Quote Of The Day

"But this is his biggest race ever and there are great expectations. You still have to race on the day. I am eager to see how he responds."

- Arizona coach James Li, talking about Lawi Lalang prior to Monday's NCAA championships. Even without great inflation, we'd most definitely say he passed with flying colors.

LRC Jason Vigilante Leaves The University of Virginia Vigilante (the coach of Alan Webb and Robby Andrews), who rose to fame as the mid-d and distance coach at the University of Texas, has confirmed to LetsRun.com that he is no longer leading the Virginia program after three plus years in Charlottesville. *Discuss: Vig out at UVA

Olympic Marathon Trials Are Less Than 2 Months Away

Australians In The News

London 2012 News

Random

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Men: LRC Wisconsin Badgers Take Control Early As Lawi Lalang Dominates Lawi Lalang waited until 5k before deciding it was time to crush the competition once and for all, while #1 Wisconsin showed no fear and put a stranglehold on the competition from the very beginning and held off a belated charge from Oklahoma State and a surprising Colorado team as the Cowboys tried to three-peat. American Chris Derrick took home individual runner-up honors to cap a brilliant career in style. *Discuss

More: Wisco #1: *Give 'em five: Badgers lay claim to program's fifth national title *Krause earns redemption as Badgers storm to fifth national title host.madison.com
OSU #2: *Dave Smith Calls Loss "Disappointing" - But Expected www.okstate.com
Colorado #3: *Wetmore Calls Medina Most Improved Runner In Country www.denverpost.com *CU Coach Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs 3rd Place Run
Individual: Coach Li - I Think Lalang Would Have Got Course Record If He Was Pushed www.arizonawildcats.com

 

NCAAs On The Boards

Sad News

1:01:38 And 1:10:57 Win 13.1s In France

Doping News

Philly Was Sunday *Results *Half Results

*RIP: Two Runners Die After Collapsing In Philly Marathon A 21-year-old man collapsed at the finish line and a 40-year-old collapsed about a quarter-mile before it.
*Philly Marathon: Tuko Folisho Wins In 2:19:16 Mariska Kramer wins women's in 2:35:46.
*Philly Half Results: Samuel Ndereba Wins In 64:04 (Close Race Places 1-6) Yihunlish Delelecha wins women's in 1:12:42.

International Weekend Results

Other International News
*
Kenyan National Team Coach Unhappy Top Runners Are Absent From Local XC Meets "There are no better preparations for an athlete than competing in cross country since it helps in building endurance and speed. Every runner from 800m to 10,000m should be here." This is what happens when World XC is biennial; not even the Kenyans are racing it.
*Q&A With Usain Bolt: Says Rihanna Is His Celeb Crush
*Bolt Beats Hypothetical "Greatest-Ever" 200 Field
*Britain Might Deploy "Heli-Snipers" During Olympics
*UK's Jenny Meadows Uses Daegu Disappointment As London Motivation

OR/WA Border Clash Meet - Washington Sweeps Both Men's & Women's Races We think it's very strange that they had almost half the field false started, but they weren't called back. The winner of the girls race broke the course record, but our question is will it count even with the recognized false start? MB: Horrible false start at Border Clash and they weren't called back

Recommended Read: Orphan To Olympian: Reese Hoffa's Long Road Reese Hoffa lived most of his life in guilt after his teenage mom put him up for adoption shortly after he burned down their house at 4 years old. When he spoke to her years later, his first words were: "I'm sorry I burned down the house."

NCAAs - DII/DIII *DII Results *DIII Men's Results *DIII Women's Results MB: *DIII Cross Country: 2011 *DII Nationals At Spokane

International

Weekend HS Action:
*Go Here To Watch Nike BorderClash At 10AM PST On Sunday
*MileSplit Weekend Coverage Coverage for NXN Regional meets, Florida State Meet, NJ Meet of Champs (CBA boys win), NY Federation Meet, and more.

MileSplit Interview With Olympain Jonathon Riley

Sign Petition To Save University Of Maryland Men's Cross-Country And Track Programs Panel considering cutting 8 sports, including XC/Track.

Non-NCAA Action This Weekend/Upcoming

Q&A With World University Games 800m Champ Lachlan Renshaw Includes video with a pretty crazy last 100m. Renshaw is part of OTC and trains with Nick Symmonds and Tyler Mulder. Gives some insight into the OTC mid-distance training under Coach Mark Rowland, whose program seems to emphasize mileage more than many mid-d programs.

Will Doing The 4 X 4 Hurt Usain Bolt's Chances Of Helping Jamaica Defend 4 X 1 Title? Since the 4 x 1 is after the 4 x 4, the the answer is yes, definitely. Doesn't mean he can't still win, though.

Famous Athlete Plane Crashes Throughout The Years Interesting in a sad way.

Doping

Steve Mullings Found Guilty He may face a lifetime ban as this is his second offense. *2nd Article
*BOA Chariman Colin Moynihan Accused Of Making "Misinformed Allegations" By Angry WADA Chief
*Colin Moynihan To Defend Anti-Doping Policy Against WADA

International

News From The UK & Europe

Worth Mentioning

South East Asian Games Recap: Thailand Dominates The 800 Vietnamese national record is now 1:49.42.

Week That Was

LRC Geoffrey Mutai Amazes Again, Adam Goucher Retires, & Lukas Verzbicas Calls It Quits We go behind the scenes to take a look at the last two weeks in the running world, which included the NYC Marathon, Adam Goucher's retirement, and Lukas Verzbicas leaving Oregon mid-season. Plus we take a look at the Phil Hersh-Ryan Hall spat and compare Hall to Tim Tebow.

Bureaucracy News

Sprint News

Olympic Marathon Trials 60 Days Away

Meb Says Of Olympic Trials Competitors: "They Better Be Nervous."

Cool Video Board: Race Ryan Hall At NYC Subway Stop We saw this on RunnersWorld but Gizmodo and Reddit have picked it up and the YouTube video has over 200,000 views.

Shoe News

Alan Webb Still With Nike

Look Out, Nike: Kenyan Brand Kourage Launched Of course Nike and Kourage both don't have a chance since Puma has partnered with little LetsRun.com for the LRC Puma Faas Challenge.

IAAF Meetings

Usain Bolt And Sally Pearson Are Surprising 2011 IAAF Athletes Of The Year And $100,000 Richer Vivian Cheruiyot won just about everything she ran but it wasn't enough. Yohan Blake was pretty damn good, but journalists must have had trouble giving it to a guy they figured would lose if he raced Bolt.
On The Boards: BOLT did NOT deserve to win IAAF-AOY

We're Glad He's Alive

Personal Crisis Likely Led To Disappearance Of UAA Star Runner He went missing in near 0 degree temperatures for 2 days and was found with frostbite.

Three Cheers To London And Qatar

London To Host 2017 Worlds And Qatar Made Sure They Paid A Ton To Do It More money for the sport is a good thing, although we think the British taxpayers could be on the hook if things don't go as planned. London, however, says it will sell $1 Billion in Sponsorship.
*Doha Got London To Guarantee £4.5 Million More At Last Second
*Although Qatar Lost London 2017, It May Get 2020 Olympics And has the 2022 World Cup.
*Denise Lewis On Seb Coe: "Lord Coe's speech made the hairs on my neck stand up."
*Australia's Gold Coast Gets 2018 Commonwealth Games

2011 ING NYC Marathon *Men's Results *Women's Results *Viewing Info *Flash Yahoo Photos

LRC 2:05:06!!! Geoffrey Mutai Caps Year In Style An unbelievable year in men's marathoning had an appropriate finish, as the Kenyan man who had the most unbelievable of all years, Geoffrey Mutai, smashed the previous NYC Marathon record by a stunning 2:38 - that's two minutes and 38 seconds. If it wasn't the greatest 2nd-greatest men's marathon performance ever, you'll have to tell us what was. American Meb Keflezighi hung with the leaders for 20 miles after a blistering 63:16 1st half and ended up with a much-deserved PR. Mutai picked up $200,000 by winning, but the big financial winner was runner-up Emmanuel Mutai, who won $635,000 ($500,000 for the WMM title).

LRC
Mary Keitany Beats Herself The women's race was full of gut-wrenching drama, as Mary Keitany went out in a crazy 67:56. The problem was she came back in 74:42, as unheralded Firehiwot Dado (Rome Marathon champ) got the win.

LRC Post Race Interviews: Meb And His Coach Bob Larsen Talks About His PR Despite Throwing Up Plus the winners Geoffrey Mutai, Firehiwot Dado, men's and women's top 3, Ed Moran, Molly Pritz, Lauren Fleshman and Bobby Curtis.

NYC On The Boards:

NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k *Results

LRC Chris Thompson, Sara Hall Win, Ritz Is 3rd (link fixed) Hall continued her fine fall campaign with the win in this race that serves as a huge NYRR recruiting tool. Most importantly for US distance fans, Dathan Ritzenhein did well and emerged from the race healthy (link fixed to story with Hall interview).

LRC Healthy Ritz Talks About Marathon Trials, His Track Ambititions And More After double foot surgery in March, a healthy Ritz ran what was likely his only race before the Olympic Marathon Trials in 10 weeks. He talked about his preparations for the Marathon Trials, his desire to run faster on the track, and showed he stil has a lot of fire: "The talent's still there. I'm still young. I'm 28 so hopefully I just keep getting better."

Post NCAA XC News *Men's 2km standings *5km standings *8km standings *Final Men's Results *Women's 4km standings *Women's Final Results *Entire Race Video Replays *LRC Puma Prediction Contest Scores Here *LRC Men's Photo Gallery

Jamaica Reacts To Steve Mullings' Lifetime Ban

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Women: LRC Georgetown, Reid Win Tight Battles Six women kicked for home over the last 400m of the race but in the end it turned into the duel many expected and Sheila Reid of Villanova got the narrow win over Jordan Hasay. The big surprise was in the team's race, where the Georgetown women, who were only third at Big East, won by eight over Washington as #1 Florida State faltered and finished 4th. *Discuss

More: *Georgetown Gets Its First National CC Title GUHoyas.com
*Washington Comes Up 8 Points Short GoHuskies.com
*#1 FSU Finishes 4th & Coach Karen Harvey Pulls No Punches"I felt like I was watching a nightmare. I really thought there was no way this is happening." www.seminoles.com
*Wetmore Says 11th-Placed Colorado Women Purposely Peaked For PAC-12s, Not NCAAs www.denverpost.com
*The FSU women finished fourth and the men 12th at NCAA Cross Country Championships www.seminoles.com
*Lananna Says Hasay's Runner-Up Finish Was A Big Step Forward As She Didn't Get Antsy & Kick Too Early www.oregonlive.com

 

A Former Leading Lady In The News

Soap Opera: 1991 World 10,000 Champ Liz McColgan Cleared Of Attacking Husband But the evidence reveals she had been having an affair, he had installed spyware on her computer to track her typings, and he had a secret SIM card to send her and her boyfriend text messages.

Interesting Drug News

Pre-NCAA News

LRC Fan Nation Picks: Wisconsin, Florida State, Lawi Lalang And Sheila Reid Are The Big Favorites Updated We've crunched the first set of numbers from our Puma Prediction Contest to rank all 31 teams and 75+ individuals.

LRC:
Men's Preview: Wisco Vs. Oklahoma State, Lawi Lalang Vs. Leonard Korir The Monday before Thanksgiving is almost here and that means the NCAA XC Championships in Terre Haute. OSU is going for the three-peat but they'll have their hands full with Wisconsin. We flash back to the 2004 Wisco "Dream Team" and are surprised it's the final NCAA XC for Chris Derrick, German Fernandez and Luke Puskedra, who all should get beaten by Lawi Lalang and Leonard Korir.

LRC: Women's Preview: Can Florida State Stop 'Nova? Will Reid Turn Back Hasay Again? Villanova is also going for the three-peat, but Florida State is the favorite. Sheila Reid got the best of Jordan Hasay last year. Can she do it again or could Kendra Schaaf challenge?
 

  • USATF Showing Some Leadership

    Track And Field Will Be Back In The Garden The Millrose Games may have died moved to the Armory but USATF has stepped up and shown some leadership by announcing they will put on a new meet at Madison Square Garden next year, the US Open. Bernard Lagat says he's running it and most importantly ESPN will be televising it, showing the world our sport is not a complete joke and can be held on a grand stage. Three cheers for USATF (we're not sure if we've ever said those words in the same sentence). *MBoard Thread *USATF Article

    More US Stuff

    NCAAs Are Coming And The Big Programs Are Generating Press (Got More Articles? Email Us.)

    Collis Birmingham Talks About Altitude Tents, His New Training Location And Goals For 2012 We loved his goals, "Olympics, PBs and to learn Spanish."

    Racewalker Justifiably Gets Feature In New York Times: US Female Racewalker Will Compete In Men's Olympic Trials As There Is No Women's 50k Racewalk Erin Taylor-Talcott's time is good enough to get her into the Trials, so she should compete. That being said, we have a solution for the 50km gender disparity - get rid of it for both sexes.

    Villanova Alums Trying To Get Former World Record Holder Sydney Maree Out Of South African Prison Last month's Philadelphia Inquirer feature on Maree has motivated some people to try to help. It appears he may be sleeping on the floor due to overcrowding.
    From October:  Sydney Maree: Villanova's Fallen Hero

    Nick Symmonds Talks About His Leading Of The "Occupy USATF Movement" We feel Symmonds and the athletes' pain but don't think the lack of advertising space on a singlet is the key reason why athletes don't have big endorsements. Sports stars get endorsements and most runners aren't stars. Buick was never on Tiger Woods' jersey, McDonald's never on Lebron's.

    We 100% Agree: NYTimes: Complicated Training Plans, Focus On Foot-Strike Often Turn Off Beginning Runners - For Beginning Runners, Advice Can Be a Hurdle As one man said, "(Training plans) are so complicated.I thought, 'Oh my God, it's just running.'"

    College XC/Track News

    *42 Years Ago From Tuesday, Lindgren Edged Pre At PAC-6s
    *(Boston) Marathon Monday Ranked One Of Best College Traditions At Boston University Day drinking is a plus for most people, including this student. "Definitely, the wildest and most out-of-control moments in my college life have been Marathon Monday and Halloween. I mean on Marathon Monday you have the day-drinking, and it's spring time so kids are kind of going a little nuts because it's finally warm in Boston."
    *An Incredible Hire:
    Allen Johnson Hired As Air Force Assistant We wouldn't have even made him interview.
    *Maryland Track Alums Vent To Washington Times About Possibly Losing Program

    Panel Calls For Cutting 8 Sports At Univ. Of Maryland, Including XC & Track
    Says something about our sport when Maryland's head coach Andrew Valmon is the 2012 US Olympic Head Coach. Renaldo Nehemiah went to Maryland and they won every ACC title from 1956-1979. Now they'll be the only ACC program without a track team. Maybe Under Armour can help save them. *Message Board Thread To Try To Do Something

    More Verzbicas (From A Triathlon Perspective)

    Slowtwitch (Triathlon Website) Takes A Look At How Lukas' Stepdad Ended Up Being His College Coach Now And Finds It Kosher
    At Least We Agree: Posters On Slowtwitch Forum Criticizes Lukas For Leaving Oregon In Middle Of Season

    Lukas On The Boards:

    Weekend Pro Action

    NCAA Regionals Were Saturday

    Big-Time Traditional Powers Stay Home - Arkansas & Oregon Plus William & Mary Are Left Home On The Men's Side - The Providence Women Stay Home For 37 years in a row, you could count on the Arkansas men making NCAAs. Not anymore, as they stay home for the first time since 1973. The Providence women, who were ranked #5 in the country without even running at full strength in most meets, aren't going for the first time since 1988, the William & Mary men since 1996. And because Lukas Verzbicas quit on Oregon, the Ducks aren't going on the men's side for the first time since year two of the Vin Lananna era.
    MB: *
    LV officially screwed Oregon over

    He Will Be Missed Adam Goucher Retires Goucher is having knee surgery on Friday and says his competitive racing career is over. We've always said that one way to judge whether a runner's career was a good one or not is simple: Were They Good Enough That They Could Retire Or Just Quit? Goucher certainly is retiring, as he had an INCREDIBLE career - Foot Locker champ, NCAA champ indoors, NCAA champ outdoors and NCAA champ in XC, USA champ in XC and track and an Olympian. Goucher is a runner at heart and we wouldn't rule out seeing him in the 2016 Marathon Trials.
    *MB: Adam Goucher retires

    Frankfurt *Larger Image Of Kipsang At Finish

    Frankfurt: Oh-So-Close: 2:03:42 - Wilson Kipsang's World Record Assault Comes Up Just Short IAAF The world of marathoning continues to be simply amazing on the men's side.
    *AP Recap Levy Matebo was second (2:05:16) and Albert Matebor third (2:05:25) as the women's CR was broken by Mamitu Daska (2:21:59).
    Pre-Race: Last Year's 2:04:57 Course Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Says World Record Can Fall At Sunday's BMW Frankfurt Marathon Kipsang may be getting a bit ahead of himself, but he's very good. More on Kipsang here.

    Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *Results *Yahoo Photos

    LRC Moses Mosop A Superstar, Liliya Shobukhova Becomes Second-Fastest Woman Ever Updated Moses Mosop dominated the final miles in Chicago after Wesley Korir tried to make it interesting. Russian Liliya Shobukhova ran 2:18:20 to become the second-fastest woman ever. American Ryan Hall ran 2:08:04 for 5th. Great for any other American marathoner, so-so for him.

    LRC: Wesley Korir Impresses With 2:06:15 Second Place In Chicago The former Louisville Cardinal broke the race up with a surge at 30km. Afterwards, he revealed what he was trying to do.

    Ryan Hall Says He Needs More Time At Sea Level To Work On Turnover RW

    LRC Non-Quotes Of The Day From 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Hall talks about what 2:08 means, Canova talks about the world record.

    LRC Quick Recap With Men's Splits: Moses Mosop Breaks Course Record At 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon, Shobukhova Runs 2:18:20

    NCAA Men's Photo Gallery (500+ Photos) Women Coming

    Beautiful People (NCAA XC Banquet Photos)

    NCAA XC Is Here

    LRC NCAA XC Prediction Contest Powered By Puma Our world-famous NCAA Prediction Contests are back. Tell us who will win in Terre Haute and you could win some cool Puma gear or $200,010 if you have a perfect ballot.

    Who Wins NCAAs? (Vote In Our Contest Here)

    Lawi Lalang

    77.4 %

    Leonard Korir

    12.9 %

    Chris Derrick

    3.2 %

    German Fernandez

    1.3 %

    Other

    5.2%

    Who Wins NCAAs?

    Sheila Reid

    71.5 %

    Jordan Hasay

    16.3 %

    Emily Infeld

    3.1 %

    Risper Kimaiyo

    3.1 %

    Other

    6.0 %

    Cross-Country For The "Geekiest" And "Nerdiest" (Discuss Here)

    LRC Catching Up With Olympian Michael Stember:
    Olympian Stember On Dunking A Basketball, Nerds Running Cross-Country, And Trying To Break 18 Minutes For 5k
    We know it drives a few people nuts when we call one of our own interviews a MUST read, but we are quite proud of this one. Stember talks about everything - from wondering if he really should have been an 800-meter runner, to having figured out the inner-city school problem, to solving the energy crisis and much more. Along the way he admits he once ran a 4-minute mile after months of drinking and only 3 weeks of running, admits to Gallowalking during his current training and says he has secured a rabbit to pace him to a sub-18 5k so he can win his bet on CharityBets.

    Random US Stuff

    *Q&A With New Team USA, Arizona Steepler Shayla Houlihan
    *
    Part 3 Of Lauren Fleshman's NYC Marathon Blog link fixed Going into the last 5k: "My tonail is hanging by a thread. My quads, hips and butt muscles are hardly even firing and I feel like a sloppy puppet on strings being dragged up and over the hills by a 3 year old child."
    *Good Profile On Former All-American, 56-Year-Old David Walters He placed in the top 3 for his age group in the Boston, Chicago and NYC marathons with two 2:52s and a 2:47. Ran 2:19 to qualify for the OTs back in 1988.
    *NY Times Writer Talks About His Favorite "Fitness Apps"

    2012 News

    *London Taxpayers Facing $365 Million Olympic Black Hole
    *Carl Lewis Backs BOA's Olympic Ban Policy
    *BOA Wants To Defend Olympic Ban In Court; Say Won't Change Rule Without Court Order
    *We Agree:
    Pistorius Is A Friend But He Shouldn't Run At The Olympics, Says Michael Johnson "I think that Oscar is an incredible person and an incredible athlete and it's an inspirational story. But that doesn't make it right."
    *Michael Johnson Warns Of Home "Disadvantage" For UK Athletes At 2012 Olympics "There are more potential disadvantages than there are advantages at a home Olympics."
    *NY Times Starts Analyzing The Analysis Of 2012 Medal Counts

    NYC Men's Photo Gallery

    NYC Women's Photo Gallery


    Meb Talks About His PR And Answers The Question Whether He Actually Runs In Skechers (More Here)

    Ritz On The Marathon Trials, His Training And The 10k (More Here)

    Week In Review

    LRC Week That Was: Wilson Kipsang's Near Miss, US Men's Marathoners Vs. Frankfurt, Mark Wetmore And CU At PAC-12s And The Wisconsin Men At Big 10s We take at look at Wilson Kipsang's near world record run in Frankfurt, discuss how the entire history of US men's marathoning was eclipsed in Frankfurt and then turn to a discussion of NCAA XC action.

    Wilson Kipsang Just Misses World Record (And Coolest Finish Of A Marathon We've Seen)

    Training Corner (More In The Training Forum)

    BMW Berlin Marathon Photos! Makau Takes Geb's World Record

    Great Deals

    A Scintillating Men's 10,000 Finish (US Visitors Only)

    Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

    Great Deals

    Universal Sports Back To Top