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A Man Worthy of Bumping the Olympic Trials From Quote of the Day:
"I'm very happy that the good man above has permitted me to stay on earth in order to reach my age. Don't feel sorry for me. I'm O.K"
-1936 Olympic 800m Champ John Woodruff who died on Wednesday. Woodruff, the grandson of slaves, got a lot of attention last year on the 70th anniversary of his historic Olympic win and impressed us with his outlook on life.
(The article above is from last year. Woodruff obituary in the NY Times is here)

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Book Review: Running Within
Want to improve your mental outlook on running? Then Running Within is the book for you. Read our review of this excellent book.
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We interview one of our own:
LetsRun.com's Rojo talks about coaching at Cornell

LetsRun.com 2008 Men's Marathon Trials Preview Radio Podcast-
Listen To Rojo, Wejo,Toni Reavis and Matt Taylor Break Down The Field
Now available on demand to listen or download. We give you our genius opinions and break down the incredible field. And until talking to Toni and Matt we didn't realize the blowout profiles/stories/video on Chasingglory.com this week.

Ryan Hall Officially the Favorite
On the Trials preview radio podcast we first revealed the votes and Ryan Hall is the favorite followed by a close second in Abdi Abdirahman. 7 guys are clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the voting.

More on Woodruff: 1936 800m Champ Olympian John Woodruff Dies New York Times
*
More on John Woodruff from NYTimes Last Year
*More on John Woodruff from ESPN

$100,000 LetsRun.com Marathon Trials Prediction Contest Get your picks in. Who will come out on top: Meb, Abdi, Hall, Ritz, Alan, or Sell? Want to win $100,000? Just predict the top 10 perfectly and be the only one to do so.

IOC Head Jacques Rogge Undecided if Thanou Should Get Marion Jones' Gold

Human Interest Trials Stories Below- (Race Stories To The Right)
Maybe there is hope for Rojo in 2012

39 Yr Old Cecil Franke Excited To Compete In First Trials
- The former Ball St. star rises each morning at 4:45 am to train prior to going to his job as a teacher and coach at a HS.
*Star Tribune Looks At Jason Lehmkuhle and Chris Lundstrom
*Nick Schuetze Ready For 1st Trials - The 25 yr old UPortland Grad Ran 2:16 at the downhill St. George Marathon
*New York Times Profile on Lost Boy from Sudan Olympic Trials Marathon Runner Macharia Yuot New York Times

ChasingKimbia.Com: Fasil Ready For Trials The most recent blog update includes a great quote from Kenyan marathoner Stephen Baba Kiogora who says when asked if he really wants to beat Ethiopians when he's racing: “Matt, everyone wants to win. Even me, if I was racing against my father, my brother, and my son, I want to beat them. But they are not my enemy.”

Even The New York Times Is Catching On To The Fact That Baseball's Drug Testing Program Is A Joke Baseball teams often are tipped off two days prior to the tests that a random, unannounced test is coming.

IAAF To Issue New Rules Concerning Youths Changing Countries It's expected the new rules will help the Kenyans keep some athletes being bought by Qatar/Bahrain.

Runnersworld Says Ryan Hall is the Favorite for the Trials

Russians Aleksey Sokolov and Alina Ivanova Repeat at Dublin Marathon in 2:09 and 2:29 The last Monday in October is a holiday in Ireland.

Chariots of Fire Record at Cambridge Broken The only 2 other guys to do it under the allowed time are Olympic gold medallists including Seb Coe.

World 400m Champ Christine Ohuruogu Gets Private Hearing at Her Request to be Allowed to Compete at Beijing Olympics Guardian

Weekend Road Action:
Frankfurt: Wilfred Kigen Threepeats at Frankfurt Marathon (Gets $64,000)
Olympic steeple champ Wilson Boit Kipketer runs 2:13 PR, Dieter Baumann runs 2:30 IAAF
DC: Former Footlocker Champ Kristen Henehan (Gordon) Wins Marine Corps Marathon

*Ruben Garcia Fails to Threepeat at Marine Corps Marathon as Tamrat Ayalew Wins

*Former Brooks Hansons Runner Carl Rundell Gave Up Opportunity to Run Olympic Trials to Run Marine Corps Marathon

The Washington Post now has streaming video of the finish by time at the Marine Corps Marathon.
Nairobi: Rose Chesire Jepkosgei and John Njoroge Win Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon and $20,000+
The Nairobi Marathon often is a true rags to riches story. Jepkosgei had trouble coming up with the $20 bus fare to the race.

Britain: World Champ Luke Kibet, Rose Cheruiyot Wins Great South 10 Miler

New Delhi:
Ethiopia's Derebe Alemu , Rwanda's Dieudonne Disi Win New Delhi Half Marahton and $20,000 Each IAAF
Venice:
Jonathan Kipkorir Kosgei and Lenah Cheruiyot Do Something That is Very Hard, Get Repeat Victories at Venice Maratohn (2:12 and 2:27) IAAF

Drugs:WADA Head Dick Pound Defends Elka Graham She's the swimmer who said she was offered drugs by another swimmer but has refused to give the name.
*Some Fellow Swimmers Defending Elka Graham for Not Naming Names

Ridiculous: Roy Martin, Arrested, Sent to Jail for Buying a $1 Xanax and Attempting to Stop Drug Problem at His School Article and brief video. For those of us from Dallas, Martin is a legend. He ran 20.13 for 200 in high school.
*Roy Martin Podcast We haven't had time to listen to it but the finalsprint tracked him down.

Ben Johnson Talks to Al Jazeera About Marion Jones: "I believe that everone on the international level is using performance enhancing drugs..."

Olympic Trials:
US Olympic Team Trials- Men's Marathon
*Peter Gilmore, Josh Rohatinsky, Ryan Shay Talk About Being Darkhorses at the 2008 Olympic Trials
These guys are pretty good but they'll have to improve a lot/little (2+ minutes/5 seconds a mile) or have some in front of them have an off day to make the team.
* New York Road Runners' Central Park Loop: State by State Look at the Trials
New York and Florida should be embarrassed. 1 2 qualifiers between them.

*Previous:
*
Khannouchi Dealing with Racing in Orthotics for First Time, Training During Ramadan In the article he says he still could represent Morocco in the 2008 Olympics. If that's the case, he should lose all of his American records. But don't count Special K out from wearing the U-S-A in Beijing. If anyone can make the team after a 1:05 half marathon it is him.
NY Times Starting to Pay Attention:
*
Ny
Times Looks at Elite Runners And Their Marriages to Other Elites (They'll be 7 Couples in NY Next Weekend) Ryan Shay says, "In college, a lot of distance runners are obsessive-compulsive, and I didn’t want to deal with that"
*
The Brooks Hanson Guys Give You Advice for Running Your Own Marathon New York Times

US Women Get Some Love: Terrence Mahon Outlines Deena's 4 Year Training Plan Leading Up to 2008 Olympics Interesting look at her goals.
*Kara Goucher Came a Long Way to Her World Championship Bronze in 10k

Ambulance With Dying Runner in It Got Lost on Way to Hospital So many people were going down to the heat that ambulances from the suburbs had to be brought in.

Drug News: Unnamed Australian Track and Field Athlete Tests Positive
*China's Sun Yingjie's 2 Year Drug Ban is Over She was the 4th woman under the 2:20 barrier.

*Australian Swimmer Refuses to Give Name of Swimmer Who Offered Her Drugs If she wanted to write an article about the athlete she should turn over the name to anti-doping authorities. We turned over the name of a marathoner who was supposedly using EPO when a video was presented to us (the athlete is still competing).

On the boards: How Great Can the Detroit Marathon Become?
*Time to Boycott Marathons
For some reason we're supposed to boycott marathons because there are too many people running slow.

More Weekend Action: Great Recap of Gyeongju International Marathon In Korea Where Kimbia's Charles Kibiwott Lost by 1 Second in 2:09:45 A nice detailed recap by Matt Taylor
*Former CU Start Payton Batliner Wins 2007 Amica Insurance Breakers Marathon 2:27 was his time.

Trials News:
*Great Read on Ryan Hall's Early Training
Ryan told his dad he wanted to go on a 15 miler with him in the 8th grade. His dad said sure, but no whining. The rest is history.
*Great Brian Sell Video Link fixed.
*NYC's Own Anthony Famiglietti Gives Video Tour of Olympic Marathon Trials Course
Nice video.
*Hanson's Runner Mike Reneau Has Only Been Running 3 Years Since a Layoff and He Could Surprise at Trials
*Meb Keflezighi Audio Interview

A Look at Steve Jones, Alan Culpepper, and Pete Julian's Tempo Sports Training Club in Boulder

Kenyan News: Athletics Kenya Trying to Get Its Books in Order After IAAF Freezes $100,000 Payment over Concerns About Accounting Associated with World XCs
*Athletics Kenya Trying to Monitor Training Camps, Road Races in Country

California High Schooler Katie Dunn is Setting Course Records for #1 Ranked Team in California

Anticipation Building for Paula Radcliffe's Run at 2007 ING NYC Marathon The race features a great matchup of Radcliffe versus Ndereba. Only 18 men in the Olympic Trials the day before have a faster pr than Radcliffe.

LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Men
Unvelievable:
Invuti Wins Unbelievable Finish in Chicago
Words don't do it justice just watch the video above.
*Chicago Tribune Recap of Ivuti's Narrow Win

It's hard for words to describe the greatest finish in (Chicago) marathon history. It came down to two time world champ
Jaouad Gharib and former track/xc star Patrick Ivuti, fresh off his 59:27 half marathon. Gharib surged ahead going up a slight incline down the finishing straight. Ivuti then battled back and took the lead on the downhill. Gharib dug back and retoook the lead as they barreled towards the finish and the two guys still standing there with the finish tape which is only about 5 feet wide. Ivuti surged back right at the finish and it was too close to tell but Ivuti got the win. Hot weather took its toll on everyone.
*Video: Patrick Ivuti Talks About His Narrow Win In Chicago

London Champ Martin Lel, London Runner Up Goumri To Race at 2007 ING NYC Marathon Remember the days when NY was 2nd class to Chicago?
*Video: Watch the Incredible Sprint Finish in London this Year (Final Quarter Mile of arguably the greatest men's marathon ever)

Post of the Week on the Message Board A guy wrote in talking about possibly passing out at the Chicago Marathon because of low blood pressure in the heat and then the author of the scienceofsports blog came onboard and helped explain the situation. Interesting Read.

Lengthy Video Interview With Gebrselassie with Sean Hartnett After His World Record Hartnett knows his stuff so we're sure this is a great interview without even watching it. Hartnett knows virtually every top runner in Kenya and Tergat turned to Hartnett for advice prior to moving to the marathon.

Victah Sailer's Berlin Marathon Photos See Geb make history.

NYC/Trials News:
Thursday:
US Men Ready to Rumble

Abdi and Hall the Favorites

Thursday the majority of the favorites for the US Olympic Trials addressed the media (Brian Sell, Dathan Ritzenhein, Alan Culpepper, Ryan Hall, and Abdi Abdirahman).Sell and Hall looked nervous for sure but that all means nothing on Saturday. It is almost time to forget about the hype and let them lace them up and take to the streets of NYC in the most anticipated Olympic Marathon Trials in ages. The media was out in full force on Thursday and the US stars are getting a lot of press, although not much of note was said.

Hall: Ryan Hall Profile in LA Times: "A silver medal trumps a 2:08" Latimes.com
*Abdi Abdirahman New York Times Profile New York Times
Meb: Dick Patrick of USA Today Examines Meb Keflezighi's Chances - Meb says he's in better shape than 2004 USA Today
Ritz: The Eugene Guard Examines New Hometown Boy Ritz's Chances - Ritz recently completed a 24-mile run at a 5:09 pace. He'll also be taking gels.
Sell:
Brian Sell Realistic About His Chances - Sell Acknoweldges American marathoning has come a long way in the last 4 years
*
Newsday Profile on US Runners: "U.S. marathon runners making a big move"
*Hall, Culpepper, Abdi Teleconference Quotes
Video:
*Highlights from RunnersWorld We praise RunnersWorld for the 2nd time in 2 Weeks.
*Full Video of Press Conference With Amerian Men and International Men
Wednesday:
2008 NYC Media Day 2 (Wednesday): Jelena Prokopcuka, Wami Battling for Half a Million $$$$
American Darkhorses: Jason Hartmann, Clint Verran and Ryan Shay Address the Media, Pete Gilmore Sick
LetsRun.com recaps Wednesday's Media news. Text, photos, video.
*Abdi Abdirahman is Very Confident/Well Prepared Abdi is rightfully considered by many to be the favorite. He certainly is full of confidence. "The marathon is my greatest chance (for a medal). I have almost a 70-80 percent chance of getting a medal because I'm capable of running fast and in the heat (in Beijing). I've been training in Arizona most of my life. The heat won't affect me that much."
*Philly Long Profile on Khannouchi With Pictures
*Dick Patrick of USAToday Looks at Training Groups and Previews the Trials
*New York Times Looks at Brooks Team Hansons
*Josh Rohatinsky Ready For Fist Marathon Rohatinsky thought his recent 1:02:56 half marathon was too conservative but is pleased with his training including 18 mile tempos at 5 min pace.
*Lengthy Sports Illustrated Profiel Of Rohatinsky's Coach And Marathon Legend Alberto Salazar
*Running Times Jim Gerweck Sums Up The Drama of The Trials Perfectly For A Ct. Paper:
"I've been to the men's and women's trials races for the past two Olympiads and the drama is equal to anything a seventh game of the Series or the last two minutes of a tie Super Bowl can dish up. The top three finishers get a trip to the Olympics, in this case next year's Games in Beijing; fourth place is as good (or bad) as last."
Tuesday at the Trials:
Khannouchi, Meb Ready to Go
A candid Khalid Khannouchi addressed the media along with Meb Keflezighi. Khannouchi took on a wide range of issues (the fall trials date, the 1 shot American system, and Haile Gebrselassie's new world record in the marathon) as arguably the greatest marathoner of all time tries to make the Olympics for the first time. Both Khalid and Meb say they're training has been good of late.
*Video of Press Conferences We'll get more up with Khalid later.
More Khannouchi: "
"All the reporters who said that (I ran for money rather than country), it wasn't true, and I'm still sacrificing to make my dream true.'' - A defiant Khalid Khanouchi speaking about not running in the last 2 Olympic Trials. Khannouchi gets ripped in the article by the writer, Philip Hersh. Hersh does not mention that Khannouchi didn't get his US citizenship until after the 2000 London Marathon.
*Dathan Ritzenhein Is Ready
Denver Post Ritz seems pleased with his training.and is expecting a fast race that turns into a war of attrition.
Ritz: "I feel really good. Things have been clicking along really good, especially the last month or so. Everything seems to be coming together just at the right moment."
*Excerpts From Meb and Khalid's Teleconference
(Different than press conference here)
*AP Preview Of Trials Looks At Meb, Hall and Khalid Meb had to relocate his training due to the San Diego fires. Khalid is very impressed by Hall. Khalid: "Ryan Hall is the future of the United States.
*New York Post Looks At Khannouchi's And Keflezighi's Chances Khannouchi speaks very highly of Meb and says Meb has the spead to break his marathon records. Khannouchi also says of his recent races: "To be honest, I [stunk].. That's past. That's history. This is the present. I have a dream of representing the U.S. in the Olympics. Hopefully I'll rise to the occasion."

*Amby Burfoot Wants Brooks Hansons Guys to Rabbit Brian Sell It seems like a lot of people are rooting for Sell to break up the running royalty atop the US rankings. But people don't need to be too fearful. We've never heard of a sit and kick marathon. Someone will make a move at some point.
*
"He told me, you have a gift and you should not waste it."
-Catherine Ndereba, who is expected to battle with Paula Radcliffe at Sunday's ING NYC Marathon, on why she became a runner instead of a teacher.
*Steve Cram Writes on Paula Radcliffe Running In NYC
The women's race is going to be a great one with Ndereba and Radcliffe.
*
Catherine Ndereba's Schoolmates Thought She was Crazy She Ran so Much EA Standard

*Jack Daniels Talks About Pete Gilmore and Abdi's Chances at the Trials

*
Silicon Alley Blog Critical of Having to Pay $4.99 to Watch NYC Marathon Not sure what he is complaining about as he can just watch the local NBC broadcast. He should have sympathy for his brethren in Silicon Valley who will have to pay the $4.99 and may get the Trials for free, but will have to wake up at 4:30 am to watch it.

Conference Cross Country Action
Sunday: More Conference Results here

*Wisconsin Men Get Record Breaking 9th Big 10 XC Title
Matt Withrow got the individual crown. Withrow has had some injury problems the last few years but this win reminds us what a phenom he is at XC. Rupp and McDougal remember. Michigan's Mike Woods dropped out and Michigan finished 5th in a very subpar performance.
*Minnesota Women Win First Ever Big 10 XC Title The Wolverine women had won 5 straight.
*Big 10 Results (Matt Withrow and Diane Nukuri Get Individual Titles)

Tyson Gay Not Happy Arkansas Lost NCAA Titles, but is Glad They are Appealing

Previous Conference News:
SEC:
John McDonnell and Arkansas Get Their 34th Straight Conference XC Title McDonnell was dead on when he said prior to the race: "Alabama has four really good runners. They will match our top four, so it will come down to the fifth runner" Arkansas' 5th crushed Alabamas.
*SEC Results

*SEC Photos

Pac 10s: Pac 10 Results (Stanford Women (Arianna Lambie), Oregon Men (Shadrak Kiptoo) Get Titles)

*Pac 10 Photos

Big East: Louisville Men, West Virginia Women Win Big East Titles
Ron Mann has quicky imported his NAU magic to Louisville.
*Men's Results (Bobby Curtis Wins 2nd Big East Crown)

*Women's Results (Melissa Grelli Wins)

Friday:
Big 12s
For 9th Straight Year Colorado Sweeps Big 12 Titles Mark Wetmore's streak is pretty incredible and it must suck to be a coach at another Big 12 school because basically every year you know you're fighting for 2nd.
Men:Men's Team Results (Oklahoma State 2nd)

*Individual Results (Cu's Brent Vaughan and Kenyon Neuman go 1-2)

Women: Big 12 Women's Team Results

* Individual Results (Sally Kipyego Defeats Jenny Barringer)

*More Big 12 Results

Heps: Heps Men's Results (Princeton Men, Leg by Michael Maag Dominate, Rojo's Cornell Squad 2nd)
*Heps Men's Recap

Heps Women: *Heps Women's Results (Princeton Women Score 25 Points And Liz Costello Gets Win)

*Heps Women's Recap

Previous:

*Nice Profile on Wesley Korir, Louisville's Hope for the Big East Crown

Previous XC News:
LetsRun.com NCAA Polls Oregon and Stanford #1 Heading into Crucial Conference Action
*
Pac 10 XC Preview pac-10.org
*Jerry Schumacher Addresses the Media

Arkansas Gets Stripped of 2 NCAA Titles Tyson Gay may have gotten them a lot of positive attention this summer, but his association with Lance Brauman has now cost them big time. The good news for the Razorbacks is that they get the scholarships thye voluntarily gave up back.
*Message Board thread
*Story from Arkansas Paper

More NY News:
*
G
eti Wami After $500,000 World Marathon Majors Prize on Streets of NY Wami was super excited to get $14 when she first started running.
*Amputee World Record Holder in Marathon and Triathlon: Amy Palmiero-Winters Wins Runners World Heroes of Running Award She'll be honored in NY next week.

Stricter Drug Policy Adopted by PRRO Circuit Events: Athletes Who Have Tested Positive Won't Be Invited, But Can Register On Their Own

Spira CEO Writes an Open Letter to Letsrun.com Readers You know the company that is dependent on USATF "banning" it's shoes.
*LetsRun.com Readers Respond With an Open Letter to the Spira CEO

Gebrselassie Talks About Running First 10 Miles of Detroit Free Press Marathon into Canada "This one, one day, I believe can become big like Chicago, New York and Boston"

Scott Bauh, DII Star, Turning Heads With his 1:03:04 Half Marathon Clearly he looks like the real deal.

Let the Hoopla Begin: LetsRun.com
Thousands of Spectators, The Greatest American Field Ever Assembled, and Much More: America's Top Coaches Brad Hudson, Keith Hanson, and Terrence Mahon Talk About the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials

Hudson's Athletes Doing "Much, Much, Much Harder" Training
Teleconferences are usually pretty boring but since the greatest American field ever is assembling in New York in two weeks we've broken down for you the highlights of what America's top coaches are saying about the Olympic Marathon Trials and their athletes' preparations. Learn how Brad Hudson's athletes have done "much, much, much harder" training for this marathon than anything else, learn about Brian Sell's 150+ mile weeks, predictions of hundreds of thousands of spectators, how USATF was "inept" at developing marathoners, and much more including Jason Lehmkuhle no longer being a darkhorse candidate at the Trials.
*Audio Highlights and Full Teleconference If You're Into That
O
n the boards: Is this the greatest collection of American distance talent ever in one race?
More Marathon News:
*
Meb Keflezighi Celebrating 20 Years in America
*
Dathan Ritzenhein Interview
*
Ryan Hall Interview

LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon Women
Unbelievable
Adriana Pirtea Blows It

Just watch the video above. Shorter video here if you're impatient

*
Chicago Tribune Recap of Ivuti's Narrow Win
Adriana Pirtrea, a runner basically no one has heard of (including ourselves) (she did finish 2nd at an NCAA indoors once), was on her way to winning the Chicago Marathon. She had been clear of Berhane Adere for miles. Pirtrea, as she took the final turn, was high fiving the crowd. She had a 15 second lead with 58 seconds of runing left. Little did she know that Adere had overcome whatever problems she had had and was quickly making up ground. Pirtrea never looked back and was strolling into the finish thinking about her career changing win. Meanwhile, Adere was in an all out sprint on the other side of the road. She flew by Pirtrea and Pirtrea had no chance to respond. A truly incredible turn of events as Adere made up a 15 second deficent in 47 seconds. Watch it to believe it.
*Former Yalie Kate O'Neill 3rd in Her Debut

*Wheelchair Race Decided by 1 Second All the races in Chicago were close.

We're Not Joking: RunnersWorld with Extensive Olympic Marathon Trials Section The editor, Amby Burfoot, was a Boston Marathon champ back in the day, and has done a good job. You learn that Brian Sell looked good in the Olympic Trials simulator in Central Park, Khannouchi is fasting for Ramadan, Josh Cox is running 150 miles a week, and more.

AL OERTER 1936-2007 The death of this legend basically is being ignored in the US but thankfully the NYTimes gave him the homage he was due in this tremendous article by Frank Litsky on Oerter. And we like Oerter's anti drug stance and honesty (admitting to trying roids in 1976). When he quit competitive throwing he said, "The drug culture had taken over."
*Daily Telegraph in Britain Remembers Al Oerter

*Kansas City Star Remembers Al Oerter

*More Oerter: *
Message Board Thread
*
More on Oerter from Florida Paper
*Article on Oerter and His Painting: "I know this won't sound right but painting is the same dadgum thing I found in training for the Games"

LetsRun.com 2007 World's Coverage:
*Sunday Homepage
Ndereba marathon
*Saturday Homepage
*Friday Homepage Tyson Gay
*Thursday Homepage Lagat
*
Wednesday's Homepage Lagat
*
Tuesday's Homepage Bekele 10k
*
Monday's Homepage Tyson Gay
*
Sunday's Homepage Dibaba/Goucher 10k
*Saturday's Homepage
Kibet Marathon