Quote Of The Day

"I was hurting so bad the last two miles. I kept going by telling myself, You only have to hurt another 10 minutes. If you don't keep pushing, you'll regret it the rest of your life. It was my last high-school cross-country race," he says. "My last Foot Locker. It was so important. It seemed like the biggest thing in the world."

- Dathan Ritzenhein in a great piece by Amby Burfoot on the 10th year anniversary of his epic battle with Alan Webb and Ryan Hall at the 2000 Foot Locker National Championship. The race lived up to its hype, although Ritz crushed Hall and Webb by 20 seconds. Photos of that race here. Photos of all the Foot Locker winners here.

Doping Raid In Spain

Victim #1: European XC Champ Alemayehu Bezabeh Pulls Out Because Of Doping Probe This only going to get bigger. The focus is on Spanish legend and World steeple champion Marta Dominguez, who was arrested Thursday. Bags of blood have been seized and the implications are huge. Dominguez is a hugely popular athlete in Spain. Interestingly, her coach Cesar Perez ran at UTEP in the '90s. A great place to start may be this message board thread. It's got talk of Perez, people defending doping and some great posts by Renato Canova, top coach of many of the star runners from Africa. Canova gives a lecture on the difference in class in runners and knocks the depth of the women's steeple.
*61 Spanish Athletes Sign Declaration Supporting Raids And Doping Probe
*Spanish Newspaper Headling: "Doping Brings Down Another Legend"
*Coverage From El Pais Translated to English.

World Steeple Champ Marta Dominguez Arrested In Doping Raid The pregnant Dominguez has reportedly been arrested. *Message Board Thread Here
*Reuters Article Here

Paul Tergat's Brush With Death

Tergat's Car Was Crushed Between Two Trucks, Says It Is A Miracle He Survived "On my right was a tanker that had stalled. But on the on the left side, was another trailer heading my way for a head on crash. I had to make a move. I swerved, and that is all I can remember. Everything went dark. I could hear a woman shout, 'Is this Tergat?' I said, 'It is Tergat." I don't know if they heard me"
*More On Tergat With Photo

Paul Tergat Injured In Car Accident
Tergat seems to be okay but he was flown to a new hospital for further treatment. *LRC MBoard Talk

Thursday's Zatopek 10k Down Under *Results

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 09: Josphat Menjo of Kenya celebrates winning the Zatopek Men's
10,000m during the Zatopek Classic at Olympic Park on December 9, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images) Menjo Dominates 50th Zatopek 10k In the humid conditions of Melbourne, LRC legend Josphat Menjo pulled away after the halfway mark to win the Zatopek 10k. The former 6-night-a-week boozer, Ben St. Lawrence, finished ahead of American star and former NCAA 5k champ Bobby Curtis.
*Melbourne Herald Sun Recap
*A More Relaxed Craig Mottram Says There Is "No Doubt" That His Best Is Yet To Come He was on hand as a spectator at the Zatopek 10k.

A Look At The 50 Years Of The Zatopek 10 IAAF
Ben St. Lawrence Has Gone From Overweight Boozer (Photo To Prove It) To Aussie Star

Unbelievable
BBC Interviewer Says She Couldn't Call Marion Jones A Drug Cheat We understand the press isn't as free in Britain as it is in the US but if she's that scared of a lawsuit she should get out of the business. *Original Interview Here

Something To Ponder
What Are The Odds That David Rudisha Gets Another WR In 2011, That Usain Bolt Is #1 In The 100 In 2011 Or That Haile G. Wins Olympic Gold In 2012?
Seb Coe and Ato Boldon and others answer these questions, but we think they give Bolt way too little credit and Haile G. way, way too much.

Awards Season Is Upon Us

Sprint News

Caster Semenya To Start Racing Again In January Yesterday, her coach indicated she may race on December 18th, but her fitness test must have not gone well as she comes back from injury.

We Say Lock Her Up Again For Continuing To Lie
Marion Jones Says She Didn't Deserve Prison *LRC Thread On Jones' Statement

Some Big Names Call It Quits

Somewhat Interesting Reads

NCAA Track Has Started And Track & Field News Says Oregon Has The #1 Freshman Class For Both Men & Women Surprisingly, Texas A&M isn't anywhere in the top 10 for either sex.

European XC (Sunday)

Europeans: Ireland's Joe Sweeney Is Back From Overtraining And Ready For European XC Sweeney has turned some heads in Irish circles with this quote in a different article: "If there's one thing I learned from the last two years is (sic) that you don't depend on Athletics Ireland for anything, you've got to be self-sufficient."

LetsRun.com Celebrity News

Olympian Kate O'Neill And Stanford All-American Adam Tenforde Get Married And Their Wedding Makes NY Times New York Times

Nike Cross Nationals *Live Thread *Girls Results *Boys Results

Dec 4, 2010; Portland, OR, USA;
Lukas Verbizcas won the boys' race
in 15:59.2 in the 2010 Nike Cross Nationals at Portland Meadows Race Track. Photo via Newscom Boys: Lukas V. Wins Edward Cheserek, a Kenyan kid now living in NJ, was 2nd (more on his NXN race here). Defending Champ Craig Lutz of Texas was third. Lukas will defend his Foot Locker title next weekend. Arcadia (CA) won the team title. The F-M Boys were second.
*
Jim Rosa's High School XC Career Ends In Disappointment As He Was Just 78th Well, he should take solace that Chris Solinsky was 73rd at NCAAs in 2006. The article makes it sound like brother Joe Rosa is nowhere close to coming back.
*
Recommended Read: Meet The Amazing Edward Cheserek The orphan showed up in the US in June with no luggage, just the clothes on his back.
*
2nd Great Article On Cheserek
On The Boards:
Lukas who? Japanese high school kid runs 28:23 10k!!!!

Dec 4, 2010; Portland, OR, USA; Rachel
Johnson (right) defeats Christie Rutledge to win the girls' race, 18:18.6 to 18:21.4, in the 2010 Nike Cross Nationals at Portland Meadows Race Track. Photo via Newscom Girls: Rachel Johnson Of Texas Wins It Johnson was only 3rd in her Foot Locker Regional last weekend, but has a good excuse, as girls in Texas only run 2 miles in XC. Next week she'll be back at the Foot Locker Nationals. The F-M Girls won their 5th in a row in a runaway.
*
Fayetteville-Manlius Girls Win 5th Straight With Record Low Score Of 27 & Scary Thing Is They Might Be Even Better Next Year They only have one senior in their lineup. *Local Coaches Praise Powerhouse F-M Girls Program
From The LRC Arch
ives: Training Talk With F-M Coach Bill Aris He's clearly doing something right with 5 straight girls championships and now 2 boys runner-ups.

Foot Locker West Regionals: The Field Is Now Set For Next Week's Nationals

USATF Convention News

Good News/Bad News

Olympic Champs Asbel Kiprop And Brimin Kipruto To Run Edinburgh XC Meet/Meet Is Only 4km We're pumped to see the former junior World XC champ return to XC. If Kiprop wants to know why his times aren't better, he needs to look no farther than the fact that his endurance wasn't as good last year. P.S. 4km XC is a joke.

More Good News
European Insurance Giant Aviva Comes In To Save Day For Irish Schools Athletics Program Click on the link to get more info and see a cool photo of Eamonn Coghlan. *More On Early XMas Present For Athletics Ireland Here
*Former 5k World Champ Coghlan Busy These Days Motorcyling And Being The Head Of A Golf Club

Olympic Javelin's Jav Caught By Google Street View Let's hope they catch Marion Jones injecting herself next.

Distance News

LRC Ryan Hall To Run 2011 Boston Marathon It will be his first marathon without a coach.
*Message Board Thread

Interesting Read Sports Economics: Daegu, Korea To Spend $190 Million On World Championships Asia apparently is the only one with money left to burn.

Other Articles That Are Possibly Worth A Click/Listen

Scientists Used MRI Scans To Study Runners Over Trans-European Foot Race And Have Some Interesting Findings On Fat Burning, Injuries Nothing groundbreaking, but if you're into this stuff, it's worth a read.

LRC In Monaco

MONTE CARLO, MONACO - NOVEMBER 21: Allyson Felix of USA arrives at the IAAF World Gala at
The Sporting Club on November 21, 2010 in Monte Carlo,Monaco. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) LRC US Sprints Stars Jeremy Wariner And Allyson Felix Look Back At 2010 And Ahead To 2011 Wariner wants to keep getting stronger as he has put his knee surgery behind him. Felix is preparing for a possible quadruple in London but first she'll have to beat VCB in an Olympics- something she hasn't done.
Previous From Monaco:

LRC 800m World Record Holders: Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha All Together In One Room For The First Time Ever We didn't hype this enough last week because of NCAAS but you'll learn something if you give this a read or watch.
LRC Bernard Lagat Says The 5k Is His Focus; Watch Out For His Brother, Robert Cheseret
LRC Dayron Robles And David Oliver Agree On One Thing - Allen Johnson Is The Best Hurdler Of All Time
Robles and Oliver were really entertaining. Oliver is now one of our favorite US runners.

Webb's Comeback Continues On Turkey Day!

INDIANAPOLIS - JUNE 24:  Alan Webb talks to the media
after winning the men's 1500 meter run during day four of the AT&T USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium on June 24, 2007 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) Boards: Webb Over Rupp In Silicon Valley Trot
Ala
n Webb
 (13:36) kicked past Galen Rupp for the win in a last-minute matchup of training partners at the Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.
*Top 10 Men's Results NAU junior Diego Estrada wasn't happy with his 16th at NCAAs on Monday so he ran 13:50 for 4th on Thursday.
*TrackFocus Recap
*Mercury News Recap With Webb Quotes
*LRC Reader Gets Race Photos Word from out west is Webb looks fitter than ever.
*Video: Salazar Talks After The Race, Plus Men's Finish

2010 NCAAs Aftermath *LRC Men's Recap *Men's Results *LRC Men's Photo Gallery *LRC Women's Recap *Women's Results *LRC Women's Photo Gallery *See Who LRC Visitors Voted For Here (LetsRun $201,000 Contest Scores Here)

*LRC Oklahoma State And Chelanga Repeat!!! History repeated itself but things didn't necessarily go as expected, as Oklahoma State dominated and Sam Chelanga didn't win until the very end. Florida State went from 2nd-from-last to 2nd as the Cowboys' only real challenger on the day in Wisconsin faded, as their third runner totally blew up in the final 2k collapsed some 250 meters from the finish line.
*High Winds Hurt Colorado As Their Run-From-Behind Strategy Ran Into Difficulties The Buff men had their worst showing since 1989, as they were 15th.
*Okla. State Newspaper:
Cowboys Bring Home School's 50th NCAA Title & Third Largest Margin Of Victory 5th man Jonathan Stublaski had to lobby his way onto the team after bombing at conference and he came through with All-American honors. Meanwhile, the Okla. State paper features a LetsRun.com photo as we decided to be nice and give the poor college students one for free. T. Boone Pickens, please send us a check.

800-Meter Royalty

Kenyans Are Pumped Rudisha Is 1st Ever Kenyan To Be Named World Athlete Of The Year *More On IAAF Athletes Of The Year David Rudisha And Blanka Vlašić
*Blanka Vlašić And David Rudisha Win IAAF Athlete Of The Year Awards *IAAF Release Additionally, both athletes will receive $100,000 despite the IAAF's financial situation.
LRC
Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha All Together In One Room For The First Time Ever There may never be a night like it for the 800m. The last four world record holders, Alberto Juantorena, Seb Coe, Wilson Kipketer and David Rudisha all gathered together to reminisce about their record runs, to pay their respects to one another and to discuss the uniqueness of the 800m. It was a truly special occasion and these greats were almost giddy about it. They mesmerized the room for 40 minutes. Juantorena and Kipketer wanted their own photos, Coe said the photo would be his Christmas card, and Juantorena also wanted a video of the occasion. We then were notified we have the only video of it in the world. Recap and video.

More Great Stuff From The IAAF Meetings In Monaco LRC Bernard Lagat Says The 5k Is His Focus; Watch Out For His Brother, Robert Cheseret The American 3k and 5k record holder talks about his 2010 season, what took him so long to get the American record, raising the bar for Americans, and the bar being raised by Dathan Ritzenhein. Plus he says watch out for his brother, Robert Cheseret.
LRC Dayron Robles And David Oliver Agree On One Thing - Allen Johnson Is The Best Hurdler Of All Time Robles and Oliver were really entertaining. Oliver is now one of our favorite US runners.
*Vlašić, Felix, Lemaitre And Wariner Meet The Media In Monaco
*President Diack's Remarks At The 2010 Athlete Of The Year Press Conference

Foot Locker Finals Are Saturday *Live 11am Eastern Coverage Starts (Girls 12:15, Boys 1 pm)

LRC 2010 Foot Locker Predictions updated We've crunched the stats from our $20,010 Prediction Contestand have the LRC predictions. Lukas Verzbicas is heavily favored to complete the NXN, Footlocker double.  On the girls' side,  Aisling Cuffe is the big favorite. NXN winner Rachel Johnson is only picked 6th.
*Dyestat Footlocker Boys Preview
*Dyestat Footlocker Girls Preview
*Meet Midwest Champ Allie Woodward, Who Got Lost And Finished Dead Last In Her First XC Race She only got lost we think because she was way out front, as this is her first XC season.
*Massachusetts Sophomore Catarina Rocha Is The Daughter Of Two Foot Locker Finalists - Joe Rocha And Gina Braz Amazingly, her uncle was also a finalist.

Excellent Read: 10 Year Anniversary: Ritz Over Webb Over Hall At Foot Locker
It was an epic race and Ritz dominated. Classic 2000 Race photos here. Photos of all past winners here. More FL history here. It's the 20th anniversary of Louie Q's dominating win.

This Weekend

Boston News

BAA Changing Leadership: Tom Grilk To become Executive Director; Guy Morse Will Become Organization's First Senior Director Of External Affairs You can check out Morse's salary and all the BAA financials here (they appear to pay all their pro runners through John Hancock so they don't have to reveal the amounts of the appearance fees). NYRR financials are here. They must use a similar tactic.

News From Britain

US Distance News

The Stars Of Track And Field Party In Monaco *Wejo's Photo Gallery 1 *Pro Photo Gallery 2

Week In Review

Dec 4, 2010; Portland, OR, USA; Christine
Rutledge (136) and Rachel Johnson lead the girls' race LRC Week That Was - Fukuoka, Working Hard For A Living, Cal International And NXN We go beyond the headlines to give you the scoop of what is happening in the sport. We present to you a difficult way you can make $77,000 a year from running, analyze American vs. Japanese marathon depth, show you the favorites always win in our sport and then turn around and have some interesting stories from NXN on underdogs coming out on top. We even point out the first mistake ever made from the Nike marketing department.

Politics & Running Collide

Leading Ladies In The News

Katie McGregor And Antonio Vega Named USATF Distance Athletes Of The Year McGregor did win three US titles but we bet both of them would trade their seasons in a heartbeat with Meb and Shalane, who should have won in our minds (unless it counts the 10k, where Solinsky obviously wins).

Off-Road Action

Miguel Heras, Brother Of Cyclist Roberto Heras, Wins North Face Endurance 50 Mile And $10,000 Ultra star Geoff Roes was passed in the final miles by Heras. More here. Nice video recap here. We must say it looks pretty interesting.
*Max King And Sally Meyerhoff Win XTerra Trail Champs And $2k

Weekend Pro XC Action

World XC Champ Joseph Ebuya Crushes Teklemariam Medhin, Who Beat Him Earlier This Year

Foot Locker XC This Weekend

Fukuoka Marathon *Video Highlights (In Japanese) *RR: Amazing Marathon Stats

Weekend XC Action

NCAA DII
Men: Adams State Over Western
Scott Simmons-coached Michael Crouch got the individual win.

Women: Grand Valley State Wins Over Western
Former WC marathon bronze medallist Steve Spence's daughter Neely got the win.

Message Board Thread On DII
LRC Fans Division II Predictions From Our Prediction Contest They picked 3 of the 4 winners.

More News

4-Time World XC Silver Medallist Catherina McKiernan Reviews Ian O'Riordan's New Book The Irish Times writer's book isn't available in the US but looks interesting and is called "Miles to Run, Promises to Keep - Strange adventures of the distance runner."

Jamaican News

Week In Review WikiLeaks Style

LRC NCAA Week In Review We didn't steal the data or jeopardize national security, but in the tradition of WikiLeaks, we have a data dump in our Week In Review that covers the NCAA XC Meet. Also, last week Alan Webb took down Galen Rupp on the roads at 5k.

NY Times: Babies And Toddlers Now Getting Sports Tutoring

USOC Hopes IOC Participates In LaShawn Merritt's Arbitration We're the biggest anti-dopers out there and think the IOC needs to follow the WADA code and let Merritt compete in 2012 ... or change the rules.

Family News: Russian News: European Steeple Champ Yulia Zarudneva Got Married, Jumper Tatyana Lebedeva Pregnant

Lots Of European Weekend XC Action

Asian Games Are Over

Korea's Ji Young-Jun Breaks Away From World Silver Medallist Mubarak Hassan Shami And Wins Asian Games Marathon
GUANGZHOU, CHINA - NOVEMBER 26: Bilisuma Shugi Gelassa of Bahrain and
Essa Ismail Rashed of Qatar in the Men's 10,000m Final at Aoti Main Stadium during day fourteen of the 16th Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 on November 26, 2010 in Guangzhou, China. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Thrilling 10k Battle Between Ethiopia & Kenya Bahrain And Qatar Highlight Next-To-Last Day Of Asian Champs
A new record of 27:32 was set as the winner came back from 60 meters down over the final 3 laps to win narrowly.
*
Reminiscent Of Beijing 2008, Host China Puts On An Impressive Show The host nation once again wowed spectators with dazzling ceremonies, top-notch security and a record haul of 199 gold medals (all sports). Liu Xiang was of course one of the major stars.
*IAAF Day 6 Recap


Thursday News:

*Chinese Fans And Media Ecstatic With Liu Xiang's 13.09 Return
*Iran's Sajad Moradi And Iraq's Adnan Taees Akkar Go 1-2 In Men's 800
*Guangzhou Spent 20% More On Asian Games Than London Will On 2012 Olympics $18.3 billion in funds went to hosting the games in a a move local officials hope will pay off in long run with more events being hosted.
*Singapore Govt. Condemns National Flag On Front Of Swimmers' Speedos

Wednesday:
13.09 For Liu Xiang As He Wins Asian Games A surprisingly good time for Liu. In other action, World 1,500m champ Yusuf Kamel did not start the 800 a couple days after criticizing team officials for making him running the 1,500. He said then, "I know that I can't achieve anything."

Some NCAA XC Tidbits

More Rudisha AOY News

Famed Coach Brother Colm O'Connell Says Rudisha's "Not There Yet" To truly be considered great, the world record holder needs a world and Olympic title.

"The Party Continues" The Standard of Kenya The worldwide domination of little LetsRun.com continues as this Kenyan article quotes from LetsRun.com detailing the incredible gathering of David Rudisha, Seb Coe, Wilson Kipketer and Alberto Juantorena in one room for the first time ever. If you haven't read our recap of the event or watched the exclusive video Juantorena wants a copy of, click here.

2010 NCAAs Are History *Women's Results *LRC Women's Photo Gallery *Men's Results *LRC Men's Photo Gallery

*LRC Sheila Reid Leads Villanova To Repeat Title!!! Individual champ Sheila Reid led 'Nova to a record 9th title as Florida State was 2nd and #10 Texas Tech was 3rd.
*Reid The Leader Of The Pack As 'Nova Repeats Reid has overcome the injury that ended Bo Jackson's career.
*Oregonian: Oregon Ends Up With Two 3rd Place Individuals In Hasay And Puskedra
*
AP Recap Of NCAA Meet *ESPN.com Recap *Philly.com Recap Of 'Nova And Reid
(More Men's Coverage In 1st Column)

Recommended Read: Q&A With Famed Track And Field Journalist James Dunaway He'll be only the 2nd journalist inducted into the T&F Hall of Fame and he deserves the honor after more than 50 years in the sport. A great guy and an LRC visitor.

A Truly Crazy Read: Two Rochester, NY Old Guys Battling It Out To Become 1st Marathoner To Run 1,000 In History One is 79 years old and had a stroke and lives in a nursing home and has a walker but plans to run some more, while his 90-year-old friend is playing catchup as he's 220 behind.

Amazing 50-Year-Old Elina Zvereva Aiming For 2012 Games In Discus She's no slouch, as she did win Olympic gold at age 39.

Athlete Blog News

Zatopek 10k History And Preview

North Face 50 Miler Recap (Looks Interesting And Crazy At The Same Time)

What's Next For Rudisha After Hero's Welcome In Kenya? (If You Haven't Heard About Rudisha, Coe, Kipketer And Juantorena Getting Together, Click Here)

Relive Men's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)

Relive Women's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)

800m Royalty Together For The First Time Ever: Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha (It's Well Worth A Watch If You Have The Time, Or Read The Recap Here)

Webb Beats Rupp - Silicon Valley Turkey Trot Finish Video - More, Including Interview With Salazar, At Spiked Up Psyched Up Blog

Old 15k WR Holder Interviews New WR Holder

LetsRun.com's Message Boarders Rejoice

Despite Being European 400m Champ, Kevin Borlée's Dad Wants Him To Move Up To The 800 He is the "slow" Borlée twin yet was the European champ this year. He's not ready to move up.

NYC Champ Edna Kiplagat Getting Props In Boulder

Save Some Cash

2010 ING NYC Photos

Geb's Emotional Retirement Speech

Fred Lebow Documentary Trailer - More Info Here

LRC Poll
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