Quote Of The Day
– Excerpt from a statement by the IAAF organization’s executive board calling for efficient out-of-competition testing in Kenya and Russia.
*MB: Ok, so Kenya doesn’t have great out of competition testing but do any developing countries – what about Ethiopia?
- Airbus to make jet for super rich that can go from LA to London in 3 hours - twice speed of Concorde (pic)
- Title IX at its finest - Texas A&M signs 4:12 boy/5:12 girl
- Will Ryan Hall Make the 2016 Olympic Marathon Team?
- If I grew up pampered in suburbs, is there a way I can gain the toughness of blue collar runners raised on farms?
- Why aren't more U.S. 10k guys running the marathon trials
- LRCers: We Need Your Shoe Reviews, The Quest for 1,000 More Reviews Starts Now
LRCDrew Hunter Dominates With Most Impressive Win Since Chris Solinsky, And Weini Kelati Holds On For Virginia Sweep Of Titles
Hunter led by 17 seconds at two miles and won by 12 as he ran 14:55.7, the fastest time since Edward Cheserek in 2011. Kelati, who like Hunter is from Loudoun County, Va., held off a hard-charging Maryjeanne Gilbert to earn a wire-to-wire victory in 17:09.7.
News From The UK
- Greg Rutherford Beats Mo Farah In Online Vote For British AOY honors For international honors, the winners were Bolt and Jessica Ennis-Hill.
*MB: Racist? Greg Rutherford stomps Mo Farah in online vote for British Athlete of the Year - Heavyweight Boxing Champ Says Jessica Ennis-Hill “… looks quite fit when she’s got a dress on.” – Hill Unfazed By It He’s said a lot worse, including, “There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home: one of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other one’s paedophilia.”
IAAF/IOC News
- IOC Calls For Efficient Out-Of-Competition Tests For Russia And Kenya The IAAF admits it doesn’t exist right now.
- IAAF Sets Out Strict Conditions For Russian Doping Reforms “The Russian athletics federation must cut ties with all past dopers, resolve outstanding disciplinary cases and investigate potential further cases before it can be reinstated, the IAAF has said.”
*IAAF Delegation To Visit Russia In January
*IAAF Gives Russia “Roadmap” For Return To The Fold - Kuwaiti IOC Member Given Six-Month Jail Sentence For Insulting The Judiciary It likely has something to do with the fact that the “Kuwait Olympic Committee (KOC) was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to protect the country from ‘undue Government interference’ in October, following the passing of a deadline to amend a controversial new law allowing far greater control over all sports bodies.”
US Distance Stuff
RunnerSpace Projects, Based On Returners, Oregon Men And Colorado Women Are Favorites To Win NCAA XC Champs In 2016- Liz Costello Blogs About Using Practice For More Than Just Training Costello learns a lot of good insights for race day from appropriate warmups to mental preparation in leading and drafting.
- Camille Herron USATF Athlete Of The Week For 3rd Time In 2015 After She Wins IAU 50K World Champs
Looking Ahead To Indoors
Robby Andrews, Chris O’Hare, Shannon Rowbury Announced For Millrose Games’ Wanamaker Mile Other athletes announced for Millrose include Molly Huddle, Jordan Hasay, Eric Jenkins, Ajee Wilson, Ashton Eaton and Andre DeGrasse.- UK LJer Greg Rutherford Will Open His Indoor Season At Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix In February
NCAA Stuff
- Top NCAA Athletes Share Their Tips For Balancing Training Along With Stressful Academic Loads Michigan’s Erin Finn keeps all social media tabs closed when working. If she needs a 5-minute break, she takes a walk.
- Bowerman Award To Be Given On December 17th
NCAA Distance News
Good Read:Aggressive Attitude Helped Molly Seidel Win NCAAs Seidel and her coach talk about her transformation from injured freshman (who appeared to be yet another victim of “the Foot Locker curse”) to two-time NCAA champion.- Coach Dan Ireland Trying To Find More Of A Balance Between XC And Track Success At Columbia Ireland: “[The previous coach was like] ‘OK, we can win the conference in cross. … I’m going to bring in 15 cross runners, I don’t care if we have any track kids.'”
- MB:3 collegians broke 13:55, 5 broke 15:50 for 5000 at Boston University Season Opener over the weekend
Ashton Eaton May Retire After Rio
Ashton Eaton Confirms That He’ll Defend His World Indoor Heptathlon Title In Portland, The City Where He Was Born More surprising news was that the almost 28-year-old said he may retire after Rio 2016, and if not then London 2017.- Recommended Read:Ashton Eaton Writes An Event-By-Event Recap Of What Was Going Through His Mind When He Broke His WR To Win Gold In Beijing Eaton credits his amazing 45.00-second 400 in the decathlon to running the 400H in 2014 and to watching and taking advice from other elites.
From Tragedy To Triumph
LRC Feature The Miracle In The Black Hills: A Coach, A Fallen Teammate And A Season For The Ages In July, Black Hills State’s Gage McSpadden was struck by lightning and tragically killed at the age of 21. The team’s dream of a first-ever NCAA appearance, one that McSpadden had guaranteed, appeared to be shot. No one will ever forget how they responded.
NCAA Photos Galore *D1 Men’s Race (514 Photos) *D1 Women’s Race (486 Photos) *D1 Banquet*D1 Post-Race*DIII Men (257 Photos) *DIII Women (185 Photos)
Club Nats Are Saturday As Well *Entries, Schedule, Streaming, Results
Race Preview:Alan Webb, Nick Symmonds, Gabe Grunewald, Katie Mackey, Laura Thweatt Are All Racing 2015 USATF Club Cross-Country Championships
*MB: Public Service Announcement for Everyone Going to Club XC Nationals: Don’t Miss the After Party Presented by Strava
SPAR European XC Champs Are Sunday *Schedule & Free Streaming Info *Entries
Galen Rupp Told Larry Eder Last Weekend He Had Not Really Spoken To Alberto About Next Season Yet
Kudos To USATF For Acting Quickly
Previous73 Americans Pick Up Olympic Standards As IAAF Eases Standards In 17 Events; Should USATF Change The Marathon Trials Standard Accordingly?
Leo Manzano now has the standard but the bigger news is 25 US marathoners now have the Olympic standard but won’t even be at the Trials as the US standard is more stringent. Should USATF let them in?
*MB:25 Americans now have the Olympic standard in marathon but won’t be at the Trials. Should USATF let them in?
Good (Although Depressing) Read:Toni Reavis Gives A State Of The Sport Summary To End 2015 Reavis says, “… we find a sport existing, barely, on life-support, reeling from the toxic shock of massive corruption” and drug scandals. He calls on athletes to take ownership and unite into a “player’s union.”
Seb Coe, Doping, Eugene 2021
Seb Coe Insists Eugene 2021 Vote Was Fair And Honest Here he defends the process, however, previously he was reported admitting that the bid process “wasn’t correct.”- Sweden’s Bjorn Erikkson Claims Lack Of Bid Process Was “Bad Ethics At Least” And “In The Worst Of Cases Maybe Also Criminal”
- Seb Coe Says He Will Double IAAF Anti-Doping Budget Also said, “countries that are serial offenders will be sanctioned, athletes will be penalised financially.”
- Independent:What Seb Coe Said And What He Didn’t Say … Does His Defence Add Up? An analysis of some of Coe’s recent statements on doping, scandal and corruption.
- IOC Wants A New Independent Global Anti Doping Body By 2018 Winter Games WADA director general David Howman explains why putting that place in such a short amount of time would be very difficult and cost a lot of money.
- IOC To Start Audits For Sports Body Over Olympic Money They want to make sure the billions of dollars of cash given for the development of sport is being used appropriately.
- Seb Coe Says The IAAF Scandal Isn’t Bigger Than Fifa’s … not that it’s anything to be proud of.
*IOC President Thomas Bach Says IAAF And FIFA Scandals Not The Same
More This Weekend
Dallas Marathon Announces Elite Duo Relay Pairings Many of the elites will “tempo” rather than race, but if everyone ran all-out, our money would be on Sam Chelanga and Molly Huddle.- RRW:Canada’s Nicole Sifuentes Gets Marathon Experience In Honolulu As A Pacer
- RRW:Olympian Zhang Yingying Helps Foster Bond Between Honolulu Marathon & China The 2:22 woman hopes to be the first Chinese runner to win the race.
- Preview Of Sunday’s Euro Championships Under-23 Race
Might Galen Rupp Run The Marathon Trials?
LRC Galen Rupp Is Running A Half Marathon This Sunday; Will He Do The Olympic Marathon Trials? Is Galen Rupp serious about doing the Olympic Marathon Trials this time? Does he possibly have a better shot at Olympic gold in the marathon than in 10,000?
*MB: Galen Rupp Running Half Marathon in Portland This Weekend; Will He Run Marathon Trials?
Eugene 2021 / Portland 2016 News
- French Authorities Investigating IAAF’s Eugene 2021 World Championships Decision No official bid process, Lamine Diack bribes and Seb Coe‘s Nike connection make them suspicious.
Vin Lananna Stands By Eugene 2021 Bid “We are 100 percent confident that there was nothing outside of what are the norms for an IAAF bid.”- Register-Guard: TrackTown USA Celebrates 100 Days Until World Indoors Amid Latest Inquiry Into How Eugene Earned 2021 Worlds
- A Look Back At USA’s “Rich History Of Hosting IAAF Championships” Apparently the US is one of only five countries to have hosted IAAF championships across all four main surfaces – outdoor, indoor, road and XC.
- Jenn Suhr Reportedly Not Competing At US Or World Indoor Champs This Year
Doping-Related Stuff
Good On Them:Zurich Diamond League Meet Launching “Fair Play” Program To Help Support The Anti-Doping Movement They will honor Russian whistleblowers Yulia Stepanova and Vitaly Stepanov as “Fair Play Ambassadors” and have a week of anti-doping discussions and events.- Yelena Isinbayeva Will Be Allowed To Stand For IOC Athletes’ Commission At Rio 2016 Even If Russia Is Still Banned She is one of 24 candidates standing for four places who will be voted on by the athletes in Rio.
- Video Interview With Betsy Andreu: “Doping Problems In Track Even Worse Than They Were In Cycling”
- Seven Countries Interested In Hosting 2016 IAAF Events That Were Taken Away From Russia Winners will be announced January 7th.
- Runners Encouraged To Wear “I Run Clean” Message On Bibs At Euro XC Champs The athletes will have the choice between the “I Run Clean” bib and a neutral one.
IOC News
- IOC Vice President Admits That Brazil Economic Crisis Will Inevitably Affect Olympic Games Brazil is dealing with a major recession, impeachment proceedings against their president and a massive corruption scandal.
- Mexico Appears To Be Safe After IOC Warned They Could Be Suspended The IOC doesn’t want governments controlling national Olympic committees, but in this instance some involvement was necessary to fight corruption.
- Hamburg Withdrawal From 2024 Olympic Bid Race No Major Concern For IOC The IOC say the withdrawal was for “external reasons,” but critics think it’s another sign that the Games cost too much to host.
Doping News
- German Journalist Hajo Seppelt Thinks Seb Coe Should Apologize Or “He’s Not The Right Man To Lead The IAAF” “He’s not able to say sorry that I made a mistake. He speaks and acts like he’s untouchable but he’s not.”
- An Internal Audit Clears Lausanne Anti-Doping Lab Of Fault In Destroying Samples After Dick Pound Alleged They Broke WADA Rules In other news, Oscar Pistorius has cleared himself of murder.
Yelena Isinbayeva Calls IAAF’s Blanket Ban On Russian Athletes “Unjust, Groundless And Dishonest” She might want to be careful that her words don’t come back to bite her as she’s said she wants to get involved with the governing of sport with the IAAF or IOC after retiring.- Good Read: Irish Times: “Public Proves Ineffectual Army In Doping Fight” Writer laments that there wasn’t more of a reaction when all-time great Sonia O’Sullivan revealed she had lost her emotional attachment to the sport in her later career due to doping.
- Veronica Campbell-Brown Says She Doesn’t Trust The Anti-Doping System In 2013 she was provisionally banned, but cleared by CAS, which reported proper testing procedures weren’t carried out by the JADCO.
- Thomas Bach Says The Worst “Side Effect” Of Doping Is That Clean Athletes Have “The Finger Of Suspicion Pointing At Them”
Sprint Stuff
- Yet-To-Be-Built Bridge In Her Hometown Will Be Named After Dafne Schippers Schippers was chosen in a public vote out of 10 options.
- Final Nominees For Kenyan Athlete Of The Year Announced The list of 12 men and women isn’t all distance runners as it includes world champions Julius Yego (javelin) and Nicholas Bett (400H).
- Usain Bolt And Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Lead List Of Candidates For Jamaican AOY
Olympic News
- Los Angeles 2024 Chairman Hails 81% Local Support For Olympics As “Certainly Compelling” LA is definitely winning in the local support category among bidding cities.
- Tokyo 2020 Logo Competition Attracts Near 15,000 Entries
- Opinion Piece: “Why We Should Really Be Concerned About The Visual Identity For The Tokyo Olympics”
Did You Not Get All Your Gifts On Black Friday And Cyber Monday? We Have A Solution For You
LRC Book Review"Two Hours" By Ed Caesar - A Wonderful Book Worthy Of 5 Stars And One We Consider "The Definitive Book On The Modern Elite Marathon"
Looking for a great Christmas present? We have a suggestion. Ed Caesar's new book Two Hours covers everything you would want to know about the marathon, from its roots in ancient Greek lore all the way up to the establishment of big-money major-city marathons in the late 20th century. It includes incredible behind-the-scenes access of Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 when he destroyed the course records in both Boston and New York. 5 out 5 stars.
LRC Cyber Week Special:2 LetsRun.com Shirts For The Price Of One
Banquet Photos (Click For Gallery)
Russia / Kenya Doping Updates
Head Of Russian Anti-Doping Agency Ramil Khabriev Resigns How had this not happened already?- WADA Commission Started Its Work In Moscow Yesterday To Help Russia Clean Up Its Act
- WADA Team Headed To Kenya Next Week To Inspect Implementation Of Anti-Doping Policies The IAAF Ethics Commission has also appointed lawyers to investigate corruption allegations within AK.
- IOC Wants To Bring Efficient Out-Of-Competition Drug Testing To Kenya And Russia It’s been known for a long time that there there was a major lack of testing in Kenya; we’re glad the IOC is finally taking notice.
- UK Anti-Doping Will Help WADA Carry Out Reforms In Russia
Kenya AOY
Nicholas Bett Wins Most Outstanding Kenyan Performance Of The Year For His 400H Gold- World Champions Julius Yego (Javelin) And Vivian Cheruiyot (10,000) Are Kenyan Athletes Of The Year Yego is the first field athlete ever to win the award.
This Weekend: Dallas & Honolulu Marathons, Euro XC
Brief Q&A With Deena Kastor, Desiree Linden, Luke Puskedra And Becky Wade Ahead Of Dallas Marathon Elite Relay Race- RRW:Defending Champion Joyce Chepkirui Back Home at Honolulu Marathon She’s very confident as she’s coming off a win and huge PR at the Amsterdam Marathon in October, where she ran 2:24:11.
- RRW:Age Group World Record Holder Betty Jean McHugh Leads Three Generations at Honolulu Marathon
- Euro XC Champs Junior Preview
- Jan. 30th: Matthew Centrowitz, Bernard Lagat & Brianna Rollins Added To Next Month’s Camel City Elite Indoor Meet They add to previously announced Nick Symmonds, Leo Manzano and Shannon Rowbury.
Our Weekly Recap
LRCWTW: Kara Goucher Improves, A Pro Runs A 2+ Minute 10,000 PR, Odell Beckham Jr.'s Mom Was A Mega Track Star, And Might The Recent Scandals Be Good For Track And Field?
We break down the week in running by introducing you to Odell Beckham's mom and the most-improved pro in the US and tell Kara Goucher fans to be encouraged but keep things in perspective.
Upcoming: Sam Chelanga Added To Field For Dallas Marathon Relay To Replace Injured Dathan Ritzenhein The elite relay race will have a man and woman each run 13.1. Others racing include Molly Huddle, Desi Linden, Luke Puskedra, Becky Wade, Jared Ward, Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor.
GPS Owners Beware: Why Your GPS Watch Is Probably Overestimating Your Mileage A new study explains why your GPS watch might think you ran farther than you did.
USATF Annual Meeting In The Books
- USATF Closes 2015 Annual Meeting In Houston With Some Very Important Resolutions Some key changes give USATF voting members more power so things can’t happen like last year when the Board went against an 85% majority vote to put Stephanie Hightower on the IAAF council rather than Bob Hersh. Nick Symmonds will be happy that requirements for when athletes have to wear Team USA gear were made more clear.
*Becca Gillespy Peter’s Summary Of Key Changes
*Lauren Fleshman: Quick Guide To Two Key Resolutions At The USATF Annual Meeting - Lauren Fleshman Proposes Resolution To Gives Athletes More Opportunity To Market Themselves Sponsor Logo On Uniform
- USATF Activist Becca Gillespy Peter Points Out How There Are Major Issues With USATF’s Whistleblower Policy There “isn’t really a way to report anonymously” and there are major conflicts of interest since Board member investigations have to go through the lawyer paid by the board.
Say It Ain’t So
LRCDid Mike Rossi - The Viral Marathon Dad - Try To Cheat LetsRun.com Out Of $10,000 On Saturday?
Has Mike Rossi cut yet another course, this time in an attempt to win $10,000 from LetsRun.com?
*MB: Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston?
Book Review – The Animal Keepers Is Certainly A Keeper
LRC Book Review"The Animal Keepers" By Donn Behnke - A Terrific Tale Of What It Means To Be A Team
We highly recommend this book - hell, we call it "a triumph" - by Chris Solinsky's high school coach, Donn Behnke. Purchase here. 5 out 5 stars.
LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”
Runners World Honors You and the Brojos
We like This Photo So Much We Leave it Up
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American Strong: The Untold Story of How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston
28,000+ Likes on Facebook
A Real Running Hero:
The Flo Groberg Story
Flo Has Now Won the Medal of Honor
