It's Time To Vote
LRC NCAA Cross Country Super Poll Voting With last week's hot XC action in the books and in advance of next week's conference action, the LetsRun.com NCAA XC Super Polls are back where we let you, the educated fan, show up the coaches. Top 10 voting nationally and for the major conferences now open. Get your votes in!!! Note to athletes: Your coach will probably turn a blind eye to you being on LetsRun.com if you vote for your own team.
Train Smarter
- What is the purpose of 12x400?
- best way to do strides
- Meltdown during a sub 3 marathon try
- More in our training forum
Recommended Read Fantastic Profile Of Josphat Menjo - The Man Who Soloed 12:55 And 26:56 This Summer Some old schoolers may be horrified to realize their hero credits much of his breakthrough to a weight and stretching regimen.
Detailed Look At Chilean Miner Who Ran Up To 8k A Day To Improve his fitness, he pulled a cart behind him.
Great South Run Is This Weekend
- Zersenay Tadese And Joseph Ebuya To Clash This Weekend Andrew Lemoncello, who didn't get a visa for the World Half, is also running.
- Jo Pavey/Steph Twell/Constantina Dita Running This Weekend They may be getting the headlines, but we'd be stunned if CWG champ Grace Momanyi doesn't win.
Trackfocus: Don't Underestimate Portland - They May Be Nearly As Good As Oregon And Stanford They didn't race one of their studs at Pre-NCAAs.
Thank Goodness
Court Rules Triathlon Wasn't Responsible For Athlete's Death A guy tragically died in the swim portion of the race and in typical American fashion, his family sued.
Good News Berlin Marathon Is Now The BMW Berlin Marathon
Honoring Some Legends Of The Sport
- 42 Years Ago This Week, John Carlos And Tommie Smith Protested At 1968 Olympics The article is the original article that ran in the Guardian newspaper 42 years ago.
- James Fuchs, Former World Record Holder In The Shot Put And Yalie, Dies New York Times Fuchs was friends with George Steinbrenner and invented the slide technique.
More On Some Of This Past Weekend's Marathons
- James Kirwa Takes Bus To Des Moines Marathon, Wins In 2:14 Kirwa was supposed to be driven by a friend but he didn't show, so he had to take a bus to the race.
- 8 High Schoolers Finish Des Moines Marathon Between 4 Hours And 6 Hours
- Baltimore Sun Looks At How Marathoners Celebrate When Crossing The Finish Line
- Under Armour Has Helped Jack Prize Purse At Baltimore Marathon It was $23,000 for this year's winners.
- Alena Vinitskaya, Winner Of Women's Des Moines Marathon, Has Run Over 150 Marathons
- A Look At Deaths In Marathons Death rates supposedly aren't different than compared to other sports.
Weekend Marathons
Largely Unknown Ethiopian Getu Feleke Runs 2:05:44 In Amsterdam In ideal conditions, Feleke lowered his PR from 2:08:04 to 2:05:44. Wilson Chebet, who was the runner-up at Falmouth in August, was the runner-up on Sunday with the 2nd-fastest debut in history at 2:06:12. Finishing 4th in his debut
at 2:07:29 was Abreham Cherkos Feleke, who ran 12:54 at age 16.
*Bib #3294 Pulls Stunner In Baltimore Declined travel expenses by the race organizers, David Rutoh stunned himself by winning first and $23,000 with a 2:13 win.
*2:10/2:27 Wins In Istanbul
*2:09:13/2:32:09 Wins In Korea
*Michael Aish Wins In Denver In 2:30
Congrats To Alan And Julia
NCAA XC Pre-Nats
Pre-NCAAs Pre-NCAAs is all about one thing: at-large points for teams and with its 4 races, it is super-confusing for XC fans out there. The one thing we're taking away this year is that the top 3 on the Stanford men are very, very good. If you want to know how things stand in NCAA XC after Pre-Nats try this thread or this
one. Results below. More Pre-Nats coverage here.
Results:
Men Blue Team: #1 Stanford Crushes Iona, FSU, Depleted NAU Team
Individual: Stanford's Top 3 Finish Together 1-2-3 Faster Than Anyone Else On The Day
Men White Team: Martin Smith's #16 Oklahoma Chocks #4 Colorado, #8 Portland
Individual: Sam Chelanga Cruises As Expected
Women Blue Team: #3 Florida State Over #6 Arizona
Individual: Risper Kimaiyo Of UTEP Wins By 5 Seconds Over Alex Banfich Of Princeton
Women White Team: #5 Georgetown Over #9 Colorado
Individual: Lucy Van Dalen Of Stony Brook Over Laura Tremblay Of Colorado
Oregon Bill Dellinger *Results And Message Board Thread The Oregon women dominated. The men beat Wisconsin but Wisconsin sat their #1 runner.
*Oregonian Recap
Chile Pepper
LRC Message Board: OSU wins Chile Pepper Invite with first 4 going 1-4! Arkansas and Indiana, both in the top 10, were present.
Penn State: #1 Villanova Women Win *Men's Results
NYC Is 3 Weeks Away
WSJ: It's Time For Women To Run Faster The article looks at how the Boston qualifying times are way softer for women than men.
Have An Extra $3,215 Lying Around? Then Maybe You Should Consider Buying The Best Seat To The Opening Ceremonies At The 2012 Games Ticket prices came out yesterday.
*AP Article: 25% Of Tickets Go To Bigwig Sponsors
Better Late Than Never
LRC Week In Review: Geb Vs. Wanjiru This week saw one of the greatest marathons we've ever witnessed with Sammy Wanjiru battling mano-a-mano with Tsegaye Kebede at Chicago for not only the Chicago title but also the $500,000 prize for the World Marathon Majors title. Wanjiru is the best marathoner in the world in our book and we compare his performances to Haile Gebrselassie's. Plus a look at the Commonwealth Games and more.
New York City Marathon News (Or No News)
- Kebede Definitely Not Doing New York If he won it, he could still win the World Marathon Majors title but his team has decided it's not worth it.
- New York Marathon Offers Entry To Edison Peña - Chilean Miner Who Ran While Trapped Underground
RIP Antonio
Antonio Pettigrew's Death Ruled A Suicide He reportedly took a bottle of sleeping pills. He also reportedly told his wife to pray for him the day before his body was found. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
NYC News
- Updated: Ritz Out Of Denver Half Because Competitor Group Couldn't Find A Strong Enough Field For Him The Competitor.com website "broke this story" and reported that Ritz isn't running because his training is going so well and he did not need another race. Well, the Denver Post contacted Ritz and it turns out the reason is a compeltely different one. Ritz wanted a hard race before NYC and Competitor couldn't get him a strong enough field. Ritz didn't want to do a glorified training run (like Meb did at Rock N Roll San Jose), so he's not running. Incidents like this one are why we often don't link to stuff that is largely pr in nature (Ritz has a blog hosted on Competitor). We commend Ritz for being forthright with the Denver Post.
- Message Board Thread On Ritz Pulling Out Of Denver
- Jorge Torres Talks About His Low Key 2010 And Running NYC In 2009, he got married and then his high school coach died and his mom was injured in a car crash. 2010 has seen tumult in his training group and the retirement of his twin brother.
Can USATF Be Trusted To Get It Right?
- USATF Set To Name Man Whose Team Was Next To Last At ACCs As Olympic Coach 18 points over 21 events at ACCs is apparently enough to get Andrew Valmon the Olympic head job. We guess it's not that big of a deal since the US coach does little more than babysit, but it's certainly surprising. In 2009, Maryland scored 21 points, in 2008, they had 54 and in 2007 they had 30.
- USATF Officially Begins Search For Doug Logan's Successor
Distance News
- Say It Ain't So Martin Lel And Robert Cheruiyot Withdraw From New York City Marathon Sadly, Lel, who was the best marathoner on the planet heading into the 2008 Olympics, hasn't raced since then. The good news is the race has added 2:04:27 man James Kwambai.
- What Does It Take To Be An Olympic Marathon Champ? 111,000 Miles. A Look Back At Stefano Baldini's Glorious Career
- Provisional Entries For This Weekend's World Half Marathon Champs (PDF)
Monday's US 10k Road Champs *Results
Molly Huddle Wins Third Straight US Road 10k Title At Tufts Health Plan 10k For Women Huddle capped a great 2010 with the the overall win by 5 seconds over Genoveva Kigen. Jen Rhines was 16 seconds back.
10/10/10 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *LRC Chicago Recap With: *Top Results, *Winner Photos, *Live Thread & *Video Of Thrilling Final Mile With Toni Reavis Losing His Voice In Excitement
LRC Wanjiru Wins Epic Battle With Kebede, Shobukhova Dominates
In a epic, late-race, back-and-forth battle of attrition between the world's two greatest marathoners for $500,000, Sammy Wanjiru stamped his career as legendary with his 2nd straight Bank of America Chicago Marathon victory. This time Wanjiru had to dig deep to come back repeatedly against London and Fukuoka champ Tsegaye Kebede.
In the women's race, front-running Atsede Baysa blew up in the final 10km as Liliya Shobukhova motored steadily to her 3rd consecutive World Marathon Major win, sealing a $575,000 $615,000 payday in the process. Americans Jason Hartmann and Desiree Davila impressed with PRs of 2:11 and 2:26 and 53-year-old Joan Benoit-Samuelson ran sub-2:50 for the 5th consecutive decade with a 2:47.
More: *Philip Hersh Chicago Tribune Article On Shobukhova Winning And Picking Up $615,000
*Joan Benoit Samuelson Runs 2:47:50, Just Missing Olympic Marathon Trials At 53 Runnersworld
*Chicago Tribune Article Top Americans Jason Hartmann And Desiree Davila
*Desiree Davila Leads US Women At Chicago As 3 Get In Top 10
*Sammy Wanjiru Outlasts Kebede To Win Chicago (And $615,000)
*US Men Take 11 Of Top 20
Recommended Read: Because Of $$$, Marathon Getting Younger & Younger Phil Hersh talks about how so many of the top contenders in Chicago are very young. There is a reason for that - $$$. Nowadays a 2:09 debut will get you $20,000 but a 13:00 will get you $250.
Legal News
Doug Logan Files Wrongful Termination Suit Against USATF The details are not out yet, but likely Logan had to file the suit to get his severance as USATF has claimed he was fired with cause. The legal bills are now running.
*USATF Statement On Suit
On The Boards: Doug Logan is suing USATF for wrongful termination
S. Africa: S. African Athletics Federation And Leonard Chuene Continue Legal Fight On His Dismissal
*Hendrick Ramaala Running Athletics S. Africa Office, Will Still Run NYC Marathon
He Said / She Said: Question Now Is Will Merritt Be Eligible In 2012?
- AP: Hold On - LaShawn Merritt May Be Eligible To Defend 2012 Crown The arbitrators in Merritt's case ruled the IOC banning cheats from the next Olympics goes against the WADA code and therefore is invalid.
- Reuters: IOC Confirms Merritt Won't Be Eligible The IOC apparently thinks an American arbitrator's ruling doesn't matter.
More NYC News
- After A Busy Year, Meb Still Confident In His Running
- Two-Time NCAA XC Champ Simon Bairu Blogs For The NY Times About His Incredible Life Journey Remembering that Bairu was a 2-time champ makes us wonder how in the world Wisco didn't win more team titles with the likes of Bairu, Solinsky, Tegenkmap, Withrow. Anyone remember when Solinsky was 73rd?
- Mary Wittenberg Says Elites Can Push Through Pain Better Rojo disagrees and thinks they are just in way better shape.
- Blake Russell, Antonio Vega And Rosaria Console Withdraw From ING NYC Marathon
- Tyson Gay Excited To Go Watch Haile G In New York and Party In Las Vegas We're not sure what he'll do in Vegas actually as he doesn't drink and doesn't gamble very much.
VOTE NOW FOR IAAF AOY Christian Cantwell, Bernard Lagat, Tyson Gay and David Oliver are the Americans in the running on the men's side, while Allyson Felix is the only American woman. *Jessica Ennis On Short List For AOY
2004 Olympic 4th Placer In HJ, Jamie Nieto, Is Now A Big-Time Movie Star
Merritt
(link fixed) Updated: LaShawn Merritt Gets 21-Month Drug Suspension, Panel Rules He Was Trying to Have Better Sex,
Not Dope Panel
Rules IOC Can't Ban Him From Olympics 3wiresports.com blog above goes beyond the BBC news story we had up earlier. And you might want to read the decision itself. A 7-11 clerk testified she would sell Merritt lottery tickets and jungle juice and later he would come back for condoms and ExtenZe (a male enhancement product). The arbitrators accepted that
Merritt was not trying to dope and even said USADA believed it as well (USADA pointed to another product that had similar ingredients). Merritt gets a 21-month ban nonetheless. The news outlets are pointing out he will be eligible for Worlds next year, but that is not the big story and irrelevant as he will miss USATFs and not be able to qualify (unless his doping suspension is considered an injury and he gets exempted in as defending World Champ). The big story is the panel ruled the IOC can not ban
athletes with more than a 6-month doping ban from the next Olympics. The IOC had implemented that rule but also is a signer of the WADA code and the panel ruled the banning from the Olympics is an extra penalty that is not allowed. The IOC will likely appeal this ruling.
*Arbitration Ruling: "He saw the commercials about the product and its claims that it helped you last longer and stay firmer. He wanted those qualities in dating his lady friend ... He alleges the product works ... His mind set when purchasing the product was thinking about having sex with a women (sic)."
*BBC Story
Different Type Of Running News
- 87-Year-Old Congressman Says If His Opponent Beats Him In A Mile Race, He'll Withdraw Of course he's from Texas. If you're interested in Congressmen and their running, read this separate story. Anyone know what Hall can run for a mile? Email us.
- Army Vet Mike Ehredt Finishes 4,425-Mile Across-The-Country Run, Planting An American Flag Every Mile Mike's blog chronicling his run can be found here.
NYC Is Less Than 3 Weeks Away
WSJ: Meb Excited To Defend His NYC Title As An American *LRC MBoard Talk About Meb Article
*NY Times Looks At Mary Wittenberg's Busy Sunday Routine She - like Wejo - is a former Marine Corps marathon winner.
*Christelle Daunah Sets French National Record 68:34 In Reims As She Prepares For NYC Translated from French.
News You Might Have Missed: NY Times Profile On Ritz And His Preparations For NYC A lot of detail on Alberto's fixation on changing Ritz's stride and the extent Nike goes to keep him healthy. Ritz also smartly downplays his fitness and chances, "I wouldn’t count myself out of winning, but I’m not going to think that
I’m going to win and it’s a failure otherwise."
*Shalane Flanagan A Bit Scared By Marathon Distance Good to see the first marathon scares all the greats except for Rexing and Menjo. New York Times
Random News
*Photo Of The Year?: Story With Photo Of Washing Machine Being Thrown Off Very High Story At Commonwelath Games By Australian Athlete
*India Starts High Level Probe Into Possible Corruption/Mismanagement Of Commonwealth Games
*Carmen Douma-Hussar Wins Canadian 10k Road Title In 33:23
2010 World Half Marathon Championships *Results/Team Results
Men's Race: Zersenay Tadese Is Human After All His drive for five straight world titles was upended by Kenya's Wilson Kiprop. The 59:33 PR guy defeated Tadese, who got the silver, by 4 seconds. Tadese walked across the finish line and was limping soon thereafter. He had to be helped up the awards stand. The US men, led by Sean Quigley (63:23), were 6th.
*Women's: Favorite Florence Kiplagat Takes Down Dire Tune In Last 800 The US women, led by Stephanie Rothstein (73:37), were 7th.
*Kenyans Overcame 40-Hour Trip To Nanning, China Whoever planned the trip should be fired.
Pre-Race: Men's Race Preview - Tadese Drives For Five
*Women's Race Preview Florence Kiplagat, the 2009, World XC champ, is the favorite.
Interesting: Wilson Kiprop Was Scared Before His World Half Marathon Championship Win
Interesting Distance News
Look Out, Kenya - Moses Kipsiro Says There Are Many People In Uganda Who Can Beat Him Kipsiro was the 5k and 10k champ at the Commonwealth Games and is trying to cultivate the talent in Uganda.
Jim Ryun Ran High School XC Races Barefoot Including the state meet in snow. Minimalism definitely the key to sub-4:00 miles in high school.
Commonwealth Games Wrap-Up
- Commonwealth Games Close In Style
- Kenyan Women And Men (Except For Moses Kipsiro) Dominated Commonwealth Distance Events
- Third Nigerian Fails Dope Test At CWG
- 2014 CWG To Be In Glasgow
- Boaz Lalang Impressed At 2010 Commonwealths BBC
- Only Thing Left For Vivian Cheruiyot Is Olympic Gold
- Very Few World Class Performances At 2010 CWG
- Australian Coach Says 2010 Commonwealth Game Results Should Be A "Wake-Up Call"
- India Launches Probe Into Corruption Leading Up To CWG
- Australians Throw Washing Machine Off Balcony After Closing Ceremonies Separately, another athlete was sent home for behaving badly.
- YOU MUST CLICK ON THIS LINK: Story With Photo Of Washing Machine Flying Off Very High Story
- Kenya's 400m Gold Medallist Gets Celebrated Reception Upon Return Home A rarity for a sprinter in Kenya.
Recommended Read NY Times Looks At Why Tommie Smith Is Selling His Medal
Oregon Related News
- Andrew Wheating Dreams Big As He Tries To Finish College 13 credits shy of his degree, Wheating will not run indoors this year.
- Rupp Haters Only Wish They Had This When Galen Was In Eugene
Oregon To Wear Pink Singlets To Raise Awareness For Breast Cancer
After Running So Well In Chicago, Joan Benoit May Try For 2:46:00 Trials Standard In our minds, like a past winner of the Masters, she deserves a lifetime entry into the Trials. *Samuelson USATF Athlete Of The Week
Random US News
- Jim Ryun Wants HSers To Train Harder & Not Be Afraid To Try For Sub-4:00
- 2010 NCAA Champ Angela Bizzari Is Staying Around And Coaching Illinois This Year
Drug News - We Swear These Aren't Jokes
- Indian Race Walker Tests Positive At Commonwealth Games
- China Gets Serious About Doping, Has Anti-Doping Book Translated Into Mandarin
Sports Governing Bodies To Face 30% Cut In UK
Menjo Caps His 2010 Season In Style By Taking Down Eliud Kipchoge And Shaheen To Win In Belgrade "Menjo" finished his remarkable 2010 season, during which over the span of 11 days earlier this year he ran a solo 12.55.95 for 5,000 meters, a solo 3.53.62 mile and a solo 26.56.74 10,000 meters, with a narrow win over Kipchoge. *Pre-Race Artilce On Historic/Scenic Belgrade Race That Is One Of Paul Tergat's Favorites
Chilean Miner Ran 10km A Day While Being Trapped Underground?
Tommie Smith Selling His 1968 Olympic Gold Medal He's not desperate for the cash but will take the $250,000 if he can get it. He does not have fond memories of the incident.
Commonwealth Games *Tuesday Results *Monday Results *Results Website
The Marathons Are Thursday, No Track Action Wednesday:
Australian Marathoners Inspired By Kerryn McCann She won gold at the last Commonwealths and soon after died of cancer.
More CWG News: Darren Campbell Writes About MLF Being An Animal, India's Emerging T&F Prowess
*Chaos Surrounding Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremonies
*Steeplechaser At Commonwealth Games DQed For Stepping On A Flower Pot To Help Him Get Over The Water Barrier Nice photo of his transgression at the link above.
Previous Commonwealths News
Tuesday: Silas Kiplagat Caps Incredible 2010 With Gold, Nick
Willis Gets Bronze
*Mr. Clutch Mark Lewis Francis Walks Down Jamaican Anchor & Delivers 4 X 100 Gold For England The guy also brough it home at the 2004 Olympics.
*Brave Steph Twell Fights Kenyan Women To End In 5,000 But Ends Up 4th This article is a great recap of the ladies 5,000.
*Baddeley Disgusted With 6th In 1,500 Baddeley: "I ran that race like an idiot and there's no excuses for that."
More On 1,500: "If you're not familiar with the story of Silas Kiplagat, take a minute to read this excellent profile on him. Earlier in 2010, Silas in his first European race EVER ran a 3:29 1,500m, which was not only a 5-second PR but also the fastest time in the world in four years. Pretty amazing. On Tuesday, he capped his emergence with a Commonwealth Games
Gold as countryman James Magut got silver and former Michigan alum and Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis got bronze.
More Tuesday: World Champ Vivian Cheruiyot Gets 5k Gold As Indian 4 X 400 Wins Gold Cheruiyot's win over Worlds silver medallist Sylvia Kibet was not a shocker but the Indian 4 x 400m gold sure was. The Indian women had a great meet.
*IAAF Recap: Double Wins By Langat, Kipsiro, Indian 4 X 400 Gold Highlight Final Day Of Indian Champs
Photos: Men's 1,500m *Tuesday Results
On The Boards: Letsrun poster makes the final of CWG 1500!
European News
- European 800m Champ Marcin Lewandowski Talks About 2010 And 2011 (He'll Run More 400s)
- Triple Jumper Teddy Tamgho Wants To Raise The Roof In 2011
Final Minute Of Battle At World Half Marathon Champs (Rewind The Video Below If You Want The Final 10 Minutes)
NCAA XC On The Boards
- Whose package is the best? OSU's, Stanford's, Oregon's or Wisconsin's?
- OSU wins Chile Pepper Invite with first 4 going 1-4
- Nau men at pre nats
- D1 XC post-PreNats.....who are your top 10 teams/individuals now?
Menjo On Video! Winning One Of The Coolest Races We've Seen (Race Through History In Belgrade)
The Chicago Finish Was Epic, But This Was The Closest Finish Of The Weekend (3-Way Sprint At Eindhoven Marathon)
Jared Training For NYC Gets Subway Commercial
In-Depth Q&A With Catherine Ndereba
2 World Championship Golds, 2 Olympic Silvers - There May Never Be A Championship Marathoner Like Her. She talks about her career and how Joan Benoit was a hero: "That was my dream that came true that day. I remember meeting Joanie Benoit before that race. Back when I was in high school my coach had told me about a lady from the United States who did a fantastic job one month after surgery at the 1984 Olympic Trials Marathon, then she got a Gold Medal in Los Angeles and her name is Joanie Benoit. So when I met her in 1996 I thought, 'So this is the person my coach always talks about - Wow!'"
Finish Of Leonard Komon's 10k WR And Interview
The 30th Edition Fifth Avenue Mile *Top Results *Searchable Results *Photo Gallery *Video
LRC Recap: Shannon Rowbury Caps Season With Win In NY Many
people expected Shannon Rowbury to repeat on Sunday
on the streets of New York but she had a tough brawl with New Jersey's finest, Erin Donohue. Rowbury won last year and used her road skills to time her kick perfectly.
Men: Amine Laalou Earns Some American Respect Amine Laalou had
the top 800 and 1,500m times coming in, but everyone was focused on the strong American contingent. All the main contenders, including Bernard Lagat, were there with 100m remaining, but Laalou got the win.
*Photo Gallery *Race Videos
Learn From The Greats
- did snell run doubles or singles
- jim ryun ovetrained
- TRAINING IN NZ BACK IN THE DAY
- More Training Advice In Our Training Forum
Train Smarter
- Why the "20 minute tempo run"?
- Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 9/19
- Effective altitude training
- So if Solinsky always trains at 5:40ish, does he ever take days off/recovery days?