In our weekly recap, we catch up with Mike Smith and ask him about his team's loss a the Big Sky xc champs, wonder if a team can go from 8th at SECs to #1 at NCAAs, and rave about Yuki Kawauchi and Athing Mu.

In a decade marked by controversy, it's fitting that Alberto Salazar is our Person of the Decade as controversy clung to Salazar like a paperclip to a magnet. Plus who wins our world and US athlete of the decade honors?

Besides Linden, other past Boston winners include Yuki Kawauchi, Edna Kiplagat, Geoffrey Kirui, Caroline Rotich and Lelisa Desisa.

From #16 to #1, we've broken down the potential winners of the 2019 Boston Marathon into five categories: Basically No Shot (#14-16), Outside Shots (#9-13), The Wild Card (#8), Genuine Contenders (#4-7), and Three Total Studs (#3-2-1). Sorry Yuki Kawauchi fans, but he's basically got no shot of repeating.

Other notables include former Boston champions Lemi Berhanu, Wesley Korir, 2:04 man Lawrence Cherono, 2015 World champ Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, former half-marathon WR holder Zersenay Tadese, 2015 World champ Mare Dibba and 2:19 woman Worknesh Degefa.

We share the highlights from the post-race champions press conference.

An improbably win by an improbable marathoner.

Kawauchi now has broken 2:20 a record 76 times.

It was also announced that Kawauchi will run the Marshfield Road Runners New Year's Day Marathon with the goal of breaking record for most sub-2:20 marathons (he is currently tied at 75 with US's Doug Kurtis). the

2:05:48 to become the first non African born runner under 2:06.

The American 800m women took it to another level this week, and a Japanese runner reminded us the American men's marathoners have struggled as a whole.

We introduce you a German teen sensation and try to figure out if she's most like Cain, Efraimson, Hasay and Ostrander, prove to you that it's a real bad idea to just go for it in a race, talk about the end of NY Diamond League, and do something we almost never do - praise a doper.

Former world record holder Kipsang leads a field of five sub-2:05 marathoners including Lelisa Desisa, Stanley Biwott, Gebre Gebremariam and Yemane Tsegaye. Also World XC champ Geoffrey Kamworor and Japan's Yuki Kawauchi. Meb and Nick Arciniaga leads the American charge.

Even if Bernard Lagat sucks by his lofty standards, 2015 is going to be the year of Lagat. Shannon Rowbury, Moses Mosop and Cas Loxsom are off to good starts in 2015, and we take a look back at 2014 as Yuki Kawauchi once again ran more sub-2:10 marathons than all of America combined. Plus some props to the Chevron Houston Marathon.