Millrose

"I didn't expect to run this well. I thought I might make maybe fourth or fifth.

"With two laps left I know in my heart I could win and I went with confidence. I knew that I just had to hang in at that point."

- 2010 world indoor champion Deresse Mekonnen after snapping Bernard Lagat's six-year winning streak in a fantastic Wanamaker mile that saw Lagat twice try to pull clear on Mekonnen in the last lap.

Millrose And Houston *Results (Ridiculous They Aren't Compiled Into 1 File)

Millrose: Unlucky 7: Deresse Mekonnen Snaps Bernard Lagat's Winning Streak At 6 The 23-year-old 2010 world indoor champ defeated the 36-year-old President of the Boards (or did Father Time win?) in a fantastic Wanamaker mile, but not without Lagat putting up a fantastic fight that saw him at least three times try to retake the lead in the final two laps.
*
Millrose Games: Nadel, Noelle Win HS Miles!
*NYT: Lagat Comes Up Short Despite Trying To Pass Three Times In Last Two Laps
*AP Recap Of Millrose: Mekonnen Wins Wanamaker Mile At Millrose
*Reuters - Mekonnen: "I ran much better than I expected."
*USATF: Eaton Wins Multi Challenge/Sara Hall Completes Career Double Sara Hall completed the HS mile/pro 1,500 double with her first pro win after finishing 2nd three previous times.
*
UVA Wins College 4 x 800 Without Robby Andrews

Millrose: LRC Preview:
Millrose At MSG: When The Circus Comes To Town Employee #1 is back and he's got the spectacle that is Millrose covered. Millrose is the one indoor track meet in America with tradition and lots of fans and we've got it covered.  Sure, it's got Bernard Lagat, Bryan Clay and Galen Rupp (not running), but in a LetsRun.com first, Employee #1 breaks down the action and says he is most looking forward to ... the high school girls mile.

Recommended Read: WSJ: Millrose Is Racing After Its Past Glory The paper and Alberto Salazar remember the glory days when elites didn't think it was better to train in Australia than run in front of 15,000+. Salazar debuted in 1981 - just months after winning the NYC marathon: "It was big time; a lot of show and glitz. It really got you pumped up and made you feel like you were part of a huge event. Not just some rinky dink little track meet."
*IAAF Preview
*Reuters Preview: After Thinking He Was Done With Millrose, Lagat Is Back Lagat: "What am I going to be doing, just watching the Millrose Games on television and think I just missed something special?"
*WSJ: From Dan & Dave To Clay & Trey What about Ashton Eaton?
*Nice Millrose Preview In USA Today Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee may be the Olympic and World decathlon champs, but Ashton Eaton has the world indoor heptathlon record. All 3 will square off in a multi-challenge in Millrose. Plus Bernard Lagat is back trying to win his ninth Wanamaker Mile, and Galen Rupp is in the 2 mile.
*NYT: Profile Of Father-Son Police Guys Running Relay
*NYT: Queen Harrison Profile
*Veronica Campbell-Brown Returns To Action At Millrose 60 VCB had the top 100 and 200 in 2011 but didn't race that often.
*Bryan Clay, Trey Hardee And Ashton Eaton (Clay, Trey & A) Ready For Millrose Multi Challenge
*NFL's Jacoby Jones, Bryan Jordan Of MLS, Steve Mesler (Bobsled Gold Medallist) To Race Some Other Ex NBA, NFLers At Millrose
*Millrose Preview From Track And Field Superfan Blog

Oregon News

Injury-Prone Dathan Ritzenhein Will Now Shift Focus To 10k At World Champs *LRC MB: RITZ! ENOUGH WITH THE MARATHON!

Lukas V Commits To Oregon For Real It's now official; two time Foot Locker XC national champ Lukas Verzbicas has an oral commitment to Oregon. The news was out unofficially last week. Letsrun.com has learned Lukas considered turning pro but the money he wanted wasn't there. Why would Nike pay big bucks for him when they can get him much cheaper in the U of O singlet?
*Message Board Thread

Get Inspired

LRC Quotes Of The Year We've got the top 20 quotes of the year on LetsRun.com narrowed down. Now you can not only get inspired by seeing them, but you can vote for your favorite.

Read This To Your Kids Edwin Moses Receives World Fairplay Award In Recognition Of His Efforts Promoting Drug Free Sport The Act of Fair Play Award was also given to three other athletes: Amin Zadeh, an Iranian soccer player who kicked the ball out of play rather than score on an open goal when the goalie was injured, Darius Draudvila, a Lithuanian decathlete who cost himself a chance for a medal at Euros when he leant his pole to the eventual bronze medallist who broke his and couldn't find another, and Chinese wrestler Gao Feng, who carried an injured opponent from the arena to receive treatment even though the rival had been sanctioned for biting him during the contest.

60th Anniversary Of Pre's Birthday Keeps Generating News

Chad Ochocinco Tweets That He Will be Coached By Usain Bolt

2012 Olympic Stadium News

World Paralympic 100m

Blade Runner Loses To American Jerome Singleton For First Loss In 7 Years Singleton is a rocket scientist of sorts (math & applied physics major who has interned for NASA) and very fast. The finish was very close and worth a watch. We won't tell you exactly what happens in case you have 12 seconds to watch it.
*Video Of Race (and embedded on right)
*Excellent Profile On Singleton From 3wiresports.com

Ritz And Webb

Olympics Day 16 - Athletics Ritz Out Of London Just 16 days after it was announced America's top finisher at the last Olympic marathon was running London, he has pulled out with an injury. The injury bug continues to follow the American star. The way the schedule is, Ritz will likely not run a marathon before next year's Olympic Trials.
Discuss: *Ritz Out Of London

Video Of Alan Webb Showing Up At School To Give Lukas V His Gatorade XC Athlete Of Year Award

Thumbs Up

IAAF Secures Over the Air TV Deal In France The IAAF is making it a priority to get the sport on TV channels people actually watch instead of obscure cable channels for a few $.

Craig Mottram & Benita Willis To Lead Australia At World XC Championships Mottram will run for the first time since 2008 and will lead a squad that includes former NAU star David McNeill. *Australian XC Trials Results

News From Europe

Film Depicting The Life Story Of Double Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist Abebe Bikila To Be Screened In Portland On Feb. 17th And 18th

President Of The IAAF, Lamine Diack, Says It Is Fine To Postpone The Olympic Stadium Decision As Long As West Ham Wins The decision about the London Olympic Stadium was supposed to be made by this Friday (Jan. 28th), but now we may not know until March.

Chevron Houston Marathon This Weekend

After Stunning 2:07:37 Last Year In Houston, Teshome Gelana Is Back To Defend At Chevron Houston Marathon The US Half Marathon Champs are also this week in Houston and let the US stars, including Ryan Hall, preview the Olympic Trials Marathon course.
*Team USA Minnesota's Katie McGregor, Jason Lehmkuhle And Josh Moen Running USA Half Marathon Championships This Weekend

Good News

Former World Hurdles Champ Stephane Diagana Out Of Intensive Care After Car Wreck

Have An Altitude Tent? Try Out For The NFL
Big Green Bay 320-Pound Defensive End Who Returned Pick For TD Credits Altitude Tent For His Inspired Play BJ Raji's tent is big enough for his king-sized bed.

Another Edition Of The Famed Kenyan Armed Forces XC Champs Is In The Books (The 3rd-Toughest Race On The Planet)

Update On Nike's Golden Boys - Rupp & Lance

It's Official - Angela Bizzari To Mammoth Track Club Agree or disagree with the decision? It's a hot topic on the message board.

News From Japan

Dubai Marathon (World's Richest Prize) *Race Website *Live Thread *Top Results And Prize Money *Photos Here

David Barmasai And Asselefech Mergia Each Pocket $250,000
David Barmasai earned his $250,000 the hard way. Barmasai had only run marathons in Kenya before. There were 12 guys who went through halfway in 1:02:46. At 30k, according to message board reports, the leaders were only 25 seconds off of Haile G's world record split. Then however, the wheels came off. The final 5k was run in 16:47 and that gave Barmasai the win by nearly a minute over Evans Cheruiyot (2008 Chicago champ), who won $100,000 for 2nd place. Shows how hard Haile G's record is. On the women's side, Asselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was much more credentialed coming in (bronze at 2009 Worlds) and she was the only one to dip under 2:23 but missed the course record at the world's richest marathon in terms of prize money - $1,000,000 combined between men and women; not the $2 million we said yesterday.
*Top Results And Prize Money

Pretty Shocking

Millrose Update

The Action Is About To Heat Up

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) New Balance Boston To Feature LRC Fans' Dream Mile
*Willis, Webb (And Verzbicas) To Battle In Mile In Boston *LRC MB: Webb vs Willis vs Verzbicas at New Balance Indoor

A Great Mile Matchup In Europe: 2010 Outdoor Sensation Silas Kiplagat To Race World Indoor Champ In Lievin, France On February 8th; Kaki Also Running

Tokyo Marathon: 27:01, 59:50 Guy Gideon Ngatuny To Make His Marathon Debut In Tokyo, Taking On Gebrselassie The marathon is March 9th February 27th. We like the clever website name: www.tokyo42195.org

Shoe News

Asics To Make Custom Shoes For "White Lightning" Christophe Lemaitre is now training in Miami after getting the royal treatment in Japan. Apparently his feet have some sort of flaw and the hope is the spikes can help.

Speaking Of Shoes ...

NY Times: Do Orthotics Really Work? Maybe, but people have no idea why. "As biomechanists, we really do not know how orthotics work."

Interesting (But Not Quite Recommended) Reads:

Distance News

Galen Rupp Racing Paul Koech Over 5,000m In Düsseldorf, Germany On February 11 Rupp no doubt will be trying to regain his American record from Bernard Lagat (13:11). Koech ran 13:02 last year in Düsseldorf to become the 4th fastest ever indoors.
*Message Board Thread

Week In Review

LRC Week In Review: Naked High Mileage XC This week, we've got it all covered - from the exploits of Joseph Ebuya to the winter XC racing of Galen Rupp and Linet Masai in Edinburgh to an academic analysis of some of the nude photo shots in our sport. Plus, we tell you to run more miles, but we guarantee half of you click through to see the Playboy cover with Amy Acuff. Sad on our part and yours.

New Balance In The News

XC News

London & Boston 2011

CHICAGO - OCTOBER 10: Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya collapses after winning
the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:06:24 on October 10, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jim Prisching/Getty Images) Incredible 2011 Virgin London Marathon Field Announced: Wanjiru Vs. Kebede Vs. Makau On Men's Side Director Dave Bedford is calling the women's field "undoubtedly our strongest ever," but we once again are amazed with his men's field. London's got the top 3 men's marathoners in the world Sammy Wanjiru, Tsegaye Kebede and Patrick Makau going head to head to head. This year's Chicago marathon with Wanjiru vs. Kebede duelling to the finish was incredible and left Sammy Wanjiru exhausted (photo above). Now throw Makau (Amsterdam and Berlin champ) into the mix. *Message Board Thread On London
*
European XC Champ Jessica Augusto And Hayley Yelling To Make Marathon Debuts In London

American Hopefuls Kara Goucher And Desiree Davila To Run Boston 2011
Davila has come a long way in her career, as she got equal billing with Goucher in the press release. Last week it was announced Ryan Hall is running Boston.
On The Boards: Desi will kick Kara's butt this April

This Weekend: Houston And More *Houston Half Start Lists *Live Webcast 9pm Eastern

Houston: *Latest: Ryan Hall Now On God's And Paula Radcliffe's Plan (6 Days A Week Of Running), Doing Less Miles
*
Quick Look At The Top Entrants At US Half Champs
*Ryan Hall To Face Abdi Abdirhman And Mo Trafeh And Others On US Trials Course Ryan Hall
is the headliner, but a ton of guys and gals will be running as they can preview the 2012 Trials course. Magdalena Lewy Boulet headlines the women's race. *USATF Preview *Entrants For US Half Champs In Houston

Sunday: Top 2 Seeds At Houston Marathon Have Visa Problems And Brett Gotcher Is Now The Favorite

Glasgow: *US Team Makes It To Glasgow After Bad Weather
*
Lolo Jones Vs. Jessica Ennis In Glasgow 60m Hurdles
*
Hurdling Stud David Oliver To Return To Competition Leading US Team At 5 Nations Match In Scotland This Weekend Just when we discovered how interesting Oliver is, he has quit updating his blog. Bring it back please, David.

Miami: 43-Year-Old Stacie Alboucrek, Who Has Qualified For 2 Olympic Marathon Trials But Never Competed, Hoping To Qualify For Her 3rd This Weekend

Upcoming

Week In Review: *More Dubai Photos Here

LRC Week That Was: Delaware Gets The Ax, Wanjiru Crashes, Dubai Makes Some Marathoners Rich, And The US Indoor Season Gets Going As usual, we recap the week in running like nobody else. Now that the holidays are behind us, the running world is starting to heat up again.

Caster Semenya Sits Down & Gives The BBC Her 1st Extended Interview Since Gender Controversy Arose Semenya said she doesn't want to dwell on the gender issues; she only wants to focus on running, but she did get irritated when asked if she was given hormonal treatment.

Pre's 60th Birthday Would Have Been Tuesday

If Pre Were Still Alive, Where Would He Be And What Would He Have Done? What would he look like? Where would he live? Would we have gone to the 1980 Olympics? We'll never know for sure, but some people have ideas.
*Prefontaine: Why Does He Matter? Why Do We Still Talk About Him Today?
*Linda Prefontaine Speaks About Her Brother
*Legacy.com Looks At Pre's Life & Legacy

She Must Have The Same PR Agent As Lance

Marta Domínguez Remains Defiant In 1st TV Appearance Since Doping Raid She flat-out said she didn't use PEDs and admitted to only giving aspirin, vitamin C and iron to teammates.
*Lengthier Article On Domínguez Translated From Spanish Dominguez appears to say the charges may have a political connection and says she's clean because she's had a 16-year-long career.
*2nd Article Translated From Spanish

More Doping News:

Asian Games Silver Medallist Ahemed Dheeb Stripped Of Medal

Boston Globe Feature Article

Have Athletes Reached Their Limits? The author seems to think they have because so many world records have stagnated since the 1980s. He does acknowledge drugs played a role in many records from the '80s. However, he is perplexed by one athlete - Usain Bolt - and says Bolt's breakthroughs today are why he is so newsworthy. Track and field, by focusing on the competition and not the records, can stay relevant in our opinion.

More Action From This Weekend We Didn't Report Yesterday

Roads: Wesley Korir Wins Carlsbad Half Marathon For 3rd Straight Time, Hopes It Leads Him To 3rd LA Marathon Victory (link fixed) Each time Korir has won Carlsbad, he has gone on to win the LA Marathon. Korir has gone from a good collegiate runner to a very good marathoner with over $200,000 in prize winnings in LA. American Mary Akor won the full marathon in Carlsbad.

Track:
Christian Cantwell Opens With 21.21 Toss In Germany, Has Millrose This Week
*France's Teddy Tamgho Gets World-Leading 17.46 Triple Jump
*Drug Cheat Vania Stambolova Opens With 51.27 World-Leading 400m (link fixed)
*Top NCAA Indoor Track Marks This Last Weekend

Duke Senior Kate Van Buskirk Sets Collegiate Record In 1,000 She had an incredible weekend as she ran 2:41.00 after splitting 2:04.15 on a 4 x 800.

New Balance Armory *Full Results

Millrose Is Friday

Japanese Comedian Completes Around-The-World Run Kampei Hazama ran around the world in 744 days, passing through 18 countries and running more than 41,000km, getting diagnosed with cancer along the way.

More Men's Track & XC Programs Bite The Dust

Sports Illustrated Columnist Joins LRC Faithful In Ripping Delaware For Cutting Its Men's Track & Field / XC Teams Jeff Pearlman is a little biased as he used to run for them, but that doesn't mean he's not right on the money. UD Track is 100 years old this year.
*LRC MBoarders Express Their Outrage
*A Blogger Is Irate
*Delaware's Cowardly Release

Bemidji State's Men's Indoor & Outdoor Programs Get The Ax Not quite as old as Delaware, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Bemidji track has been around since 1928.

Week In Review

Cross Country: IAAF World Cross Country Championships LRC: Week That Was Last week, we had to use sex to sell our Week That Was and this week, except for talking about LaShawn Merritt's penis, everything is clean. We actually are full of praise for some American stars helping the sport, some of the shoe companies, and more. Plus, we cover some XC, India's #1 marathoner, and some Oregon football.

Need To Get Motivated In 2011? Run Whichever NYRR Race You Want And Help Kids At The Same Time (Sponsored Post)

Spread The Joy Of Running And Get Guaranteed Entry To The 2011 ING NYC Marathon And Other Events The NYRR's Team for Kids program is a great program. It brings the benefits of the world's simplest and greatest sport, running, to underprivileged kids throughout the world. In return for some fund raising, its participants, that would be you, get guaranteed entry into various sold-out NYRR events, including the ING NYC Marathon. Click for more info.

TIA/Unbelievable: Two Of Kenya's Brightest Junior Prospects For World XC May Not Be Able To Race, As They Allegedly Were Beaten By Their Teacher For Not Passing Tests Apparently, in Kenya there is some sort of automatic passing going on that made the teacher irate and he supposedly beat one of the students unconscious.

Updates For Past & Current NCAA Greats

Recommended Click: The Fastest People To Never Be World Ranked By T&FN
Imagine running 9.88 for 100m or 12:51 for 5,000 or 2:05:25 for 26.2 and not being ranked top 10 in the world.

More Action We Already Covered

Alberto On Galen

LRC: Update On Galen Rupp's Training: Two Distinct Seasons For Rupp In 2011, More Mileage Alberto Salazar has done a tremendous job crafting Galen Rupp's career despite the critics (we specifically remember pro athletes who saw Galen train as a high schooler saying he'd burn out). Alberto says 2011 will be a bit different for Galen than 2009 and 2010, with 2 distinct peaks (and time off in between) and that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of training mileage. Plus, we take a look back at Galen's incredibly long and consistent 2009 and 2010 seasons.

Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross-Country Team Race *Team Race Results *LRC Race Photos *LRC Interviews *Video Highlights (Available Worldwide - They Show Snow And Huge Hill)

LRC Team Race: Mo Farah Over Galen Rupp Mo Farah prevailed over Galen Rupp on an officially non-Rupp-certified snow course. We recap the action, have photos, and talked to Galen, Mo, Alberto, and some of the American studs, including Scott Bauhs, who puts an end to "Rupp certification" once and for all.
*Video Of Farah's 2:00 Win Worth a look to see hill and snow.
*LRC Interviews With Alberto, Galen, Scott Bauhs, Stephen Furst, Bobby Mack And Matt Gabrielson
*LRC Race Photos
*BBC: Video Highlights Of Farah's Dominant Win A post-race interview of Farah is included as well.

It's Not This Easy In America

Olympic Marathon Champ And Accused Attempted Murderer Sammy Wanjiru And His Wife Supposedly Reconcile Press reports are indicating that the families of Wanjiru and his wife got involved and urged a reconciliation which may result in charges being dropped, although his wife was a bit coy in her responses to the press (as we're sure $$$ is still being negotiated). *Updated LRC MBoard Talk: "He is now officially qualified to be a professional American athlete. Can some of the women on this board tell me why abused women stay with their abuser. Often, until they are beaten to death?"
*
Sammy Wanjiru Arrested For Attempting To Kill His Wife And A Domestic Worker

Worth Reading

All That Is Great About LetsRun.com

LRC NCAA And Foot Locker Contest Recaps: The Greatness Of You Recapping our contests always reminds us what is greatest about LetsRun.com - that is you, our incredibly loyal, smart and interesting readers. This time our contest winners impress as usual. Not only do we have acts of sportsmanship, but we have a runner with MS who can no longer run anymore but it still super-dedicated to the sport, a college coach who nearly pulled off the NCAA D1, D2 prediction double (and btw went to high school with the rocket scientist who has won two of our previous contests), a guy who watched malmo win an NCAA XC race, and a guy who issued a challenge to Aaron Braun before he won last week's club XC champs.

The 10 Best High School XC Runners Ever

LRC Week That Was: The 10 Best High School XC Runners Of All Time, Verzbicas, Tribute To Gary Reed, The NY Times & The NE Patriots And More We've got the entire running world covered from San Diego to Japan, from the high school ranks to the pros, and even talk about the NE Patriots and the NY Times.

The Stars Of Track And Field Party In Monaco *Wejo's Photo Gallery 1 *Pro Photo Gallery 2

Ryan Hall Before Houston

Jerome Singleton Upsets Pistorius (The Finish Is Worth A Watch)

Alan Webb Shows Up At School To Give Lukas Verbicas Gatorade XC Athlete Of Year Award

Author Pat Butcher, Some Other Luminaries In The Sport Pay Tribute To Former Swedish Mid-D Athlete, Promoter Of The Sport Kenth Andersson

Happy 60th Birthday To Steve Prefontaine

Two Of The Best Running Movies Of All Time (Don't Believe Us? Click Here)

2011 Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon Photos

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Think You've Done It All?

Indoor Marathoning Gets A Profile In Wall Street Journal

Drug News

Training Corner

Alberto On Rupp And Ritz's Training

Scott Bauhs Ends The Rupp Certification Debate ... Or Does He Not?

Logan Vs. USATF

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 LRC Exclusive USATF Strikes Back With Charges Of Tax Evasion, Expense Report Abuse And The Real Reason Doug Logan Was Fired We're far from lawyers and most of you aren't either, but this is worth a read, as USATF has filed its response to former CEO's Doug Logan's lawsuit. USATF hurls some serious charges at Logan and some dirt (improper gifts to a female athlete), but none of them are the real reason Logan was fired. We've got it covered, plus news who on the USATF board Logan referred to as Fantasia and Opie.
*Message Board Thread

Training Corner

Recommended On The Boards: The Legend Of Steve Jones Grows

Relive Men's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)

Relive Women's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)

800m Royalty Together For The First Time Ever: Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha (It's Well Worth A Watch If You Have The Time, Or Read The Recap Here)

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