Week In Review
LRC WTW: Can An American Win Boston? Andres Arroyo Impresses, And It's OK To Race A Lot Less than a week before Monday's Boston Marathon, we examine American futility in Boston and ponder: Can Shalane Flanagan end the drought? Plus, we span the globe from Carlsbad, to Gainesville, to Prague, and look at women's running depth.
More Boston News
- IAAF Boston Marathon Preview: Reigning Champions Wesley Korir and Sharon Cherop Return To Defend Their Titles Korir faces Gebre Gebremariam, Lelisa Desisa Benti (2:04:45), Deriba Merga, 2010 champ Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, and last year’s runner-up Levy Matebo. Cherop will be chased by the Meseret Hailu Debele and Tirfi Tsegaye Beyene (course record holders at the Amsterdam and Paris Marathons respectively), 2012 Chicago runner-up Rita Jeptoo and obviously Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher.
- Recommended Read: Wesley Korir Has A Lot On His Plate As He Prepares To Defend His Boston Marathon Title
In addition to training, he has spent a lot of time in Kenya campaigning and winning a seat in the Kenyan parliament and his wife is pregnant with their 2nd child.
- Kara Goucher Is Hoping That "The Third Time's A Charm" At This Year's Boston Marathon "My first year, I felt like I made some tactical errors. My second time there I had a six-month-old baby, so that was what it was ... I just have to get it right on race day because I want to win it so bad."
- 30 Minute RW Video Interview With Shalane Flanagan Ahead Of The Boston Marathon
- Flanagan:
"I feel really fortunate that they are talking about me in that capacity ... I like having this big platform to perform."
Some Interesting International Track News
- Ryan Gregson Blgs: "No More 5000 For Me" Gregson explains how he and Dorian Ulrey once had a conversation about wanting to move to the 5000 because commentators would have more time to talk about your life story. Gregson says, "Maybe I won't get my life story told, but the 1500m is way sexier."
- Former 400H Olympic Champ Melanie Walker Reveals She Left MVP Track Club Because Longtime Coach Stephen Francis Refused To Help Her Move To The 100H Some harsh quotes from her coach including, "If you are going to retire, then you retire, but I am not going to help you with the foolishness about you being a sprinter. You were a sprinter at 15 years old, you are now 30 and a lot has happened during that
time and it is pointless."
- David Rudisha Says He Will Not Be Aiming To Break The WR At This Year's Moscow World Champs, But Says He Does Think Sub-1:40 Is Possible "I have beaten Kipketer’s former world record (1:41.11) three times now and one day I hope to break the 1:40 barrier. It’s not impossible but it is a very difficult task to accomplish.”
- Valerie Adams Says She's Focused On Winning Championships Rather Than On Drug Tainted Record Books Even though she's a 2-time Olympic champ she's only 23rd on the all-time list, but says, "Okay, realistically I'm No23, but how many of those athletes have been suspended."
- Athletics South Africa Fiasco Continues As 6 ASA Board Members And Financial Manager Were Suspended By Formerly Impeached ASA President James Evans
- Tunisian Athletics Federation To Be Suspended By The IAAF After It Overturned The Democratically Elected National Governing Body
- Mercyline Jerono Wins 1500 At Kenya Technical Training Institutes Sports Organisation Championships In 4:53.1
- IAAF Online Diary For Olympic 800 Champ Mariya Savinova Who's Back In Hard Training After Some Downtime In The Winter
It's Almost Marathon Monday
- Boston Herald Article On Shalane Flanagan, Who Says Winning It Would Fulfill The Dream She's Had Since She Was A Kid Growing Up In The Boston Area "It is really the pinnacle and would mean the most to me. To put my name amongst (former Boston champions) Bill Rodgers and Joanie (Benoit Samuelson) and people that I have admired is motivational. To be with them would mean all the sacrifice and dedication was worth it."
- Boston Globe Interview With Flanagan She's been tapering and says she feels like a "caged animal."
*Video Interview With Shalane Flanagan From Last Month - After His Big PR At NYC Half, Jason Hartman Comes Into The Boston Marathon On A High Note As He Tries To Repeat As The Top American After Last Year's 4th Place Finish
- Sub-2:52? RW Q&A With Joan Benoit Samuelson, Who's Running This Year's Boston Marathon In The 30th Anniversary Of Her 1983 Victory It's 30 years since her win and she wants to come within 30 minutes of her winning time from that year (2:22:43).
Drug News: Remember Those 17 Doping Cases The IAAF Mentioned? Expect Some To Be Russian
- Russian Athletics Chief Says He Expects More Russian Doping Cases To Be Revealed Valentin Balakhnichyov said he expected more doping cases with Russian athletes to be revealed in the future, saying it's because the country conducted more drugs tests than any other nation.
He says, "It's simple arithmetic." However, more testing today wouldn't account for the dopers who have been caught from 2005 re-tests.
*MB: 17 POSITIVE TESTS FROM ENDURANCE ATHLETES!! (not released by the IAAF yet) Make your bets here!
RR: Former US Paralympic Head Track Coach Works With Wounded Veterans, Teaching Them How To Run/Walk Again On Prosthetics Good article on how running helps wounded veterans recover both mentally and physically. Includes a story of a former 47-second 400 runner who lost his legs and has now run a marathon.
Sunday Road Action *Carlsbad Top 10 Results *Carlsbad Photo Gallery
Carlsbad: LRC Gebremeskel 3-Peats And Gelete Burka Wins - Manzano Struggles Big-Time When you put one of the top track runners on the road, normally he wins and Gebremeskel did just that. Leo Manzano's much hyped 5k debut was a total disaster but
the race also
served as the return of 2011 Mo Farah slayer Ibrahim Jeilen.
Will Leer and Brenda Martinez were the top Americans. *IAAF
Cherry Blossom 10 Miler: Allen Kiprono Celebrates Too Early - Daniel Salel (46:06) And Caroline Rotich (52:46) Win Tight Races
*Janet Bawcom Sets US Record In Women-Only Race (53:28) To Capture USA Women's 10-Mile Championship 3-time US Olympian Jen Rhines returned to competition and was fifth in 54:54.
Shamrock Shuffle 8k: Asics Aggies Runner Phillip Reid Wins Chicago Shamrock Shuffle 8k In 23:08, Beating Out Hansons-Brooks Runner Jacob Riley (23:10) Lisa Uhl won the women's race in 25:54 over Hansons-Brooks runners Melissa White and Dot McMahan. This race also served as the USATF National Club Team 8k Championships, which was won by Hansons-Brooks on both the
men's and women's side.
Paris Marathon: Kenyan Peter Some Is Surprise Winner, Setting A 3-Minute-Plus PR In 2:05:38 Over Tadese Tola (2:06:33) And Eric Ndiema (2:06:34) (updated) 2:04 man Abraham Girma was way back in 8th (2:08:19) as US's Jeffrey Eggleston was 17th in 2:14:57. Ethiopian Boru Feyse Tadese won the woman's race in a new CR of 2:21:06. *Deeper
Results
*OTB: Paris Marathon Live Thread
Saturday Action *Prague Top 10
Hervis Prague Half: Zersenay Tadese Settles For Sprint Victory - Gladys Cherono Steals Show
And Becomes 12th-Fastest Woman In History At 66:48 A
€100,000 WR bonus was no match for Mother Nature as cold and wintry conditions kept the pace slow from the start and Tadese was feeling ill.
*LRC Flash Recap: World Record Attempt Never Materializes *IAAF Recap *Race
Press Release
*Pre-Race: After Excelling In "End Of Road" Fartlek Workout, Philemon Limo Feels As If He's Ready This article talks about the "End of the Road" fartlek, which LetsRun
witnessed in 2011 where 400+ Kenyans are narrowed down to a handful.
Saturday Track Action In Melbourne *Melbourne Results
Melbourne: Mid-D & Distance Results: World XC Japhet Korir Crushes Everyone In 5,000 And Gets Easy Victory
*Overall Meet Recap: *Rutherford (8.10) Wins Battle Of Long Jump Gold And Silver Medalists
*IAAF: Ryan Gregson's Early Demise In 5,000 A Surprise
*The Australian: Spearmon Wins 200 - Says He May Move Uo To 400 This Year At MJ's Request "Michael Johnson says I can run the 400, my Dad, my family, so I might as well try it," said Spearmon, who won the 200 (20.79 into a 1.3 wind)
but couldn't come back and win the 100, as he was 4th in 10.29.
Friday: Eunice Sum Beats 2008 Olympic Champ Nancy Langat In 1,500 In Kenya Langat is the poster child of competing versus times as she's never broken 4:00.
LRC USC's Bryshon Nellum Runs World-Leading 45.54 At 2013 Florida Relays
US News: 2016 Trials Will Be In Eugene Again
- Good Read: Ashton Eaton On Improving His Throws, Wedding Planning And His Close Call With A Javelin On accomplishing so much so early in his career he said, "It would be fantastic to spend your whole life trying to pursue something and then finally, at the last moment, you achieve it. You know, instead of getting it in the middle of the pursuit and spending the second half giving it meaning."
- Could Farah Have Run 12:37 Last Year? Alberto Salazar: "I would argue that Kenenisa Bekele is probably the greatest distance runner of all time. If had to pick somebody I would pick him." However, Salazar also said that he thought Mo Farah was "capable of challenging" Bekele's 12:37.35 5000 WR.
- Eugene Will Host The Olympic Trials Again In 2016
- Aries Merritt Thinks His 12.80 110 Hurdles WR Will Go Down Soon He says if it weren't for some mistakes, the WR could be 12.7 now.
- Octavious Freeman Named USATF Athlete Of The Week For Her 11.02 100m World Lead USATF also takes a look at the other US world leads set this past weekend including a WR in the rarely run 4x100m Hurdles relay.
- Oregonian Profile On Trail/Ultra Runner Meghan Arbogast Who At 51-Years Old Is Still Getting Better Arbogast won the women's race at the Way Too Cool 50k ilast month.
Non-Boston Marathon News
- Sunday: Goeffrey Kipsang, Sammy Kitwara And Wilson Kwambai Chebet Will Lead The Kenyan Charge At The Rotterdam Marathon
*Previous IAAF Preview Field includes proven stud marathoners in Berhanu Shiferaw (2:04:48 for 2nd in Dubai), Getu Feleke (last year's Rotterdam runner-up in 2:04:50), 2:05:25 man Bazu Worku, Tilahun Regassa (2:05:27 debut in Chicago), Wilson Chebet (2:05:27) and Sammy Kitwara (2:05:54). Also RAK half champ Geoffery Kipsang (58:54) and debutants Atsedu Tsegay (58:47) and John Nzau Mwangangi (59:45). - Will We See Another Kenyan Comeback This Month? 2:04 Kenya’s 2:04 Man Duncan Kibet Running April 28th Duesseldorf Marathon Back in 2009 34-year old Kibet won the Rotterdam Marathon in 2:04:27, but due to injuries hasn't finished another marathon since. He'll face David Barmasai (2:07:18), and 3 other sub-2:08 guys. Ethiopia's Melkam Gizaw (2:26:52) leads women's field.
- After Making Threats Against South Korea And The US, North Korea Will Welcome
Foreigners Into The Country For The Mangyongdae Prize Marathon On April 14th
- The "Mini London Marathon" (2.6 Mile Race For Brits 13 to 17 Years Old) Has Become A Prestigious Event For British Teenagers Many future pros have ran it and Mo Farah won it four times from 1997 to 2002.
Upcoming Track Action
- Starting Today: Australian National Championships/World Champs Trials Start Today And Go Through Sunday Jeff Riseley and Ryan Gregson will go head-to-head in the 1500.
- Next Week: Kansas Relays Announces 7 Olympians For Downtown Shot And LJ Street Competitions On Wednesday And Thursday Next Week Athletes competing include Janay DeLoach, Reese Hoffa, Christen Cantwell and Ryan Whitting.
- May 10th: AllysonFelix Headlines Athletes Announced For Doha Diamond League Meet - She'll Race The 400 And Look To Add To Her 10 For 10 Victories In
Doha There is a deep men's 800 with David Rudisha facing bronze medalist Timothy Kitum and Mohamed Aman.
- June 30th: Mo Farah In The 5000 Highlights List Of 12 Olympians And 6 Olympic Champions Set To Compete At Birmingham On June 30th Others competing include Greg Rutherford, Kim Collins, Carmelita Jeter, 110m Hurdles bronze medallist Hansle Parchment, Mohammed Aman, Dai Greene and many other top Brits.
US Elite/NCAA News
- Jordan Hasay Says She's Going "All-In" With The 10,000 This Year And Wants To Take A Crack At The "A" Standard At Payton Jordan
- Recommended Read: Update On Alan Webb, Who's Still Hungry, Focusing On Longer Distances And Says He's "Not Done Yet" Good news for Webb fans because he has definitely not given up. Good quotes from Jerry Schumacher, Chris Solinsky and the man himself, Webb, who talks about setting PRs at 5k and 10k (currently 13:10 and 27:34) and even mentions sub-2:10 in the marathon.
- Lukas Verzbicas Disappointed With Carlsbad Race, Where He Was Hampered By Lingering Effects From His Spinal Cord Injury He said he wanted to run 15:00 here, but wasn't too upset with the 15:21.
- Lauren Fleshman Writes For RW About Her Childhood - She Was A Tomboy And Was Angry That As She Got Older She Could No Longer Beat The Boys "What did balls have to do with this? All the boys were going to turn into something better than me, and there was nothing I could do about it? I quickly scanned my memory from health class for what puberty had in store for me and was horrified."
- Updated NCAA Rankings: Top 4 On Both Sides Stay The Same As Texas A&M Men And Kansas Women Stay #1
- An Open Letter From The TFAA's Adam Nelson Giving An Update On Their Battle To Get Athlete's More Opportunties To Market Themselves/Sponsors
- IAAF Inside Athletics Episode 8: Ato Boldon Interviews Former Olympic 100m Champ Maurice Greene
London Loses One: 2:19 Marathoner And RAK Half Marathon Champ (66:09) Lucy Kabuu Pulls Out Of London Marathon, Citing Lack Of Fitness
Upcoming Action On The Track And Roads
- Saturday: LaShawn Merritt And Kirani James Will Be Racing At Saturday's Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational Naturally, they'll be in different events - James in the 400 and Merritt in the 200.
- Toughest Ultra Run On Earth? The 220K Sahara Desert Run Starts This Weekend Would you oat $4,500 to spend a week running in the Sahara Desert?
- May 18th: Aries Merritt, Yohan Blake, Kirani James, Yelena Isinbayeva And Trinidad And Keshorn Walcott Lead Fields For Shanghai Diamond League Meet
- Liu Xiang Will Likely Miss All Of The 2013 Track Season As He Recovers From His Achilles Injury This has meet organizers of the Shanghai Diamond League meet worried as they expect to see a drop in ticket sales and sponsor interest.
- June 27th: Olympic PV Champ Renaud Lavillenie And Kirani James Will Compete At Ostrava Golden Spike Meet
You Can Run World Champs In 2015 - Kind Of
Want To Run In The World Championships Marathon? Well, Starting In 2015, You Can According to the IAAF Council Meeting Notes from this weekend, starting at the 2015 Beijing World Championships, "Mass participation races for men and women to be held at the same time of the World Championships marathon races."
Weekend Track Results *Weekend College Track Schedule/Results *2013 Arcadia Invitational Results
- LRC 2013 Arcadia Invitational - 18 Boys Go Sub-9 Colorado signee Ben Saarel of Utah used a 55-second last lap and 4:14 last 1,600 to win in 8:45.74.
*2013 Arcadia Invitational Results
*MB: Ben Saarel Arcadia Champ - 8:45 With 55 Last Lap, 4:14 Second Mile
*MB: Sarah Baxter Wins In 10:08
*MileSplit Weekend HS Coverage
- Oregon Pepsi Team Invy: Oregon Men Upset No. 1 Texas A&M As Texas A&M Women Put A Damper On UO Women's Triple Crown Hopes Jordan Hasay won the 1,500 with a kick, proving the LetsRun.com training principle that strength = speed. After the race, she said, "I'm a sprinter. I feel like a sprinter. I think the strength is only helping my speed." Mac Fleet won the 800 in 1:48.70 in his first race at Hayward since 2010.
- *Many School/Meet Records Go Down At Pepsi Invitational, Including Texas A&M's Henry Lelei's 8:32.94 Steeplechase Washington's Joey Bywater beat Elijah Greer in the 1,500 with 3:52.78 to Greer's 3:53.08.
- Oregon Women Still Hoping For The Triple Crown After Losing To Texas A&M At Pepsi Invitational At Nationals, overall depth across all events won't be much of a factor
since it will be all the best in the nation instead of just 4 teams. *Register-Guard Recap
*Full Results *Oregon Recap *Meet Photos
- Florida Relays: *Results *Octavious Freeman Runs World-Leading 100m In 11.02 (Includes Video) She then came back to win the 200 in 22.85 over three-time World and Olympic gold medalist Natasha Hastings.
- David Oliver Wins In His First Race In 7 Months In The 110H
- IAAF Gives Its US Track Weekend Highlights: Reese Hoffa Breaks His Own World Lead In The Shot With 21.33m At Florida Relays Elsewhere, Bryshon Nellum won the 400m in 45.54, Jason Richardson started his outdoor season with 13.47 in the 110H, Ashton Eaton set a PR in the 400 400m (45.64), then threw 15.02m in the Shot, 45.27m in the discus and ran 13.64 in the 110H. Canadian Christabel Nettey jumped a world lead of 6.75m in the LJ.
- Jeremy Wariner 43.8 (???) 4 X 4 Leg At Florida Relays According to this thread, Tyson Gay led off in 45.3.
- Olympic 400 Bronze Winner Dee Dee Trotter Moving To LJ She foulded all her jumps here.
- Florida Women's 4x4 Break School Record At Florida Relays With 3:27.43
World XC: Medhin Is LetsRun's Athlete Of The Week
- Meet Eritrea's Teklemariam Medhin - LetsRun.com's Athlete Of The Week Teklemariam defied all odds to get bronze at World XC as only a month ago he had malaria and then had to sleep on the floor of an airport for two days just before the race. If a US runner did this we'd rightly never hear the end of it, yet Teklemariam has received almost no publicity for the amazing feat.
Armstrong Feeling The Financial Burn?Lance Armstrong Sells His Austin Estate Where He Has Lived Since 2004
The Wall Street Journal Investigates What You've Been Talking About For Years
Update: Good Read: Ross Tucker From Science Of The Sport Chimes In On The Thyroid Debate And Comments On The WSJ Article "It's the training that causes the condition to begin with. That's not the case for asthma, which is an existing condition,
admittedly worsened
by intense exercise, but not a direct consequence of exercise participation and training.
In effect then, in the case of hypothyroidism, the athlete requires the medication because they behave as an athlete - they train hard. They generate the condition, and the drug permits harder training, and that to me does cross the line of fairness. I see no distinction between this and the use of testosterone or other hormones to ensure that recovery is optimized."
The WSJ Takes A Look at the Endocrinologist to Athletes Who Have Won 15 Gold Medals What do Carl Lewis, Galen Rupp and Ryan Hall all have in common? Thyroid medication.
LRC Analysis Hypothyroidism, The Wall Street Journal, Jos Hermens, Mo Farah, Galen Rupp and the Olympics link fixed
*Discuss: Wall St Journal looks at Houston Doc who treats Rupp, other thyroid users
Ryan Hall, Meb Keflizighi, and Abdi Abdirahman To Compete at Boston Marathon
LRC And Then There Were None: Abdi Abdirhaman Withdraws from 2013 Boston Marathon Boston is Monday but none of the 2012 American Olympians
have made it to the start line - and last year only one made the Olympic finish line.
*MB: Abdi out of Boston: Another American Drops
Other News
- IAAF
Asks If Isabella Ochichi Has Made One Of The Greatest Comebacks Ever As She Placed 3rd At The Prague Half After Being Out For 7 Years With 2 Achilles Surgeries And Having A Baby She'd like to run her debut marathon in May.
*Good RRW Article On Ochichi And Her Prague Comeback Race (includes audio interview) - Nike And adidas To Compete For Sponsorship Of Kenyan Olympic Sports Nike Inc currently has a "kitting contract" with the National Olympic Committee (NOCK) and Athletics Kenya (AK), but that could change as they're meeting with Nike and adidas in NYC later this month.
- Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis, And Greg Rutherford Nominated For UK Bafta Television Awards For Their "Super Saturday" Gold Medals
- Sad News: European Athletics Mourns The Passing Of Former IAAF Treasurer Robert Stinson Of Great Britain
No Hall, No Meb, No Mosop - Who's Left?
LRC Meb Keflezighi Withdraws From 2013 Boston Marathon With Injury
*MB: Meb just dropped out of Boston
Carlsbad Photo Gallery
The Amazing Leo Manzano Story (More In Our Week That Was)
Is Another HS Sub-4:00 On The Horizon?
LRC Andres Arroyo: Florida
Prep Runs 1:47.79 For 800 Meters - Becomes US #7 #6 All-Time The question now is can Arroyo, who ran a solo 4:04 a few weeks ago and now sits right behind Alan Webb on the US HS 800 list, break 4? Amazingly, he was 7th to last at World XC a few weeks ago as well.
In Case You Missed It: April Fools On LRC
Did you not visit on the April 1st? LetsRun.com's 2013 April Fool Page Is Here
MB: *April fools page too obvious *What was your favorite April Fools 2013 headline
*Capital FM April Fools Joke On WMM Cutting Prize Money For Kenyans Fooled Many Causing Outrage On Social Media
2,000+ World Cross-Country Photos Now Up
Learn From The Pros
LRC Ten Training Tips From Bernard Lagat, Dathan Ritzenhein And Abdi Abdirahman The American men took center stage at the NYC Half on Thursday. You can watch video interviews with the top American men (Lagat here, Ritz here and Abdi here) and we will have more on their race preparations on Friday, but in the meantime we compiled ten training tips from Bernard, Dathan, and Abdi that you can use in your own training.