Quote of the Day

"I have a gut feeling that this could be the year!," said Meyer, who would gladly shed "the last American to win Boston" moniker that has practically become his middle name. "Ryan Hall runs the hills great, is not afraid of going up front, and if the humidity is low, I think he can win. It won't be easy, but he has the talent and approach to racing that will put him in a position to win."

- Greg Meyer, the last American man to win in Boston, speaking in a piece where several "experts" make their predictions for Monday's Boston Marathon. Of course, we went with the pro-American quote compared to the quote from the Running Times Scott Douglas, who spent time last month in Mammoth Lakes with Hall but said, "I got an idea of just how hard [Hall] works, how targeted his training is to running well at Boston and how much a win there would mean for him. But still ...Try as I might, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which he wins."

TV Reminder: Watch The Boston Marathon live on our partner Universal Sports Television or online at UniversalSports.com 9:30am eastern.

113th Boston Is Coming Monday! *Men's Preview *Women's Preview
Watch Live at 9:30 am EST on Universal Sports Television or online at UniversalSports.com

LRC: Semi-Live Blog As We Watch The Telecast. The commentating is so poor we've decided to let you know what is really happening.
LRC:
Message Board Thread

LRC: Message Boa
LRC:
Boston Media Day: Can An American Win It? The stars in Boston addressed the media on Friday and LetsRun.com was there to cover it all. Of course we've got Ryan, Kara, and Robert the Champ but much, much more, including Ryan Hall's confidence, Kara Goucher's ability to pull a Kempainen, Kara's demons, Brian Sell's possible retirement, and even a life-sized statue of Brian Sell made out of pasta. Story and videos.
*Classic: Hall Throws out first pitch for Red Sox, does his LAST training run, and - gulp - FORGETS HIS SINGLET IN CALIFORNIA!!
*Experts Predictions For Boston
*Ryan Hall, Kara Goucher, Robert Cheruiyot, Evans Cheruiyot, Deriba Merga, Brian Sell Interviews

*IAAF: Tune, Cheruiyot Cautiously Optimistic About Repeating
The article reveals Cheruiyot has regularly been finishing way ahead of his training partner and the Chicago champ Evans Cheruiyot in practice.
*Bill Rodgers: "There's a serious, serious chance for Americans to win the race."
*AP Preview: Americans Lining Up For Chance At Boston Win
*Top Americans Starting To Rediscover Boston
*Q&A With Boston Marathon Director Dave McGillivray


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PhotoRun's Boston Press Conference Photos
*Science Of Sport Boston Predictions: Goucher & Cheruiyot (Hall 3rd)
*Goucher Tells David Monti She Has A Chance To Win
*Goucher's Hometown Paper: Goucher Eager To Run Boston
*IAAF Preview Of Boston - Cheruiyot: "Boston is my second home."
*Legendary Coach Bill Squires Predicts Good Runs For Goucher And Hall
*Get Live Boston Updates On Your Cell Phone - Track The Elites All Morning
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LRC Preview Of The Men's Field - Can Hall Win It? The short answer is yes but it won't be a walk in the park.
*LRC: Meet Neil Cusack: The 1974 Boston Marathon Winner & Ireland's Only Boston Champion PJ Browne
gives you insight into the only Irish champ in Boston. His article clearly reveals that Boston in 1974 was a totally different era. Famed television anchor Walter Cronkite interviewed the winner and the headline in the NY Daily News the day after the race was, "Irishman wins Boston, trains on beer." Cusack never reached his full athletic potential as he had to work several jobs.
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LRC Preview Of The Boston Women's Field We tell you what we think of Kara's chances and introduce you to an elite field comprised of neophytes and veterans, with our take on just how strong the field really is. See below for a ton of good articles on Boston
Don't Forget: Hansons-Brooks Sending Team To Boston
*Brian Sell On Where He Sees Himself And His Teammates Finishing On Monday Hansons-Brooks brought a lot of excitement to Boston with their 2006 squad.
*Kevin Hanson On Hansons-Brooks And The Resurgence Of American Marathoning Hanson predicts 6 Brooks-Hansons runners in the top 15! "The six people, I think, will all finish in the top 15, 20th at the worst."
*Pre-Boston Interview With Central NY Runner Fred C. Joslyn
*Ryan Hall Gets Front-Page Sports Feature In USA Today What a pleasant surprise to see Hall featured in the paper yesterday morning.
*Kara Goucher Gets Some Love From USA Today Salazar says Goucher's much better prepared than for New York as she's had 9 100 mile weeks. Brian Sell also gets some love.
*Can A Tall Blonde Surfer-Guy Runner Win The Boston Marathon?
*David Monti/Universal Sports Preview Boston They have a picture of the bibs some of the top runners will wear.
*Ryan Hall Q&A In Hometown Big Bear Grizzly
*Man To Run Boston Marathon 4 Times Consecutively Raising money for wounded soldiers.
*adidas Extends Boston Marathon Sponsorship Conspiracy theorists thinking Nike is buying Kara Goucher's victory should think again.

Great Dire Tune Article - She's The Reigning Boston Champion And Will Be In The Running In 2009
*Another Must-Read Dire Tune Article Universal Sports This article uncovers a tense drama that took place between Ethiopian teammates before Beijing. Bezunesh Bekele's husband pulled a gun on Deriba Merga, Tune's training partner at the time, all because there was sentiment that Tune didn't deserve her national team spot. Interestingly, Tune, Bekele and Merga will each be competing in Boston on Monday.
*Video Interview With Kara Goucher The best part is you get to watch her run on the Alter-G Treadmill ... it looks really strange.
*Science Of Sport Previews The Men's Field In Boston A great analysis of Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot's winning strategy last year and predictions for this year.
*Robert Cheruiyot The Betting Favorite In Boston, Ryan Hall The 3rd Choice
*Asics To Offer Special Ryan "Hall-elujah" Shirt

*Wow, Curb Your Enthusiasm - Great Article On Deriba Merga From his tough upbringing to his wont for pushing the pace in big races only to fade at the end, this article opened up the world of Merga to us. More introductions: This Article Introduces You To The 3 Male Cheruiyots In Boston
*Supercool Brooks Running Superfans Website

Bolt News

*British Column: Bolt's Apology Unnecessary "The 'news' that Usain Bolt recently admitted to knowing as a child how to roll a joint belongs in the same category as the fact that bears defecate in woods."
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Usain Bolt Answers Readers Questions On Video In Britain He's #1 rule to being a champion, "Listen to my coach." He also takes a question at the end from a guy who claims to have walked him down in HS.
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Brit Marlon Devonish To Face Bolt In Next Month's Street Race He ran a 10.11 last week. All we can say is that will look like an 11.00 next to Bolt.
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Bolt, Isinbayeva And Dibaba Finalists For 2009 Laureus World Sports Award

The Best Of The Rest From Boston Coverage:

LRC's Week That Was Read about the death of a miling legend, the running world's version of Bernie Madoff, the longest article ever on Lance Armstrong, and of course our early take on Ryan Hall's predictions with only days remaining before Patriot's Day and the Hancock Boston Marathon.

NCAA News
*ACC Meet Is This Weekend In Miami, FSU Favored On Both Sides All we can say is the ACC should be embarrassed that the conference meet is before Penn and Drake.
*Rupp & Wheating To Debut At UCLA vs. Oregon Dual Meet This Weekend UCLA coach Art Venegas guaranteed a victory after last years meet.
*USA Today Article About Drake Relays Inspiring Phil Knight And Many Others

Gilbert Kipruto Kirwa Debuts In 2:08:21 Vienna Win Photo Gallery *Race Recap Austrian marathon record on the women's side as hometowner gets the win, great debuts on the men's side (4 under 2:10). Men's winner says, "After this debut I hope to run 2:04 one day." Rotterdam and Paris have everyone Kenyan thinking they can run 2:04. 2000 Olympic Steeple Champ Reuben Kosgei dropped out of his first marathon.
*2 More Kenyan Wins In Turin: 2:09:07 And 2:26

Recommended Watch BBC Goes To Jamaica And Looks At Usain Bolt's Upbringing See his elementary school, his dirt track, and his father wearing a Barack Obama hat.

Dwain Chambers at Mt. SAC
*Recommended Read: LA Times: Reformed drug cheat on a redemptive run
*San Diego Tribune: Chambers running for the sake of running. Chambers ran in anonymity in LA as the announcer didn't even announce the fact he was on the B 4 x 100.
*Video Interview Of Chambers At Mt. SAC

NCAA/US Track News

Kansas Relays:
*Alan Webb Wins In 3:58.9 After Being Challenged By Peter Van Der Westhuizen
*AP: Webb, Who Opened His 2009 Outdoor Season With A 3:58.9 Win, Is Focused On Training Less In 2009
*Jim Ryun's 42-Year-Old 3:54.7 Record Survives
*Pre-Race Article On Webb

BAA Road Miles: Darren Brown Surprises, Anna Willard Confirms Again She's a Really Good Miler Darren Brown did something very unfamiliar on Sunday- win a race. He got used to being beat in high school and college but got a very big win on Sunday. Anna Willard did something she is growing accustom to- winning. She easily dispatched Olympic 10k bronze medallist Shalane Flanagan on the streets of Boston. Photos, video, and more.

Mt. SAC: *Results Here

Lee Emanuel Sizzles, Juan Barrios Over Fam And Solinsky
NCAA indoor mile champ Lee Emanuel showed he's the real deal by blowing away the field to run 3:37 in the 1,500. Juan Barrios outkicked Anthony Famiglietti and Chris Solinsky in the last 100m to win the 5k in 13:16 (video of last 100 here). David Torrence got the biggest applause, winning the Puma mile and a 1-year contract by going 2:05.4 - 1:55.7. *5k Video *1,500 Video *Mile Video
*Videos With Announcing
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Videos With No Announcing The Mt. SAC PA announcers are some of the best in the business.
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Dwain Chambers Running 200m & 4x100m At Mt. SAC Saturday
*Thursday:
American Olympian Lindsay Anderson Wins Steeple In World Leading Time At Mt. SAC
*IAAF Preview: Olympic Medallists Allyson Felix, Sheena Tosta, Tasha Danvers (GBR), Kerron Clement And Shawn Crawford To Compete

ACC *Florida St. & UVA Tie For Men's Title As FSU Wins Women's
Oregon-UCLA Dual:
Rupp & Wheating Return To Hayward With Wins As Meet Comes Down To 4 x 400 (Oregon Wins) *MB Thread

1996 Olympic Marathon Champ Josiah Thugwane Wins Forever Resorts Loskop 50km Ultra

A Preview Of Sunday's Nagano Marathon

Just As Paul Tergat Predicted, Victor Kigen Wins Belgrade Marathon

Christian Cantwell Throws World-Leading 21.53 In Africa

Meet Mongolia's Olympic Marathoner Serod Batochir Who Is Training In The UK For The 2012 Games

Nigeria's Top 400 Guys To Compete In Dakar

Recommended Reads

*1984 Boston Marathon Champion Lorraine Moller On Her Life As A Women's Distance Running Pioneer Moller wrote a book on her ground-breaking career and life outside of running. Definitely you should read this article.
*Brief Chat With Shannon Rowbury America's top miler on the breakup of John Cook's group, her goal of getting the 5k "A" Standard at Cal, training with Leo Manzano and much more.
*Jim Hage On Running Boston - He Ran Boston Several Times Between 1981 And 1998, Often Rubbing Elbows With The Greats There are some great nuggets in this piece from the past 28 years in Boston.
*Great Q&A With Arizona's Zack Lloyd He can squat almost 800 lbs, throws the shot 69 feet and took a shot put to the neck and it didn't even hurt. Distance runners reading about guys like this are just in awe.

Big Names Announce Intent To Compete In NYC's Reebok Grand Prix It will be great to see the World XC champ Gebremarian, as well as Tyson Gay and Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Doping News
*Once A Cheat Always A Cheat - Tyler Hamilton Tests Positive For DHEA In Anti-Depression Medication - Career Over Not sure if we're buying the anti-depression excuse as this guy supposedly once doped 114 out of 200 racing days.
*Will Jail Time Deter EPO Cheats? Greek Race-Walking Champion May Go Behind Bars

Upcoming Marathons
*Sunday's Vienna Marathon Will Feature Only Debut Marathoners Including some future stud Kenyans and this guy: Austrian Man Striving To Hold Every National Record From Steeplechase Up To 42.195km
*Turin Marathon Preview
*Grandma's Marathon Still Has 1,800 Spots Open, Organizers Worried

Kenya/Africa News
*David Rudisha To Return To Action In Kenya In Stellar 800m Matchup With Asbel Kiprop
Last year, we told you Rudisha was going to be a star but an injury and Boaz Lalang derailed his Olympic hopes. He'll be back in action soon in Kenya against the Olympic 1,500 silver medallist.
*"They brought in sacks of sand which was placed at the barriers and water poured on top of it. That is not what is expected, someone couldeasily be injured and that is why I opted out." - Kenya's Paul Koech on the conditions for the steeplechase at an AK meet. Koech is getting heat from crazies over there for not running this local meet.
*World's Top Steeplechaser Paul Koech Fires Back At Athletics Kenya Read Koech's quote about the condition of the steeplechase barriers at the track meet, it's absurd.
*Vivian Cheruiyot And Pamela Jelimo Open Seasons In Kenya At 1,500m This might be the first time we've ever seen Jelimo go above 1,000m. Both won their preliminary heats. Jelimo (4:19) remains undefeated in her life at any event 800 and longer.

Puma Street Meet Voting: Pick The Winner

We've narrowed the entries down to the final 15 to win a free VIP package to next weekend's Puma Boston Street Meet featuring Usain Bolt. Get your votes in now here.

Boston Video: Kara On Throwing Up

Boston Video: Ryan On Winning

Boston Women's Poll