The World’s Biggest XC Fan

LRC Meet Mr. Cross-Country, The Sport’s Biggest Fan Cross-country’s biggest fan, Michael Mahon, resides in Massachusetts, where for the past 33 years he has traveled to over 1,747 career meets, bag of cans in tow. And he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Sunday Road Action

• Kenenisa Bekele Wins TSK 25K, But Nowhere Near The WR With 1:13:48 There was talk of the 1:11:18 WR and Bekele said he wanted at least his 1:12:47 PR, but Bekele actually fell off the leaders at one point before coming back to win by a good margin. Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw got an upset 3-second win over 2015 World marathon silver medalist Helah Kiprop.
  *MB: Kenenisa Bekele Comes Up Short in Breaking 25k world record
• With A Rare Negative Split, Yuki Kawauchi Wins Hofu Yomiuri Marathon In 2:10:03, Tying The Record For Most Career Sub-2:20 Marathons With 75 Misaki Kato dominated the women’s race by 11 minutes with 2:28:12.
• Peter Kimeli Some (2:14:49) And Kyrgyzstan’s Viktoria Poliudina (2:33:25) Win Shenzhen Marathon In China

Add This To Your Christmas List?

Independent Study (Funded By Nike) Finds That Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% Actually Could Make You Run Faster They found energy saving of between 2% and 6% – with an average of 4%. A big criticism of the study is it wasn’t blind testing, so the placebo effect could be at play.

Upcoming In 2018

• January 6:Paul Chelimo Vs. Norway’s Recent 2:05:48 Man Sondre Nordstadt Moen At Italian XC Meet World 5,000 champ Hellen Obiri will face 2015 World XC Champ Agnes Tirop in the women’s race.
• MB:NXN Champ Katelyn Tuohy Going For The High School 5K Record On January 20th The current record is held by Brie Oakley at 15:55.

Zatopek 10 *Results

Stewart McSweyn Runs 28:37.28 To Beat Out Former NCAA Champions Patrick Tiernan (28:38.94) And David McNeill (28:47.54) At Zatopek 10,000m Celia Sullohern won the women’s race in 32:31 over World Champs marathon 9th placer Jessica Trengove (32:35). In the 1,500s, World Junior 5th placer Matthew Ramsden (3:40.08) and Brittany McGowan (4:14.18) took the wins.
*Pre-Race Interviews: *Tiernan *McNeill

Great Edinburgh XC Is January 13

• Dewi Griffiths, Andy Vernon, Jess Judd, Emelia Gorecka Lead GB Great Edinburgh XC Squads
• Laura Muir Will Target A Fourth Straight Victory On The GB Mixed Relay
• Team Europe Selected For Great Edinburgh c Turkey’s Euro champions Kaan Kigen Ozbile and Yasemin Can lead the rosters. Women’s team also includes Ireland’s Fionnuala MCormack.

Women’s Distance News

• Good Read:Alexi Pappas Writes About Mastering The Skill Of Work/Life Balance And How She Put That To The Test While Simultaneously Trying To Make It To Rio 2016 And Preparing For Her Film, Tracktown “Balance is a funny thing, because sometimes the best way to improve it is by losing it. I found that in my pursuit of a balanced life, I sometimes swung too far in the opposite direction.”
• Update Q&A With Gabe Grunewald On Running And Her Cancer Treatment: “I’m not throwing in the towel.” In between different cancer treatments, Grunewald has been getting in some general training and is hoping to qualify for USA Indoors in Albuquerque.
• Shalane Flanagan Says Americans Can “Dream Bigger” After Her NYC Marathon WinDesi Linden agreed, adding, “It changes everything. I run with her. I’ve beaten her. I can contend with her. So why can’t that be me?”
• The Daily Californian Profile On Former NXN Champ Brie Oakley After Her First Season At Cal Berkeley Oakley, a former soccer player who didn’t start running until her junior year of high school, had a successful first XC season ending with a 38th place finish at NCAAs.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Q&A With US Marathoner And Two-Time Cancer Survivor Serena Burla Burla talks about her 11th place finish at 2017 Worlds, overcoming cancer and giving a TED talk.
• Shalane Flanagan Named 2017 New York Road Runners Pro Performer Of The Year

Assorted International News

• Oscar Pistorius Hurt In Prison Fight Pistorius was allegedly involved in a fight and sustained a bruise over the use of a public phone.
• Report Claims Botswana 400m Runner Lydia Jele Tests Positive Jele was part of the 4 x 400 squad that finished 7th at Worlds.
• Mo Farah And Heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam Voted Athletics Weekly Readers’ Choice Award WinnersUsain Bolt won the “lifetime achievement” award with 56.3% of the votes.
• Tallest building In South Korea To Display Olympic Torch LED Until End Of Pyeongchang 2018
• Need A Job?IAAF Hiring An Event Operations Coordinator You’d get to live in Monaco.

RIP News

• Tennessee Track Legend And Former 5,000m NCAA Champion Kathy Bryant Passes Away At Age 55 Bryant was a seven-time All-American and still holds Tennessee’s outdoor 5,000 record (15:37).
• Recommended Read:Now A High School Coach Himself, One Of Joe Newton’s Former Athletes Looks Back At His Time Under Coach Newton Interesting notes: Newton didn’t let his athletes call him “Coach” (they called him Mr. Newton) and even 50 years later, Mike Lynn says he can’t bring himself to refer to call Newton by his first name.
• Other HS Coaches Including FM’s Bill Aris React To The Passing Of Joe Newton
• IAAF Tribute To Joe Newtwon

More Weekend Results

• IAAF Weekend XC Round-Up:Brother Colm O’Connell-Coached 19-Year-Old Mathew Kimeli Wins Kenyan AK Series Meet In Iten Kimeli made a name for himself in the spring when he ran 27:14 to come in a close second behind Mo Farah at the Ostrava Golden Spike Meet 10,000m.
• Kenya’s Dickson Kipsang Tuwei (2:10:03) And Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa (2:25:12) Win Guangzhou Marathon In China
• RRW:Canadian Betty Jean McHugh Sets 90+ World Record At Honolulu Marathon She ran 6:47:31, which broke the previous record of 8:53:08 from 1997.
• AW:UK Weekend Round-Up

Foot Locker High School XC Champs *Results*Race Replay

LRC Claudia Lane Dominates To Repeat As Champ, Misses Joining Sub-17:00 Club (link fixed) 17:03 for Lane as only 3 women in the last 30 years have ever gone sub-17. She’ll attempt to be first-ever 3-time girl’s champ next year.

LRC Dylan Jacobs Wins To Make Carl Sandburg High In Illinois The First With Two Different FL Champs (Lukas Verzbicas) As Soph Graydon Morris Is 2nd Jacobs turned the tables on rival Daniel Kilrea as sophomore Morris moved up to take second and could become the second boy ever to run at 4 Foot Lockers (Jorge Torres).

LRC Official Foot Locker Nationals 2017 Live Thread 

Sports Governing News/ Russian Ban Not Really A Ban

• Alan Abrahamson Explains Olympic Ban Isn’t Really A Ban, Russians Who Compete Will Be “Olympic Athletes From Russia”
• Russia Sanctions Not Really An Olympic Ban, Head Of Independent Investigation Tells ESPN
• Athletics Kenya VP Says Government Minister, Not Athletics Kenya, Picked Team For Cape Town Marathon

More Russian Scandal Updates

• Even When They Know The Whole World Is Watching:FIFA Actually Terminated The “Ethics” Committee Head Who Was Investigating Vitaly Mutko They also fired another member who who was going to block Mutko from the Fifa council, arguing that it would damage the prospects of the World Cup in Russia.
• Thomas Bach Refuses To Apologize To Yuliya Stepanova Over 2016 Olympic Snub, But Encourages Her To Switch Her Nationality To Represent A New Country At Tokyo 2020 Bach says he recently met with and had a “friendly discussion” with the Stepanovs.
• NBA Team Owner Mikhail Prokhorov Accused Of Paying Hush Money In Russian Olympic Doping Scandal Prokhorov, the former Russian biathlon federation president, allegedly paid an athlete to keep quiet about Russia’s doping.
• Vitaly Mutko Denies State-Backed Doping, Slams IOC Ban

2017 Fukuoka Marathon Was Incredible *Fukuoka Results

Wow! LRCNorway’s Sondre Moen Makes History, Smashes European Record To Win Fukuoka In 2:05:48 Moen, who ran 59:48 during his buildup, became the first non-African born male to break 2:06 on a record-eligible course as he stunned the world and Bedan Karoki. 2012 Olympic champ Stephen Kiprotich grabbed second in 2:07:10 just ahead of the Suguro Osako, who set a new Nike Oregon Project record of 2:07:19.

• IAAF RecapSuguru Osako: “I gave my all to this race. … If I continue to train this way, I can continue to improve. I felt that I found a coach I can really trust. In Japan I did not find anyone like that.”
• MB:Official 2017 Fukuoka Marathon Discussion Thread
  
• MB: SONDRE MOEN of Norway runs 2:05:48 (!!!)to win the 2017 Fukuoka Marathon. How did he do it?
  
• Must Read:Renato Canova explains Moen’s amazing breakthrough: “Clean your minds, start to believe in yoursel[f], and go [all] in [on] hard CLEAN training if [you] are really interested in improving [your] performance.”

Kipchoge Vs. Farah At London 2018

Eliud Kipchoge Will Return To The London Marathon; Looking To Maintain His Unbeaten Record With A Third Title After winning in 2015 and 2016, Kipchoge skipped a year to chase the sub-2 hour marathon, but now he’s back and says, “I know that I have the world record in me so we will have to wait and see what happens.”
*Kipchoge Happy To Be Racing Mo Farah In London Kipchoge: “It’s great he will be racing because I’m sure that will make the atmosphere more special.”
*MB: Eliud Kipchoge is taking Mo Farah very seriously