Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
Where Your Dreams Become
Reality
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The Week That Was Something To Think About No worries, Menjo got the win. We're not sure which of two things this result shows - that Kenya is full of a ridiculous amount of talent and that the runners in the Kenyan Armed Forces championships could easily destroy most countries - or if it that Menjo was just taking it easy in Kenya for the dollar race the next day. Interesting stuff regardless. Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down So mega, mega, mega thumbs up to Mr. Arnold. Big thumbs up as well to Bob Fraley as well as being a college track coach takes up a lot of time and most coaches are only focused on their own guys - not growing the sport. Fraley clearly wants track and field to thrive.
Dibaba easily could have run a 5000m or perhaps more interestingly the 1500m. If they both want to run the same distance, there is one simple solution, they actually race each other. The two Ethiopian stars captivated the running world in 2005 with their fierce rivalry. Dibaba needed to win the last Golden League race of the year to win a $125,000 jackpot, and in an era where individual financial concerns often are put before the interests of the fans, Defar went out and outsprinted Dibaba to end her $125,000 dream (many assumed Defar might just let Dibaba win and get the money). Then they both dueled at the 5k and 3k at the World Athletics Final and had more exciting finishes. Sadly, the two best female track runners in the world haven't raced since. But LetsRun.com's Wejo asked Meseret about (not) racing Tirunesh. She said what was expected that she did not want to race Tirunesh in first race of the season. The good news is she left open the possibility of a race this year "maybe in the future before the Olympics or after the Olympics we'll race." And then we started thinking, "What if they raced each other AT the Olympics." Now we're really dreaming. Thumbs Down to Ourselves and Regina Jacobs For a second with Meseret Defar breaking Regina Jacob's world best at 2 miles, we thought we may never have to mention Regina's name on letsrun.com again. We long suspected she was a cheat, we were right, and we're glad to see her out of the sport. But we then realized Regina still has her American 2 mile indoor record, the American 1500m indoor record, and a 1000m record as well. Her name like all drug cheats should have been erased from the record books a long time ago. Perhaps we should just exclude her from our own letsrun.com record book.
Praise also should go to New Zealanders Nick Willis and Kim Smith for trying to race with the big guns at Reebok Boston. Willis is a huge talent but many would say his Achilles heel has been his unwillingness to put himself up front in some major races. Sometimes by putting one's neck on the line, one gets the competitive juices flowing and results in a superior performance. In Boston, Willis hung with Craig Mottram for 2k as Mottram was running the fastest indoor 3k ever on American soil, going through the 1600 in 4:04. Similarly, in the women's 2 mile, Smith stayed with Defar for more than a mile as well. Smith was rewarded with the 2nd fastest two mile time ever run indoors.
The film does a good job of showing why the marathon captivates us all and what unites the 5 hour marathoner and the 2:05 marathoner. The footage from the actual race is awe inspiring and really brought everything in the film together. It is a good film and got good reviews from most people on the message boards. The good news is if you missed it, presales were so strong that it has an encore presentation February 21, 2008 (click here for more info) Trailer Got news, info, or results? Email us at letsrun@letsrun.com
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Runner's World &
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The Fresno State meet may have been a disappointment this year in 
Thumbs Down to the Reebok Boston Games for having Meseret Defar run the two miles and Tirunesh Dibaba run the 3000m at the same meet. The 3k and the 2 mile are the same distance as far as we are concerned and a professional meet should have 1 race at this distance. Yes, we know the Dueling D's, Defar and Dibaba, don't want to race one another, don't have 
