No Meb In Boston

RRW: John Hancock Releases Elite Field For 2011 And Meb Keflezighi Is Left Out And Controversy Simmers
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John Hancock And Boston Marathon Do Not Make An Offer To Meb To Run This Year's Race Races have limited funds, and Boston's are way more limited than New York or London's, but it shows the financial realities of our sport when the Boston Marathon does not even extend an offer to America's top marathoner the last decade to run its race. That is what Meb Keflizighi is saying happened on his website. Perhaps Boston did not want to insult Meb with a low offer. We reached out to the BAA and Boston on this matter and they chose not to comment on it.
*Full John Hancock Release Reigning champs Robert Kiprono Cheruivot & Teyba Erkesso will defend their titles.

Random/Intereresting Reads

International Track News

Administrative News

Coming March 20th: NYC Half Marathon: Meb, Hall And Abdi!

Keflezighi Leads American Men Into NYC Half Marathon Meb Keflezghi, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman have not all run in the same race since the 2009 NYC Marathon, where Meb won, Hall was 4th, and Abdi 9th. These are three of the six fastest American half marathoners of all time, with Hall holding the US record at 59:43. But the big news is that Meb implied in Tuesday's teleconference that he has been unable to reach a deal with the Boston marathon and as a result, Meb says it will be an unusual race for him because he is not using it as a tune-up for a later marathon.
*LRC: Meb Unable To Reach Deal With Boston Marathon Organizers - May Not Run Spring Marathon
*Meb, Hall And Abdi In NYC Half
*New Runner's World: A Brief Chat With Meb Keflezighi

Sad News

17-Year-Old World Junior Silver Medallist And 8:23 Steepler Albert Yator Dies From Malaria Yator's death was a surprise and is a very tragic reminder that malaria is not just something we read about in the newspaper and should ignore.
On The Boards: RIP: Albert Yator 17, 8:23 steepler and World Jr Silver Medalist

Gonzaga University Runners Hit By Alleged Drunk Driver

Some Positive Distance News:
Track & Field News Profile On Andy Bayer The 2011 breakout star will redshirt outdoors.

More Boston News

Good News

Cathy Freeman Pregnant With Her First Child This news of course has made tabloid headlines in Australia, where Freeman is an icon. The pregnancy has triggered Freeman's Type 2 diabetes, but she appears to be doing well overall.

New Balance Boston *Results *Photos

Russell Brown Cruises To 3:54 Win, Webb, Manzano And Verzbicas All Over 4 The men's mile featured Alan Webb, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis and high school star Lukas Verzbicas, but the star of the night was Russell Brown, who crushed the field winning in 3:54 as Webb, Manzano and Verzbicas all didn't break 4. Afterwards, Webb threw a tantrum (seriously, that's a fair way of describing it) before addressing the press, and we'll have more on that Sunday. In other action, Sally Kipyego turned back Jenny Simpson in the 3k, Phoebe Wright got another win in the 800m, but the performance of the night may have been Dejen Gebremeskel running 7:35 and outkicking Mo Farah with a last lap of 26 while having one shoe on for most of the race.

Post-Race: LRC Alan Webb Throws A Tantrum After Disappointing Opener Alan Webb's competitive fire is legendary and the dark side of that competitive fire was on full display after Webb's disappointing performance. We've seen many athletes get upset, but none like Webb on Saturday night, especially after an earlier season opener. We've got the details and try to give some perspective to Webb's behavior.
On The Boards: That Webb article is a breach of professional decorum.
Wejo explains here, here and here our thoughts for this story and why it was reported.

*Boston Globe Recap: Brown Gets Surprising Win; Verzbicas Says He Was Nervous LV says he's not normally nervous for races.
*Boston Herald: Russell Brown Sets A PR In "The Biggest Race Of His Career" To Win New Balance Mile
*Boston Herald: Dejen Gebremeskel Outkicks Mo Farah To Win New Balance 3K Running With Only One Shoe

Eaton Breaks Record!

Ashton Eaton Shatters His Own World Record In Heptathlon! Eaton scored 6,568 points to break his own world record by an impressive 69 points, setting PRs in the shot, 60m, and 60m hurdles. His hurdles time of 7.60 seconds was so good it would have won the 2008 World Indoor Champs and actually breaks the hepathlon record of 7.74 held by Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bryan Clay.
*IAAF Recap

Fireworks In Stuttgart *Stuttgart Results

Yenew Alamirew Runs 7:27.80 To Lead 3 Under 7:30 Barrier For First Time Ever, David Oliver Runs Fast In Hurdles Alamirew dominated a late season 3k last year and backed it up here, showing he is the real deal. For the first time ever indoors, more than one guy broke 7:30 in a race, as Alamirew triumphed over Augustin Choge and Eliud Kipchoge. David Oliver easily dispatched Dayron Robles and nearly got the US record, and LRC favorite Silas Kiplagat lost in the 1,500m.
*IAAF Recap

Impressive: Belgian Dude Stefaan Engels Completes 365th Marathon In 365 Days Updated

Boston Pre-Race

  • LRC Lukas Verzbicas Talks To LetsRun.com It takes a true phenom to get LetsRun.com excited about a high schooler, but we're now officially leading the bandwagon, as we caught up with America's greatest high school phenom (since the Hall-Webb-Ritz era) two days before he tries to join Webb in the sub-4-indoors-as-a-HS-runner club. A natural showman of sorts, Lukas talked about his goals for Saturday, his training, his decision to go Oregon, whether he contemplated going pro straight out of HS, and much more. A must read.

    More Pre-Meet Coverage
  • A Must Read Boston Globe Introduces Lukas Verzbicas To The World A great profile that is definitely worth the read. Verzbicas talks about moving to the US 10 years ago and how his dreams have become a reality since then.

Mid-Week Action

Great Upcoming Action

Next Week: NYRR Deuce Record Challenge
LRC Preview
Bernard Lagat To Go For US Two-Mile Record On February 12th At The Armory It's worth noting that Doug Padilla didn't even know he still had the record (8:15.02). It's also worth noting that Robby Andrews is expected to rabbit, so it looks like he's rebounding from his plantar injury.

In Two Weeks: World Dream Mile

Fastest 1,500m Runner Of 2010, Silas Kiplagat, To Race Reigning World Indoor 1,500m Champion Derese Mekonnen At Birmingham On Feb. 19th Mekonnen is fresh off his victory over Bernard Lagat at the Wanamaker Mile and Silas Kiplagat (3:29.27 1,500 last year) just recently said he thinks he's in shape to break El Guerrouj's 1,500 World Record, so this should be a great matchup.

End Of Month:
Galen Rupp To Attempt 10k AR On Feb 26 In New Zealand

Early March: 
Bernard Lagat Added To Melbourne 5K! For those not keeping score at home, that's Lagat, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Craig Mottram all in one very fast 5k. *IAAF Preview (Doesn't Talk About Lagat)

Thomas Dold Sets Record For 6th Straight Win In Empire State Building Run-Up He ran up 86 flights of stairs in 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

The IAAF Profiles Two Of Its Biggest Stars

Weekend Marathons *Houston Live Thread

Houston: Bekana Daba Nearly Goes Sub-2:07, Strong Day For Americans Daba, a 12:58 5ker on the track last year, had the credentials, but his first marathon wasn't great (2:14 in Amsterdam). He put that behind him, running a stunning 1:02:47 on the second half of the course to finish in 2:07:04 despite a bathroom break near the finish. American marathoning is definitely on the upswing; at the fast halfway split, there were 2 Americans in the pack (Nick Arciniaga and Brett Gotcher). Arciniaga would grab second and a 2:11:30 PR. Last year's surprise Gotcher blew up. On the distaff side, Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia prevailed in a duel with Ashu Kasim, as American Stephanie Rothstein surprised with a huge 10-minute PR and sub-2:30 clocking.
*Nice Recap From Houston Chronicle No wonder Gotcher blew up; the lead pack did a 4:29 mile for mile 14 (which is Gotcher's 10k PR pace and way faster than Nick Arciniaga's 10k pace) and then 3 sub-4:40 miles from 16-18.
*RRW: Americans Nick Arciniaga, Stephanie Rothstein Impress Nick was only slated to pace Gotcher through 25k, but he was open to the idea of finishing.
Millrose *1-Page Results *Full Results

LRC Analysis
Millrose Behind The Scenes: Lagat Goes Down, Millrose Entertains
Employee #1 and his able assistant went into the bowels of Millrose to tell you what really happened at the grand-daddy of track and field meets in the world. High schoolers flashing U of O symbols, overlooked 3:34 1,500m runners, and pros addicted to LetsRun.com - we've got it covered.

Unlucky 7:
Deresse Mekonnen Snaps Bernard Lagat's Winning Streak At 6 The 23-year-old 2010 world indoor champ defeated the 36-year-old President of the Boards (or did Father Time win?) in a fantastic Wanamaker mile, but not without Lagat putting up a fantastic fight that saw him at least three times try to retake the lead in the final two laps.
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Samantha Nadel Wins High School Girls Millrose Mile In 4:50.58
*NY's Chad Noelle Wins Boys Millrose Mile In 4:16.71
*Register-Guard:
World Pentathlon Record Holder Ashton Eaton PRs In Two Out Of Three Events To Beat Olympic Champion Bryan Clay And World Champion Trey Hardee Eaton set a new shot put PR at 46-8 and lowered his 60m hurdles time to 7.64.
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Jamaicans Lose Sprint Showdown With USA Jamaicans Veronica Campbell-Brown and Nesta Carter won the sprints, but US sprinters claimed victory on points in the US-Jamaica challenge.
*IAAF Recap: Mekonnen Ends Lagat's Streak
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Millrose Games: Nadel, Noelle Win HS Miles!
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UVA Wins College 4 x 800 Without Robby Andrews

International Track News

Oregon News

Injury-Prone Dathan Ritzenhein Will Now Shift Focus To 10k At World Champs *LRC MB: RITZ! ENOUGH WITH THE MARATHON!

Lukas V Commits To Oregon For Real It's now official; two time Foot Locker XC national champ Lukas Verzbicas has an oral commitment to Oregon. The news was out unofficially last week. Letsrun.com has learned Lukas considered turning pro but the money he wanted wasn't there. Why would Nike pay big bucks for him when they can get him much cheaper in the U of O singlet?
*Message Board Thread

60th Anniversary Of Pre's Birthday Keeps Generating News

Craig Mottram & Benita Willis To Lead Australia At World XC Championships Mottram will run for the first time since 2008 and will lead a squad that includes former NAU star David McNeill. *Australian XC Trials Results

News From Europe

Film Depicting The Life Story Of Double Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist Abebe Bikila To Be Screened In Portland On Feb. 17th And 18th

Another Edition Of The Famed Kenyan Armed Forces XC Champs Is In The Books (The 3rd-Toughest Race On The Planet)

It's Official - Angela Bizzari To Mammoth Track Club Agree or disagree with the decision? It's a hot topic on the message board.

Dubai Marathon (World's Richest Prize) *Race Website *Live Thread *Top Results And Prize Money *Photos Here

David Barmasai And Asselefech Mergia Each Pocket $250,000
David Barmasai earned his $250,000 the hard way. Barmasai had only run marathons in Kenya before. There were 12 guys who went through halfway in 1:02:46. At 30k, according to message board reports, the leaders were only 25 seconds off of Haile G's world record split. Then however, the wheels came off. The final 5k was run in 16:47 and that gave Barmasai the win by nearly a minute over Evans Cheruiyot (2008 Chicago champ), who won $100,000 for 2nd place. Shows how hard Haile G's record is. On the women's side, Asselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was much more credentialed coming in (bronze at 2009 Worlds) and she was the only one to dip under 2:23 but missed the course record at the world's richest marathon in terms of prize money - $1,000,000 combined between men and women; not the $2 million we said yesterday.
*Top Results And Prize Money

NYC Wants New York City Marathon And Other Races To Pay Full Cost Of Police Services For Its Races The proposed rule will let police bill race organizers for the expenses of controlling traffic and shutting down roads during an event. This is a huge raise in the cost of managing races and could mean the end for many lower income events. Conveniently, this rule does not say anything about billing the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, or other professional teams for police details around their stadiums.

The Home Team Is Getting Cocky Confident

London Stadium News - The Olympic Track Will Stay?

More Proof That Anyone Can Run A Marathon
417-Pound Three-Time US Sumo Champion Will Try To Set Record As Heaviest Marathon Finisher
He's already finished one, but it wasn't video taped, so it couldn't count. This one is for the record.

Week In Review

LRC The Week That Was: Brent Vaughn And Russell Brown Surprise, Shalane Flanagan And Ashton Eaton Impress, Gebremeskel Wins With One Shoe, And Yenew Alamirew - The Next Great Star? There was a ton of incredible action last week, from Russell Brown's surprise win in Boston to the XC champs to the heptathlon to a sub-4:00 mile at altitude, and we've got it covered. We compare Brent Vaughn to Dathan Ritzenhein, wonder when Ashton Eaton will beat Bryan Clay and Trey Hardee, and ponder whether Yenew Alamirew is the next great star of the sport.
*Video Of Alamirew's 2 Impressive 3k Wins

Wednesday's Distance Notes

Tuesday's Action

Nixon Chepseba Beats William Biwott (Tanui) + Millrose Mile Champ & Defending World Indoor Champ Deresse Mekonnen In 1,500m With A 3:34.98 As Multiple World Leads Set In Liévin Biwott is the guy who beat Silas Kiplagat over the weekend, so this was a stacked race. Equally as big news was the DNF by Abubaker Kaki, who came into the race undefeated at indoor 800s for his life. He was spiked 100m in and stopped running. Teddy Tamgho wanted the WR in the triple but settled for the win. *Athletics Weekly Recap *Abubaker Kaki Loses For 1st Time In His Life To David Torrence

Sprint News

48-Year-Old Pat Farmer Will Attempt To Run More Than 13,000 Miles From The North To The South Pole It will take him 11 months and he will have to run two full marathons a day (burning 12,000 calories in the process).

Past NCAA 400m Champ Shana Cox Is Switching Nationalities From US To Great Britain She calls the decision a "no-brainer."

Records Hit, Missed, And Top Marks Set

Upcoming

Interesting News

US XC Champs In San Diego *Results

Brent Vaughn Wins Convincingly, Shalane Flanagan And The Other Winners Dominate Vaughn, the CU record holder at 5k (think about that for a second) dominated the field the 2nd half of the race to win by 6 seconds, the smallest margin of victory of the day. Shalane Flanagan totally destroyed Molly Huddle, winning by 44 seconds, and getting a little revenge for Huddle taking her 5k American record last year. Foot Locker champ Aisling Cuffe won the junior girls race convincingly. 49-year-old Master Pete Magill won in the men's masters ranks, while Colleen De Reuck showed she was in the wrong race, winning by 1:34.

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Denver Post: Brent Vaughn Makes Surprising Comeback After DNFing At US Half Marathon Champs Last Weekend Vaughn was excited to "finally" get in a satisfying race and said, "I felt like I was getting the monkey off my back. It just feels good to finally get one."
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San Diego Union-Tribune: Flanagan Dominated But Says She Didn't Know She Had It In The Bag: "I always run scared."

On The Boards: Men:
BRENT MF VAUGHN
Women:
Shalane Flanagan Takes USA Cross-Country Title By 45 Seconds In 25:47
Masters:
50-Year-Old Pete Magill CRUSHES

More Weekend Action

Don't Burn Out Too Early

Japanese Study Says To Become World Class, Don't Work Too Hard In Junior High

Proof That Most Times You Don't Even Need Drug Tests To Know Who's Doping
Third All-Time UK Shot Putter Mark Edwards Suspended For Failing Doping Test
The 36-year-old had been one of the UK's top shot putters for more than a decade, throwing 18-19 meters for years before setting a one-meter PR in 2008 with a throw of 20.88m.

Runners World: A Brief Chat With Bernard Lagat After two-mile record, he wants to get the 5k "A" standard out of the way in Australia.

Alan Culpepper Still Running Races Behind The Scenes - Working For Rock 'N Roll People On retirement: "It's a profession that you just can't keep going in," he said. "Eventually, abruptly, you start getting worse. It's not a pretty exodus. You have to come to terms with it. I'm thankful that I can still be in the sport in this fashion and be around like-minded people."

David Oliver Takes On All Comers And That's Why We Like Him

Week In Review

LRC Ritz's Injuries, Should Chris Solinsky Get Nervous?, Runner A Vs. Runner B, The Houston Course, Millrose Announcing And The Most Overlooked Performance Of The Weekend Once a week, we go beyond the headlines to cover the running scene like no one else. So before you turn your attention to the Super Bowl, give us 5 minutes and learn what's going on in the running world. Updated at noon with more on Houston course, praise for Tim Hutchings on ESPN broadcast.

Oregon Fans, Eat Your Heart Out

USATF News

Lananna Says He's Not A Finalist For USATF Job Eugene Register-Guard The article says USATF is down to 3 finalists. The article doesn't name the finalists, but only names three people (Lananna and Mary Wittenberg, who both have publicly said they aren't interested, and Rich Kenah (former World Championships bronze medallist)).

*Comparing Houston's Olympic Trials Preview Course To Last Year's Houston Course Runner's World
*New Executive Director Of Houston Marathon Pleased With Marathon Preparation For Olympic Trials Houston Chronicle

Good Read: Jerry Schumacher Profile In Portland Paper Got to be a quote of the day in here somewhere."

Kenyans In The News

US Half Champs In Houston *Results, Prize Money, Splits *Updated Photos *Live Thread

Men: LRC Mo Trafeh Outkicks Ryan Hall Ryan Hall, Mo Trafeh and Patrick Smyth battled together on the streets of Houston for 11 miles. In the twelfth mile, Hall tried to push ahead. Smyth was the first to crack, but Trafeh stayed on Hall's heels. With 200m to go, Trafeh gave it one final surge and passed Hall to get the win.
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Photos
*Video Of Men's Finish *Men's Post-Race Interviews

Women: LRC
Jen Rhines' Return Trumps Burla's After a 4-year absence, Jen Rhines made a return to the longer distances with a win and a PR. However, her comeback was the least impressive of the day, as that award definitely goes to Serena Burla. Burla was second just as she was last year. However, in the last year, she had been diagnosed and beaten cancer. Pretty amazing. Mother of three, Nan Kennard, who trains with Colleen De Reuck, was a surprise third.
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Photos
*Video Of Women's Finish *Women's Post-Race Press Conference

NCAA/US Track Action Really Heats Up

Week In Review: *More Dubai Photos Here

LRC Week That Was: Delaware Gets The Ax, Wanjiru Crashes, Dubai Makes Some Marathoners Rich, And The US Indoor Season Gets Going As usual, we recap the week in running like nobody else. Now that the holidays are behind us, the running world is starting to heat up again.

Caster Semenya Sits Down & Gives The BBC Her 1st Extended Interview Since Gender Controversy Arose Semenya said she doesn't want to dwell on the gender issues; she only wants to focus on running, but she did get irritated when asked if she was given hormonal treatment.

Boston Globe Feature Article

Have Athletes Reached Their Limits? The author seems to think they have because so many world records have stagnated since the 1980s. He does acknowledge drugs played a role in many records from the '80s. However, he is perplexed by one athlete - Usain Bolt - and says Bolt's breakthroughs today are why he is so newsworthy. Track and field, by focusing on the competition and not the records, can stay relevant in our opinion.

Duke Senior Kate Van Buskirk Sets Collegiate Record In 1,000 She had an incredible weekend as she ran 2:41.00 after splitting 2:04.15 on a 4 x 800.

More Men's Track & XC Programs Bite The Dust

Sports Illustrated Columnist Joins LRC Faithful In Ripping Delaware For Cutting Its Men's Track & Field / XC Teams Jeff Pearlman is a little biased as he used to run for them, but that doesn't mean he's not right on the money. UD Track is 100 years old this year.
*LRC MBoarders Express Their Outrage
*A Blogger Is Irate
*Delaware's Cowardly Release

Bemidji State's Men's Indoor & Outdoor Programs Get The Ax Not quite as old as Delaware, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Bemidji track has been around since 1928.

Alberto On Galen

LRC: Update On Galen Rupp's Training: Two Distinct Seasons For Rupp In 2011, More Mileage Alberto Salazar has done a tremendous job crafting Galen Rupp's career despite the critics (we specifically remember pro athletes who saw Galen train as a high schooler saying he'd burn out). Alberto says 2011 will be a bit different for Galen than 2009 and 2010, with 2 distinct peaks (and time off in between) and that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of training mileage. Plus, we take a look back at Galen's incredibly long and consistent 2009 and 2010 seasons.

It's Not This Easy In America

Olympic Marathon Champ And Accused Attempted Murderer Sammy Wanjiru And His Wife Supposedly Reconcile Press reports are indicating that the families of Wanjiru and his wife got involved and urged a reconciliation which may result in charges being dropped, although his wife was a bit coy in her responses to the press (as we're sure $$$ is still being negotiated). *Updated LRC MBoard Talk: "He is now officially qualified to be a professional American athlete. Can some of the women on this board tell me why abused women stay with their abuser. Often, until they are beaten to death?"
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Sammy Wanjiru Arrested For Attempting To Kill His Wife And A Domestic Worker

The 10 Best High School XC Runners Ever

LRC Week That Was: The 10 Best High School XC Runners Of All Time, Verzbicas, Tribute To Gary Reed, The NY Times & The NE Patriots And More We've got the entire running world covered from San Diego to Japan, from the high school ranks to the pros, and even talk about the NE Patriots and the NY Times.

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

Alamirew The Next Great Star? His 3k Win In Stuttgart. More On Him Here

3-Way Sprint Finish In Lieven 1,500m (Nixon Chepseba Wins 3:34.98)

Last 250 (Or Full Race - Just Rewind It) Of Russell Brown's 3:54 Win In Boston

Last 250 (Or Full Race - Rewind It) Of Dejen Gebremeskel Outkicking Mo Farah In Boston With 1 Shoe

LRC Polls