Foot Locker Nationals Turns 30
LetsRun.com $208,000 Foot Locker Prediction Contest Tell us who will come out on top in California in this historic year. Just pick the top 10 boys or AND girls perfectly correctly and we'll give you $208,000. Pick the 10 boys OR girls correctly and we'll give you $2008.
LRC's Girls Preview: 30th Edition Of Foot Locker Championship Is An All-Time Classic!! 3 Former champs will battle it out with a slew of newcomers. A truly exceptional race. The boys are definitely being overshadowed by the girls this year.
LRC's Boys Preview: Can An American Win It? FLCC is normally all about the search for the next great American distance star. Not this year.

Reminder: Don't Miss The Last Great Weekend Of 2008 For XC From US Foot Locker Finals To European Pro and Junior XC Champs To US Club Championships!

Just Win Baby
Bolt Simply Worried About Competing, Not Record-Breaking

IAAF Honolulu Marathon Preview
*Jimmy Muindi Going For Lucky #7 In Honolulu But Will Be Tested By Former Chicago Champ Patrick Ivuti
*Inspired by Wanjiru: Red Sox All-Star Reliever Hideki Okajima Registered To Run Honolulu Marathon This guy is going to be in good shape for spring training!

No Surprise Here: Sally Kipyego Is Honda Sports Award Winner For XC Don't take Kipyego's greatness for granted. It will be a long time before another woman wins 3 NCAA XC titles.

British Marathoner Dan Robinson Dismayed With His Fukuoka Performance

Interview With Track Announcer Ato Boldon
*LRC Thread On Favorite Sports Announcers Of All Time

Indoors Is Coming: Nick Willis , Steve Hooker, Jenn Stuczynski Competing At 2009 Reebok Boston Games

Houston Half Marathon Elite Fields Announced Great field of Americans set to go.

Profile Of Australian 100m Hurdling Olympic Silver Winner Sally McLellan

Chris Solinsky Excited About Move To Portland & Trying Steeplechase

Sergey Lebid Aiming For 8th European Title: "The goal is just to win."

Foreign Affairs Ministry Looking To Recover Body Of Barnabas Kipkoech He died while racing in Brazil and is survived by two young sons aged eight and nine.

New World Marathon Majors Tie-Breaking Procedures Announced

World XC Is Edinburgh Honored As Scotish Event Of Year

LRC The Week That Was In running and in life, the highs and lows are never too far apart and this week's action proves that. We cover it all - from Tsegay Kebede's Japanese all-comers record at Fukuoka to the passing of Kerryn McCann less than three years from one of the greatest marathon finishes in history. We also find a reason to mention our favorite sprinter Usain Bolt and tell him to dream bigger than 18.99 as Paula Radcliffe has run the equivalent of 18.63.

Doug Logan: 30 Clean Track Medals In 2012 Or Bust We're not quite sure what the CEO has to do with winning medals. We do like his other goals of growing USATF from a $16 million to a $30 million business in 4 years and increasing membership.

"Wimp" Kelly Sotherton To Be Joined By Charles Van Commenee As Boss At May Meet

Lots Of Sad News
Kenyan Marathoner Barnabas Kipkoech Dies In Race In Brazil On Nov 30th And His Family Is Still Appealing For Return Of His Body
Kerryn McCann Loses Her Fight With Cancer
*Kerryn McCann Obituary From The Guardian
*IAAF Pays Tribute To Kerryn McCann If you want to see a great video tribute, we highly recommend you click the video in the upper left.
*Kerryn McCann Loses Battle With Cancer
*Australia Grieves The Loss Of One Of Their Most Beloved Athletes
*Nic Bideau Writes About Kerryn McCann's Death
*LRC Message Board Thread: RIP Kerryn McCann
*Sprint Champ Raelene Boyle Talks About McCann's Death

Ethiopian Kebede Crushes Fukuoka Record With 2:06:10
Fukuoka Video Highlights (click on the lower blue bar on the right with the Windows Media Player icon) *Fukuoka On The Boards Tsegaye Kebede, the Olympic bronze medalist in the marathon, crushed the field between 30k and 35k by running a course-record 14:17 5k split. From 25-40k Kebede went 14:51, 14:17, 14:47. *Japan Running News Fukuoka Recap *Kebede Wins Fukuoka In Japan All-Comers Record 2:06:10!!

Singapore Marathon: Kibet and Masai Win
Kibet And Masai Win Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon Luke Kibet capped a crazy year with a big win in hot weather in Singapore. Edith Masai, 41, used her road races in America as speed work and it worked to her advantage as she took the women's race win.
*A Tumultuous Year For Luke Kibet To Finish With Singapore Marathon
*2007 World Champ Luke Kibet Headlines Sunday's Singapore Marathon

Recap Of Baringo Road Race In Kenya Half marathon won by relative unknown in 62 minutes.

We Wonder If He'll Have To Give Back The Victory
Sugar Shane Mosley Got EPO & Steroids From Victor Conte To Prepare For Oscar De La Hoya

Tariku Bekele And Linet Masai Headline Sunday's Spanish XC Race

German Fernandez Only Out 2-4 Weeks *MBoard Thread on Fernandez's Injury

We Doubt It
Australian Athletes Tell Govt. They Can Lead The Way On Responsible Drinking

Fantastic XC Battle Taking Place In London Edinburgh In January Multi-time 5k medallist Kipchoge vs. 2007 XC WChamp Tadese.

Las Vegas Marathon Looking Forward To Life Under New Management

LRC: The NCAAs That Were Now that the emotions have died down, we've decided to take a look back at NCAAs and analyze what it all meant. Who had the best and worst meet? Best and worst season? How good were the Oregon men? Is women's running really much less competitive than men's? We answer these questions and much more including, "How smart are the Letsrun.com visitors?"

If you can't dominate the big sports, quit and try to dominate the lesser sports
Crew & Swimming Now More Important Than Athletics In Britain The UK is trying to go for the medals regardless of sport or signficance and as a result, the once mighty Britain is giving more money to swimming and crew than athletics as athletics received a tiny decrease in funds while swimming and crew got more. *Athletics, Flagship Event Of 2012 Games, Given Slight Funding Cut *Despite Funding Cut, UK Athletics Chief Niels de Vos Is Bullish About 2012 *Athletics To Grin & Bear £1.4m Funding Cut *It Could Be Worse: Volleyball, Fencing, Handball, Table Tennis, Water Polo, Weightlifting And Wrestling Get Nothing.

Men Results: *Team *Individual LRC: *Men's Photos Almost 600 of them.
LRC: RUPP And Oregon Are Golden Galen Rupp put away the demons of the near misses and captured his first NCAA title by shadowing Liberty's Sam Chelenga for 9,600m and then outkicking him on the straight to lead Oregon to the team win. Oregon dominated the team title as Oklahoma State had a forgettable day. Super frosh German Fernandez dropped out with an achilles injury (photo of Fernandez in great pain here), while Oregon frosh Luke Puskedra was a very impressive fifth.
*USA Today Recap of Race
*On the boards: Eyewitness Account Of German Fernandez's Injury
*Chelanga's Lack Of Experience Shined Through!
*German Fernandez Has Achilles Injury
*Recap On NCAAs From Oregonian
*NCAA Post-Race Interviews: Flotrack
*NCAA Post-Race Interviews: Trackshark

Women Results: *Team *Individual LRC: *Women's Photos
Kipyego Threepeats Susan Kuijken tried to make it interesting, but in the end, Sally Kipyego was too good and she became the first woman to win 3 NCAA XC titles. The Washington women got the women's team title as expected.
Only On LetsRun : *Kipyego Is Lucky
*UW Coach Greg Metcalf Says Race Didn't Go According To Plan But Huskies Came Out On Top
*Metcalf: "We should be better next year" (scroll down in article)
*NCAA Post-Race Interviews: Flotrack
*NCAA Post-Race Interviews: Trackshark

*LRC: 2008 NCAA Men's XC Championship Preview Rupp vs. Chelanga And Oregon vs. Oklahoma State Headline A Championship For The Ages
*LRC: 2008 NCAA Women's XC Championship Preview Kipyego And Washington Chase History - Others Shoot For The Podium
Recommended Read: Rupp & Kiptoo-Biwott Friendship Fuels Oregon Success The article for the most part is a profile on Kiptoo-Biwott, who is a father figure to the team and a new father himself.
*Liberty's Preview of Race
*W. Virginia Women Hope To Respond To Bell Ringing With 1,500 Meters Left
*Terre Haute Tribune Star Preview
*Profile Of Indiana State's Scott Keeney
*Matt Centrowitz Jr. Reportedly Will Race NCAAs For Oregon *Message Board Thread on Oregon 7
*Oklahoma State Ready For NCAAs - Shooting For Win
*Recommended Read: Dick Patrick's USA Today Sam Chelanga Interview
*Great For The Sport: NCAAs To Be Shown Live In Hayward Field
*Oregon Runner Alex Kosinski Profiled By Eugene Paper
*LRC: World Famous NCAA XC Prediction Contest
More NCAA XC News:

NCAA D2 & D3 XC Nationals
D2 Scott Bauhs Gets Coveted Individual Win As Adams St. Wins Team Titles
*Men's Results *Women's Results
D3 Cortland St. Gets 1st Men's Title As Middlebury Wins Women's
*32 Page Message Board Thread

*On The Boards: Runner Turns Down Rhodes Scholarship Interview To Run Nationals Kudos to Grinnell College's Henry Reich for putting his teammates first.

Worth A Read: Long Ryan Hall Journal Entry

This Puts 1983 Boston To Shame
408 Runners Break 70 In Japan's Ageo City Half Marathon! People talk about how amazing it was that 83 guys broke 2:19 in Boston in 1983, but 408 under 70 flat? Insane!!! *Message Board Discussion: Is This The Deepest Half Marathon In History?
 

Lance Armstrong Gives A Lengthy Interview On His Comeback And Talks About Almost Everything
From politics to doping to fearing for his safety at this year's Tour, Armstrong tells all and the best part is The Guardian has published it all.
*AP Recap of Interview: Armstrong Fears For His Safety
Column: Lance Armstrong should stay away from France
*Lance Armstrong Claims British Cycling Success Helps Prove His Innocence

2008 ING New York City Marathon *Results *Searchable Results *Video: Men's Highlight Video *Photo Gallery
Post-NYC News
*Paula Targeting London Gold In 2012 She can do it if she's healthy.
*Daniel Rono Remarks On His 3rd At ING NYC A big difference between NYC and many other top-level marathons is the lack of rabbits, and Rono mentions this was a big experience for him to actually have to race the whole time. His 3rd was the top Kenyan finish in both the men's and women's races.
*Radcliffe Wants Another Baby Before 2012
*Is A World Record Attempt In London Up Next?
*Two Die At Marathon
Lots Of Info On Kara Goucher's Great Debut
*Kara Goucher: Paula Radcliffe Is The Greatest Ever
*Queens Native Goucher Says 1st Marathon Was "Awesome"
*3rd Is A Win For Kara Goucher Both Goucher and her coach Alberto Salazar were pleased by the result and it looks like she's a marathoner now.
*Alberto Salazar's Pre-Race Advice For Goucher: "Have Faith."
News From New Zealand
*Athletics New Zealand May Review Whether Rod Dixon's 1983 Time Should Be Ratified As New Zealand Record Dixon claims the course wasn't short.
*Illness / Sore Throat Ends Kim Smith's Run Between 30km And 35km The article also talks about how 1983 champion Rod Dixon ran just over 3:30.
Women's Race: Paula Dominates Goucher Third
Paula Radcliffe showed why she's the best marathoner in the world as she dominated the women's field in the second half of the ING NYC Marathon. Radcliffe took a different strategy this year in NY. She led every single step of the way, but she said with the high winds her plan this year was to save something for the end and run negative splits and it showed. She poured it on the final six miles, winning by nearly two minutes. Radcliffe never looked back and said when she turned for the final quarter mile at Columbus Circle, she wasn't even positive she had the race won. American Kara Goucher ran up front for most of the race and had a successful debut in third in 2:25.53 (American debut record). Olympic silver medallist Catherine Ndereba, Dire Tune, Rita Jeptoo and Gete Wami were left in Radcliffe's wake, causing Wami to tie with Irina Mikitenko for the World Marathon title. The World Marathon Major race directors were then left to vote to break the tie. They voted for Mikitenko and just like that she got $500,000 and Wami got nothing.
*Radcliffe Doesn't Look Back En Route To 3rd Win
*Paula Destroys Top-Class Women's Field
*Mikitenko Awarded WMM Prize In Tie-Breaking Vote
*Women's Recap And Race Replays From UniversalSports.com
*Paula Post-Race Press Comments
On the boards: Wami gets nothing of World Marathon Prize while tying for spot #1
Men's Race: Marilson Gomes Dos Santos Storms From Behind To Win Coming into the 2008 ING NYC Marathon, Abderrahim Goumri had the distinction of being the top marathoner in the world who had never won a marathon (2nd in London in 2007, 3rd in London in 2:05:30 this year, and 2nd in NY last year). On Sunday in NY, he was clear of the field and on his way to what seemed to be his first marathon victory. However, savvy 2006 NY champ Marilson Gomes Dos Santos saved his best for last and stormed from behind in the final mile to overtake Goumri and get the win (afterwards Goumri said a missed fluid bottle might have caused him to run out of steam). Dos Santos ran 1:02 for the second half for a big negative split. Veteran Paul Tergat said he twisted an ankle on the course but returned to action with a fourth place finish. American Abdi Abdirahman led the American charge in 6th place as four Americans were in spots 6, 7, 8 & 10.
*Men's Recap and Race Replays From UniversalSports.com
*Gomes dos Santos Is Going To Disney To Celebrate
*NYT: New York Brazilians Say "Gomes who?"
On the boards: Nate Jenkins at NYC marathon?

It's summer - and track season - in Melbourne. At the Zatopek meet, NAU's David McNeill narrowly defeated former Villanova star Bobby Curtis in a 10k, both running just over 28:00. Curtis is currently being coached by Nic Bideau.
*IAAF Recap Of Zatopek Distance Races *On the boards: Bobby Curtis - 28:06
*Zatopek Meet Officials And Athletes Wear Pink Armbands And Observe Moment Of Silence In Honor Of McCann *Sprint Action Recap From Zatopek Meet In Melbourne

Big Drug News: Olympic Medals Changing Hands
Two Belarusian Throwers Stripped Of Beijing Medals For Abnormal Testosterone Levels We're not going to pretend to be surprised that a couple of enormous hammer throwers - winners of silver and bronze in Beijing - were caught with excess testosterone in their bodies.
*South African Gert Thys Receives 2 Year+ Drug Suspension
*Group For EU Athletes Upset With New WADA 60-Minute Rule
*New WADA Rule Criticized As The Equivalent Of House Arrest They've had this rule in Britain for a few years, actually it's the reason Olympic gold medalist Christine Ohoruogu was banned. It's crazy to think that WADA is going to know where every international elite track athlete is going to be every day of the year.

"Roads Only" Says Lornah Kiplagat Dutch national is done with track and cross-country after getting 8th in the 10k in Beijing.

Pretty Good News:
Delaware Makes Indoor Track A Club Sport But To Keep Outdoor And XC

Honolulu Marathon This Sunday
*Jimmy Muindi Going For Lucky #7 In Honolulu But Will Be Tested By Former Chicago Champ Patrick Ivuti
*Inspired by Wanjiru: Red Sox All-Star Reliever Hideki Okajima Registered To Run Honolulu Marathon This guy is going to be in good shape for spring training!

Great Team And Individual Races On Tap For USA Club Nationals This Weekend Bauhs vs. Sell, Hanson's vs. Oregon Track Club, Bowerman & McMillan.
*Official USATF Club National Thread

Yuusef Saad Kamel Claims Bahrainis Lied About His Age So He Could Run Junior Races According to him they changed his birthdate from 1983 to 1987.

Juan Carlos Higuero Aiming For Sub-3:30 And World Champ Medal In 2008

500 Beijing Blood Samples To Be Retested - 400 for Cera and 100 for insulin.

More On Yamauchi's Possible Switch To Skiing

Article On Calibrating Road Races - They have to be within 17 meters on a half marathon course.

Shocker: Usain Bolt Jamaica Athlete Of Year

2:45 Wins Peace Marathon In Rwanda 3,000 showed up.

Half Marathoner Finds Dead Body In Louisiana

Great Read: Old School Japanese Coach Dismayed At Gap Between Kebede And Top Japanese At Fukuoka Three Sub-2:10s would probably be rejoiced in America.

Is it too much to ask Geb to race someone instead of going for a WR every race?
Geb Aims To Recapture World Half Marathon Record In March In The Netherlands At The Fortis City-Pier-City

Former Colorado All American Erik Heinonen Who Helped Colorado Win 2006 NCAA Title In Peace Corps In Moldova Hoping To Build A Local Track

Berlin's 2009 World Championship Marathon Will Be First To Start And Finish Outside Stadium

Toby Tanser & Shoe4Africa Get Some Nice Press

Liu Xiang May Return In May

Results From Wincanton Montferland 15k In Netherlands (Men Close In 13:47)

Still Rolling After NCAA XC
Va Tech's Tasmin Fanning Runs 9:08 3k Indoors At Altitude

Big High School Saturday: Foot Locker West And NXNs
Jordan Hasay won her 4th consecutive Foot Locker West crown, becoming the first high schooler to win their regional 4 times. At NXNs, the big story was the Manlius girls winning their third team title in a row while the Elmhurst boys (better known as York) fell short of Spokane (WA) 134-151 on the boy's side.
*Jordan Hasay Wins 4th Consecutive Foot Locker West Regional
*NXNs: Spokane (Men's) And Manlius (Women's)
*FM Girls Win Third NXN Title In A Row
*Boys NXN Photos *NXN Girls Photos

Sunday's International XC And Road Action
*Ethiopians Dominate Men's Side Of Spanish XC Race
*Kenyan Marathon Run In 98 Degree Weather, Top-3 Finishers Run 2:22
*Lisbon Marathon Results
*Las Vegas Local (Ethiopian) Wins Vegas Marathon In 2:27
*California International Marathon Results (6 Under 2:20 on downhill course)

New WADA Testing Rules For 2009 The big change is the 60-minute rule. This rule stipulates that athletes on WADA's testing list must provide the agency with a 60-minute window every day where they can be found and tested. We're all for the most effective testing methods but this seems like a total pain.

News From America And The UK
*UK Athletics Signs Extended Deal With BBC To Televise Track Meets
*USOC To Increase Spending On Athletes By 12%
In Britain they're cutting funding for athletes, but at least the meets are on TV. Here we can't get the meets live, but at least the athletes are getting funding.

USATF News
Stephanie Hightower Elected USATF President Some are upset, some are pleased, but this post on the message board probably tells most people's views: "Who cares? I'm not a USATF member, and my nine mile run this morning felt great."
*USATF Enacts Restructuring Details of the restructuring can be found in this press release here from USATF, which says the board had been cut from a ridiculous 31 to 15.
*Bill Roe Opens USATF Annual Meeting
LRC: USATF "Run Amuck" And The USATF Presidential Election The Finalsprint.com has done a 7-part series on the dysfunction in USATF. LetsRun.com's Wejo finally took a read of it and gives his snyopsis, thoughts, and criticism of the piece and a few thoughts on USATF.

A LetsRun.com Thumbs Up
Children's Running Book Review LRC reviews Kids Running and our guest reviewer says, "I can say with full confidence that it is perhaps the best children's running book of 2008."

Usain Bolt Answers Carl Lewis' Doping Questions In Interview

LetsRun.com Boston 08 LetsRun.com Party Photos The party hosted by Puma was a smashing success. A packed house, as those passionate about running (from ages 5 to 65+) came to celebrate a great weekend in Boston. LetsRun.com fans celebrated with Rojo, Wejo, Matt Taylor, and a few legends in the sport, including former marathon world record holder Steve Jones and Olympic Silver Medallist Sonia O'Sullivan. The Harpoon beer was flowing, DJ Inkognito kept things going and contrary to popular opinion, there was a healthy mix of males and females. The reviews were excellent. "It's refreshing not to see the same 50 people (industry insiders) at a party." "Most favorable female-to-male ratio I've seen in a long time."

101 Years Old, Still Smoking, Running and Drinking: Buster Martin: "I'm not worried about the fags because I'll carry them with me. Everyone says smoking kills but it's taking a long time in my case." The 101-year-old legend plans on smoking while running Sunday's London Marathon.

LetsRun.com 2007 Worlds Coverage:
*Sunday's Homepage Ndereba marathon
*Saturday's Homepage
*Friday's Homepage Tyson Gay
*Thursday's 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

LetsRun.com London Men: Lel Leads 3 Under 2:05:30!!!, Ryan Hall 2:06:17
Ryan Hall Goes Through Halfway on World Record Pace
The 2008 Flora London Marathon will be remembered for a long time. The lead pack of 9 went through 5k at 14:21 (2:01 pace). They continued together (yes, all 9) through halfway on world record pace (1:02:13). Ryan Hall then went to the front soon after and asked the pacemakers to go FASTER. Soon Hall was off the back, but he would catch the leaders briefly again and go on to run 2:06:17. Until Sunday, only 7 guys had ever run under 2:06:15, now 11 have. Up front, it came down to a 3-man battle over the final mile before Martin Lel got his 3rd straight World Marathon Major win over the final quarter mile as he led 6 guys under 2:07 and to $50,000 bonuses each. Recap, photos, video above
This Guy Has Totally Won Back Our Respect
Maasai Warriors Finish Marathon link fixed One of them went back to the course and finished the race a day after being forced to go the hospital after a ceremonial wrap cut off his circulation. He said, "It was very important for me to do this. This is what I came to England for."
LetsRun.com Ryan Hall Reflects On His Incredible Run We tell you (and let you watch) what Ryan, his dad, his granddad, his coach and even Martin Lel had to say about Ryan. Lel was full of praise for the American and shocked by Ryan's attempt to get the pacemakers to go even faster. If Hall didn't already have your respect, he does after reading this article, as he pays homage to a throwback type of guy - Steve Jones. Text and Video.
LetsRun.com Video: Ryan Hall Talks About His 2:06:17 at the 2008 Flora London Marathon
*More LRC London Videos Here
*Photo Gallery

LetsRun.com Rojo's Tour of China, Part 1 - Hanging Out With Usain Bolt
Rojo went to the Puma Party put on for Usain Bolt. Open bar, Chinese dancers putting on their best sorority girl imitations, and then Rojo going 1-on-1 with Bolt. Rojo actually asked Usain about moving up to the 800m. Bolt hinted the Jamaicans want him to run the 4 x 400m. More importantly, Bolt apologized for visiting Facebook instead of LetsRun.com.

2008 real,- BERLIN MARATHON - Watch Video Highlight or Race Replay *Results *Photos
Haile G. 2:03:59!!! Mititenko 4th Fastest Woman Ever Haile Gebrselassie made more history Sunday on the streets of Berlin. After going through the halfway point in 1:02:04, Haile continued to flirt with world record pace but was stalked by Boston runner-up James Kwambai. Haile threw down the gauntlet the last 7km to dispatch Kwambai and just dip under the 2:04 barrier. On the women's side, German star Irina Mikitenko ran a brilliant race, running a negative split to smash the 2:20 barrier and become the fourth fastest woman ever.
*Geb: "I can go faster."
*The Science Of Sport Analyzed Geb's Splits As The Race Unfolded link fixed
*Geb's Record in Berlin Is His 24th World Record (or 26th depending on who is counting)
*Mikitenko Moves Into Tie in World Marathon Majors Standings Gete Wami must finish 2nd or higher in New York to move ahead. If she doesn't, they will be tied (and tied in the tie-breakers) so they might share the title. *Washington Post Article on WMM
*Falk Cierpinski, son of Waldemer Cierpinski, 2:13 in Berlin
On the boards:
*Wanjiru's Olympics > Geb's WR
*Haile's Splits from Berlin. ... how far could you run with him??
*Live Message Board Thread