To State As It Refuses To Side With An Official Who DQed A Rival Team's Runner A must read for everyone.
*Ryan Shay's Sister Sara To Run New York To Raise Money For Charity

NYC Interwebs

LRC Recommend Watch Two Worthy Video Series To Get You Pumped For Sunday's ING NYC Marathon There are two well-done video series dealing with  Sunday's ING NYC Marathon. Adidas and Flotrack went to Ethiopia and have produced a series on the Emperor, Haile Gebrselassie. The NYRR and Kimbia Athletics have their own series: "Rookies vs. the World" that is chronicling the marathon debuts of Olympic bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan, Canadian 10k record holder Simon Bairu, and American hopeful Tim Nelson and has cameos from Chris Solinsky. We've now watched them ourselves and urge you to as well, but give our synopsis of each and advice on what to watch if you have limited time.

Week In Review (Formatting Problem Fixed)

LRC The Week That Was We take a detailed look at Wilson Kipsang's 2:04 marathon from last week and do some in-depth analysis of the 2:04 marathon club and sub-59 half marathon club. Plus we praise a drug cheat and more.

Preview Of This Weekend's 100km World Championships

British Shot Putter Gets Ban Reduced To 4 Months We agree with the ruling as she had contacted the supplement maker about it's ingedients and even listed it on the list of substances she was taking.

As 2010-11 Is About To Start, Athletics Kenya Issues Warning - Compete In Two Domestic Meets Or You Can't Go To Worlds In Anything

Non-NYC News

Letsrun.com NCAA Polls

LRC NCAA XC National And Regional Polls Now Open The Oklahoma State and Stanford men made a mockery of their conference meets. One coach has switched his vote and now OSU is #1 in the country in the coaches' polls. Should they be? Vote now. Regional voting for the first time this year as well.

Latest NCAA Coaches Polls: 1 Coach Switches His Vote And Oklahoma State Is Now #1, Villanova Unanimous #1 On Women's Side Hard to believe, but only six different schools have been ranked #1 on the men's side since 1998.

Interesting News/Reads

  • Ben Johnson Says He Actually Failed A Drug Test In 1986 Apparently it was covered up before he was possibly sabotaged by a friend of Carl Lewis at the 1988 Olympic Games.
  • Recommended Read Meet The World's Newest 2:04 Guy In William Kipsang After HS, he was a traveling salesman for three years. Then he was inspired by reading of Paul Tergat's exploits and picked up running in 2003 at age 21. Now he's run 2:04. Ridiculous.
  • Sara Hall Finds A New/Old Coach Apparently Ryan's wife was a casualty of his decision to leave the Mammoth TC. As a result, Sara has gone back to her coach when she was at Stanford - Dena Evans. Sara: "I felt that I would still benefit from a traditional coaching relationship."

News From Europe
*Mark Lewis Francis Regains UK Lottery Funding
Mr. Clutch on the 4 x 100 deserves it.
*Lithuanian European Marathon Champ Zivile Balciunaite Says She Didn't Dope At least she's not claiming to not knowingly have doped, like Marion Jones.
*Olympic Heptathlon Medallist Kelly Sotherton Quits Multi To Focus On 400
She's hoping that will lead her to being healthy at age 33.

NCAA Conference XC Action *LRC XC Conference Polls *All Conference Results Here

Monday's Action: They're Back ... Arkansas Men Dominate SEC *SEC Men's Results

Florida Women Win SEC XC *SEC Women's Results

ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary Lets Marion Jones Off Easy Thankfully the television critic knows what most of us know - that Jones is still not telling the truth about doping.

Recommended Read: Marion Jones Is A Liar "They didn't put Marion Jones in prison because of what she looks like. They put Marion Jones in prison because of what she did. Marion Jones is a liar."

Previous NCAA XC

Sunday: Big 10: Men: Wisconsin Men Absolutely Crush Indiana And Everyone Else 28 points get the Badgers a 12th straight title
Women: Mich. State Edges Michigan And Minnesota
Pre-Race: 
Big 10 Men's Preview (Wisco Vs. Indiana (Going For First Title In 30 Years))

Saturday: PAC-10: Women: Meet Of The Weekend: Stanford Edges Arizona, Washington And Oregon 4 teams all separated by 6 points. #2 Oregon is still looking for its first conference title in 15 years.
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Jordan Hasay Pumped To Get Individual Crown But 2nd Ranked Ducks Only Tie For 3rd As A Team *Oregonian Recap Of Meet
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UW's Kailey Campbell Comes Up Big For Washington

Men:
Stanford Goes 1-2-3 To Destroy Rest Of Conference The #1 Cardinal will have a tough battle with OSU at NCAAs.
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PAC-10 Video

Big 12s
: Men: "Unbelievable" Oklahoma State Goes 1-2-3-4 At Big 12 Meet Colorado defeated Oklahoma for 2nd.

Women:
Rose Tanui Leads Tech To Win Over Colorado
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Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs' Runner-Ups At Big 12s

Big East:
Men: Chris Fox's Syracuse Men Edge Ron Mann's Brice Allen's Louisville Men This really can't be the first Big East men's team to repeat, can it? Perhaps since the league expanded. Wejo beat Fox in a road race in 1997 and unfortunately for the rest of the coaches in the league, he decided to retire from racing and take up coaching.
Women:
#1 Villanova Defeats GTown 26-42
On The Boards:
Big East Results?????

ACC Recap:
Florida State Sweeps Team Titles
Results:
Women Men
On The Boards:
ACC Results!!!

A10:
Richmond Sweeps It's the first title ever for the men.

America East:
Boston U. Men, Stony Brook Women Win *Binghamton's #1 van Ingen Drops Out And Binghamton Fails To Repeat As A Result

Friday: Heps: *Princeton Women Win 5th Straight Title
*Princeton Men Complete Perfect Weekend for Tigers
The Princeton teams won both team and individual races as Donn Cabral outdueled defending champ Dan Chenoweth.

Monday: SEC
(The SEC website doesn't even have the meet on its calendar).
*A Look At Ole Miss's Kirui Brothers (Barnabas And Martin)

Never In America

Mo Farah Honorary Captain Of Denver Broncos On Sunday

He's Doing Better

1:50 800m/Academic All-American Dale Dunn From Coppin St. (& Jamaica) In Critical Condition After Being Shot In Chest He was talking to his mom on the phone when shot.

Week In Review

LRC The Week That Was Ryan Hall's big move, Doug Logan's law$uit and his contract with USATF being revealed, and LaShawn Merritt's ban being handed down. We've got it all covered plus some great quotes from Steve Jones and Galen Rupp.

Bolt

LRC Exclusives Galore

LRC Exclusive: Doug Logan Sue$ USATF: The Details Of His Law$uit And Employment Contracts The lawsuit has already resulted in the release of Doug Logan's two employment contracts with USATF and we've got the dirty details for you. The caviar, the first class flights, the $500,000 offered severance - read all about it (the caviar and first class flights are a joke).

LRC Legal Correspondent Matt Lane:
"RULE 45": Is LaShawn Merritt Banned From The London 2012 Olympics? 11-time NCAA All-American and 4th place finisher at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Matt Lane,  has graciously shared his legal knowledge with us and takes on the IOC's attempt to ban LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 Olympics.

Recommended Read 25 Years Later, Steve Jones Still Has British Marathon Record The Welshman isn't happy to still have it as he says, "I'm sad that I've still got the British marathon record because you want to see the sport move on." The article is full of great quotes as Jones rips charity marathoners.

Performance Of The Month - Kara Goucher Already Has Lost 27 Pounds & Will Be Up To 50 Miles A Week Next Week Remarkable considering her baby was born less than a month ago (9/24).

 Mebrahtom Keflezighi/></a><script type=LRC Week That Was: Unspoiled Kenyans, High Mileage Success, Wilson Kiprop And Menjo And The Knights We go behind the scenes to cover the last week in the running world. We take a look at Stefano Baldini's lifetime mileage, our beloved Menjo, Wilson Kiprop and more.

Something We Missed From Last Weekend
9 Break 28:00 In Japan Seven of them were Kenyan, but it's impressive nonetheless.

David Torrence Talks About His 2010 Season Torrence is only moderately satisfied with the year as while he ran 3:34, he failed to run well at the indoor or outdoor USA finals.

Sponsorship News

He Said / She Said: Question Now Is Will Merritt Be Eligible In 2012?

LRC Legal Correspondent Matt Lane: "RULE 45": Is LaShawn Merritt Banned From The London 2012 Olympics? 11-time NCAA All-American and 4th place finisher at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Matt Lane, has graciously shared his legal knowledge with us and takes on the IOC's attempt to ban LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 Olympics.

Fred Lebow Documentary Trailer - More Info Here

 

Two Of Our Favorites From NYC Video Series - More Info Here



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