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Saturday: Big Track Day (99 Years Of Tradition In The Garden Continues, Hopefully We See 100) Millrose TV (Sunday 7-9pm Eastern ESPN)

US Open:
We Couldn't Have Said It Better - Brian Lewis Of NY Post: "The sport is better on national TV and in the Garden - than non-televised in a 4,000-seat recreation center."

Bernard Lagat: "To me, the Millrose Games and Madison Square Garden, one was not existing without the other. ... I felt like it's been separated."

Preview: Bernard Lagat Vs. Silas Kiplagat In Mile, Asafa Powell Vs. Nesta Carter, Justin Gatlin In 50 It may no longer be called Millrose, but this is the only indoor meet at a stadium remaining in the US. IAAF
*Bernard Lagat Wants To Compete Through 2013
*Jamaican Sprinters Taking On New 50m Distance At US Open Jamaica Gleaner

Glasgow: Mo Farah Working On His Speed By Running 1,500m Vs. Augustine Choge In Glasgow Today Worlds runner-up Hannah England also running.
*Glasgow Start Lists

UW: Matt Tegenkamp, Andrew Bumbalough Running Mile Today In Washington; Sally Kipyego, Sam Chelanga In 3k *UW Live Results

Texas A&M: Oregon Going All In As Jordan Hasay, Brianne Theisen Competing At Mondo Challenge *Live At 3pm Eastern

Australia: Adelaide Track Classic, Which Features Ryan Gregson Versus Jeff Riseley At 1,500

Latest Dubai News *LRC Recap *Results *MB Talk *Men's Km-By-Km Splits

• Agent Gianni Demadonna And Coach Renato Canova Give Thoughts On Dubai Marathon
• Close, But No Cigar: Lucy Kabuu's 2:19:34 Leaves Her 3 Seconds Short Of $250,000 And Won't Put Her On Kenyan Team She's the second-fastest Kenyan ever but the Kenyan coaches say they won't put her on the team.
• Aselefech Mergia's 2nd-Straight Dubai Win Has Netted Her $500,000
• S. Africa's 39-Year-Old Hendrick Ramaala's 2:12:12 Makes Him First S. African To Qualify For Olympics

Osaka Is Sunday: All eyes on Fukushi as Japanese Olympic squad selection continues in Osaka - PREVIEW

US Distance Guys & Gal Making News

• Fox Sports: Past his prime? Abdirahman just keeps running Abdi says the doubters fueled him to the team. Thankfully, LRC was one of the few who knew Abdi had a good chance. "There were some people who said, 'This guy has no chance of making the Olympic team.' They said, 'Oh, Abdi's done.' Even leading up to the Olympic Trials, there were only a few people who believed in me. I was a dark horse."
• Ritz Shows Up To Name Zeinasellassie Gatorade National Boys Cross-Country Runner Of The Year
• New Dad Aaron Braun Hoping To Win 1st XC Title At USAs Next Month
• Shannon Rowbury, Andrew Osagie Join Ricky Simms' PACE Sports Management

News From Japan, Ethiopia And The UK

From Ethiopia:
*Bekele "played big part" in Ethiopian federation revoking ban "There was a big meeting at the federation headquarters in Addis Ababa early in the week involving all the athletes and coaches, and Kenenisa played a major part in the discussions. He was the athlete who had most to say on the different issues."
*Reason Why We Don't Have A LRC Ethiopia *Ethiopia: Life sentence for blogger, prison for journalists

From Japan:
*Feb. 26th Tokyo Marathon Elite Field Finalized - Haile Gebrselassie Headlines Geb is one 8 sub-2:08 guys in the field.
*5th Placer At Worlds, Yukiko Akabais, On Tokyo List But May Run Nagoya Olympic Qualifying Race If Other Women Put Her Olympic Spot In Jeopardy In Osaka This Weekend

From The UK:
*Charles van Commennee still focused on eight Olympic track medals
*UK Govt. Says: Olympic Cost Not £24bn The UK govt. is defending itself against accusations of gross overspending on Games and insists the publicly-funded budget remains at £9.3bn.
*Jessica Ennis' Coach Says She Is Hungry After "Only" Winning Silver In Daegu
*Brazil Will Erect A Giant Replica Of Rio de Janeiro Statue Christ The Redeemer To Promote 2016 Games In London

Osaka Is Sunday

Bad News: 2004 Olympic Champ Mizuki Noguchi's Comeback Is Derailed As She Pulls Out Of Sunday's Osaka Marathon With Thigh Inlfammation A shame, as her training had gone great and she said last week: "I did almost 100% of what was on the training menu. I'm ready to drop a big one." She'll now turn her attention to the last Olympic selection race - the March 11 Nagoya Women's Marathon.
*MB: Mizuki Noguchi injured again - is she done?

Giving A Trophy To Every Little Kid Is Bad, But We're Not Sure If This Is The Solution
Usain Bolt Can Relate 8-Year-Olds Brought To Tears In NZ As Track & Field's No-False-Start Rule Is Enforced Strictly In Local 60m Sprint "(My 8-year-old) was just a bit unbalanced and was disqualified ... she had been pretty keen to run that race and it was absolutely gutting for her. It didn't make me angry, but it made me feel very sad for her. I think the rule is a bit too heavy-handed for the babies, shall we say."

News From The UK

• Paula Radcliffe Says Her Big Race Of Spring Will Be OMV Vienna Half Marathon On April 15th
• British HJer Robbie Grabarz Says UK Was Right In Cutting His Lottery Funding After Miserable 2011, Now He's On Top Of World Rankings Thanks To #4 Jump In British History Conservatives will love this guy's no-nonsense approach. "It's a performance sport and I didn't perform, so why should they support me?"
• London Organizers Expecting Drug Cheats To Come To 2012 Games "To say there will be no positive cases would be naive and misleading."
• Michael Johnson Tells Brits How To Succeed At Home Olympic Games
• Govt. Perverts Officials Have Bought Twice As Many Beach Volleyball Tickets As Track & Field
• Jessica Ennis Stars In British Airways In-Flight "Wellbeing" Video
• West Ham United "will not submit formal bid" For Olympic Stadium By Deadline
• Kenya Planning To Spend $5 Million Marketing Itself During London 2012

Good & Bad News From Ethiopia

• The Good: After Apology, Bekele & Others Have Suspensions Lifted The Ethiopian federation is still acting like they are in charge: "They [the athletes] have pledged to respect the body's directives from now on."
  *AP: Bekele & 34 Others Cleared
• And The Bad: After Recent Attack, Media Asks: "Will Eritrea and Ethiopia go back to war?"

Crazy NRR Link Of The Day: Shark Seen Swimming Just Meters Away From Ironwomen Triathletes

Lagat Vs. The Collegians

Strong Field Set For Millrose 5,000m As American, NCAA And HS Records All Could Go Down Bernard Lagat will be taking on the best collegians as he goes for Galen Rupp's American Indoor record of 13:11.44, while NCAA XC Champ Lawi Lalang, Elliot Heath, Leonard Korir and Chris Derrick will try to break Rupp's collegiate record (13:18.12). At the same time, Edward Cheserek will take a shot at Lukas V's 14:06.78 HS record (it's time we started recognizing high school records by Americans). Sam Chelanga and a slew of top international runners will also be in the field. *RRW Article

Don't Forget This Saturday: Bernard Lagat Vs. Silas Kiplagat Vs. Dan Komen In The Mile At Madison Square Garden One of the best indoor miles in the US in a long time. Kiplagat was world silver medallist last year. This announcement didn't get the attention it deserved.

Ethiopia's Track Federation Plans To Lift The Suspension On Kenenisa Bekele

This Weekend:
*Olympic PV Champ Steve Hooker Opening Season At Adelaide Track Classic
*2008 Olympic Marathon Champ Constantina Dita Vs. 2004 Champ Mizuki Noguchi At Sunday's Osaka Int'l Women's Marathon This race is used as one of the selection races for Japan's Olympic team.

The Big Interview: Dathan Ritzenhein

LRC Ritz Reflects On The Trials, His Years With Alberto, And Looks To The Future 24 hours after Dathan Ritzenhein just missed making the 2012 the Olympic Marathon team, a frank but more upbeat Ritz sat down and talked with LetsRun.com. He looked back on the Trials race ("I ran pretty good. It just was not enough.") and back on the last three years with Alberto ("He is a very smart, very passionate guy more than anything. He will find the way." and "There's been many times when we've screwed up.") before looking ahead to both the immediate future ("The Olympics is everything.") and farther down the road ("I do love the marathon, but I think I love being good better ... I want to succeed at what I'm going to be best at."). A confident Ritz has big plans for the future. A must read (or watch) if we can say so ourselves. Plus we give you splits of the last 3.2 miles in Houston.

Sunday XC Action *Good Recap Of Weekend XC

• EAA Review Of European Weekend XC Action Kenya's 2k steeple World Youth champ Conseslus Kipruto wins in Hannut as Belgium's SPAR Euro XC champ Atelaw Bekele only finished 5th.
• World Half Marathon Champ Wilson Kiprop Wins Over Deep Field In Discovery Kenya XC Meet Geoffrey Mutai and 3rd all-time half marathoner Matthew Kisorio were a close 2-3, while Asbel Kiprop ran with the lead group before fading to 8th place. Joyce Jepkurui won the women's race over Priscah Jeptoo. After this, Wilson Kiprop says he's looking to make Kenya's Olympic 10k team.
• World XC Silver Medallist Paul Tanui Wins Spain XC Meet He won over World XC Jr. Champ Geoffrey Kipsang and 2008 World XC silver medallist Leonard Komon. Ethiopia's Wude Ayalew Yimer won the women's race.

London Marathon Goes To Iten

Virgin London Marathon, Which Made 2012 Athlete Announcements In Kenya, Is Giving Back To Iten, Eldoret Communities

LRC Photo Of The Day: Virgin London Marathon Fields Announced From Iten, Kenya We didn't realize London was in Iten to announce its 2012 fields. Very cool.

Yesterday: London Does It Again Emmanuel Mutai To Try To Defend London Title Against World Record Holder Patrick Makau & Slew Of Other Top African Talent

Bring Back The Mile Officially Launches For years, we (and many in the sport) have wondered why the mile isn't the #1 distance event in the land and why it's not run instead of the 1,500 or 1,600. Finally, someone has decided to do something about it.
*Bringing Buzz Back To The Mile *Discuss *Like On Facebook

Recommended Read: NY Times Article On Australia's LJer Mitchell Watt, Who Quit Track For 5 Years But Came Back And Got 2nd At The World Champs Apparently he was convinced to keep competing by a "12 page email" from his coach.

US Men's Olympic Trials Marathon News *LRC Vote Totals *Men's Results *Women's Results *Mile-By-Mile Splits *Yahoo Flash Photos *LRC Puma Prediction Contest Scores Coming

LRC Men's Marathon Trials Analysis And Reaction The 2012 Trials race was a classic. We throw some love to the top 3, ponder Ritz's future in the marathon, tell you who had the best debut, and tell you who that guy you never heard of was. Plus we talk about Meb's 74-year-old badass dad and look at the fortune of some old timers who didn't make the team, Josh Cox and Dan Browne, in addition to the ones who did (Meb and Abdi).

Sunday Update: 24-Hours-Later Update On Ritz: "I do love the marathon, but I think I love being good better." Ritz indicated he still loves the marathon and is not done with it. He also said, "I ran pretty good yesterday."

Race Recap: Meb Keflezighi Captures 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon Title

NY Times Recap: Meb Over Hall, Abdi Grabs 3rd Spot The race lived up to the billing as the top four all broke 2:10, whereas previously there had only been one sub-2:10 in OTM history. After a blistering first half (63:25), Meb Keflezighi got his 2nd PR in 69 days, as he ran 2:09:08 to win over Hall (2:09:30). A resurgent Abdirahman (2:09:47) hung on for the final Olympic spot in 2:09:47 over Ritzenhein, who broke 2:10:00 for the first time (2:09:55). In the process, Meb became the first American to make an Olympic marathon team 8 years after making it previously. Abdi had no idea until we talked to him that Martin Fagan, whom he trained with some this winter, had reportedly tested positive for EPO.
LRC Trials Live Thread Here
Trials On The Boards:

• Ritz's 4th place a blessing in disguise?
• Surprises from the Trials
• Will Deena Kastor retire now?
• Will Trafeh ever finish a marathon?

Lance And LIVESTRONG

Outside Magazine Article Accuses LIVESTRONG Foundation "If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the famous nonprofit donates almost nothing to scientific research." *MB: Livestrong expose in Outside magazine

Patrick Makau Reacts To Renato Canova's Comments That His WR Will Be Broken This Spring Makau: "It makes me wonder if the record is a preserve for some region, tribe or runners. What shocks me is that some people are speaking ill of me just because I broke the world record ... Let us not talk much but redeploy our energies on good training and skills that will power our legs to do the talking."

The Running Story Of The Year

Japan Running News Recaps The Life And Career Of Sammy Wanjiru Barcelona Olympics marathon silver medalist Koichi Morishita: "The people who were supporting Sam were only motivated by the money flowing around him, not from the heart, and they didn't give him the kind of support he really needed. You hear a lot of disturbing things about his family too, his wife, and I can't help but think that he should have had more people around him who cared about his soul."

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Men: LRC Wisconsin Badgers Take Control Early As Lawi Lalang Dominates Lawi Lalang waited until 5k before deciding it was time to crush the competition once and for all, while #1 Wisconsin showed no fear and put a stranglehold on the competition from the very beginning and held off a belated charge from Oklahoma State and a surprising Colorado team as the Cowboys tried to three-peat. American Chris Derrick took home individual runner-up honors to cap a brilliant career in style. *Discuss

More: Wisco #1: *Give 'em five: Badgers lay claim to program's fifth national title *Krause earns redemption as Badgers storm to fifth national title host.madison.com
OSU #2: *Dave Smith Calls Loss "Disappointing" - But Expected www.okstate.com
Colorado #3: *Wetmore Calls Medina Most Improved Runner In Country www.denverpost.com *CU Coach Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs 3rd-Place Run
Individual: Coach Li - I Think Lalang Would Have Got Course Record If He Was Pushed www.arizonawildcats.com

Friday's Action *Grass Track Photos From New Zealand *College Results

LRC Indiana: Andy Bayer Gets The Win With A 3:58.23 Mile And Says He May Triple At NCAAs With the 3,000m last, why not give it a shot? Bayer said, "I think I'm in better shape than last year ..." Results, race video and interview with Bayer.

A&M Day 1: Jordan Hasay 4:35 split to open season

UW Day 1: Cam Levins 13:42.90 5k *Live Results

New Zealand:  Will Leer's 3:58.45 Defeats Nick Willis 3:58.81 Results and race video. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of the US, so the race is over. Pretty amazing 50 years later Snell's mark still stands.
*MBoard Thread

Don't Know Peter Snell? Recommended Read: Running Times Feature: Peter Snell: Gentleman, Athlete, Scholar

Yesterday Dubai *LRC Recap *Results

LRC Hello World, Meet Ayele Abshero (2:04:23 Debut!) The 21-year-old former Jr. World XC champ's marathon debut was super-special, as his surge with just over 3km remaining decimated the deepest marathon field in history, as four men broke 2:05 in the race, eight broke 2:06, 10 broke 2:07, and 17 broke 2:10 - all records as fastest-ever times for places were recorded in spots three through 17. 2011 belonged to the Kenyan men, will 2012 belong to Ethiopia? The women's race was super-fast and super-deep as well, as 3 women broke 2:20 in the same race for the 1st time, as Aselefech Mergia ran 2:19:31 to win and a record 9 women broken 2:25. Martin Lel was a DNF, Ramaala 2:12. *AP
*Butcher: Ethiopians Strike Back
*MB: 4 guys I've never heard of go sub 2:05 in Dubai

Pre-Race RR: Renato Canova Previewed The Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, Lel And Merga Vs. The Field

Getting Ready For NYC This Weekend And Boston Next Weekend

• IAAF Preview Of Saturday's US Open Meet At MSG (with schedule)
• AFP Preview Of US Open: Powell, Campbell-Brown Lead NY Meet
• What About The Sport?
  Tirunesh Dibaba, Meseret Defar, Silas Kiplagat, Shannon Rowbury Join New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Fields Organizers think this year's fields might be the greatest in meet history. They definitely are very good but we must ask, "What about the sport?" It's ridiculous that Dibaba is in the 2-mile and Defar (and Rowbury) in the 3k. Defar, Jenny Simpson and Rowbuy in 3k is great, as is Centro Jr., Gebremeskel, and Komen in men's 3k. Editor's note: The NBIGP is an advertiser on LetsRun.
• What About The Sport II?
  Link fixed NY Catholic Schools Pull Longer Relays Out Of Millrose
  Irate at the Armory's "slap in the face" (without telling them, the Armory scheduled the Big East meet for the weekend the Catholics normally hold their Intersectional champs), the Catholic schools are running all of their longer relays at MSG (US Open), not the Armory. Seems like the kids would want to run in MSG anyway. Good to hear a CHSAA official who is a consultant to the Armory say, "we felt it was important to support the US Open in New York City."

Sprint News

• 9.88 Man Ryan Bailey Relocates To Southern California At Nike's Orders
• Don't Count On It Athletes competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games will be exempt from income tax - a move which might persuade top talent, such as Jamaica's Usain Bolt to compete
• Despite Finishing 4th In Daegu, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Hoping To Be 3rd Woman To Repeat As 100m Champ
• A Justified Lawsuit 22-Year-Old Swiss Sprinter Sues Doctor After Being Mistakenly Injected With Nandrolene Instead Of Cortisone
  
  
• More Doping News: New study reveals that over two per cent of athletes admit current banned substance use Not a big surprise to us. What percent of the 20-30 population smokes dope?

Wejo Speaks: LRC What About The Sport? Wejo, an outspoken critic of Millrose Games moving to the Armory, says don't celebrate USATF sticking it to Millrose. Celebrate the sport being on ESPN.

Be Inspired By These Two Olympic Trials Breakthrough Performers

• Recommended Read! The Ultimate Blue-Collar Runner: Meet Jimmy Grabow - The Guy With A Full-Time Job Who Ran 2:12:29 At The Trials In His First Marathon If this piece doesn't inspire you, then we don't know what will. The guy gets up every day at 5:30 and bangs out 15 miles + a core workout before going to a real 40-hour/week job before running 5 more miles after work.
  *MB: Jimmy Grabow - The Ultimate Blue Collar Runner Do you know about the blue collar or yuppie debate - it's one of the greatest in LRC history.
• 5 Minutes With Alissa McKaig She PRed by 5+ minutes to finish 8th at the OTrials in 2:31.

Big Names In The News

*Achilles Surgery Does In Blanka Vlašić's Indoor Season Before It Even Begins

*LaShawn Merritt Gets Huge USA Today Profile: "I don't go near the Internet anymore."

*Leo Manzano Is Training At Altitude In Mexico

USATF Sticks It To Millrose
Arkansas Will Once Again Host Visa Championship Series Meet - The USATF Classic Will Take Place Same Day As Millrose And Be Broadcast On ESPN A stellar field has been assembled, as Galen Rupp will run the men's 2 mile, Silas Kiplagat and Leo Manzano will battle in the men's mile, world champ Kirani James will run the 400m, American record holder and World Outdoor bronze medalist Jillian Camarena-Williams and USA Outdoor champion Michelle Carter will battle in the shot put, Shawn Crawford, Richard Thompson and Churandy Martina will run in the men's 60m, and world champion Brittney Reese, Olympic medalist Hyleas Fountain, Marshevet Hooker and Funmi Jimoh are in the women's long jump. Full fields and more stars will be announced soon but we think this is as a development worth celebrating and hence the picture.

Wejo Speaks: LRC What About The Sport? Wejo, an outspoken critic of Millrose Games moving to the Armory, says don't celebrate USATF sticking it to Millrose. Celebrate the sport being on ESPN.

Don't Write Her Off Just Quite Yet
Recommended Read After Falling Off The Map In 2011, Anna Pierce Is Talking Big At Start Of 2012 As She's Hoping To Get The AR In The 1k In Boston. Pierce, who had a disastrous 2011, talks big about 2012 as she's figured out what caused the 3:59 runner to only run 4:10 last year. Does your doctor ever tell you not take antibiotics unless you absolutely have to? Well, apparently there is a reason: "It kind of ended up being an overgrowth of a yeast or a bad bacteria in my body that was a repercussion from having taken all those antibiotics over the years." We're excited she's back as it makes the women's 1,500 even more exciting, but we just hope she doesn't run 50-flat in the 400.

We 100% Agree
Nick Symmonds Says Athletes Need To Stop Being Lazy And 100% Self-Focused & Start Promoting The Sport "I’m calling myself out here. I was as lazy as anyone. For the last six years, I was content to train hard, hide in my house and rest between workouts, and do little to nothing to engage our fans and grow our fan base. I figured that I was doing enough by just training hard and running fast. I no longer feel that way." Nick must have been reading LRC of late, as we've been saying for months that the everyone in track (US Open/MSG People) and the whole world needs to stop doing what is only in their best interest and think about something larger than themselves.

Virgin London Does It Again!!!

Way Harder To Win Than The Olympics
Emmanuel Mutai To Try To Defend London Title Against World Record Holder Patrick Makau & Slew Of Other Top African Talent In addition to those two, 5-time world marathon champ Martin Lel will compete. In total, a ridiculous 10 - yes, TEN - sub-2:05:30 guys are in it.
*Race Takes Place Exactly 16 Weeks Before Olympics

US Women's Olympic Trials Marathon News *LRC Vote Totals *Men's Results *Women's Results *Yahoo Flash Photos

Flanagan Over Davila, Goucher Gets Third As Top 4 All Break Old OTrials Record Flanagan (2:25:38) pulled away from Davila (2:25:55) and Goucher was third in 2:26:06. Amy Hastings broke the old Trials record at 2:27:17 but didn't make the team. Deena Kastor was 6th in 2:30:40.

• New: Amy Hastings Reacts To Fourth Place Finish Obviously disappointed, but a good run for Amy.
• Post-Race Reaction None of the four former Olympic marathoners in the race made the team. Hear from the top 3 and them.
• Women's Results
• Goucher: "I never imagined myself winning this race based on the short period of time I had to train." Oregonian
• Washington Post Recap Of Trials
• Deena: "I have no idea. This was not in my plans ... I really thought I was going to book my ticket to London today." MB Thread: Will Deena Kastor retire now?
• Kenyan Newspaper Reacts To Janet Cherobon-Bawcom Coming Up Short At Trials

Sunday Houston

Luke Puskedra Runs 1:01:36 Half Marathon Debut As Feyisa Lilesa Picks Up $17,500 With 59:26 Course Record The Oregon Duck's half marathon debut was super-impressive on a day where all 4 course records were broken in Houston (Tariku Jufar 2:06:51, Alemitu Abera 2:23:14 and Belaynesh Oljira 1:08:26 outkicking Boston Champ Caroline Kilel). Recap and interview with Puskedra on his decision to try a half in the college season.
More: IAAF Recap Interesting to note that Tariku Jufar missed basically a year of training in 2009 after being hit by a car while training.
*All Four Records Broken In Houston

A Crushed Simon Bairu Fails To Qualify For Canadian Olympic Marathon Team, Will Turn Focus To Track Nice article from Canadian Running Magazine. Wejo's not sure he has ever seen an athlete as emotionally disappointed after a race as Simon was.

International XC Track News *Yahoo Photos From Seville

Vivian's Win Streak Comes To An End: Linet Masai Crushes Cheruiyot In Seville XC Vivian's last lost was in an XC race to Masai in Nairobi a year ago.

Centro In The News

LRC Matthew Centrowitz Signs Endorsement Contract With Nike & Joins Alberto Salazar's Nike Oregon Project Nike stepped up to the plate and kept the former Duck in the family. What was a surprise is that he's joining Alberto's group (although he'll get assistance from collegiate coach Andy Powell). *Discuss
*Matthew Centrowitz To Make Pro Mile Debut And Headline Wanamker Mile Field No, he will not be competing on the boards in MSG against the king of Millrose, Bernard Lagat. That would be too simple and too good of an idea for the sport. This is the Armory meet, not the US Open. Centro says he's way ahead of where he is last year. The article says (implies) his father and sister will be competing in the meet as well. We can't imagine his dad is actually competing.

2012 BUPA Edinburgh XC Race *Leading Results *Video Highlights *Start Lists *Meet Website

Asbel Kiprop Makes A Statement As Kenenisa Bekele Finishes A Distant 11th At BUPA Great Edinburgh Cross-Country Kiprop, the Olympic 1,500 champion, cruised to victory over the 2008 Olympic steeple, 5k and 10k champs, and showed he's intent on being the first since Seb Coe to defend an Olympic 1,500 title. European XC champ Fionnuala Britton won the women's title.
*IAAF Recap: Kiprop Totally Dominant On Last Lap
*Bekele Suffers But Seems Unfazed How bad was Bekele? Well, 5 Brits beat him, including one who was doubling back from the 8k, but Bekele was confident afterwards: "I'm not serious for this race. At this time of the year I don't want to be in very good shape. It is too early. It is a long time to the Olympics. I want to build up slowly."
*Bekele: "I lack fitness." "I was not confident before the race. But it's a long time until the Olympics and it is too early to be in better shape."

Great Marathon News

• Defending Champions Geoffrey Mutai And Caroline Kilel Will Try To Defend Their Crowns At The 2012 Boston Marathon
• 2012 ING New York City Marathon Will Be Broadcast Live On ESPN2 ESPN/NY execs, please let us consult and help you with your broadacst. We will do it for free in year 1. Our first advice will be to tell you who not to hire as broadcasters. It's amazing how little info has been shown when Boston has been on ESPN. Email us here.

The Weeks That Were

LRC Tirunesh Dibaba Returns, Dunbar Follows In His Dad's Footsteps & Meb Tries To Make The Olympic Team On 41 Days Of Running In case you've been (like us) more focused on the Holidays than keeping on top of the limited action in the world of running over the last two weeks, we are here for you. From the return of Tirunesh Dibaba to Meb trying to make the Olympic team off of 41 days of running to some high-profile transfers, we've got you covered.

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Women: LRC Georgetown, Reid Win Tight Battles Six women kicked for home over the last 400m of the race but in the end it turned into the duel many expected and Sheila Reid of Villanova got the narrow win over Jordan Hasay. The big surprise was in the team's race, where the Georgetown women, who were only third at Big East, won by eight over Washington as #1 Florida State faltered and finished 4th. *Discuss

More: *Georgetown Gets Its First National XC Title GUHoyas.com
*Washington Comes Up 8 Points Short GoHuskies.com
*#1 FSU Finishes 4th & Coach Karen Harvey Pulls No Punches "I felt like I was watching a nightmare. I really thought there was no way this is happening." www.seminoles.com
*Wetmore Says 11th-Placed Colorado Women Purposely Peaked For PAC-12s, Not NCAAs www.denverpost.com
*The FSU Women Finished Fourth And The Men 12th At NCAA Cross-Country Championships www.seminoles.com
*Lananna Says Hasay's Runner-Up Finish Was A Big Step Forward As She Didn't Get Antsy & Kick Too Early www.oregonlive.com

2011 ING NYC Marathon *Men's Results *Women's Results *Viewing Info *Flash Yahoo Photos

LRC 2:05:06!!! Geoffrey Mutai Caps Year In Style An unbelievable year in men's marathoning had an appropriate finish, as the Kenyan man who had the most unbelievable of all years, Geoffrey Mutai, smashed the previous NYC Marathon record by a stunning 2:38 - that's two minutes and 38 seconds. If it wasn't the greatest 2nd-greatest men's marathon performance ever, you'll have to tell us what was. American Meb Keflezighi hung with the leaders for 20 miles after a blistering 63:16 1st half and ended up with a much-deserved PR. Mutai picked up $200,000 by winning, but the big financial winner was runner-up Emmanuel Mutai, who won $635,000 ($500,000 for the WMM title).

LRC Mary Keitany Beats Herself The women's race was full of gut-wrenching drama, as Mary Keitany went out in a crazy 67:56. The problem was she came back in 74:42, as unheralded Firehiwot Dado (Rome Marathon champ) got the win.

LRC Post-Race Interviews: Meb And His Coach Bob Larsen Talks About His PR Despite Throwing Up Plus the winners - Geoffrey Mutai, Firehiwot Dado, men's and women's top 3, Ed Moran, Molly Pritz, Lauren Fleshman and Bobby Curtis.