Quote Of The Day:

"My father beat me up and ordered me to choose one: I either get back to school or start training and since I knew I could not perform well in class, I decided to run."

- Kenyan marathon co-record holder James Kwambai. He has twice run under 2:06 and lost both times, including his 2:04:27 loss in Rotterdam to Duncan Kibet. Kwambai, scheduled to run the ING New York City Marathon, quit school when he was younger but has since fared quite well as a marathoner with second-place finishes in Berlin, Boston and Rotterdam. 

ING NYC Marathon Elites

Kenyan Profile Of Barely-Noticed New York Marathon Entrant James Kwambai Kwambai has run 2:04:27 and 2:05:36 and he lost both races. He also finished runner-up in Boston. The fastest man in the field might only be the fourth or fifth favorite in New York.

According To NYRR, Women's Elite Field Basically Down To 3 Late cancellations leave Paula Radcliffe, Salina Kosgei and Yuri Kano as the top 3. Luckily for New York any race with Paula is an attention grabber.

2-Time NYC Champ Marilson Gomes Dos Santos' Press Conference Transcript It's rare to hear this much from Brazil's Marilson Gomes Dos Santos. He sounds confident after his surprising come-from-behind win over Abderrahim Goumri last year. Watch 2008 hi-lites here. LRC 2008 Photos

New York City Marathon Getting Great Press

Recommended Read: Story Of Boys Who Ran NYC Marathon As 8- And 9-Year-Olds Back In The '70s These guys grew up running with their dads who got swept up in the jogging boom. They were running at ages of 3, 4, 5, 6 and ran under 3:30 in the marathon before they were in 3rd grade.
*Thread On NYTimes Article On Kids Running

NYTimes: Humans Are Meant To Run Long Distances


Article On the Guys Who Ran (And The Guy Who Won) The First New York Marathon

*Brief Chat With Gary Muhrcke, First NYC Marathon Winner

Celebs: Ed Norton Putting His Fame To Good Use By Running NYC Marathon To Benefit Kenyan Tribe Trying To Preserve Environment
*Sal Masekela - Apparently He's Famous On E! - Is Scared Sh*tless To Run Marathon

Good Reads:
1.
Pat Butcher On The Increasing Onslaught Of Marathoning Kenyans And The 2-Hour Barrier 10 of the top 20 all-time marathon marks have been set this year ... and there are no signs of slowing from Kenya.
2. Brilliant! Sports Scientists Find And Publish Data That Shows Marathon Events Save Lives, Part II Worth a read so you can convince your CNN-watching friends that running is in fact much safer than lying around on a couch or driving a car. Part I is below.

LRC Thread: Guenther Weidlinger Now Holds Every Austrian Record From 1,500m To Marathon, Including Steeple
*Frankfurt Marathon Recap

LRC Marathon Photo Sequence Of The Year Tom Beford, son of Britain's running legend Dave Bedford, had a bet with his old man who said he couldn't break 2:25 in the marathon. Well, Tom won the bet this past weekend in the Dublin Marathon, and celebrated heartily, doing a cartwheel as he cross the finishing mat. A LetsRun.com reader in Ireland was on the scene, camera in hand, to record the occasion and he sent us the photos. Tom raised 5,000 pounds for charity.
*Dublin Marathon Recap

South African Doctor In New Report: "Chuene, ASA Were Reckless, Short-Sighted And Grossly Irresponsible" In Handling Semenya
Aussie journo Mike Hurst is again all over the story as a newly released document from a team doctor scathingly accuses Chuene of scandalous behavior.

Trevor Graham Breaks 5 Years Of Silence & Tells NY Times He Never Did Anything Wrong Since Marion Jones got out of prison and lied immediately on Oprah, we guess we shouldn't be surprised that Graham ended his home confinement and lied to the NY Times. Graham: "I didn't do anything wrong."

Recommended Read: Sudden Death During Exercise Part 1: The Media, Risk And Running Ross Tucker at Science Of Sport writes a GREAT piece on the mainstream media's coverage of the sudden deaths of 3 runners at the Detroit Marathon this weekend.

AVIVA British Grand PrixMo Farah Runs 46:25 To Win Thrilling Bupa Great South Run By 1 Second Farah fell 25 meters back in the first two miles but stormed back to victory over Kenya's Stephen Mokoka as Ines Monteiro (52:32) destroyed the women's field. *3 Minutes Of Video Highlights *IAAF Recap Of Men's & Women's Races
*Farah Eyes Transition To Marathon For 2016
*Record 21,000 Run Great South Run

Sean "Quickly" Wins Mayor's Cup XC Meet By 1 Second Matt Withrow was 9th. Message board thread here.
*LRC Photos From Franklin Park Mayor's Cup

Weekend Marathon Action

A Name You Might Want To Learn - Gilbert Kirwa
*LRC Updated Photos - Awesome Indoor Finish
*Kirwa Remains Undefeated For His Life At Marathon And Runs Course Record 2:06:14 To Win In Frankfurt Kirwa edged Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot over the final 4 kms to get his 2nd European victory. Agnes Kiprop won the ladies title (2:26:57).
*
Pat Butcher Recaps The Race Robert Cheruiyot barely beats his 37-year-old coach William Kiplagat.
*Commerzbank Frankfurt Marathon Quotes Press release The power of running smart: Guenther Weidlinger of Austria totally downplayed his fitness going into the race, saying he'd hope to get some qualifying marks but that the Austrian record of 2:12 was probably safe. Then he went out and blasted his own 2:12 personal best set in Vienna and ran 2:10:47!

The People's Marathon - The Marine Corps Marathon
*Navy's John Mentzer Wins In 2:21:47
*Muliye Gurmu Uses Sprint To Win Women's Race In 2:49
*More Marine Corps Coverage From Washington Post

*Kenyan Caroline Cheptanui Kilel Runs 2:25 Two Weeks After Getting 4th At World Half She's now one of the 15 fastest for 2009 and the winner in Slovenia.
*2:08:13 And 2:27:46 Result In Kenyan Victories In Venice
*Course Records Fall At Stanchart Nairobi International Marathon *Half Marathon Recap

Rwanda's Dieudonné Disi Runs 60:21 To Win Half In France

Tyson Gay Undergoes Successful Groin Surgery Good news for the 2nd-fastest sprinter of all-time and we hope he's back healthy in 2010.

California: So Beautiful He Has A Race Named After Him: Dean Karnazes Silicon Valley Marathon More Ultra Running: Runners Paying For Toenail Removal Surgery

Unreal!! High School XC Team Has Conference Title Stripped Because 1 Runner Had Improper Stitching On His Compression Shorts

Cross Country: NCAA ChampionshipsLRC PAC-10 Cross-Country Preview USC hosts the most elite conference battle in the country as powerhouses Stanford and Oregon battle on the men's side and Washington looks to roll again on the women's. Can Jordan Hasay win it as a freshman? For the men, which super-soph will lead their team to victory, Luke Puskedra or Chris Derrick?
*LRC Latest LetsRun.com Cross Country Polls Are In ... Stanford and Washington lead in the LetsRun voting. But will the Cardinal men even win their own conference?
*NCAA XC Championsips Will Be Shown Live On Versus TV The last two years have been great with Josh McDougal vs. Galen Rupp vs. Sam Chelanga.

Interview With Jason Hartmann After His 2:12 Win In Twin Cities Hartmann was struggling with the business side of running and almost quit. He credits friends like Dathan Ritzenhein for keeping him going. Great story.

LRC: Photos From The Venice Marathon Looks like a beautiful marathon.

LetsJump.com: Li Yanxi Sets New Asian Triple Jump Record 17.69m That's well over 58 feet.
LetsThrow.com: Charles van Commenee Disappointed In Throws Coach Bob Weir - Fires Him Adam Nelson's former coach is a big name. His deal with Great Britain made some waves, but apparently it wasn't working and the UK head axed him.
*Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Lewis-Francis Loses GBR Lottery Funding
*Top Entrants Start Lining Up For European Cross Champs In Dublin Expect a showdown between Mo Farah and European XC master Sergey Lebid.

Fasil Bizuneh And Coach Scott Simmons Talk Training Via Twitter

USATF Announces Chiba Ekiden Team

Sad News

Cordner Nelson Founder Of Track and Field News Dies At Age 91 We never met the man, but he will be missed and appreciate his contributions to the sport.
*Message Board Thread

It's Cross-Country Conference Championship Week - LRC Previews The Major Conferences

LRC Big XII Cross-Country Preview Oklahoma State and 2008 individual champion German Fernandez head to Missouri hoping to hold off Mark Wetmore's pack-running Colorado Buffaloes. On the women's side, Jenny Barringer has never finished better, or worse, than 2nd place at the Big XIIs; think 2009 might be her year to earn her first conference crown?

LRC
Big Ten Preview The Big Ten in cross-country is sort of like the Big Ten in football ... some pretty good teams but lacking top notch firepower. Will the mysterious Wisconsin men get their 11th consecutive title and will Angela Bizzarri roll over the host Nittany Lions and Bridget Franek?

Ryan Hall Running To Help Others - Inspired By Africans Hall sees a higher purpose than running simply to win. He wants to help others in need, and he and wife Sara are willing to donate huge chunks of their earnings to the cause. He has an amazing sense of generosity.

Two Recommended Profiles
1) 25 Years Later, Steve Jones Still Has British Marathon Record
A lot has changed in the last quarter century, as the man who drank 11 pints of hard cider the night before setting the world half marathon record is now a teetotaller, but his British record still stands.
2) The Telegraph Goes To Jamaica To Get Close To Usain Bolt & Declares "Good Guys Like Usain Do Finish First"
A great read as it talks about Usain's love of KFC, going out at 2 am and returning at 5 am and much more.

Two More Interesting Articles From London's The Telegraph
1) Caster Semenya Is The Latest Female Athlete Suspected Of Being Biological Male
2) What Makes Usain Bolt So Fast

ING NYC Is Sunday
*70-Year-Old Gary Muhrcke - The First Winner Of The New York City Marathon - Is Hoping To Run 3:30 This Year
*Paula Radcliffe Talks About NY 2009 & London 2012
*Interview With 37-Year-Old Lawyer Hendrick Ramaala
*Greg Mason An Inspiring Runner After Surviving Testicular Cancer

Interesting Read: Austrian Woman Ski Champ Who Later Realized She Was A He Talks About Semenya

Liu Xiang Wins 110h At Chinese National Games In 13.34 In Front Of 60,000
*IAAF Recap Of CNG Action From Semifinal Day
*Big News Crackdown: China Bans 21-Year-Old 100m Champion Sprinter FOR LIFE After First Failed Drug Test

(Almost) 1,000 Days To London 2012 And UK Athletics Boss Is Talking Big:
"I believe we can win more medals than any other sport."
*Be Specific Let's Win 10: Great Britain Athletes Given The Medal Goal For London Games

US Men Running ING New York Profiled This Week
*Marathon-Focused Abdi Abdirahman Does A Quick Interview The American marathon ensemble, including the first American finisher in 2008 (Abdi), seem fit and ready to go in New York against a very good international squad.
*Profile Of Ryan Hall One Week Out From New York City Hall says he's not afraid to go for it.
*Brief Chat With Brian Sell Sell's career will likely end in the 5 Boroughs and it's off to dentistry school.
*Brief Chat With Meb Keflezighi Meb has set PRs at the half- and full marathon distances this year but LRC voters aren't giving him a shot against Hall.
*Brief Chat With Jorge Torres Torres debuts in New York after an emotional year.
*Recommended Read: Interview With Bolota Asmerom Jack of all trades Asmerom gives a great interview.