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New York Is Sunday *Men's Preview *Women's Preview *TV Info (Live Nationally For 1st Time In 20 Years)

Day 1 Media Day:
LRC Discount Firehiwot Dado And Buzunesh Deba At Your Own Peril; The Two Ethiopians Say They've Been Training Better Than Ever LRC totally discounted Firehiwot Dado and Buzunesh Deba two years ago at the ING NYC Marathon. (Full disclosure: We even thought Dado's name was Dado Firehiwot). We're not going to do it this year. The two Ethiopians are primed and ready for NYC 2013.
*RRW: Close Friends Dado, Deba Happy to Be Back in New York City The 1 and 2 from 2011 are back in NYC again.

LRC Former Hobby Jogger, Now Pro, Yolanda Caballero's Still Inspired By Her Husband 21 Months After His Death; Words Of Wisdom From Super Master Chema Martinez Yolanda Caballero was a hobby jogger and then her now-deceased husband made her world class. At 42, Spain's Jose Manual "Chema" Martinez wants to be a factor in NYC.

More From Wednesday: After World Championships Silver, Valerie Straneo Ready For More In NYC The 37-year-old Straneo made a name for herself with her silver medal at the recent World Champs.
*2013 ING NYC Marathon Honors Boston Marathon With Yellow Line To Finish

LRC 2013 New York City Marathon Women's Preview: Who Wins $600,000 In Epic Clash Between Edna Kiplagat And Priscah Jeptoo? A lot more than glory will be on the line on Sunday in New York when the top two women marathoners in the world clash, as the $500,000 WMM title will be decided as well. We tell you who the favorite is and break down the Americans and pseudo-Americans.

Yesterday: LRC Men's Preview: Can Course Record Holder Geoffrey Mutai Hold Off Olympic Champ Stephen Kiprotich And London Champ Tsegaye Kebede?

Other Road / Track News

• SA's Stephen Mokoka Hoping To Break The Trend Of East African Dominance At The World Half-Marathon Champs In Copenhagen in March Good IAAF profile on Mokoka who talks about his struggle to find and event he was good at as he first tried (and failed) at the 1500, 5000 and steeplechase.
• Next Weekend: Raymond Bett Returns To Athens Classic Marathon With Course Record As Target Bett returns to defend his title from 2012 and hopes to break the 2:10:55 CR held by Italy's 2004 Olympic marathon champ Stefano Baldini. Bett faces 2:06 runner Mariko Kipchumba and 2:08 runner  Bellor Yator. The women's field is led by 2:28 Ethiopian Gishu Mindaye Tilahun
• US Army Captain Kelly Calway Named USATF Athlete Of The Week For Winning The Marine Corps Marathon In 2:42
• Jessica Ennis Hoping To Regain Her World Indoor Pentathlon Title Which She Won Back In 2010 She’s in luck as the woman who beat her in 2012, Natalia Dobrynska, just retired.
• ESPN's John Anderson Will Host Bowerman Trophy Award Ceremony In December

More NYC

• NYC Conspiracy? Husband Of 1989 NYC Champ Ingrid Kristiansen Accuses Organizers Of Not Inviting Her To Ensure Grete Waitz's Continued Success Waitz, who died in 2011, captured a record nine marathon titles, from 1978 through 1988, until Kristiansen's win in 1989. NYC organizers deny that there was ever any kind of plot.
• Interesting: Former All-American And Hansons Runner Jeff Gaudette Shares Some "Lessons Learned From Ryan Hall's NYC Marathon Withdrawal" Gaudette talks about the mistakes he feels Hall has made in training that has gotten him injured and how you can apply the lessons to your own training.
• Italy's World Championships Silver Medalist Valeria Straneo Hasn't Let Her Newfound Fame Distract Her As She Shoots For A Podium Finish At NYC She says she's actually received a ton of publicity in Italy since winning the silver in Moscow and has actually had to start turning things down because it would interfere with her training. She says if she finished top 3 at NYC, "Oh my gosh, it would be on par with finishing on the podium at the Olympics or the World Championships. The start list is as strong as a big championship."
• NYRR Dash To The Finish Line Is Saturday: Emily Infeld Racing NYRR Dash To The Finish Line 5k, Coming Off A Good Fall On The Roads Her father is running the marathon on Sunday.

Non-NYC Action

• XC Season Starts Saturday In Kenya: Nairobi Will Host First Meet In 2013 KCB/AK XC Series
• Team Daihatsu Sets West Japan Corporate Women's Ekiden Course Record
• Ritsumeikan University Takes Eighth National University Women's Ekiden Title

Previous NYC

• 2013 New York City Marathon To Be Broadcast Live On National TV For First Time In 20 Years
• Recommended Read: NY Times Feature On NY's West Side Runners: Marathon As Melting Pot - Striving Immigrants Find Long Distance Running Far From Lonely In NYC Feeling proud of yourself for doubling? Did you do your first run at 4:30am before working all day as a plumber?
  *MB: Great New York Times article on New York's West Side Runners - The Ultimate Blue Collar Runners
• Cloud259 NYC Marathon Podcast Preview: Pro Athlete Manager Sam Grotewold Talks About Elites Riding In The Lead Car This year, Kim Conley, Neely Spence and Sam Chelanga will be in the lead vehicle, but Grotewold also talks about when Bernard Lagat rode in it back in 2008 (discussion begins at the 18:55 into podcast).
• NYC Marathon Charity Entrants Down By 3,000 Race attributes the drop to lingering effect of Superstorm Sandy.
• AP: NYC Marathon Goes On After Last Year's Cancellation And Boston Marathon Attacks

International News

• RIP Australian Distance Legend Albert "Albie" Thomas Thomas dedicated his life to running as he set multiple WRs and competed at 3 Olympic Games and then became a coach and won World Masters titles after he "retired." He had a big breakthrough in 1954 when he unexpectedly made the Olympic team after he had already purchased tickets a year before for him and his girlfriend to go watch.
• IAAF Q&A With World High Jump Champion Bohdan Bondarenko On What He Does In Training And Outside Life He says one of his favorite training sessions is actually to just play volleyball. Makes sense for a high jumper.
• 2008 Olympic Heptathlon Champion Natallia Dobrynska Announces Her Retirement "It's always difficult for athletes to retire. You always think that you could do more."

Vladimir Putin Assures IOC That Gay And Lesbian Athletes Will Be Welcome At Sochi 2014

Other Weekend Results

• Kenyans Nixon Kipkoech Machichim And Mercy Jerotich Kibarus Win Venice Marathon Machichim won in a sprint finish, beating Raymond Kandie by 1 second in 2:13:10. Italy's Euro XC champ Andrea Lalli made his marathon debut in 2:14:16. Kibarus won the women's race easily in 2:31:14.
• Ethiopia's Mule Wasihum And Kenya's Josephine Chepkoech Win Tactical Races At Marseillle-Cassis 20K Wasihum won in 1:00:09, outkicking Cyprian Kotut (1:01:11) as the top 4 finished within 13 seconds of each other. Chepkoech won in 1:10:03, beating out Cynthia Jerotich (1:10:05).
• Caroline Chepkwony Wins Ljubljana Marathon In 2:27:27 Mulugeta Wami won the men's race in 2:10:26, beating Deribe Robi by four seconds.
• Lolo Jones Makes US Bobsled Team For World Cup This brings her one step closer to making the US team for the 2014 Winter Games. US gold medalist sprinter Lauryn Williams also made the World Cup team.
• German Fernandez 3rd In Portland XC Race Alan Webb's wife Julia (2nd) and Kara Goucher (4th) were in the women's race.
  *MB: German Fernandez 3rd in random club XC race
• Dyestatcal Weekend HS Coverage: Sarah Baxter Dominates At Mt. SAC With A 16:11
  *MB: Austin Tamango sophomore 1434 at Mt SAC
• Jason Hartmann-Coached Elise Cranny Wins Colorado State Meet By 40 Seconds
• Kenya's William Chebor Wins Jakarta Marathon In 2:14:30

Random

• The Only Sub-2 Hour Marathon You'll Live To See: 50,000 Children From 60 Countries Around The World Participate In Save The Children World Marathon Relay Challenge Students at schools try to challenge the marathon WRs by Wilson Kipsang and Paula Radcliffe, running the distance in 200m relay segments. The fastest 13-and-younger team ran 1:51:39 and there was an adult/open section where a club team ran 1:42:22.
• Serbia's Surprise World Champs LJ Bronze Medalist Ivana Spanovic Hoping To Repeat Success At 2014 World Indoor Champs She set a NR in Moscow with 6.82m to get the bronze and his hoping for more of the same in 2014.
• New Zealand 63-Year-Old Grandmother Will Complete Her 100th Marathon Next Weekend In Auckland Apparently she'll be the 38th New Zealander to join the 100 marathon club. "I'm not a real runner," insists Charlotte Nasey.
• Interview With UK Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson She was 5th at Moscow World Champs.

More NYC

• RW Asks "Who's the Better Marathoner, Ryan Hall or Meb Keflezighi?" Past US greats Gregy Meyer, Don Kardong and Amby Burfoot share their thoughts. Obviously Hall has ran faster, but Meb has had more big race success with an Olympic silver and winning NYC in 2009. Looking at NYC this year, Meb's coach Bob Larsen says, “There’s no way he should be ready, but he’s done so much cross training when he couldn’t run at all that he’s going to give it a shot."
  
• World And Olympic Champ Stephen Kiprotich Confident Ahead Of NYC Marathon “They are experienced but the days for experience are long gone. It now revolves on how much hard work you put in training. I can ably say that I am ready to take them on.”
• Delilah DiCrescenzo Feels Right at Home Entering NYC Marathon The steepler and Columbia University alum will run on familiar ground when she makes her debut at NYC. She's hoping to run 2:37 (6 minute pace).

Doping News: Another Argument For Lifetime Bans

• +1 For Lifetime Bans: New Research Suggests Athletes Who Use Steroids For A Short Period Can Benefit Even 10-Years Later Researchers tested on mice and found they had huge strength gains long after stopping the steroid treatment. University of Oslo professor Kristian Gundersen said, "In science if you cheat, you are out for life, and my personal view is that it should be similar for athletes."
• Kenyan Doping Issue Coming Under Scrutiny And Could Be Investigated Or Ruled Non-Compliant By WADA It’s been over a year and the special committee set up by Kenya’s sports bodies to look into Kenyan doping hasn’t even met once. Meanwhile WADA has set a deadline of November for a report on their progress. Article also mentions that plans to build a blood testing lab in Eldoret have been scrapped.
• Kenyan Commissioner For Sports Says They Are Taking Doping Allegations Very Seriously He claimed an inquiry into the country’s doping scandals was only awaiting legal authority by the government before starting. Apparently it takes over a year for the government to approve something in Kenya.
• The Guardian Lists The 17 Kenyan Distance Runners Currently Serving Drug Suspensions Highlighting the list is Matthew Kisorio who infamously said he doped, “because everyone told me, I wasn’t the only one – and none of the others got caught for doping.”

Weekly Recap

LRC Week That Was 10/29/13 - Walking On At Wisconsin, Marathon Abstinence, And Wilson Kipsang's World Record Is Broken? (link fixed) This week, we give out free coaching advice to Alberto Salazar and Shannon Rowbury, introduce you to a true hero for walk-ons at Wisconsin, and talk about marathon abstinence and teetotalers at Rio 2016. Plus running in the Serengeti, bad running journalism and Wilson Kipsang's world record is broken?

Previous NYC

Today 8pm Eastern (And On Demand): Episode #1 2013 NYRR On The Run ING NYC Marathon Show LRC's Rojo is a guest today along with Coach Gags and Delilah DiCrescenzo. Plus Mary Wittenberg, Buzenesh Deba, and 93-year-old Jon Mendes. Rojo has promised not to embarrass LRC.

LRC Rojo Speaks: It's Time To Get Excited About Sunday's Live ESPN2 Broadcast Of The Race Broadcasters John Anderson and Hannah Storm held a teleconference today on Sunday's race and they were dropping Geoffrey Mutai's name and saying Stanley Biwott is the "X" factor. Rojo was impressed.

US News: 2014 Outdoor Champs Will Be In Sacramento

• 2014 Outdoor US Champs Will Officially Be In Sacramento Sacramento previously hosted the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials.
• Lauren Fleshman Will Return To Racing On December 14th At US Club XC Championships In Bend, Oregon This will be her first race since her pregnancy.
• Banned Athlete At USATF Elite Meeting? Jamie Cheever Blogs About Her Experience At The USATF Elite Athlete Summit; Says USATF Brought Someone Who Is Currently Banned
  *MB: Jamie Cheever Says USATF Invited A Doper To Elite Athlete Summit? Who Was It?
• Run Fan Radio Interview With Toni Reavis Reavis talks a lot about Sunday NYC Marathon, the state of the sport, how he became a broadcaster and more.
• DyeStat: Is St. Benedict HS Sophomore Edwin Rutto The Next Edward Cheserek? Chelule Ngetich, who coaches Rutto and coached Cheserek, said he thinks Rutto will become "a force" in HS distance running, but probably not as good as Cheserek.

Random (And Some Interesting)

• How Many Sub-4 Minute Milers Have There Been Worldwide In History? Track and Field News alphabetical list names 1,303.
• WSJ: How Men And Women Run Marathons Differently Recent study hypothesizes that women try their hardest while men focus on finishing under a certain time (such as 4 hours) rather than running their all-out best. Women are also more likely to negative split.
• Haile Gebrselassie Puts His Support Behind New Event, The European Schools Cross-Country Open Schools from around Europe will send teams to compete at the championship meet in February.
• BBC: Prejudice & patriotism: When is a Briton not a Briton? Opinion piece on the hot-button issue in the UK about "plastic brits" and having immigrants represent the country at international competitions.
• RIP: Comrades Marathon Historian Morris Alexander Has Died At Age 94
• Take A Survey On Health Screening And Its Importance To Athletes

More From Monday / The Weekend

• Speed Golf: RunnerSpace Video Coverage Of Speed Golf World Championships With Nick Wilis And Bernard Lagat Includes videos and interview with Willis and Lagat from both days.
  *Video Of Willis' Full 18-Hole Round On Day 1
• Dublin Marathon: Seán Hehir (2:18:19) And Maria McCambridge (2:38:51) Win Dublin Marathon, Becoming First Joint Irish Winners Since 1993 Hehir was actually the first Irish man to win since 1993.
  *Independent Article
  *Winners' Prize Money Includes New Car
  *Runner Breaks "WR" For "Fastest Marathon Dressed As A Zombie" He ran 3:18.
  *Wheelchair Racers Go 28 Miles After Taking Wrong Turn
• Marine Corps: Group Of 4 Men Finish Their 38th Straight Marine Corps Marathon The 4 have ran every edition of the marathon since it started. The fastest, a 74-year-old, ran 5:52.57.
• AW Recap Of Bristol Cross-Country Challenge

Top Weekend Action *Frankfurt Results

• World Speed Golf: Day 2: LRC Nick Willis Finishes 13th At 2013 World Speed Golf Championships, Bernard Lagat Is DFL
  *Oregonian Recap With Video And Photos Of Lagat
• Frankfurt: Vincent Kipruto (2:06:15) And Caroline Kilel (2:22:34) Win Windy Frankfurt Marathon Mark Kiptoo was a very close second in 2:06:16 as Flomena Chepchirchir (2:23:00) and Birhane Dibaba 2:23:01 were 2nd and 3rd for the women. Elite race coordinator Christoph Kopp said that he thought the race was 1:30 slower than it should have been on the men's side due to the conditions and "terrible" pacemakers.
  *Kiptoo's 2:06:16 Makes It On Top 20 All-Time Fastest Marathon Debut List
  *Results
• Sara Hall Wins Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon In 1:14:33 In Her Half Debut
• Marine Corps Marathon: Girma Bedada Wins Marine Corps Marathon By Over A Minute In 2:21:32 As Patrick Fernandez Was 2nd (2:22:52) US Army captain Kelly Calway won the women's race in 2:42:16 in what is one of the last things she'll do before deploying to Kuwait next week.
• Berlin Marathon Champ Florence Kiplagat Battles Strong Winds And Dominates Great South Run 10 Miler Winning By Almost 2 Minutes In 53:53 2012 10K World leader Emmanuel Bett won the men's race in 48:03 as SA's Stephen Mokoka was 48:22 and Uganda's Thomas Ayeko (who won the Great Birmingham Half last weekend) was back in 3rd (49:08).
• Kenneth Mung'ara (2:11:40) And Winfridah Kwamboka (2:33:18) Get The Wins At The Standard Chartered Nairobi International Marathon The women's race had some drama as another woman, Selina Ariong'onyang, initially crossed the line first but was later found to have cut the course. Ugandan Solomon Mutai won the accompanying half marathon in 1:02:55 as Corret Jepkoech won the women's in 1:11:52.
• World Speed Golf: Day 1: LRC Nick Willis In Sixth, Bernard Lagat In Last After Day 1 Of World Speed Golf Championships Bernard Lagat may be fast, but he's not a very good golfer as he put up a 118 in round 1. Nick Willis shot 86 in 44 minutes of play - but they weren't even the fastest runners in the field.
  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 *Meet Website
  *MB: Bernard Lagat and Nick Willis to play speed golf?

International News

• Sochi 2014 Olympic Flame Continues Torch Relay After Being Lit At North Pole For First Time
• Saint Petersburg, Russia Likely To Bid To Host 2024 Olympics
• Hurdler Eilidh Child Voted Scottish Athlete Of The Year

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