World Championship Marathon News: Paula and Kara To Run!

Kara Goucher Decides To Run Berlin WC Marathon Post-Boston word was Kara Goucher was going to try and start a family with husband Adam - keeping her out of running for a while - but this Track and Field News exclusive says she now plans otherwise.
Paula To Run Berlin WC Marathon Kara will have company as Paula Radcliffe will make her return from foot surgery to remove a bunion. Paula is really fired up about getting back to training and racing on a healthy body, even saying she can break her world record.
*Paula Says She Still Can Break Her World Record
*Radcliffe's Marathon Announcement All Over The British Press

Interesting Articles On Doping

*Good News, Bad News Heading Into the Giro d'Italia One of the contestants has already been booted but cycling fans seem to be excited about gradually ridding the sport of cheats.
*Long, Interesting Read On The Dilemma Caught Dopers Face
*USA Today On Freezing Blood Samples To Test Later Having your samples frozen to be tested later seems like a great deterrent and it's taking place more and more commonly.

Track Fans - The Pro Season Really Kicks Off This Weekend In Doha

Extensive Preview Of The First Major International Outdoor Meet Of 2009: Doha

Tergat Running Berlin Big 25 This Weekend

USA 25km Champs Are Coming Up May 9th's race in Michigan will feature a bunch of Team USA Minnesota runners.

Patrick Ivuti, Other Stud Marathoners To Battle In Prague Marathon Sunday

Big Meets Will Start Experimenting With Video Technology For The Horizontal Jumps

PAC 10 Schools Dealing With Falling Endowments - Slashing Staff And Programs

Athletes Still Pushing For Cross-Country In the Winter Olympics

New Book Born To Run That Bill Rodgers Calls "Nonstop Fun To Read" Is Out Today There is a book signing Tuesday night in NY and Thursday in Boston. It was written by LRC fan Chris McDougal. *MB Thread On Book Here

Oregon News

*Agent Ray Flynn, Part Of The World Record Irish 4 x Mile From 1985, Wishes The Ducks Luck
*Galen Rupp Focused On Not Only The 4 x Mile But Also Another Team NCAA Title
*Eugene's Register Guard On Matt Centro's Welcome At Practice And The Upcoming 4 x Mile

Remarkable Stories From This Weekend's Marathons In Pittsburgh And Cincinnati

*Cop Jumps In Moving Vehicle To Stop It From Plowing Over Marathon Runners
*Man Taken To The Hospital Near The End Of His Marathon Drives Back And Finishes

Top Performers Getting Notice

*USATF Follows Rojo In Naming Chris Derrick Their Athlete Of The Week Derrick was Rojo's collegiate athlete of the week while Tim Nelson was his performer of the meet with his 10k World "A" Standard Performance.
*LaShawn Merritt Is USA Today's Olympic Athlete Of The Week

LetsRun.com's The Week That Was In between being disappointed with the likes of Rashid Ramzi and the Big East Conference and ADs in general that don't give a crap about track, we survey the week that was in running and give praise for a guy that was third in a B heat of a 5k and even more praise to a guy that no one seems to be talking about. We also pause to remember a departed legend, wonder if Usain Bolt's partying is finally catching up to him, look back at Ritz and Meb at London and wonder if marathoning in the US this decade is truly better than last decade.

Great Northwest Athletic Conference Outdoor Track And Field Championships Cancelled Due To Swine Flu Case On Campus One athlete who wrote to us claimed the meet will not be rescheduled. These are the same teams affected by the regional cross-country meet last fall that had to be restarted after taking a wrong turn (the race with Scotty Bauhs).

More Results From A Busy Weekend

*18-Year-Old Norweigan Woman Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal Runs 31:29 Senstrumslopet (Center Race) 10k In Oslo The Google translation should amuse you. Course Records Here.
*2 Kenyans Go Sub-27 For 10k In Japan Josphat Muchiri Ndambiri and Martin Irungu Mathathi became the first to break the barrier in 2009.
*Moses Macharia (28:13) And Lucy Njeri (33:20) Win Toronto's Sporting Life 10k
*Recap Of Ethiopian National Track Championships, Day 5 Big upset in the men's 1,500m.
*Darvis Patton Takes Advantage Of Bolt's Injury To Get Double Win In Jamaica

Rio 2016 Olympic Committee Accuses Madrid 2016 Of Sending A Journalist Spy To IOC Evaluation

The NY Times Looks At How Many Colleges Are Cutting Sports Due To Recession While Other Schools Are Flush With Cash Interesting to learn that MIT cut 7 sports, while UW cut its swimming teams and Cincinatti its scholarships in track/cross-country. Meanwhile, SEC schools are so loaded with sports $$ that Arkansas is giving $1 million to the University to help it out.

Top Weekend Action

NCAA Conference Action
Big East: Notre Dame Men Win Big East By 1/2 Point Over Lousiville! It was the 100th Big East crown for the Irish overall as the Cardinal women got the win. *Complete Men's Results *Complete Women's Results
*Army M & Bucknell W Win Patriot League

Rivalries
*UCLA - USC: USC Sweeps Mens & Women's Dual For 1st Time Ever
The UCLA women almost never lose to USC (2nd time in 17 years) but they did this year. Click here to see a ton of highlight videos (guys and girls in tears at USC about the win). Click here to see video replay of meet.
*Washington-WSU Dual: Talk About Close: Washington Husky Women 86.66 - Wash. St. 86.33 The Washington Husky St. Cougar Men Meanwhile Won Easily

USA Road Mile Champs Are Tonight

10,000 On Line For Sub-4 or Sub 4:28 The field is led by Shannon Rowbury and Sara Hall for the women. The men's field features Rankin, Curtis, Jon Brown and Darren Brown.  
*Rowbury and Fam Rankin Headline USATF Road Mile Thursday

2009's First Sub-27:00's Happened In Japan

*Ken Nakamura's Recap Of A Record-Setting Meet In Japan
*More On The Shizuoka International Meet Where 2 Kenyans Broke 27:00 - From Brett Larner

Interesting Marathon News

*Recommended Read:  A Brief Chat With Pittsburgh Marathon Champion Kristin Price
*Great Story: Eugene Marathon Champion Brought A Buddy To Rabbit And He Ran 2:18
*Professor In Korea Who Offered Improved Grades To Students Who Ran Marathon Sued Successfully For $40Gs After One Student Dies This goes under the header: "We couldn't make this one up."

Brits Rejoice While Kiwis ... Olympic Champion Valerie Vili Considering Switching Nationalities To Great Britain Her father is British. Funds seem to be the main issue ... it's sad an Olympic champion has this problem.

The Daily Bolt Report

*Toronto Meet Organizers Paying Big For Bolt, Banking On Him Being Healthy And Ready To Compete
*Bolt To Resume Training This Week

Lots Of Female Athletes In The News

*Allyson Felix Feeling At Home In Qatar Heat
*Star Heptathlete Dobrynskya On Her Preparations For The Outdoor Season
*Olympic Silver Winner Kerron Stewart Running Well After Improving Her Start

Remarkable Quotes From May 6, 2009

1. "We won three golds in 2008, but the funding still isn't that flash." - Valerie Vili, who is considering switching her allegiance to Great Britain to secure more funding.

2. "We just decided it was what I needed for my professional career. So I submitted my name to USATF and I have been selected so I'm doing it. I'm going to run the marathon in Berlin." - Kara Goucher, who will be running Berlin.

3. "I remember going to Font-Romeu for the first time and it opened my eyes to how hard athletes from other countries were working. You train in a group and you have that support network. We definitely need to do more of it. We have to build up the squad system." - Paula Radcliffe, who also says she can break her world record still.

4. "You know what? I don't know. I think any place can be [a good place to train]. Everybody talks about how 'you need to go to altitude, you need to go here, you need to go there,' and quite personally, I think it's where you're comfortable at. I feel really comfortable here in my job. Everyone at work and my boss is so supportive of my running. We have a nice national forest to run in, with trails and softer surfaces. There are sidewalks to run on. I mean, I can't complain. The weather I love, 'cause I like the warm weather. It's ideal for me, maybe not for someone else." - Kristin Price, winner of the Pittsburgh Marathon this weekend, in a great interview with Runner's World.

5. “Your endurance gets stronger as you get older. Maybe you need an extra day’s recovery in between hard sessions but I think mental toughness and maturity comes to the fore a bit, and your heart’s more in it.” - Paula Radcliffe on the same day she announced she will run the Berlin World Championships marathon.

Track's Main Man Usain Bolt In The News

*Usain Bolt Has Stitches Removed
*Interesting Read On Bolt's Earning Power Some are criticizing Bolt for not capitalizing enough on his fame.
*Former Sprint Greats Predict Bolt's 2009 Season And Rivals

Upcoming Races Taking Shape

*Fam And Rowbury Headline USATF 1-Mile Road Championships Thursday In Minnesota
*Amazing Lineup To Race Healthy Kidney 10k In NYC On May 16th Great field including Tadesse Tola (ETH), Patrick Makau (KEN), "Fam" (USA), Martin Fagan (IRL), Marilson Gomes Dos Santos (BRA) and Adrien Blincoe (NZL).
*Great Early Season Distance Match-ups To Be Held At adidas Track Classic
*Full Field Announced For May 30th Freihofer's Run For Women
*Morocco Lines Up Jelimo And Others For May 23rd Meet

Good Read Joe Battaglia On The Toll The Economy Is Taking On Track Athletes USA's Darvis Patton got dropped by adidas not long after the Olympics despite making the Olympic 100m final.

Kenyan News

*Catherine Ndereba Concerned She May Not Be Able To Run Worlds After Injury In London
*Asbel Kiprop Will Get Paid By Kenya If He's Moved Up His gold makes the 2008 Olympics even more amazing for the Kenyans.

Pacific Track Lends Hand To Schools Whose Conference Meet Was Cancelled Due To Swine Flu This was a great gesture though only a few affected schools ended up being able to go to the meet.

IOC Has Only Lost About 8% Of Its Funds In Market Downturn

Solomon Haile Headed To Arkansas!

IAAF World Champs/Golden League Announces New USA Television Deal Inked With NBC/Universal Sports This will be good for track fans and the sport as long as NBC remains committed to showing the World Champs on NBC like they are doing this year. Our sport's biggest events need maximum exposure (broadcast television) and they do not get that on cable. For hard core track fans, this is great news if you are in a Universal Sports area as you'll be able to see a lot more events on television.

Japan-Based Mekubo Mogusu Recovering Physically And Emotionally From Car Wreck In Kenya That Left His Coach In A Coma Flashback: Mogusu ran 3 sub-1 hour half marathons in 2007.