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LetsRun.com: The Week That Was March 30 - April 5, 2009 Welcome To A New Era In Distance Running - Marathoning 2.0 Finally, when former winner Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea finishes third, as he did in Amman, the reports consider that this is good preparation for the London Marathon later this month. So much for the greatest long distance race in the world!"
The biggest change in running over the last 20 years and even the last 10 years may very well have been the increase in the prize money/appearance fees of the marathons. As the money in the big races has gotten bigger and bigger, the times have come down and down and the African/Kenyan domination has gone up and up. We can remember when Ibrahim Hussein became the first Kenyan to win in Boston in 1988. Up until 1988 it was said the Kenyans hadn't mastered the marathon and it was relatively rare for them to do well in major marathons. Why was that? Well, there wasn't a whole lot of money in it and it was very risky to train for half the year for an unsure paycheck. A rare Kenyan victory in 1988 has now turned into a commonplace occurrence, as Kenyans have won 16 of the last 18 Boston races. A New Era In Marathoning And The Greatest Day In Marathoning Paris and Rotterdam were held over the weekend and the performances that came out of those races were staggering. Rotterdam is nearly always very fast as the course very well may be the fastest on the planet. Three times the world record has been set in Rotterdam - Carlos Lopes (2:07:12 in 1985), Belayneh Densamo (2:06:50 in 1988), and Tegla Loroupe (2:20:47 in 1998). Belayneh Densamo's 2:06:50 there in 1988 was viewed as a total outlier that was the world record for 10-plus years. Duncan Kibet's Colorful Pre-Race Interview Well on Sunday, Rotterdam had a race for the ages as James Kwambai, the guy who pushed Gebrselassie late in his world record run in Berlin, and Duncan Kibet (who came to life to LetsRun.com viewers before the race thanks to the video on the right) waged an epic duel all the way to the finish line. Twice Kwambai had Kibet on the ropes as he opened up a gap between 35 and 40k and then in the last 500m. However, both times, just when it looked like it was over Kibet was able to respond. In the end, Kibet led the race for maybe 5 steps - but he led for the only five steps that mattered - the last five - as he got the win as both men ran 2:04:27 - a time only bettered by Haile G. Kibet is not your normal Kenyan running success story. He grew up in a city, got a late start to running and is now a marathon star. 30 years old, he only ran his first marathon last year when he ran 2:08:33 for 2nd in Austria and then ran 2:07:53 for the win in Milan. We highly encourage you to listen to his pre-race interview on the right as he's quite a character. After coming back from World XC, we at LetsRun.com as a website are going to make a concerted effort to show you the personalities of the African stars as it's clear they aren't going away - in our minds, the African domination is only going to get greater. Races and agents need to put a human face on the sports stars. Thanks to Dutch version of LetsRun.com for the video above. Solely because of it, we were rooting for Kibet and jumped for joy yelling, "Yes" when Kibet won. Editor's note: We have just received word from University of Oregon star Shadrack Kiptoo Biwott that Duncan Kibet is his brother. Pretty cool. If you missed the race, you can watch it in its entirety or just the last minute at our partner Universal Sports here. We don't blame him: "I'm really happy, I'm really happy... I'm happy" Duncan Kibet's personality came to life in the post-race interview at the right. He's got a big smile on his face as he tells the interviewer, "I'm really happy, I'm really happy ... I'm happy." He also said, "Actually I was expecting Kwambai to win because I was a little bit tired and I didn't know Kwambai was tired," but then talks about trying to break Gebrselassie's world record. Abel Kirui ran 2:05:04 for 3rd and Patrick Makau ran 2:06:14 in his debut for 4th. In Paris, the winning times weren't as fast (Vincent Kipruto's 2:05:47) but the depth was unreal as the race set a new record for most sub-2:09s in a single race (11) and tied last year's London with most sub-2:07s (6). So taken altogether, 13 different Kenyans broke 2:09 in a single day. How many Americans have done it in history? Six. Youth Patrol Taken together, the results were just staggering. Big money is now in the marathons and the results have finally started to show it to the same degree one used to see the African domination of the 5ks and 10ks. That brings us to our message board post of last week. Portlandspirit predicted the transformation of the marathon before it even happened. Message Board Post Of Last Week By Portlandspirit On The New Era Of Marathoning (he called it before the races took place): And Let Us Introduce You To The Greatest Coach In The World & A Guy We've Never Heard Of Until Today In the post, Canova goes on to talk about the coaching of Kibet and Kwambai. They both are coached by the same man, 27-year-old Claudio Berardelli. Canova calls Berardelli the best coach in the world currently for mid-d and long distances, and the roster of talent Berardelli has assembled seems to back that claim up, as Canova says he also coaches 5-time world marathon major winners Martin Lel and Robert Cheruiyot, Evans Cheruiyot (3rd in Paris yesterday), Olympic 1,500 champion Nancy Lagat, World 800 meter champions Alfred Kirwa and Janet Jepkosgei, and the runner-up in the Kenyan XC trials, Matthew Kisorio. Unreal. Kwambai, Lagat, Jepkosgei, and Kibet were all virtual unknowns until they burst onto the world scene. Their coach now has done the same. We're calling Canova's Post our Message Board Post of This Week as he goes on to list the training ideas he's exchanged with Berardelli. Message Board Post Of This Week - Renato Canova Talking About Claudio Berardelli More: *Paris Marathon Recap *21-Year-Old Kenyan Runs 2:05 In Paris (and an 18-year-old runs 2:06). More Proof Of Just How Deep Distance Running Is Now in Africa Looking for further proof of just how crazy deep the world of professional distance running is nowadays? All you need to do is look at what happened at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in Washington, DC. Last week, in our World XC preview, we talked about how German Fernandez got a big break because Ethiopian Feyisa Lilesa was opting to run the senior race instead of the junior race.After the race, we never commented on how Lilesa ended up running at World Cross-Country. So how did he do? He got 12th in the senior race, which is almost certainly better than any American on the planet could do. Where was he this weekend? If he were American, the teenager Lilesa would be hyped as the possibly the greatest distance prospect in history, running the junior races at Worlds, and he probably wouldn't run a road race any time soon as it would hurt his long-term development. But since he's Ethiopian, he's getting 12th in the senior race and looking for a paycheck on the roads the very next weekend. Running 10 miles at basically 28:30 10k pace. *In DC, Ridouane Harroufi ended up the winner for the 2nd straight year in 45:51. Maybe It Isn't So Easy To Be A Kenyan Runner After All The big news from the meet came from the fact that Olympic 1,500 meter silver medallist Asbel Kiprop dominated the men's 1,500 - running 3:40 from the front. The part that was fascinating to us was that the meet was run on a dirt track. Click here to see a great photo of the track. Can you imagine an Olympic silver medallist running on a dirt track in America? Secondly, the meet was ended early as a Kenyan premier league soccer (or football) match was being held in the stadium later that day. So clearly the Kenyans aren't good because running is so popular in Kenya, as apparently it's less popular than a B-level soccer match. Speaking of Kiprop, he also made news for the wrong reasons last week as he was kicked out of Kip Keino's camp for sneaking in a female. (The post above was clearly written by someone who hasn't been to Kenya. LetsRun.com's Wejo has been and he's not surprised at all the meet was on a dirt track or that soccer took precedence. As of 2 years ago, there were 1.5 non dirt tracks in ALL of Kenya (1 in good condition, half of another one). Meanwhile kids in America think they can't be good if their high school doesn't have a mondo track. Running is Kenya's best sport, but soccer clearly is Kenya's most popular sport. Learn more about Kenya here from the LetsRun.com archives from Wejo's trip in 2007: Kenyan Distance Running Part I: Kenya, The Land Of Opportunity. Or see the highly praised photos)
The highlight of the April Fools edition for us, however, wasn't the jokes that we had on the site. Rather, it was the list of things that we had on the site that all happened in the last year but you would have sworn were pranks if we told you it would happen a year ago. These things included: American
High School Freshman Runs 14:18.42 for 5k, LetsRun.com Gets Emails Wondering If He's Doping Carlsbad 5,000 Florida Relays *Results But the real story may have been the unveiling of freshman phenom Christian Taylor. The 18-year-old won the NCAA TJ crown indoors, but he's a hell of an athlete as he anchored Florida's 4 x 400 to a 3:02.84, holding off Olympic gold medallist Angelo Taylor in the process, a day after running 45.34 in the open 400. He was pretty studly as a prep (Georgia records in the LJ (25-6), triple jump (52-0) and 400m (47.19)), but a 45.34 and an NCAA TJ title - that's truly ridiculous.
Texas Relays *Results *Video But the biggest prodigy in Texas is sophomore girl Chelsey Sveinssen, who pulled off a 10:12 in the 3,200 and 4:46 in the 1,600. She's already won of the best in the country as shown by her Nike XC win. *3,200 Video *1,600 Video Micah Kogo Sets New Road 10k Record (27:01) Last week, we devoted our entire Week That Was to commenting on the World Cross-Country. Since Olympic 10k bronze medallist Micah Kogo's 10k set a new world record of 27:01 the Parelloop 10k in Brunssum, Holland on Sunday, March 29th, he got ignored. But how can we ignore a new 10km world record? We can't. Below are the official splits for each km of Kogo's record run. Official splits - Km- Micah Kogo: *Micah Kogo Breaks 10k World Best In Brunssum Holland Kogo got the bronze at 10k last year at the Olympics and had run 27:07 on the roads in 2006. Race Report On Dutch TV: http://www.l1.nl/popups/mediaplayerpopup/_rp_comm_lsvideoId/1_3622664 Recommended Reads: Quotes Of The Day - Day-By-Day Last Week: Sunday: "When I looked at results from the past, I thought that maybe I could be the top American at this race. But that was before I knew how many top American runners were going to be here .... 'm hoping I don't get completely annihilated on Sunday. But it's the first race of the year, and you never know how that's going to go. My training has been going well,
but I don't want to make any proclamations I cannot achieve." Saturday: "We [Usain and Dwain] trained together in Jamaica in '06 for a while. He'd never
admit it, but I would beat him up to 80 metres. We were tussling. If you look at what I have done over the 60 it equates to a low 9.80 for 100m. That's close... I know Usain Bolt; he parties hard, and he trains hard. He's where I thought I would be many moons ago. He's at the top of the ladder, and there are a lot of
people wanting to chop him down. I know something of how that feels." Friday: "Talent is not his issue because he's inordinately gifted. But God doesn't give anybody the total package. There's always a piece that the athlete has to put together themselves. Nobody has it all. Tiger Woods has to practice and Michael Jordan had to shoot thousands of shots. There's always a point where closure
has to take place and only the athlete can do that. In Xavier's case, he's totally blessed and he just has to put it all together." Wednesday: April 1st, 2009 - April Fools Day Monday/Tuesday: Even before the global event starts, people already know the winners would come from Kenya or Ethiopia." Update: In last week's World XC recap, we talked about how brutal the course was and how tough it was on a runner's feet. We now have photos to prove it. Ladies and Gentlemen ... Ed Moran and his feet (in the sake of decency, we decided to leave out the close up of Bobby Curtis' feet): Not sure if Rojo left this here from last week or what. But if you've read this far you're pretty hard core so we'll hype Gregson some more.
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