Mo Farah Earns Our Respect, Big 1,500 PRs For Kyle Merber And Stephanie Garcia, Mo Aman’s Big Rebound, Meb’s Masters Debut And Gallowalking To Comrades Glory

The Week That Was In Running – May 25 – May 31, 2015

by LetsRun.com
June 2, 2015

After a week off for the Memorial Day holiday in the US, our weekly recap is back.

Past editions of The Week That Was can bc found here. Questions or comments? Please email us or post them in our running fan forum.

Below we don’t extensively recap the 2015 Prefontaine Classic as we broke it down in great detail as it happened. Our 2015 Prefontaine Classic coverage is here: 2015 Pre Classic Full Coverage *Prefontaine Photo Gallery.

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10 People That Had A Good Week Last Week

The Mobot came out in Eugene. Full 2015 Prefonatine Classic Photo Gallery.

1) Mo Farah

Yes, Farah returned to the winner’s circle last week by capturing the 10,000 at the Prefontaine Classic after losing in the 3000 in Doha. But to be honest, Farah would have showed up in our winners list even if he’d lost. Running on the 40th anniversary of Steve Prefontaine‘s last race, Farah gained our respect for displaying a little bit of Pre and actually pushing the pace, leading and trying to get a fast time after the rabbits weren’t even able to make it 5000 meters.

One can’t really knock Farah’s track results in recent years in terms of wins and losses, but his 5000 and 10,000 pbs are subpar given his accomplishments. His desire to run fast and improve his legacy is worthy of praise.

Of course, we may just be praising Farah as we’re excited that he admitted he reads LetsRun.com.

Related messageboard discussions:

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Mo Farah is one of the greats
Mo Farah Calls Out LetsRun Hype Machine, Says Galen Rupp Will Be an Olympic Champ
Farah is a WIMP- refuses to push a 26:30 pace, runs 26:50

LetsRun.com Archives from February: The LetsRun.com Staff Civil War: Can Mo Farah Be Considered The GOAT (Greatest of All-Time)?

2) Ben True

Any time an American takes down Geoffrey Mutai and Wilson Kipsang in a race, he’s getting a thumbs up from us. Yes, we know they are recovering from the London Marathon five weeks ago, but a win is a win. True beat those two plus Stephen Sambu at the line to win the 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney 10K. True is clearly in good shape and seems likely to make his first Worlds team later this summer, particularly since one of his chief potential rivals, Chris Derrick, didn’t make it to the start line at Pre.

More: 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney Results: Ben True Edges Stephen Sambu, Joyce Chepkirui Edges Gladys Cherono

Both guys get an ‘A’ for effort. More 2015 Prefontaine Photos.

3) Mo Aman 

Two weeks ago in Doha, Aman’s first race under the tutelage of the Oregon Track Club’s Mark Rowland was a total disaster as he was just 9th – his worse finish in any 800 place-wise since he placed 10th in a race as a 16-year-old in 2010.

Just 15 days after Doha, things are looking MUCH rosier for Aman. He rebounded with a win over Nijel Amos in the 800 at the Pre Classic. Couple that with the fact that David Rudisha pulled up lame in a 600 last week and Aman certainly is dreaming of gold in Beijing. Rudisha has called the injury minor but has pulled out Sunday’s Birmingham DL meet.

4) Kyle Merber 

Many thought that the American would never beat the 3:35.69 PR that he set at Swarthmore in 2012 under ideal conditions with Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis running as the rabbit. After all, a few weeks later, Merber didn’t even make it to the NCAA final, but Merber last week showed that 3:35 was no fluke as he is now a 3:34 man. He ran 3:34.54 for 1500 in a time-trial-type race set up at Furman where Cory Leslie also got under the 3:36.00 IAAF standard by running 3:35.36.

Congrats to Merber, who ran the 1200 leg on the USA’s world record-setting DMR team at World Relays.

More: Furman Elite 1500m – Merber 3:34.5 (self-reported)
LRC Archives From 2012: *Kyle Merber 3:35.59 is NOT the American Collegiate Record
*MERBER 3:35
*Kyle Merber does not make it to NCAAs!

5) Stephanie Garcia

The American steeplechaser put up a huge 1500 pb at Furman in the same meet that Merber got his pb. Garcia went into Furman with a 4:13.33 1500 pb (4:31.25 mile) but left with a 4:05.39 as she crushed per personal best. Earlier in the month on May 2, Garcia crushed her 5000 pb at Stanford by running 15:19.50 (previous best was 15:43.47).

All of those PBs should indicate that a steeple PB will come for Garcia later this summer. Last year, Garcia ran 9:24.28 and she’s now got a great shot to become just the third women in US history under 9:20 later this summer.

The 4 Fastest Female Steeplers In US History

1 9:11.42 Emma Coburn 12 Jul 2014
2 9:12.50 AR Jenny Simpson 17 Aug 2009
3 9:22.76 Anna Willard 20 Jul 2008
4 9:24.28 Stephanie Garcia 12 Jul 2014

Could Garcia actually challenge Coburn for top American steeplechase honors in 2015? It’s not totally inconceivable. Coburn ran her 1500 pb last weekend at Pre – 4:05.10 – so the two now have similar mile speed.

6) Caroline Wöstmann / Jeff Galloway / South Africa

Wöstmann used at least four planned walk breaks (which Jeff Galloway advocates) to become the first South African women’s winner of the prestigious 90th Comrades Marathon (87.72 km) since 1998. Earlier this year, Wöstmann won the Two Oceans ultra during her buildup for Comrades and thus she’s now just the fourth athlete to win Comrades and Two Oceans in the same year.

In the men’s race, South African Gift Kelehe, the brother of 2001 winner Andrew Kelehe, was the winner as South Africa swept both titles for the first time since 1992. Cornell grads Sage Canaday (15th) and Max King (50th) were the top two Americans in the race.

More: Caroline Wöstmann Uses Walk Breaks To Become First South African Winner of Comrades Marathon Since 1998; Compatriot Gift Kelehe Wins Men’s Race As South Africa Claims Both Titles For 1st Time Since 1992
*MB: Americans at Comrades

7) Meb Keflezighi

Running his first race as a master (40+), Meb ran by far the fastest half-marathon for a master in US history as he placed second at the Suja Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Half-Marathon in 62:26. Jordan Chipangama was the winner (62:24). While the course in San Diego is net downhill and not eligible for records, Meb’s time was more than a minute faster than Mbarak Hussein‘s American masters mark of 63:23. While Meb didn’t get the victory or the official 13.1 record, he did get two nice consolation prizes – the US 15k (44:23) and 10-mile (47:39) masters marks as the course isn’t too downhill as those points.

He’s got a ways to go, however, to be the fastest master in history as Haile G ran 61:08 in Scotland in 2013.

One more thing about Meb. We received an email from a Meb follower on Twitter who was amazed by Meb’s mileage totals that Meb had tweeted out. Check them out:

My mileage this month & statistics for today's race. Love the details provided by my @EpsonAmerica performance watch. pic.twitter.com/8yu7Pa2fXj

— meb keflezighi (@runmeb) May 31, 2015

Our emailer saw those figures and was amazed that two weeks after the Boston Marathon, during the week he turned 40 years old, Meb’s total was 134 miles and the week after that he covered 163 miles.

What they failed to remember is that Meb cross trains a lot using his ElliptiGO. Meb’s brother and agent Merhawi confirmed to LetsRun.com that his mileage includes his ElliptiGo work.

While we had Merhawi on email, we asked him whether Meb will run a fall marathon or not before the Trials. Meb will indeed.

NYC, here we come (Merhawi didn’t say it was NYC but that’s the fall marathon Meb always runs).

More: Meb Keflezighi Wins USATF Masters Title At Suja Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon

8) Anastasiya Bazdyreva

With all of the doping controversy coming out of Russia the last year or so, there hasn’t been any eye-opening performances from middle distance women. That changed last week as Anastasiya Bazdyreva, 23, ran a big 800 pr of 1:58.75 at the Russian Team Championships (previous pr 2:00.90). WADA, we hope you are paying attention.

9) Emily Chebet

The two-time World XC champion took down Cynthia Limo and Buze Diriba to pick up $10,000 and become a three-time winner of the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K in Albany, N.Y., in 15:38. She joins Lynn Jennings, Marla Runyan and Benita Willis on the list of women who have won the prestigious women’s-only race at least three times.

More: Emily Chebet Wins Third Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K Title *Full Results

10) Mary Cain

Yes we admit we thought about also having a section entitled, “Those that had a Bad Week” and were likely to put the 19-year-old Mary Cain into that section. After all, last week, instead of racing at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in front of an international TV audience, Cain was home taking a break from the Nike Oregon Project as her 2015 season has been a dud so far.

To add insult to injury, if Cain turned on the TV and watched the meet, she saw 18-year-old Alexa Efraimson become the fastest American high school girl^ and fastest US junior ever at 1500 as Efraimson ran 4:03.39 – more than a second faster than Cain’s run of 4:04.62 from 2013. But the more we think about Cain losing the record, the more we think it might be a positive.

If Efraimson doesn’t run 4:03 last week, then a big conservation all summer would be, “What’s wrong with Mary Cain?” That certainly will still be discussed, but now one would think much of the press will be focused on what Efraimson is doing and how well she is faring. She will now have to deal with some of the publicity/hype that has been following Mary Cain in recent years. We say “one would think” because amazingly Efraimson’s name wasn’t mentioned once on the NBC broadcast. Being a little out of the spotlight certainly can only help Cain as she deals with the first significant performance struggles of her career.

One last thing about junior women’s 1500 runners. In case you are wondering what the world junior mark for 1500 is, don’t even go there. Efraimson will never get it. China’s Lang Yinglai ran 3:51.34 in 1997 at age 18 – the only year she even has a recorded result on tilastopaja.org. In the same meet, fellow Chinese juniors Yin Lili, Lan Lixin, and Zhang Ling ran super-fast as well – 3:53.91, 3:53.97 and 3:54.52, respectively.

The Kenyan junior record is 3:56.98 (Faith Kipyegon 2013) and the Ethiopian record is 3:59.53 (Dawit Seyaum 2014).

Below is a list of all the women in world history who have broken 4:00 for 1500 while eligible for junior competition (can’t turn 20 during the calendar year).

The World’s Sub-4 Juniors
1. Yinglai Lang – China – 3:51.34
2. Yin Lili – China – 3:53.91
3. Lan Lixin – China – 3:53.97
4. Zhang Ling – China – 3:54.52
5. Faith Kipyegon – Kenya – 3:56.98
6. Dawit Seyaum – Ethiopia – 3:59.53
7. Wang Yuan – China – 3:59.81
8. Zola Pieterse (Budd)  – 3:59.96

More: MB: Alexa Efraimson is now faster than Mary Cain has been! 4:03!!!
*Mary Cain Is Taking a Break from the Nike Oregon Project

^High school track record-keepers say if you are a pro you aren’t eligible for the American high school record. To us, the pro/amateur distinction its irrelevant. Are you are a normal-aged high school student and American citizen or not?

It’s worth pointing out that way back in 1991, a few months after she graduated from Springfield High School in Oregon, Maria Mutola of Mozambique ran 1:57 and 4:02 that summer. Of course, Mutola isn’t an American, was a pro and most importantly in our minds, like Edward Cheserek, older.  She turned 20 on October 27 that year.

The pro/amateur distinction matters to us only for collegiate marks where people need to be eligible for NCAA competition.

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RIP Pat Petersen

The running community, particularly the New York and blue-collar running communities, lost a great figure last week as former American record holder in the marathon Pat Petersen, who ran 2:10:04 in London in 1989, which stood as the US record (on a record standard certified course (USATF Rule 185) as Alberto Salazar’s and Bill Rodgers’ marks didn’t count) until 1997 died last week of pancreatic cancer at age 55.

John Hanc has written an excellent article on Runner’s World detailing Petersen’s running exploits which we highly recommend you read but we’ll give you a CliffsNotes version below.

Petersen was the ultimate blue-collar runner as he insisted on working a full-time job while racing the world’s best at 26.2. He would regularly commute the 10 miles from his home in Brooklyn to his job in Manhattan by running. He excelled at the NYC Marathon as he three times finished in the top four in NYC (1984, 1985, 1987) – a feat only accomplished by three other Americans (Bill Rodgers, Alberto Salazar and Meb Keflezighi). At the London Marathon, he three times finished in the top seven (1985, 1986 and 1989)

Pat Petersen’s kids need your help

“He was just plain tough. He chased people. He had a higher pain tolerance than anyone else,” said Tracy Sundlun, co-founder of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, who coached Petersen during the 1980s in New York City in an article on Petersen on Competitor.com.  “He put himself into a well in every marathon. He went that far into it every race, unlike almost any runner ever did. He got everything out of his body every time he ran a race.”

“I saw him as a fighter and a grinder who got the most out of his abilities,” said Toni Reavis of Petersen in the RW article.

Sadly, Petersen didn’t anticipate his own potential demise at such a young age. He leaves behind a wife and four children but no life insurance policy. If you’d like to help the kids, you can help them by contributing here on GoFundMe. Services for Petersen will be on Wednesday in East Islip, N.Y., as described here.

More: RW: Former US Marathon Record Holder Pat Petersen Dies From Cancer At Age 55
*Competitor: American Marathon Great Pat Petersen Succumbs to Cancer
*MB: R.I.P. Pat Petersen Petersen left behind a wife and four children who are in a difficult financial situation.

From The LRC Archives:
One of the most famous threads in LetsRun.com History: Yuppie Running vs. Blue Collar Running
*MB: Marathon American Record Progression 

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5 Quotes of the Week (that weren’t Quote of the Day)

If everyone learns from quote #1, the world will be a little bit safer.

I – Don’t Drink & Drive

“He died because he consumed too much alcohol and drove. That was the truth of the matter…

“There are always those who will hold out for that 1 percent chance that something else happened that night. For those people who worshipped him or loved him, I say fine, let them hold onto that 1 percent. But to young people, I would hope they would learn what that accident says about drinking and driving.”

– Quotes over the years from Sgt. Richard Loveall, the first responding officer to the car crash that killed Steve Prefontaine. The quotes come from a Eugene Register-Guard article on Pre’s death, who died 40 years ago last Saturday on May 30, 1975. Conspiracy theorists who think Pre died of something else should read the article as it states that the driver of another sports car seen on the road passed a polygraph test – witnessed by the entire Prefontaine family – that he wasn’t involved in the crash.

II – Steve Prefontaine Believed In The Power Of Running

“It was gospel to him, that running could save you. By spreading it to prisoners, he was showing that they could be redeemed.”

– Steve Prefontaine’s old girlfriend Mary Marckx Creel, talking about why Pre used to go to prison to run with the inmates as told in a story by Evan Meek in the Eugene Register-Guard.

III –  If You Can Make It 8k In a 10k, The Final 2k Will Take Care Of Itself

“I told myself going into the race that if I was with them with 8K to go, I’d have a good shot, because I was going to be too stubborn to let them get away from me with only 2K to go.”

– American Ben True talking after winning the 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney 10k over Stephen Sambu, Geoffrey Mutai and Wilson Kipsang. The quote comes from Race Results Weekly.

More: 2015 UAE Healthy Kidney Results: Ben True Edges Stephen Sambu, Joyce Chepkirui Edges Gladys Cherono

IV – The $40,000 Diamond League Jackpot Means Something To This Guy

“This year, I want the points and Diamond League. I am happy to have a good run and get those. I want the points, not the time.”

– Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman, the first repeat Bowerman Mile champion since Asbel Kiprop in 2009/2010, talking after winning the Bowerman Mile last week. Souleiman also won the DL opener in the 800 in Doha.

V – Competitor Group Gets Sued

“Like nearly all such races, CGI’s Rock ‘n’ Roll series of marathons and half marathons rely on volunteers to staff water stations, hand out finisher medals, dispense t-shirts and more. Yet unlike many race operators, CGI operates for profit as a subsidiary of Calera Capital, a private-equity firm. Last September, a St. Louis University law professor named Yvette Joy Liebesman—who volunteered at the 2012 Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in St. Louis–filed suit in U.S. district court in that city, arguing that she was deceived into thinking that her services would benefit charity rather than a private equity firm.”

 – excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article by Kevin Helliker on a class-action lawsuit filed against Competitor Group, which a federal judge allowed to continue last week.
*MB: Yes! Judge denies Competitor Group’s request to dismiss lawsuit saying its use of volunteers violates labor laws 

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Winners and Losers From NCAA Regionals

The preliminary rounds of the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships were held last week (aka regionals) and the top 12 in each individual event in the two regions booked their tickets to Eugene.

While some complain that regionals aren’t spectator-friendly, we are supporters of the format as it ensures that everyone at NCAAs is in top form. You no longer can make it to NCAAs for what you did in April. You have to be ready to go at the end of May.

In that light, we’ve compiled a list of the biggest surprises and disappointments from regionals for the mid-d/distance action below (at least in terms of seeds).

We’ll start with the disappointments. Below is a list of people seeded in the top 10 of each region who didn’t finish in the top 12 and advance to Eugene.

The fact that some of the favorites didn’t come through meant that a few long shots did advance.

In terms of the overachievers, below is a list of all of the mid-d and distance runners seeded at #20 or lower in each region who made it to NCAAs.

One of the main arguments used to get the current format implemented a few years ago was that it would help small schools that don’t have the funds to fly to big meets to put up super-fast qualifiers have a better shot of making it to NCAAs. So it’s worth noting that Oregon, of all schools, had three women not seeded in the top 20 make it in the women’s 1500.

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Recommended Reads

Genzebe Dibaba Talks About Hopefully Carrying Her Indoor Success To Outdoor And Says Her Coach Thinks She Can Run 14:10

Jenny Simpson Writes About Being Her Husband’s Lead Cheerleader When He Trained For And Ran In The Boston Marathon Jenny says even though she’s the pro runner, Jason was running more miles and putting in harder workouts. He ended up running a PR of 2:25:47 in cold and windy conditions.

Eugene Register Guard: 40 years ago after his death (May 30, 1975) of Oregon track legend Steve Prefontaine, mysteries as to what killed Pre linger – or do they? The responding officer certainly doesn’t think so, “He died because he consumed too much alcohol and drove. That was the truth of the matter.”

Grantland.com: Forty Years After Pre’s Death, His Life Continues To Affect Athletes Everywhere – And His Loss Haunts Those At Home

Genzebe Dibaba Talks About Hopefully Carrying Her Indoor Success To Outdoor And Says Her Coach Thinks She Can Run 14:10 Dibaba says in the past the extreme rainy season in Ethiopia and/or injuries have hindered her training for outdoor. This year she was in Europe and is healthy so is hoping for big things.

Recommended Reads from past weeks can be found here.

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Quotes Of The Day And Last Week’s Home Pages

To see the actual quotes of the day from last week or last week’s home page or any home page, go to our archive page.

Past editions of The Week That Was can be found here. Questions or comments? Please email us or post them in our running fan forum.