LetsRun.com

Doping News

• Asafa Powell Training At Secret, Private Location With A New Coach
• Russian 2012 Olympic 10,000 Runner Elizaveta Grechishnikova Banned For Doping
• Yet Another Drug Debate: British Medical Journal: Should Athletes Be Allowed To Use Performance-Enhancing Drugs? Memo to morons who say "Yes" - do you want to turn all women into men?
• Former Penn State Sprinter Dominique Blake Appeals 6-Year Ban For Doping
• Even Though She Hasn't Competed In Three Years, Sweden's 60H WRecord Holder Susanna Kallur Hopes To Be In Rio 2016

Bizarre

• Denver Gorilla Run Is Saturday 1,500 runners in gorilla costumes to run.
• Going To Vegas And Want To Run? Hidden Running Treasures In Sin City We recommend going to Vegas immediately after your season ends and not running a step.

Coaching News

• Matt Fitzgerald Tells You How Hard Strength Training For Runners Should Be
• American Distance Coach Scott Simmons To Open 50-Tap Bar In Colorado
  *Discuss On MB: Scott Simmons Opening Taproom in Colorado Springs

Elite Marathon / Ultra News

• Recommended Read: Toni Reavis Looks At Why Ryan Hall And Dathan Ritzenhein Aren't As Good As The Top Kenyans Reavis: "Maybe the best advice would be for Ryan, or any other American, to discover a time machine and dial it back about 30 years when he could have been number one in the world rather than just number one from sea to shining sea."
  *Rojo Answers: G-E-N-E-T-I-C-S
• Good Q&A With Jason Hartmann Ahead Of Next Weekend's NYC Marathon Hartmann says he "can't complain" about his training going in and feels confident in his fitness. Hartmann also talks about still not having a sponsor (despite back-to-back 4th place finishes at Boston) and wanting to be a college coach when his career is over.
• USATF 24 Hour National Championship Are This Weekend In Oklahoma City AR holder and 2012 World Champ Mike Morton leads the field. In case you're curious what the AR is, it's 172.457 miles, which is 8:21 pace (151.759 miles for women).
• Matt Flaherty Named USATF Athlete Of THe Week After Winning US 50 Mile Road Champs
• Major Security Increases This Year For The Standard Chartered Nairobi International Marathon This Weekend

Cycling: Private Investigators Seized Former UCI President Pat McQuaid's Laptop Within Minutes Of Him Losing His Re-Election To UK's Brian Cookson Apparently Cookson's first act as President (literally minutes after winning) was to sign a form ordering McQuaid's laptop and documents be seized before he had a chance to destroy possible evidence against him.

WADA Officials Will Visit Jamaica To Audit Anti-Doping Program Next Week After WADA Head John Fahey Expressed Anger Over JADCO's "Stonewalling" Until Next Year Embarrassingly for Fahey, apparently the plans for WADA's visit next were set before he went public with his criticisms.

NYC And Other Marathon News

• US Olympian Julie Culley Withdraws From NYC Marathon With Injury In What Would Have Been Her Marathon Debut She was also supposed to race NYC last year before it was cancelled. She raced last weekend, placing 3rd at the Army 10-Miler.
• Geoffrey Mutai Confident Of 3-Peat At The NYC Marathon After Seeing Training Partners Wilson Kipsang And Dennis Kimetto Run So Fast In Berlin And Chicago Talking about training in Kenya, he said, "It is all about training harder and harder in these hills and valleys that are in places like here or Iten, staying focused and when you make it, avoiding the kind of lifestyle that will finish your strength. The secret is simple, train, train and train more."
• Interesting: Former Elites Share Their Advice To Ryan Hall During His Almost 2-Year Stretch Of DNS/DNFs At Marathons Past US greats, including Bill Rodgers, Rod DeHaven and Brian Sell, give advice such as get a coach, step down in distance, and get some training partners.
• Twitter Updates From Elites Running NYC Marathon Next Weekend Alisha Williams ran into a bear and cub on an easy run in Colorado Springs and Meb Keflezighi tweeted a pretty graphic photo of his knee after a bad fall.
• New Raleigh Rock 'N' Roll Marathon On Palm Sunday Sparks Debate As Local Pastors Are Concerned People Won't Be Able To Get To Church On Race Morning Just another example of CGI's burden on the community without giving anything back.
• Public Urination An Issue At Beijing Marathon As Race Official Calls Runners' Actions "Uncivilized Behavior" Some, however, blame the issue on poor race organization as there was only 1 porta-john per 100 runners.
• Meanwhile, Other Groups Step Up To Support US Elites: Pittsburgh Race Series Commits To More Prize Money And Travel Assistance To Developing US Elites
• UK Writer Worried That Mo Farah's London Marathon Training Plan Could Be Compromised After Kenyan Sports Minister Implied Foreign Athletes Shouldn't Be Allowed To Train In Kenya

"Unbroken" The Movie With Angelina Jolie And Louis Zamperini Comes Out Christmas 2014

Weekend Action *Watch Speed Gold Champs Live 11am ET Sat. *Watch Chuncheon Marathon Live For Free On LetsRun.com On Sat. Night At 8pm ET *Race Website *Frankfurt Live At 5:30am ET Sunday

• Live 11am ET: MB: World Speed Golf Champs Are Saturday And Sunday And Nick Willis Is One Of The Favorites - Official 2013 World Speed Golf Live Play-By-Play Discussion Thread - Starts At 11am ET $50,000 is at stake. Lagat tees off at 11:28. Willis at 11?
  *NYRR Article On World Speed Golf Champs *Meet Website
  *MB: Bernard Lagat and Nick Willis to play speed golf?
• Coming Sunday (Live Online For Free At 5:30am ET): IAAF Frankfurt Marathon Preview: Dino Sefir And Feyisa Lilesa Hoping To Be First Ethiopian Winner Since 1984
  *LRC Frankfurt Marathon Preview: 5 Sub-2:05:30 Guys And Moses Masai To Race, Meselech Melkamu Will Try To Defend As Gelete Burka Debuts
• Great South Run: Just Over A Month After Running 2:21 In Berlin, Florence Kiplagat Wants 51:00 Course Record On Sunday At Great South Run
  *Defending Champ Stephen Mokoka Hoping To Defend His Great South Run Men's Title
• Ethiopian 1,500 Runner Dawit Wolde Is Running 20k Road Race In France This Weekend He's got a 60:32 13.1 PR and likely can make more money on the roads than as a 3:34 guy.
• Reigning Euro Cross-Country Champ Andrea Lalli Finally To Make His Marathon Debut In Venice On Sunday He's got a 61:11 13.1 PR.
• After Recent Terrorist Attacks, Security Will Be High At Nairobi's Standard Chartered Nairobi International Marathon

HS News

• Van Cortlandt Park Is Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary This Year And Gets NYTimes.com Profile The article says the course needs some work. Hasn't it been basiocally shut down for about 5 years?
• 4:12/9:03 Guy Patrick Perrier Commits To Stanford

International Pro News

• RRW With Broken Bone Healed, Sally Kipyego Ready To Return To Racing And Race For First Time In 2013 Kipyego will face Shalane Flanagan, Molly Huddle, Emily Infeld and others next weekend in the NYRR Dash to the Finish 5-K.
• As We Get Closer To Winter, World's Top Athletes Turn Their Focus To World Indoor Champs In Sopot, Poland This March Among athletes who've confirmed their intention to compete is Mohammed Aman, who will defend his title from 2012.
• TJ World Champ Teddy Tamgho Also Confirms He Will Compete At 2014 World Indoor Champs Tamgho is the WR holder indoors.
• GB Sprint Phenom Adam Gemili Leaves Coach Who Got Him To A Sub-20 200 To Work With Sub-10 Man James Dasaolu And His Coach Gemili hopes that training with Dasaolu will help him improve.
• Canada's 2003 IAAF World Championships 100 Hurdles Gold Medalist Perdita Felicien Has Retired She is the Canadian NR holder and represented them at all 6 World Championships between 2001 and 2011 (as well as the 2000 and 2004 Olympics).
• Australian Athletes Will Be Banned From Drinking Alcohol In The Olympic Village During Rio 2016 And Even On The Flight Home This is in direct response to the controversies the team experienced at London 2012.
• AW Preview Of This Weekend's UK Cross Challenge: £30,000 Total Prize Money On The Line 1:05 half marathoner Dewi Griffiths leads the men's field.
• Japan May Be Forced To Scale Back Ambitious Design For 2020 Olympic Stadium To Save Costs

NCAA Stuff

• Huffington Post Blogger Claims "There is nothing more fashionable these days than attacking the NCAA." Are people too harsh on the NCAA?
• Bucknell University No. 1 In Nation In Student-Athlete Graduation Rate

Assorted US News

• Q&A: Alberto Salazar On Shannon Rowbury Joining The Oregon Project Salazar points out that Rowbury's PRs are 2:00.47 for 800m, 4:00.33 for 1,500m, and 15:00.51 for 5,000m and says, "The Oregon Project isn't necessarily time goal oriented, but these seem like some obvious barriers that she can break so she can sleep better at night."
• Nick Symmonds Will Be Happy: Texas Universities Consider Allowing Alcohol At Sporting Events
• Colorado Men, Arizona Women Take Control Of Division I National Coaches Polls
• Massachusetts Bill That Will Call For The Formation Of A Commission To Examine The Possibility Of Boston Hosting The 2024 Olympics Almost Passed
• LA Times Q&A With Sanya Richards-Ross Where She Talks A Bit About Her Reality TV Show
• Track Doing Well With Overall NCAA Participation Rates
• Ashton Eaton Visits Elementary School Kids In Boise To Promote USATF Foundation's Run With US! Interactive Game The game brings physical activity into classrooms by showing students skills and techniques that can be completed while standing next to a desk.
• Burke & Herbert Bank Named Official Bank Sponsor Of The .US National Road Racing Championships

International Stuff

• Athletics Weekly Talks To UK Cross-Country / Mountain Runner Steve Vernon On His Training And Racing Interestingly, Vernon moved to XC/Mountain running because of a long-term injury problem that caused his legs to cramp up when he ran at a sustained pace on even surfaces.
• SP World/Olympic Champ Valerie Adams Says She's Making Good Progress After Her Recent Knee And Ankle Surgeries
• Top UK PVer Steve Lewis Has Lost His UKA Funding
• Video Clips Created To Teach UK Coaches Sign Language To Make Track More Accessible For Deaf Participants

HS News

• Might American-Born Cerake Geberkidane Be The US's Next Great Distance Runner? The fact that his father is Ethiopian and mother is Eritrean is ideal, as is the fact that he's been raised at altitude in CO.
• Best State Per Capita In HS XC: Utah Has 7 Of Top 30 Ranked Boys Teams
• World Triathlon Champ Tamara Gorman Is Ready For South Dakota State XC Meet She's looking for a college XC/track team that will let her still focus on the triathlon while running.