- Here Are The Celebrities Running the 2024 Chicago Marathon Newly crowned Miss USA, Alma Cooper, is running as are the adulterers Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes.
- 3 men have run every Chicago Marathon since 1977. Now in their 70s, they won’t break the streak. This year is #46 for Chicago and one of them can't wait to run the 50th when he turns 80 and it will be his 100th marathon.
- Olympics.com: Six Americans To Watch At The 2024 Chicago Marathon The American women are lead by Keira D'Amato, Sara Hall and Betsy Saina while the men have three 2:09 marathoners in Zach Panning, CJ Albertson and Brian Shrader.
- Chicago Marathon To Honor Kelvin Kiptum At This Year's Race There will be a moment of silence at the start line and they are offering all runners a memorial sticker they can put on their race bibs.
Chicago is Sunday (Our 1st preview will come out Thursday)
More Distance News
- Portland Marathon (and half) criticized for sloppy organization and chaotic operation This is wild. The half marathon was supposed to start at 7:15. At 6:59 am, they for some unknown reason decided to start it at 7:07 and CHAOS resulted.
*MB: Oops...Portland Half Started EARLY with Top 3 Determined by Gun Time - Ohio State - Oregon football game is this weekend in Eugene as is Dellinger XC Invite with the #2 BYU men taking on #22 Oregon In the women's action, #12 UO will face the #6 Utah.
- The Shanghai Marathon Is In Contention To Become An Abbott World Marathon Major The race will first have to go through "rigorous testing" over a three-year period. The Sydney and Cape Town Marathons are also candidates to become WMM races. If the WMMs expand, they should go to single-sex elite races as there are only so many elite marathoners to fill the fields.
- Eliud Kipchoge Talks About Slowly Getting Back Into Training After Paris DNF, Says "I still want to run a few more marathons." Kipchoge took six weeks off his normal training after Paris, but says he isn't retiring yet. When he does retire, he wants to stay involved in the sport, but doesn't want to be a coach.
- Eliud Kipchoge has landed a major ambassadorial role with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), starting a two-year stint as their goodwill ambassador for sport, integrity and values.
- Peres Jepchirchir to run Delhi Half next weekend
On The Boards
On The Boards
Non-Distance News
- Matthew Hudson-Smith talks exclusively to AW about his amazing 2024 where he went from 44.26 to 43.44 and came up a tiny bit short of Olympic gold in an EPIC race “It was one hell of a race,” he says of that Olympic final. “I mean, five people ran 43 seconds – [first and second place were the] fourth and fifth-fastest times in history. When you look at the numbers, it’s actually insane how he [Hall] did it, so I give him all the respect. I’m not happy. I’m not satisfied. But, at that time, it was the best of what I could produce on that day. I also know where I can go in the future.”
- Valarie Allman turned down a full-time job at Microsoft while a senior in college and the rest is history “I came to a ‘Y’ in the road of, do I go to Microsoft? Or do I pursue this crazy dream of trying to become a professional athlete and make the Olympics?” said Allman who never won an NCAA title but has won two Olympic golds. “I realised there’s only one time in your life that you can go after these athletic things.”
NCAA Updates
- NAU Women #1 In Updated NCAA XC Rankings; NC State Drops From Tied For #1 To #5 NC State was over ranked based on their performances in recent years, but their loss last weekend dropped them to $5 and Alabama from #17 to #8. BYU moved up to #2 and Washington and Notre Dame are ranked 3-4. *Regional Rankings
- No Changes To Top-3 Men's Teams In Latest NCAA XC Rankings OSU, BYU and Arkansas are 1-3 while Iowa State moved up to 4th. Notre Dame jumped 4 spots to #5 and NAU dropped to #6. *Regional Rankings
- Reuters: NCAA’s $2.7 Billion Student Athlete Settlement Wins Preliminary Court Approval The judge who sent lawyers back to revise the original deal has now given tentative approval for the "agreement to compensate student athletes for past and future commercial use of their names, images and likenesses."
- UPenn’s New Indoor Track Opens On November 16th
Olympic/Admin News
- Ethiopian Olympic Committee Leaders (Including The President Ashebir Woldegiorgis) Charged With Human Trafficking In Connection With The Paris Olympics Several Ethiopian national sports federations have filed complaints calling for the suspension of the Ethiopian Olympic Committee over controversies including unfair elections and millions of dollars in missing funds. They are also facing a civil case headed by Halie Gebrselassie.
- InsideTheGames: Top Olympics Sponsors Step Away - New Era Or Crisis?
- World Athletics Wins Organization Of The Year At BBC Green Sport Awards
More Distance News
- Courtney Dauwalter Dominates Nice Côte d’Azur 100 Miler She was actually second overall in the race, 13 minutes behind the men’s winner, Spain’s Cristofer Clemente Mora who won in 21:22:14 (12:49 mile pace).
- British Woman Sarah Roberts Runs World Age 75 Best Of 44:33 For 10k
- Japan Running News: Ekiden Season Kicks Off In Japan
Sprint Stuff
- World Athletics InsideTrack Podcast With South Africa's Olympic 100m 4th Placer Akani Simbine The 31-year-old says, "I got into this game pretty late in my life as a late teenager, 19, and since then it’s been like stepping stones and learning about athletics, learning about how things are done and being thrown in the circuit saying ‘okay, swim’. I think that’s why I don’t feel so old in the game."
- Allyson Felix Launches Sports Agency Focused On Women "Always Alpha" will target women from all sports, not just track.
- Dina Asher-Smith Talks About her New Life In Texas, Leaving London And Her 2024 Season Asher-Smith made the move from London to Austin, TX last winter and says, “Just being able to experience a different way of life is really stimulating. They love their barbecues, love their tacos. The biggest change is the thing that they do for relaxing, which is chilling by the pool with their friends."
European Athletes Of The Year
- Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Mondo Duplantis And Miltiadis Tentoglou Are The Men's Finalists For European Athlete Of The Year
*Men's European Rising Star Finalists Includes Olympic 1500m 6th placer Niels Laros. - Keely Hodgkinson, Femke Bol And Yaroslava Mahuchikh Are The Three Finalists For Women's European Athlete Of The Year
*Women’s European Rising Star Finalists Includes British 800m champ Phoebe Gill. - European Javelin Champion Victoria Hudson Voted Austrian Sportswoman Of The Year (All Sports) She had the fourth best throw in the world this year with 66.06m, but only threw 59.35m at the Olympics and didn't make the final.
Road News
- Jenny Simpson Wins Wineglass Half-Marathon In 70:50 Simpson said, "I'm really in the thick of marathon training getting ready for New York," she said. "So this was a chance for me to kind of peak out of the darkness of marathon training and see what kind of fitness I had. I'm really pleased with today." She also said it was nice to have her husband pacing her for the whole race.
- Not Just Boston Lowering Standards: London Marathon Lowers Qualification Times For Championship Places Previously to qualify for a "championships spot" in London you had to run sub-2:40 as a man or sub-3:14 as a woman (or a 1:12:30/1:27 half). Now you will need sub 2:38/sub-3:10 (or sub-1:11.30/1:26 for a half).
- Callum Hawkins Gets His Third Victory At The Great Scottish Run (63:25) 19-year-old Natasha Phillips won the women's race for the second consecutive year in 73:26. In the men's 10k, Olympian and 2010 Euro 10,000m silver medalist Chris Thompson ran his last race on Scottish soil before retirement (31:41 for 4th).
Sprint Stuff
- Noah Lyles Has A Beer Named After Him By Alexandria Brewery The "Noah Lyles 100m Golden Ale" has "subtle hints of melon and strawberry."
- CBS Video Interview With Olympic 200m Bronze Medalist Brittany Brown Talking About Her Time In Paris
- Two-Time World 200m Champion Dafne Schippers Is Working As "Tournament Director" For The 2025 European Indoor Championships In The Netherlands This March Since she retired last year, Schippers has been filling other roles in the sport like commentating and doing interviews.
- Junelle Bromfield Shares Video Journey She And Noah Lyles Took From A Six Year Friendship To Being In A Relationship
Weekend Long Distance Results
He beat out Eritrean Olympic steeplechaser Yemane Haileselaisse by 9 seconds while Clayton Young was third in 46:07. Natosha Rogers won the women's race in 52:29. Marathon wins went to Shadrack Kimining (2:10:17) and Molly Bookmyer (2:28:52). *Discussion Thread
Women's Distance News
- The Sunday Times Profile On Keely Hodgkinson On How Life Has Changed Since Winning Olympic Gold Hodgkinson talks about relationships and says she was dating an unnamed British runner for three years, but they broke up in January due to long distance.
*MB: Keely Hodgkinson says running is horrible
- Keira D’Amato Confirms Matt Centrowitz Is Going To Pace Her At The Chicago Marathon D'Amato said, “I’m going to try to get him to go as long as possible with me. He is so fit, these paces are pedestrian for him, but I think this is going to be a fun new challenge.” She also talked about what training has been like at altitude for the first time under her new coach, Ed Eyestone.
*MB: Centro to PACE Kiera D’Amato at Chicago Marathon - Eilish McColgan Talks About Her Difficult Comeback From Injury, Marathon Debut Plans And Calling Out Online Trolls McColgan explains that she gets a lot of comments online about how she must be anorexic, but is adamant that she is healthy ("gest a period and [has] good bone density") and wants young women to know that.
Sad News - RIP
- 2017 World 800m Bronze Medalist Kipyegon Bett Dies At Age 26 After Extended Illness Bett reportedly was vomiting blood due to damage to some of his internal organs and his sister said he had been unwell for a month. Bett had a 1:43.76 PB and was the 2016 world under-20 champion, but his career was cut short by a 4-year EPO ban in 2018.
*MB: Kipyegon Bett dies to "liver damage and other organs" - 2017 world 800m Bronze - MB: Sepsis claims life of 19-yr old Air Force Academy track athlete Avery Koonce
Weekend NCAA Action
#3 Notre Dame was a close 3rd with 70 points. BYU's Lexy Halladay-Lowry won the race in 15:57. On the men's side, #9 ranked Notre Dame beat #4 NAU 55-68. Texas Tech's Ernest Cheruiyot won the race in 22:20.
*MB: 2024 Joe Piane Discussion Thread
- #15 Ranked Alabama Women Get Upset Victory Over #1 Ranked NC State At Lakefront Invitational In Chicago Alabama put three in the top-5 (lead by NCAA steeple champ Doris Lemngole's 18:48 victory) to beat NC State 57 to 71. On the men's side #18 ranked Wisconsin beat #10 Alabama 69 to 73, despite Alabama going 1-2-3. Dismus Lokira won the race in 22:41. *Results
- Paul Short Results: Harvard Women And Wingate Men (#1 Ranked In D2) Win Team Titles Utah State's Camren Todd (23:18) and UConn's Chloe Thomas (19:23) got the individual wins.
*MB: Wingate Men’s XC
- USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA XC Recap
Supporters Club podcast
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Big Kenyan Doping Bust
Anyango finished 2nd in Valencia earlier this year where Agnes Ngetich ran the current WR of 28:46. Anyango also placed 4th at World XC, but missed making Kenya's Olympic team, finishing 6th in the 10,000m trials at the Pre Classic.
- MB: 28:57 woman, Emmaculate Anyango, positive for EPO and testosterone
- Kenyan Officials Hoping New Registration System Will Help Them Combat Doping Athletics Kenya wants a database of athletes, coaches and support staff to help with more effective testing and athlete tracking.
XC Runner Of The Week
Parker Wolfe and Brian Musau impressed last weekend but so did D3's Nathan Tassey. Who was the runner of the week?
On the women's side, newcomers Judy Chepkoech and Pamela Kosgei impressed as did returnees Sadie Sigfstead and Judy Kosgei.
Interesting Distance Links
- MB: Alexis Ohanian takes to twitter to criticize Grant Slam Track for making athletes ask for permission to compete in other track leagues In reality, the contract only says they need permission to compete in new series that have more than two meets (and they are specifically allowed to run Diamond Leagues).
- The race that changed Georgia Bell’s life Bell says the highlight of the year was when she, without the help of a sponsor or agent, emailed a meet director in Germany and begged her way into an indoor meet in January and ended up running 4:03.
- MB Man who ran across Australia in 46 days two years ago has started his attempt to break Yiannis Kouros 1,000 mile WR of 10 days and 10 hours Click on that link to be taken to the official discussion thread which has a live stream.
- Tegla Loroupe fondly recalls what pushed her to the 2:20:43 WR in Berlin 25 years ago "I remember I was running in the company of some male athletes from Kenya, and they kept telling me 'remember where we come from back home. You are a warrior and you have to win like a warrior. You can do it.' That made me push myself to the limit."
- The 50th edition of the Lehigh University's Paul Short Race is this weekend The course has hosted NCAAs 3 times - 1979, 83, and 1993 - with '79 featuring Rono vs Salazar.
- After running 2:05:12, Yohei Ikeda honored by mayor at hometown city hall He said he was disappointed to not break the NR but now wants to make Worlds in 2025.
A Film On A Current Sprint WR Is Coming Soon
You can watch the trailer above.
Business News
- All 3 of the Japanese Olympic sponsors - Toyota, Panasonic and Bridgestone - end their sponsorships The are 3 of the 15 biggest Olympic sponsors which paid more than $2 billion (total for all 15).
- Strava launches Athlete Intelligence on mobile app Athlete Intelligence is designed to help runners of all abilities and experience levels spot trends in – and make fruitful adjustments to – their training.
NCAA News
The NCAA has a nice rotation of xc and indoor hosts and XC is heading back to Terre Haute for the 1st time in 7 years, but outdoors the NCAA continues to choose nothing but Eugene.
- Preview: Three Of The Top Five Women's Teams Face Off At Joe Piane Notre Dame Invy On Friday #1 NAU faces #3 Notre Dame and #5 BYU. On the men's side, #4 NAU is up against #9 Notre Dame. *USTFCCCA Preview
- NC State And NAU Now Tied For #1 In Latest NCAA Women's XC Coaches' Poll Notre Dame and Washington are ranked 3-4. The Oregon women dropped from 4th to 12th.
*NCAA DI Women’s XC Regional Rankings – Week 2 - No Changes To The Top 5 Ranked Men's Teams In Latest NCAA XC Coaches' Poll OSU, BYU, Arkansas and NAU are ranked 1-4. Wake Forest jumped 14 spots from 20th to tied for 6th.
*NCAA DI Men’s XC Regional Rankings – Week 2 - T&F News' Men's XC Preview: Top-10 Men's Individual Prediction Defending champ Graham Blanks is ranked #1.
- T&F News' Women's XC Preview: Top-10 Women's Individual Prediction Alabama's runner-up from last year, Doris Lemngole, is ranked #1.
Anti-Doping News
- NY Times Report Says WADA Lost Track Of Open Doping Cases And Test Results Before The Paris Olympics The NY Times obtained information that says a problem with WADA's database caused them to lose track of more than 900 suspected doping results and at least 2,000 cases may have been affected by corrupted, missing or incorrect data.
- WADA Refutes NY Times Report, Says They Had Some "Temporary Technical Issues" But It "In No Way Negatively Impacted The Paris Games"
- USADA Head Travis Tygart Calls Out WADA Over Missing Data Tygart said, “If anyone had any doubts before, this latest revelation seems to demonstrate the need for all those who value fair sport to join the IOC and public authorities in righting the ship... When is it enough to take action to restore the credibility of the global anti-doping system?”
- 70-Year-Old American Masters Athlete Sanctioned For Doping Loretta Turner got a 4-year ban for testing positive for steroids. In this article from earlier in the year, it says Turner was the top ranked master runner in the world in the 50m, 60m and 100m in 2023 for W65-69.
- WADA Optimistic That The Kenyan Government Will Reconsider It's Nearly 90% Budget Cut To Its Anti-Doping Program
Distance News
- Athletics Weekly Relives Sifan Hassan's "Zatopek Moment" At The Paris Olympics On doing the triple Hassan said, “Every moment [during the marathon] I was regretting that I had run the 5000m and 10,000m. I was telling myself: ‘If I hadn’t done that, I would feel great today’. From the beginning to the end, it was so hard. Every step of the way I was thinking: ‘Why did I do that? What is wrong with me?’”
- Balanced Runner Video: Running Form Analysis Of The Top Four Men From The Berlin Marathon Form analyst Jae Gruenke says that there was indicators in Cybrian Kotut's form towards the end of the race that predicted he would lose to Milkesa Mengesha.
- NXN Champ Addy Ritzenhein Won The Desert Twilight XC Meet By 40 Seconds Last Weekend Her team, Niwot, also swept both the girls and boys team titles.
- Faith Kipyegon Gave Away Her Spikes To An American Fan After The Athlos NYC Meet Kipyegon: “I gave them [spikes] to a young girl who told me she runs 1,500m and I decided to motivate her with the spikes."
- World Athletics Ratifies World Records For Jakob Ingebrigtsen (300m), Jessica Hull (2000m) And Mondo Duplantis (PV)
Sprint Stuff
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Has Reportedly Left Her Coach, Reynaldo Walcott SAFP had been coached by Walcott since 2020, but this article says a "frosty relationship developed between her and Walcott" after calls and and messages to Walcott went unanswered during the 2024 season.
- Kenya's Commonwealth Games 100m Champ Ferdinand Omanyala Admits To Being Humbled After The 2024 Season “Competition is something that makes you not be comfortable because at some point I thought I was sitting at the top of the world but failed to reach the final at the Paris Olympics."
World Indoors First Time Hosts
- New Zealand Is Bidding To Host The 2028 World Indoor Championships World Indoors has never been held in Oceania before.
- Six Months To Go Until China Hosts Their First World Indoor Championships In Nanjing They were supposed to host their first back in 2020 (and then in 2021 and 2023), but the event was cancelled due to COVID.
LRC Pro Weekly Recap
The guy who destroyed Jakob Ingebrigtsen 5 years ago at World Juniors and quickly moved to the roads is now a major marathon winner as Berlin turns 50. In addition to breaking down Berlin, we introduce you to a hot new race in Colorado.
College Recap
Our Jonathan Gault has the inside scoop on the NCAA xc action. Does Villanova have a potential NCAA champion you've never heard of? What's up with the top American returner who didn't race this weekend? How do you get a Kenyan eligible when they show up at the end of September? Plus all hail the Big 12 as the BYU and Iowa State men impressed and could the OK State men be even better than 2023? Plus Stanford was resurgent.
The Newest LetsRun Shirt Is Here
The newest shirt is in stock at the Letsrun store.
More Recent Distance Results
- MB: Ben Blankenship 2nd US trail marathon champs The race was won by Brian Whitfield in 2:59:04 with Blankenship 2nd in 3:03.46. Anna Dalton won the women's race in 3:24:02. *Results
- Singh Breaks Indian 5000 m NR to Win Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Kenya's Hellen Ekarare won the women's race in 15:08. *Yutaro Niinae Wins Yogibo Athletics Challenge Cup Steeple In 8:20 (#6 On Japan All-Time List)
- GB's 2:09 Marathoner Jonny Mellor Wins Knutsford 10k (29:44) As He Prepares For NYC Next Month
- Sweden's Ebba Tulu Chala And Olympic Marathoner Carolina Wikström Win 30k XC Race On Home Soil At The TCS Lidingöloppet
- 31-Year-Old Hungarian National Record Goes Down At Warsaw Marathon Where Levente Szemerei Won In 2:10:43 Ukraine’s Olga Nyzhnyk won the women's race (2:31:24).
- Caspian James And Sarah Perry (Course Record) Win 13 Valleys Ultra
Other Random News
- Diamond League Releases 2025 Schedule The season will start in Xiamen on April 26 and for the first time since 2022, the final will be in Zurich (August 27-28).
- The 2024 Berlin Marathon Broke The Record For The Most Finishers At A Marathon 54,280 people finished the race, breaking the record of 54,175 finishers from the 2024 Paris Marathon.
- New Study Looks At Which Countries Have Had The Most Athletic Improvement Since Their First Olympics The data they looked at shows that Hungary is the country to make the biggest improvements with a 26% increase across all sports analyzed. Sweden, France, the Netherlands and the UK are the next most improved.
- Josh Kerr, Jemma Reekie, Laura Muir Among Nominees For Scottish Athlete Of The Year
- World Athletics Nominated For BBC Green Sport Awards Organization Of The Year
Mid-D News
- Jakob Ingebrigtsen Blasts Josh Kerr, Calls Him A "Moron" In New Documentary Series Asked in one of the episodes about the origin of the rivalry between him and Kerr, Ingebrigtsen said, "The problem with the rivalry is that it's not created by the media. It's only been created by that moron because he began trash-talking me."
*MB: Jakob Ingebrigtsen interesting comments on Josh Kerr on new TV show - Nijel Amos Fires Warning To Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Marco Arop As His Doping Ban Is Set To End Next Summer The 2012 Olympic silver medalist said, "The king has been in exile, I need to come back and get my chair, you know, I need to come and get my throne."
- Cole Hocker Returns To Hometown For Ceremony In Indianapolis, Mayor Proclaims It Cole Hocker Day Hocker says that he sees the turning point of his career as when he beat Matt Centrowitz at the 2021 Olympic Trials. "Being able to beat him was one of those moments where I had to realize who I was as an athlete and see myself as a different athlete."
*MB: Met Cole Hocker this morning.
Sprint Stuff
- Three More Top Sprinters Sign With Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track Olympic 400H bronze medalist Alison Dos Santos, Olympic 400m bronze medalist Muzala Samukonga and 400H 4th placer Clement Ducos bring the list of total athletes signed with the league to 13.
- New Edwin Moses Documentary Recently Released The documentary, "Moses – 13 Steps,” was produced by Morgan Freeman and looks at Moses career where the 400 hurdler had a 122 race winning streak over nine+ years.
- MB: Cal Poly Women's 200m Indoor record-holder Shelby Daniele Fresno dies suddenly after graduation
The World Marathon Major Season Starts on Sunday
The men's race was close with the top 4 finishing within 20 seconds of each other and Mengesha, the 2019 World U20 Xc champ, beating Kenya's Cybrian Kotut by 5 seconds. It was also DEEP as 14 broke 2:07 and 22 broke 2:08. Ketema, who had the fastest debut (2:16:07) in the marathon earlier this year in Dubai, dominated the women's race winning by over two minutes.
- MB: Official 2024 BMW Berlin Marathon Live Discussion Thread
- Nick Bester finally breaks 2:20
- 30th in Berlin - Rachel Hodgkinson of GBR - 2:36:44. Any relation to Keely?
NCAA XC
- Brian Musau Crushes Course Record, Leads #1 Ranked OSU To Victory At Cowboy Jamboree Musau won in 22:55.6 as the OSU men dominated with 19 points over #8 New Mexico's 45. The #21 New Mexico women won over #16 OSU, 34-40 with New Mexico's Pamela Kosgei taking the individual win in 19:50. *Results
*MB: Solid run for Simeon Birnbaum @ Cowboy Jamboree Birnbaum was Oreogn's #1 in 14th place (24:10).
*MB: Osu Cowboy Jamboree - #3 Arkansas Men, Texas Women Win Team Titles At Chile Pepper XC Festival Arkansas' Kirami Yego took the men's individual win in 22:57 while Arkansas went 1-2 in the women's race thanks to Mia Cochran and Paityn Noe (both timed at 15:56.3). The #12 ranked Arkansas women held out some runners and were 3rd behind Texas and LSU. *Results
- Parker Wolfe And BYU Men Win Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invy Wofe ran a course record 23:04 to beat Wake Forest's Rocky Hansen by 2 seconds while #2 ranked BYU dominated the team competition by 64 points over #5 ranked Iowa State.
- Washington Women Put 5 In The Top 35 To Win Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invy; Villanova's Sadie Sigfstead Takes Individual Title In 19:55 The #5 ranked Washington beat Utah by 29 points as Sigfstead won by 8 seconds.
*MB: Nuttycombe Discussion Thread
*MB: ROCKY MF HANSEN DOES IT AGAIN!!!! 2ND AT NUTTYCOMBE!!! - Stanford Men And Women Sweep Gans Creek Classic In Missouri The #10 ranked Stanford men dominated the team race with 31 points lead by Leo Young's second place finish. Kentucky's Edward Bird won in a CR 23:07, 1.3 seconds ahead of Young. The #8 ranked Stanford women beat #9 Tennessee by 47 points; Auburn's Brenda Jepchirchir won in 19:50.1 over Stanford’s Zofia Dudek (19:53.6). *Results
*MB: Impressed by Lex and Leo Young
*MB: Not impressed by Lex and Leo Young - USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA Recap
Coaching News: The Start Of One Career, The End Of Another
- MB: Galen Rupp Now A Volunteer Assistant Coach For NAU Rupp said, "This just seemed like a good opportunity. It’s been really fun. The kids are amazing to work with" and added that he's definitely consider going into coaching after he's retired from pro running.
- MB: Former Huntington University Coach Nick Johnson Convicted Of Sexual Battery The level 6 felony by a jury carries a minimum sentence of six months and a maximum of 2 1/2 years.
Olympic News
- Former Olympic Swimming Champion Kirsty Coventry Is Bidding To Become The First Female IOC President
- Petition Could Once Again Derail Budapest's Olympic Bid Budapest wants to bid for the 2036 Olympics, but could face challenges like they did when a petition for a referendum forced them to drop out of bidding for the 2024 Games.
- Toyota Confirms End Of Olympic Sponsorship Toyota signed a deal (said to be worth $835 million) in 2015, but it expired after Paris 2024 and they have decided not to renew.
Athlo$ NYC For Women
Alexis Ohanian's inaugural female only Athlos track meet got rave reviews from the athletes and entertained the fans in New York on Thursday. Is this the future of the sport? *Full Results
Athlo$ NYC For Women
Miss the meet? Watch all the races in less than 8 minutes without knowing the results. Or you can watch the full broadcast above.
Sad News - Two Former Track Stars Pass Away Too Soon
- RIP: Former Three-Time NCAA Shot Put Champ Eileen Vanisi Passes Away At Age 52 She had struggled for years with heart failure and was awaiting a triple-organ transplant.
- RIP: Former BYU Sprinter Scott Mecham Dies From Injuries Suffered In Mountain Biking Crash
NCAA XC Previews
Can the NAU women overcome last year's disappointment and send coach Mike Smith out as a champion in his final year? Plus a loaded BYU team looks to put a bad day in '23 behind them, and does NC State have any chance at a four-peat?
- How about some love for Lipscomb and coach Nick Polk? They were 11th at NCAAs with no transfers and no foreigners.
- Ok State's Dave Smith: "There are five teams that can potentially win...but I wouldn’t say we’re a 50% chance to win."
- Easy fix for the foreign recruiting issue in the NCAA
- Iowa St adds an 8:22 steepler Joash Ruto. Does this make them a threat for NCAA XC team title?
- I have little respect for NCAA teams that assemble foreign XC Teams
- T&F News' Men's XC Preview: Top-10 Men's Individual Predictions Defending champ Graham Blanks is ranked #1 and Parker Wolfe is #7.
- 2024 Women's NCAA XC
Previous: LRC Men's Preview #1-5, #6-10
Oregon finished in the top 10 a year ago under Shalane Flanagan and Jerry Schumacher and will look to improve in '24. Plus meet the new NCAA superstar, who earned bronze in the U20 race at World XC and is the sister of a former WR holder. And how about some love for Lipscomb - which was top 10 last year with no transfers and no foreigners?
Other Distance News
- The fallout from the Camille Herron and Conor Holt WikipediaGate has begun - Lululemon ends Herron's sponsorship This story talks a lot about the LetsRun forum. Canadian Runing broke the story earlier in the week. *Original story
*MB: Email from Conor Holt (Camille Herron's husband) taking responsibility for Wikipedia edits Her husband tried to take full responsibility for the edits in an email he sent to LRC.
*MB: Camille Herron and hubby are deleting Courtney and Killian's accomplishments on Wikipedia and pumping herself instead
*MB: Balancing Accountability and Empathy in the Camille Herron Debate - Berlin is Sunday: Preview - Tigist Ketema and Tadese Takele (2:03:24 pb) lead Berlin’s 50th Marathon Last year, Eliud Kipchoge (2:02:42) and Tigist Assefa (2:11:52 WR) were your winners but neither is back.
*Athletics Illustrated's women's preview - Joshua Cheptegei & Peres Chepchirchi will run Vedanta Delhi Half on October 20th
- Toni Reavis: In 1 year, September 26-28, 2025, San Diego will become the focal center of the running They'll be hosting the 2nd World Road Running Champs.
- Lessons from a 700-day running streak Nova Scotia's Lee Alonzo Murphy has been running a minimum of 10K a day for more than 700 days
Pre-Meet Athlos News
The inaugural women's-only meet is on Thursday in New York and features four Olympic champions from Paris (Gabby Thomas, Faith Kipyegon, Masai Russell, Marileidy Paulino) in its six events as well walk-out songs and a performance by rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
This Week's Podcast
Athlos, the women's-only track meet with $100k in prize money per event, and Megan Thee Stallion as the feature entertainer is Thursday in NYC. We break it down and also preview the NCAA XC season.
Julien Alfred Returns Home As The Fastest Woman In The World / Odds & Ends
- Thousands greet Julien Alfred in rapturous homecoming to St. Lucia
- Prime minister greeted her and then there was a motorcade around the island
- Man who bit Julien Alfred's gold medal responds to criticism Talk about disgusting. *Photo
- Video of Alfred's homecoming
- MB: Film critic slams Ingebrigtsen amazon video series: "What we get to see are three nouveau riche bastards" "Here we are offered no context. None of the people are presented properly. None of the sports presentations are put into context. What we get to see are three nouveau riche bastards who have each built themselves a house of the smooth funky bird box type."
- MB: Elisabeth Ingebrigtsen responds to social media criticism of how Jakob treats her: "I can stand up for myself just fine." She also tells viewers not to judge them by the video which is designed to create extreme engagement and says that things can look very different on screen compared to how it is in real life.
- London Marathon runners in 2024 raised a world record £73.5m for charity
- 2014 NCAA xc champ Kate Avery has become a trail runner “I have been a New Balance athlete for the past eight years in events from track, cross and country,” she says, “so when I heard the brand was forming a new trail and mountain running focused team, I immediately agreed to be part of it.”
- Arkansas HS XC girls team with triplets is hoping to be 1st Arkansas team to qualify for NXN
Doping News
- MB: 29:50 Kenyan 10k Runner Faith Chepkoech Gets 3-Year Doping Ban For EPO
- USADA Head Travis Tygart Tricked Into Recorded Conversation With Russian "Pranksters" We're not sure what exactly the prank is, but in the interview Tygart said that any athletes who compete in Russia's "Friendship Games" in 2025, could be banned from the Olympics.
- 2:04 Marathoner Joshua Belet And 67:17 Half-Marathoner Paskalia Chepkorir Kipkoech Are Among 8 More Kenyans To Get Doping Bans
*MB: Another 8 Kenyans busted - WADA Publishes Updated Technical Guide Which Comes Into Force On January 1, 2025
Non-Distance News
- Grand Slam Track Signs All Three Women's Olympic 100H Medalists - Masai Russell, Cyréna Samba-Mayela And Jasmine Camacho-Quinn
- Italian HJer Gianmarco Tamberi Contemplating Future After Disappointing Paris Olympics The 32-year-old isn't sure if he wants to continue to the 2028 Olympics. In Paris his performance suffered because he was dealing with intense pain from kidney stones. He couldn't take medication to dissolve the stones because it could be considered doping.
- Japan 110H NR Holder Shunsuke Izumiya Jumps 8.14m To Win National Corporate Championships Long Jump
- Japan Under-20 400H Record Goes Down Twice At National University Championships The previous record was 28-years-old, but Shota Fuchigami ran 48.78 in his semi to break it before Hayato Shimoda ran 48.59 in his semi to break it again.
Ultra Running News
- Ultrarunner Tara Dower Breaks Appalachian Trail Speed Record, Running 2,189 Miles In 40 Days Dower's daily schedule was getting up at 3AM and running for about 17 hours with only short breaks for meals and 90-second "dirt naps." She broke the previous record from 2018 by 13 hours.
- Canadian Running Magazine: Ultrarunner Camille Herron And Her Husband Accused Of Removing Accolades From Other Athletes' Wikipedia Pages And "Fluffing" Her Own Herron's husband, Conor Holt, emailed LetsRun admitting to making the edits and apologizing while adding that "Camille had nothing to do with this."
*MB: Email from Conor Holt (Camille Herron's husband) taking responsibility for Wikipedia edits
*MB: Camille Herron and hubby are deleting Courtney and Killian's accomplishments on Wikipedia and pumping herself instead - British Ultrarunner James Norbury Sets Record For Summiting 30 Of Britain’s Highest Peaks In Three Days
World Marathon Majors News
- 2025 Boston Marathon Cut-Off Ends Up 6:51 Faster Than The Qualifying Time More than 12,000 runners were denied entry despite running the qualifying standard for their sex/age category.
*MB: Boston Marathon Cutoff: 6:51 - Boston Marathon Lowers Qualifying Times For 2026 Race By Five Minutes Now men in the 18 to 34 age category will have to run 2:55 and the women (and the men who declare they're not men) will need to run 3:25.
- Chicago Marathon Receives World Athletics Heritage Plaque The World Athletics Heritage Plaque is a "location-based recognition, awarded for an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport."
- London Marathon Raises Record $98.28 Million For Charity This breaks their previous record as the world's largest annual one-day fundraising event of $88.63 million from 2019.
XC Season Is Here
Oklahoma State was historically great in 2023, can they repeat in 2024? How will NAU fare in Mike Smith's final year as coach? Is this Arkansas' best team since the glory years? Plus BYU is super deep thanks in part to an 8th-year senior.
It's time to get back into cross country mode. With young American stars Graham Blanks and Parker Wolfe returning to the NCAA, the 2024 XC season should be a great one.
Women's Mid-D News
- Video Interview With Shannon Rowbury On Being Elevated To Bronze 12 Years After The London Olympics Rowbury was emotional talking about finding out the news she was being elevated to 2012 Olympic 1500m bronze after three women who finished ahead of her have been banned for doping.
- WA Profile: World Under-20 800m Champ Sarah Moraa Aims To Continue In Cousin's Footsteps Like her cousin and training partner, world 800m champ Mary Moraa, Sarah started off as a sprinter and only moved to the 800m in 2023. Now she's world U20 and African champ with a 1:59.39 PB.
- T&F News Talks To Addy Wiley About Her Rookie Pro Season Wiley says a hamstring injury three weeks before the Olympic Trials kept her from making the team so she instead put her focus into breaking the American 1000m record which she did last month in Poland.
Other Distance News
- German Fernandez's Sister, Giselle Fernandez, Wins Her Race At Woodbridge XC Classic The younger sister of the former NCAA champ ran 17:27 to win her race by 14 seconds. (For comparison, Rylee Blade had the fastest girls' time of the day with a course record 15:20).
*MB: German Fernandez's Sister - Daniel Kinyanjui (27:08) And Loice Chemnung (30:13) Win tRUNsylvania International 10K
- Boston Man Charged For Flying Drone Near Boston Marathon Finish Line He was charged with "unlawfully flying a drone in restricted National Defense Airspace" and agreed to pay a $5000 fine and forfeit his drone (valued at $4000).
- Sad News: Wesleyan XC Runner Dies During Race Nefertari Holston collapsed and went into cardiac arrest during the race in Georgia.
More US Tracks Named For Olympic Medalists
- Grant Fisher To Have Hometown Indoor Track Named In His Honor The indoor track in Grand Blanc Township, MI will be named for Fisher in a special ceremony on Friday.
- Sha’Carri Richardson Has Track Named After Her In Dallas Richardson, who is from Dallas, attended a ceremony at the John Kincaide Stadium where the track has been renamed the Sha'Carri Richardson Track.
International Road Results
Edris won in 44:51 putting him tied for #8 on the world all-time list and 27 seconds clear of three-time world 10,000m champion Cheptegei. Ethiopia's Asayech Ayichew won the women's race in 51:15.
USATF 10k Champs
Marathon Trials 4th placer McClain won in 31:40 over Natosha Rogers (32:00) while Simbassa ran 28:18 to beat out Hillary Bor (28:24).
XC/Trail Action
- Ali Wimer Leads Minnesota Women To Roy Griak Team Title; Utah Valley's Mohamed Guled Wins Men's Gold Race, Wyoming Claims Team Victory At Roy Griak Weimer won the 6k in 21:08, 5 seconds ahead of her teammate as Minnesota beat #25 ranked Utah Valley by 6 points. Guled won the men's race in 24:55 with Wyoming taking the team title 8 points ahead of Navy. *Results
*MB: Wyoming wins Roy Griak. Sleeper team for top 5 @ NCAAs?
- MB: Allie Ostrander 9th at Headlands 27k in 2:27:04! Wins went to Morocco's Elhousine Elazzaoui and Kenya's Joyce Muthoni Njeru.
- Woodbridge Cross Country Classic Boys Recap Herriman UT won their third straight team title as Owen Powell edged Josiah Tostenson for the individual win (13:30.3 to 13:30.5).
*MB: Woodbridge is not a full 3 mile bruh - Woodbridge Cross Country Classic Girls Recap Rylee Blade runs dominant 15:20 meet record, Flower Mound TX wins team title. Olympic Trials qualifier Sadie Engelhardt was 5th in 15:40.
*MB: Blade wins Woodbridge!
*Woodbridge Friday Recap - MB: Pikes Peak Ascent: Joe Gray 1st, Seth DeMoor 2nd Allie McLaughlin won the women's race.
Olympic News
- InsideTheGames: With IOC Presidency In Sigh, Seb Coe Hits The Campaign Trail The article suggests that Coe could abolish the age limits on IOC president as he did with World Athletics.
- Advertising Company Dentsu Fined $2.1 Million For Tokyo Olympics Bid-Rigging Scandal
- India Wants To Host The 2036 Olympics And Finish Top 10 In The Medal Tally They only finished 71st in the 2024 medal tally with one silver and five bronze medals.
Sprint Stuff
- GB Sprint Legend Linford Christie Talks About Coaching, Not Feeling Welcome In The Sport Today And The Netflix Sprint Documentary Some interesting quotes from Christie who says he wouldn't have wanted to be part of the Netflix documentary when he was competing. “It makes you say things you shouldn’t say. “You never upset your opponents because you give them 10 per cent more adrenaline to beat you. There’s a lot of hype now and people saying they’re champions before they are champions."
- Olympic 100m Bronze Medalist Melissa Jefferson Joins Grand Slam Track She is the seventh athlete to sign with Michael Johnson's new league.
Get Your Votes In
We're introducing the NCAA performer of week and since September is all about getting your feet wet in XC we're combining the "preseason" action so far which has been highlighted by performances by some new Kenyan men in the NCAA ranks.
More Fan Voting
- Vote For Men's European Athlete Of The Year Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Mondon Duplantis head the list of ten nominees.
- Vote For Women's European Athlete Of The Year The ten woman list includes Sifan Hassan, Keely Hodgkinson and Femke Bol.
Can Nike Get Its Mojo Back?
- MB: Nike CEO John Donahoe steps down In June, Nike shares had their biggest one-day drop in history - 20% - and now the embattled former eBay CEO is out. A 32-year Nike employee Elliott Hill will come out of retirement and take over.
- MB: 2:16 marathoner Rosemary Wanjiru has withdrawn from Berlin due to injury meaning there will be zero Kenyan women in Berlin
- MB: Noah Lyles appears on SportsCenter LA and reiterates he wants to see a TV provider before he signs with Grand Slam Track Does this mean ESPN will be the provider?
- Spanish triple jumper Ana Peleteiro dumps Ivan Pedroso as coach After winning bronze in Tokyo, she failed to medal in Paris this year and now will be coached by her partner, French triple jumper Benjamin Compaoré.
CBA's Win Streak Is 50 Years & Counting
The CBA boys' win streak turns 50 years old today. They haven't lost a dual meet since 1973.
More Distance News
- MB: Japanese equivalent of NCAAs have started & run through Sunday Japan Running News' Brett Larner has the top seeds and the link also takes you to a free stream and live results.
- Q&A with New Mexico coach Darren Gauson, who explains how he's transforming the New Mexico XC program Recruiting and NIL are huge and the Scot is not a afraid to admit it. "As a whole program, we did 150 official visits in our track & field program and we brought in 47 athletes to our team this year." *MB: I have little respect for NCAA teams that assemble foreign XC Cross Teams
- Famed HS XC coach Doug Soles releases album of 20 XC-related songs Soles coaches the defending NXN champs - the Herriman boys - who are #1 again this year.
- You can now use Marriott Points for a spot in the Abbott World Marathon Majors It's an auction and the Tokyo spot already is 152,000 points with 26 days to go.
LRC Podcast
The 2024 Diamond League season came to an end. Jakob got the win in the 1500, but we're more interested in breaking down his half marathon debut. Sydney McLaughlin made a rare Diamond League appearance. And we delve into the crazy fast times on the track in 2024.
When Meets Compete, The Athletes Win
- Diamond League Prize Money To Skyrocket in 2025 - Regular Meet Prize Money To Increase By 43% in 2025 The total prize pool will be over $9 million for the 2025 season (and roughly $18 million if you count appearance fees). Each regular season meet will feature $500k in prize money in 2025 versus $350k in 2024.
- Which Kenyans racked up the most $$ on the DL circuit in 2024? Faith Kipyegon won 100k, Mary Moraa 66k, and Emmanuel Wanyonyi won 52k.
- Athlos NYC VS Grand Slam Track - Huge Prize Money Rewards For Track's New Leagues The Athlos meet has a prize pool of $500,000 with $60k for the winner of each race while Michael Johnson's Grand Slam has an overall prize pool of $12.6 million with $100,000 going to the winner of each race at each meet.
RIP Rebecca Cheptegei
- Thousands Mourn Rebecca Cheptegei At Her Funeral In Uganda She was buried in her father's homestead in eastern Uganda. As a member of Uganda's armed forces, soldiers carried the coffin and she was given a three-volley salute. Mourners included her mother, father and two daughters.
David Rudisha's 800m Record on Borrowed Time?
At the start of 2024, only five men had ever broken 1:42. Five have done it in 2024 alone, and David Rudisha's 1:40.91 world record looks poised to fall. What is going on? Jonathan Gault interviews coaches and scientists from all over the world and unveils Project 99 - the quest for the first sub-1:40 800 in history.
Two Final LetsRun.com Pieces On The Paris Olympics
Two Final LetsRun.com Pieces On The Paris Olympics
The Olympics produce the most incredible highs and lows. Which athletes overachieved and overachieved in the Paris track and field action?
Almost no one who emerged from the repechage made the final in Paris. World Athletics president Seb Coe admits, "It was an IOC creation. It wasn’t something that we chose ourselves."
Supporters Club podcast
One final look back at Paris, a look ahead to LA and we pay respects to Usain Bolt's 100m world record and ponder how Tyreek Hill could do in a race vs Noah Lyles.
LRC Exclusives
LRC Exclusives
Was this the best Olympic track & field competition ever? Why did the US men run so well? Plus the greatest unanswered questions from Paris 2024 and why Jakob Ingebrigtsen should not abandon the 1500m.
A lot to talk about on this week's LRC podcast. We couldn't get to it all so join the Supporters Club to get Friday's bonus podcast.
Your latest American stars share their insights.
American Record Holders
American Record Holders
Keira D'Amato, the new American record holder in the marathon, was joined by Deena Kastor, who held the record for 15 years.
Sisson was the guest on the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast after she became the first American to go sub 67 in the half marathon on a record-eligible course. Podcast highlights above. Full pod here.
Woody Kincaid joined us after he broke the American record indoors at 5000. He talks above why he left the Bowerman Track Club. Podcast highlights and link to full podcast here.
Coogan's New Balance Boston team had 3 Olympians in 2021 and 2022 could be the biggest year yet for the program with 2 new additions and the TRACK at New Balance coming on March 1st.
Danny Mackey has taken the Brooks Beasts from an unproven club to the Olympic podium in its first decade.
Dathan Ritzenhein is the first of the top pro coaches to sit down and talk about his club heading into the 2022 campaign.
Best of Jon Gault
Best of Jon Gault
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
Take Your Love of LetsRun to the Next Level
LetsRun Classics
LetsRun Classics
‒ Henry Kozlowski, one of three men who have run all 45 Chicago Marathons, on what keeps him streaking.