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LRC The Week That Was What a week yet again. The off-the-track headlines dominated as we learned that running can make you smarter, Usain Bolt was or was not offered $100 million, Leonard Chuene continued to embarrass South Africa and another running-related book started to gather positive press. In terms of action, the Canadian soil marathon record fell and the milers blazed in NYC.

Edwin Soi Wins Scicli 10k Over Micah Kogo A rare tactical road race, as the course is run on 1km loops with a 300m hill run over cobblestones. On Sunday, the course was wet, meaning the opening kilometers were passed in around 3:00!

He's A Komon! Leonard Komon 27:10 Road 10k In Utrecht That's fast!

Cow Harbor 10k Race Results - Mo Trafeh And Katie McGregor Win US Only $$ Jason Lehmkuhle was second on the men's side behind Trafeh, who made up for his narrow loss to Brett Gotcher at the New Haven 20k by picking up $3000 in Northport, NY.

Sad News: Northern California Boy Dies After Cross-Country Race In Very Hot Weather It seems like he laid on the ground for a few minutes before bystanders noticed he was in really bad condition. Temperatures were well over 100 degrees on the day.

Zersenay Tadese Set To Run Birmingham World Half Marathon And Defend His Title Tadese is a 3-time winner of the event and you may recall pushed Kenenisa Bekele very hard in the Berlin 10,000m race on the track, where both men ran under 27:00.

UPSET SPECIAL! Andy Baddeley Surprises (!) And Shannon Rowbury Caps Great 2009 At 5th Avenue Mile updated Baddeley, who was injured earlier this year, won in 3:52 despite only 2.5% of LetsRun voters picking him for the win. Overwhelming favorite Bernard Lagat got 65% of the vote but came in fourth in the Big Apple behind Leo Manzano and Boaz Lalang. Shannon Rowbury (4:24) continued her excellent season on the track with a big win over Lisa Dobriskey and Sara Hall, who had a photo finish for second. *LRC PHOTOS
*5th Avenue Mile Results 15 men break 4:00!
*NYRR Coverage Page
*LRC: MBoards: 5th Avenue Mile

Simeon Williamson To Train With Bolt Again Training with a Bolt, unfortunately, does not make one a Bolt.

Stanford Dominates Home Meet Against Easy Competition They look good on the men's and women's side.

Ridiculous

*South African Track Head Chuene Gets Unanimous Vote Of Confidence And Will Stay In Job  Chuene wants to know what he did wrong and says he lied about knowing about sex tests to protect Semenya. Complete BS. How does lying about the tests protect her in any way? It only protects his ass. He also has accused the whole affair of being the work of racists and for good measure said IAAF officials told Semenya to fake an injury. Someone should look into that claim, but this guy already has been shown to be a liar.
More: Is Financial Mismanagement At Athletics South Africa The Real Problem?

*Latest: Now Caster Semenya's Lawyers Set Sights On Lying Chuene

*Butcher Blog - South African Athletics Administrators Show No Integrity Tough to disagree with that statement.

*SA Today Editorial On Semenya

*Chuene Asks Where Did He Go Wrong? Everywhere.

Writers Give Haile G No Love!

*Len Johnson Writes About The Berlin Marathon Being Anti-Climactic We think the race had a climax. The acme was the point in the race when the legendary protagonist going for the unbelievably fast record suffered in the elements and torrid pacing and was reduced to very mortal 5:00 miles. The drama was a tragi-comedy (because Haile always makes us laugh) versus a heroic finish. News flash to the world media: RECORDS AREN'T BROKEN IN EVERY RACE. This isn't swimming.
*Jim Hage Asks "Is Haile Still Great?" After He Won His 4th Straight Berlin Marathon In 2:06:08 After going out in 1:01:44 and breaking the world 30k world record en route to the 26th-fastest marathon of all time (of which he has run a whopping 6), Employee #1 is shaking his head in disbelief at the question.

Kenyan News:

• Kenyans Dope Too: Austrian Manager With Ties To Kenyan Athletes Linked To Doping
• African Athletics Champs Next Year Pushed Back 3 Months Because Kenyans Are Doing A Poor Job With Organization

Derek Redmond Says Usain Bolt Will Break 400m World Record

Inside Look At Mammoth Track Club Running Times Many of our readers are interested in knowing more about the training of Ryan Hall, Jen Rhines, Deena Kastor, Anna Willard, Scotty Bauhs and the rest of Terrence Mahon's Mammoth Lakes group. This is the most informative article we've seen yet. There is a reason American distance running is improving: coaches and athletes are working full time to get better.
*LRC Message Boards: RYAN HALL ANNOUNCEMENT

*IAAF Kawasaki Super Meet Recap - Gay Wins In 10.13 The Kawasaki Super Meet brought in a few stars, including Tyson Gay, Felix Sanchez, Allyson Felix and Reese Hoffa. Times and performances were nothing to write home about but we're sure the Saki was goooood.
*LRC: Photos From The Kawasaki Meet!
*Results From Super Meet In Kawasaki Japan

*Usain Bolt Camp Dismisses Mega $$ Offer, Saying Bolt Is Still Puma Sounds like the offer is there, but Camp Bolt needed to please the current sponsors. In case you missed it, Usain Bolt was reportedly offered a $100,000,000 long term endorsement contract by a crazy Chinese company.
*Agent Ricky Simms Says Usain Bolt Is The Highest Paid Track & Field Athlete Of All Time Even Before The Latest Offer Meanwhile, most NFL punters make more per year than Bolt.

Deriba Merga Is Officially A World Record Holder - IAAF Ratifies His 41:29 15k Split From RAK Half Marathon

Are People Insane? Usain Bolt Offered $100,000,000 Contract By Chinese Firm We're speechless.
*UK Guardian: Usain Bolt And Skepticism Go Hand-In-Hand

LRC: The Week That Was Last week was quite a week, as Ryan Hall got ready for New York, the #1 and #2 marathoners in history squared off in Berlin and some sprinters ran really fast in Shanghai. We break it all down for you and tell you why Ryan Hall most certainly is NOT the favorite for NYC and tell you how 9.69 is not as fast as 9.71.

Recommended Read: Candid And Unbelievably Interesting Interview With Brad Hudson Really, there are about 20 quotes of the day in this interview alone, as Hudson talks about not wanting to coach Dathan Ritzenhein, predicts Alan Webb will run 12:50 and may win Olympic 5k gold, opines on why Americans are good at running again and offers excellent training advice to anyone looking for the "key" to running fast.

LRC: Ryan Hall Looking Good For New York *Photo Of Ryan Hall Crossing The Finish Line Ryan Hall hammered a 4:27 13th mile to win the 2009 ING Philadelphia Distance Run in 61:52.

Dathan Ritzenhein Reportedly Runs Faster Than US Record for 10 Miles in a Workout
*Message board thread on his run

Caster Semenya / Leonard Chuene Saga

• Science Of Sport Updates From South Africa As Chuene Remains In Office After Bewildering Vote Of Confidence
• Expert Craig Sharp Responds To Pat Butcher's Blog In Regards To Caster Semenya Controversy - Excellent Read
• South African Official Says Everyone Was Too Afraid To Hold Chuene Accountable

LRC Special American High School Student Travels To Addis Ababa And Trains With The Ethiopians - Entry #3 - Asphalt Day In this episode, Neb takes part in an Ethiopian rarity: running on asphalt roads.

Bribe$, Mascots, Robots, World Political Leaders, Public Opinion All Being Taken Into Account In Final Hours Of 2016 Olympic Decision

*Video Preview Of Competing Cities For 2016 The "winner" between Rio, Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago will be announced by the IOC on Friday.
*Fox TV Ordered NOT To Run Program Where Chicagoans Voice Anti-Olympic Opinions
*Update! Obama Headed To Copenhagen With Mrs. Obama To Stump For Chicago Turns out the first man and lady will board Air Force One and make the trip to Denmark to show the IOC how much the US wants the Olympics.
*Picture, left: Giant transformer "Gundam" built for some crazy reason to help support Tokyo's bid.

Usain Bolt In New York

*Bolt Cheers On Yanks As They Sweep Sox And Lock Up AL East
*Bolt's Visit In Brooklyn's Walt Whitman College Only Fills Theater Halfway
*Some Jamaicans Don't Feel Bolt Deserves "Order Of Jamaica" Honor This writer defends Bolt's hard work and contributions.
*What Is The Second-Fastest Land Animal Behind The Cheetah? It's Not Usain Bolt

We Completely Agree: Sports Commentators Need To Not Bore Us With The Obvious

Scotiabank Toronto Marathon - Mungara Sets New Course Record

*Kenya's Kenneth Mungara Wins Toronto In CR 2:08 And Amane Gobena Wins Women's In 2:28
*Top 3 Men's Finishers Beat Canadian All-Comers Record In Cool, Rainy Toronto
*52-year-old Joan Benoit Samuelson finished 2nd in the women's half marathon in 1:22.

From Akron, OH: Kenyan Man Comes To America To Earn Road Racing Money To Send Home To Family, Wins Akron Marathon In 2:27

Interesting Interview With Jujitsu Purple Belt (And American Distance Running Torch Bearer In The Lean Years) Todd Williams Worth a read!

Friday's Action From Daegu, S Korea

Tyson Gay 9.94 Victory Over Asafa Powell Gay and Powell both continued their fine post-World Championships running, as Gay ran 9.94 for the win into a headwind. Carmelita Jeter continued running unbelievable times as she won the 100 by OVER half a second. World 1,500m champ Yusuf Kamel won the 800 and Nick Symmonds' 2009 campaign likely came to an end with a 7th-place finish. Allen Johnson was 4th in the hurdles and one has to wonder if this was the last race of his incredible career.
*Results Notice the results website has a picture of Usain Bolt on it even though he didn't run the meet.

Good Jamaican News

• Glen Mills Points To Tyson Gay's 9.69 As Evidence That 9.58 Can Be Done Clean 9.69 is the same time Bolt ran in Beijing, so Mills has a point that is very easy to follow. Tyson Gay is one year behind Bolt's progress.
• Glen Mills Strikes Back At Critics Mills says he's always supported athletic achievement without the use of performance-enhancers.
• Asafa Powell Discusses His Year And Admits He Used To Get Nervous And Choke At Major Championships Big Asafa Powell is much more candid these days.

A Nice Look At The Great Career Of Stacy Dragila The recently-retired vaulter was certainly a pioneer, as she won the first-ever women's pole vault at indoor Worlds, outdoor Worlds and the Olympics.

Upcoming Events:

NYC: World Champ Jaouad Gharib, Worlds 3rd-Fastest (James Kwambai) And Half Marathon Star Patrick Makau Added To NY Field The blurb in the NY Times has no mention of American Ryan Hall being in the field. Any concern about NY watering down its field to help Ryan Hall out is completely gone. Hall will have his hands full.

This Weekend: Ezekiel Kemboi And Richard Mateelong Headline Strong 10k Field At 20th Memorial Peppe Greco In Italy This Weekend

Next Month: Sammy Kitwara Named To Kenyan World Half Marathon Team This guy is the best runner you've never heard of and he'll get his chance to take on the best at a World Champs for the first time. He should have done it on the track at Worlds last month.

Recommended Watch: Wonderful Interview With Haile Gebrselassie Where He Talks About The Importance Of Coaching Gebrselassie is clearly a very talented runner and he also is great at communicating the important aspects of training.

LRC Exclusive: Cornell Medical Student And Exercise Physiologist PhD Matthew Goodwin Explains The Caster Semenya Case In A LetsRun.com Exclusive Commentary Dr. Goodwin explains the science behind sex determination, the probable cause of Semenya's sexual ambiguity, and his reasoning for why the IAAF should award two women's 800m gold medals if Semenya is determined to be "too male" to compete as a female in further competitions.
*Science Of Sport: Semenya Timeline Of Lies And Drama
*London Times: Caster Semenya Is Real Victim She will be a victim if everyone keeps telling her she is one.

Berlin: Gallant Geb Goes For It But Bonks Beyond 35k!
*LRC: Beautiful Race Photos From PhotoRun

The Great Haile Gebrselassie's Final Words From Berlin Catch Haile's parting words and some final reflections on one of the most congenial sporting personalities in the modern era. Longtime athletics writer Pat Butcher is on assignment in Berlin.