Quote Of The Day


"When you start changing an athlete's form, there's always a risk. Dathan knows that. And he's willing to take that risk, because he doesn't want to be the guy that's just trying to get a bronze medal. Not this time. This time, he wants to be the winner."

- Nike coach Alberto Salazar, talking in a 5,000-plus word feature on him and his obsession with form in New Yorker magazine piece that focuses mainly on Salazar's work with Dathan Ritzenhein. The article is entitled: The Perfect Stride: Can Alberto Salazar straighten out American distance running?


2010 NYC Marathon This Sunday *Ritz Speaks Live Wed. At 11 am

Sponsored Post (Start Marathon Weekend In Style)

New NYRR Race This Friday
NYRR 5 Before watching this weekend's ING NYC Marathon, run in the New York Road Runners' newest race, the NYRR 5. The five-mile race this Friday is intended for all of the fans and family members in town for marathon weekend. As an added bonus, five lucky runners in this race will be selected as the first entrants for the 2011 ING NYC Marathon. Click here for more info on this race in New York's Central Park.

Happy Bday!! The Marathon Turns 2,500

Frankfurt: The Marathon Welcomes Another Guy To The 2:04 Club/Fast Times Across The Board (2:04:57/2:23:25) In ideal weather, Wilson Kipsang defeated Tadese Tola with a superb 2:04:57 (#8 all-time) and Caroline Kilel (2:23:25) took home the women's title over several notables in an event where the top 8 women and 8 of the top 9 men set PRs (two 2:09 debuts). For Kipsang, it was just his 2nd marathon after a 2:07:10 debut in Paris. *LRC MB: FRANKFURT MARATHON 2:04:57 !!!!!!!!!!!

Kenya:
Unknown David Barmasai Runs 2:10 At 5,500 Feet To Win Standard Chartered Marathon In Kenya

Athens: Kenyan/Lithuanian Win Athens Marathon On 2,500th Anniversary Of Battle Of Marathon *Reuters Recap Of Athens Marathon

Marine Corps: Women: Janet Cherobon Wins In 2:42
Men: Jacob Bradosky Wins In 2:23

110H WR Holder Dayron Robles Back To Training After Injury-Curtailed Season

Oregon HS XC Coach Charged With Sexual Assault

Big Names, Big News

Eddy Hellebuyck Comes Clean!!! The former American road star wants to clear his conscience and has admitted he used EPO back in 2004. An absolute must read as he talks about a pervasive drug culture and has specific doping allegations against Leonid Shvetsov (which aren't a surprise to the knowledgeable LetsRun.com viewer).
*LRC MBoard: Eddie Hellebuyck "'Yeah,' he says, 'I did it.'"

Silas Kiplagat Wants The World Record
"I want to run a sub-3:28 in the next season."

*Dathan Ritzenhein Q&A Part 1 (His 12:56 5k, What's Different With Alberto And More)
*Dathan Ritzenhein Q&A Part 2 (What Went Wrong In NY In 2006) He says he learned about not running out of fuel. Cynics might also argue he learned that in the marathon, you get paid for hype, not performance (at the time he got one of the largest appearance fees in US history).

Tokyo A Major To Be?

Gebrselassie To Run Tokyo Marathon In February A lot of stars lock up their next marathon prior to running their current one so a bad performance cannot knock their appearance fee.
*AIMS President And Tokyo Marathon President Hiraoki Chosa Gets IAAF Order Of Merit The big news is buried in the article and is that the Tokyo Marathon had 335,000 applicants for its lottery for the marathon. The Japanese are mad about the marathon.
*Paco Borao Of Valencia Marathon Selected New AIMS President

Marathon News

Previewing This Weekend's Marathons: Frankfurt Marathon Preview Mare Dibaba vs. Dire Tune; Men: Tadese Tola, Elijah Keitany and Wilson Kipsang.
*2,500th Athens Classic Preview: Kenyans, Russians And Japanese Are Favorites Joan Benoit is on hand to celebrate the 2,500th anniversary of the first marathon.

NY Times Profile On Geb Running NY And Ducking Other Competitors In The Past
link fixed Quotes from Alberto, Wanjiru, Cheruiyot, Ritz and many more. Recommended read.

Kenyan Men Dominating 2010 Marathon Season
A non-Ethiopian or non-Kenyan has not won a single marathon that did not limit its field in some way.

Coming Off 1:08:34 Half Marathon, France's Christelle Daunay Wants Win In NYC

Believe High Mileage Is Necessary To Be Great? Read This:
Tyson Gay Is Low Mileage Guy - Will Never Run A Marathon - Longest Run Of Life Is Just 1.5 Miles

African News

  • Reese Witherspoon Loses Race To 5th Grader

    Altitude Tents, Underwater Treadmills And Anti-Gravity Treadmills Aren't Enough
    Nike/Alberto Have A New Gadget They Are In Love With - Cryotherapy The rest of you will have to settle for a cold stream or ice bath.

    5 Recommended Reads

    Rojo Speaks

    Rojo Speaks: Support For Ryan Hall And The Role Of A Coach Rojo is back with a column in support of Ryan Hall's coaching change and he tells you quite a few things. He tells you how many seconds a coach is worth, even talks about Roger Clemens and has some good points. A highlight: "Now that Hall has left the MTC, lots of people are throwing out names as to who he should get guidance from. I haven't read a single person mention the name Andy Gerard - the head guy at George Mason. That doesn't surprise me, as his cross teams at George Mason aren't all that great. But the fact of the matter is when Gerard succeeded the masterful recruiter Vin Lananna at Stanford, Gerard orchestrated one of the finest performances in NCAA history. If Stanford had lined up against the entire rest of the NCAA in the team scoring, the score would have been Stanford 24, Rest of the NCAA Teams 31."

    NYC 1.5 Weeks Away

    Vin Lananna Looking For 5th Man: "I feel really good about our top three or four guys."

    Sprint/Hurdle News

    Non-Marathon Weekend Action

    BUPA 10-Miler: World XC Champ Joseph Ebuya Beats Benson Masya's 15-Year-Old UK Record To Win BUPA Great South Run Benson Masya was one of our favorite runners and used to be featured on the monthly television show Running and Racing.
    *Steve Jones-Coached Freya Murray Surprises With 52:27 10-Miler At Bupa Great South Run She's now the 2nd-fastest Scot of all time. She beat the pre-race hyped Stephanie Twell.

    Mayor's Cup XC:
    Jon Phillips And Kate Dicamillo Win 2010 Mayors Cup Cross-Country Races

    Rock N Roll LA: 49-Year-Old Linda Somers Smith Wins Inaugural 2010 Dodge Rock 'N' Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon 12,000 runners and a 49-year-old doing a training run for NY got the win by 3 minutes.

    Rupp

    Now Married & Settled Into New Home, Galen Rupp Hoping Focus On Strength, Not Speed, Will Pay Off Big Time In 2011 LRC visitors should write this sentence down and use it as their only training mantra: "Looking back, I wasn't doing as much (strength work) as I should have been. I did lots of speed stuff, but without strength it's useless." That being said, many LRC vistiors may be horrified to learn that for Rupp, strength doesn't just mean mileage - it also means weights - and Rupp has gained several pounds of muscle in his upper body.

    Update Ryan Hall To Be Self-Coached, Will Train In Various Locations (link fixed) Ryan says over the years he has "developed a keen body awareness, which I will use on a daily basis, as well as advice from various experts, and prayer to ultimately shape my training." Ex-coach Terrence Mahon would not comment publicly at this time but may later. *Joe Battaglia: What The Heck Is Hall Thinking?

    Random/Interesting Non-Running But Running-Related Sports News

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    All The News That Is Barely Fit To Print

    British Barmaid Spills Beans On Year-Long Affair With Usain Bolt Apparently Bolt doesn't suffer from the same problems as LaShawn Merritt, as the heartbroken lady says Mr. Bolt was the best lover she ever had.

    Ridiculous Read Of The Day
    One Of The Most Popular Stories On Kenya's Daily Nation Site Is A Story Entitled "The Secret To Our Happy Marriage" About A Man Who Has A Totally Sexist Constitution For His Marriage
    The rules insist his wife stick to the traditional roles of "preparing food, washing clothes and dishes as well as farming," that she worship the religion of his choosing and that she not travel without his permission.

    Train Smarter

    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.

    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.

    A Record 12,500 Will Compete In Marathon That Traces Pheidippides' Steps On 2,500th Anniversary Of Battle Of Marathon

    Good News Berlin Marathon Is Now The BMW Berlin Marathon

    Honoring Some Legends Of The Sport

    Letsrun.com NCAA Polls

    LRC NCAA XC National And Regional Polls Now Open The Oklahoma State and Stanford men made a mockery of their conference meets. One coach has switched his vote and now OSU is #1 in the country in the coaches' polls. Should they be? Vote now. Regional voting for the first time this year as well.

    Latest NCAA Coaches Polls: 1 Coach Switches His Vote And Oklahoma State Is Now #1, Villanova Unanimous #1 On Women's Side Hard to believe, but only six different schools have been ranked #1 on the men's side since 1998.

    Interesting News/Reads

    • Ben Johnson Says He Actually Failed A Drug Test In 1986 Apparently it was covered up before he was possibly sabotaged by a friend of Carl Lewis at the 1988 Olympic Games.
    • Recommended Read Meet The World's Newest 2:04 Guy In William Kipsang After HS, he was a traveling salesman for three years. Then he was inspired by reading of Paul Tergat's exploits and picked up running in 2003 at age 21. Now he's run 2:04. Ridiculous.
    • Sara Hall Finds A New/Old Coach Apparently Ryan's wife was a casualty of his decision to leave the Mammoth TC. As a result, Sara has gone back to her coach when she was at Stanford - Dena Evans. Sara: "I felt that I would still benefit from a traditional coaching relationship."

    News From Europe
    *Mark Lewis Francis Regains UK Lottery Funding
    Mr. Clutch on the 4 x 100 deserves it.
    *Lithuanian European Marathon Champ Zivile Balciunaite Says She Didn't Dope At least she's not claiming to not knowingly have doped, like Marion Jones.
    *Olympic Heptathlon Medallist Kelly Sotherton Quits Multi To Focus On 400
    She's hoping that will lead her to being healthy at age 33.

    NCAA Conference XC Action *LRC XC Conference Polls *All Conference Results Here

    Monday's Action: They're Back ... Arkansas Men Dominate SEC *SEC Men's Results

    Florida Women Win SEC XC *SEC Women's Results

    ESPN 30 For 30 Documentary Lets Marion Jones Off Easy Thankfully the television critic knows what most of us know - that Jones is still not telling the truth about doping.

    Recommended Read: Marion Jones Is A Liar "They didn't put Marion Jones in prison because of what she looks like. They put Marion Jones in prison because of what she did. Marion Jones is a liar."

    Previous NCAA XC

    Sunday: Big 10: Men: Wisconsin Men Absolutely Crush Indiana And Everyone Else 28 points get the Badgers a 12th straight title
    Women: Mich. State Edges Michigan And Minnesota
    Pre-Race: 
    Big 10 Men's Preview (Wisco Vs. Indiana (Going For First Title In 30 Years))

    Saturday: PAC-10: Women: Meet Of The Weekend: Stanford Edges Arizona, Washington And Oregon 4 teams all separated by 6 points. #2 Oregon is still looking for its first conference title in 15 years.
    *
    Jordan Hasay Pumped To Get Individual Crown But 2nd Ranked Ducks Only Tie For 3rd As A Team *Oregonian Recap Of Meet
    *
    UW's Kailey Campbell Comes Up Big For Washington

    Men:
    Stanford Goes 1-2-3 To Destroy Rest Of Conference The #1 Cardinal will have a tough battle with OSU at NCAAs.
    *
    PAC-10 Video

    Big 12s
    : Men: "Unbelievable" Oklahoma State Goes 1-2-3-4 At Big 12 Meet Colorado defeated Oklahoma for 2nd.

    Women:
    Rose Tanui Leads Tech To Win Over Colorado
    *
    Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs' Runner-Ups At Big 12s

    Big East:
    Men: Chris Fox's Syracuse Men Edge Ron Mann's Brice Allen's Louisville Men This really can't be the first Big East men's team to repeat, can it? Perhaps since the league expanded. Wejo beat Fox in a road race in 1997 and unfortunately for the rest of the coaches in the league, he decided to retire from racing and take up coaching.
    Women:
    #1 Villanova Defeats GTown 26-42
    On The Boards:
    Big East Results?????

    ACC Recap:
    Florida State Sweeps Team Titles
    Results:
    Women Men
    On The Boards:
    ACC Results!!!

    A10:
    Richmond Sweeps It's the first title ever for the men.

    America East:
    Boston U. Men, Stony Brook Women Win *Binghamton's #1 van Ingen Drops Out And Binghamton Fails To Repeat As A Result

    Friday: Heps: *Princeton Women Win 5th Straight Title
    *Princeton Men Complete Perfect Weekend for Tigers
    The Princeton teams won both team and individual races as Donn Cabral outdueled defending champ Dan Chenoweth.

    Monday: SEC
    (The SEC website doesn't even have the meet on its calendar).
    *A Look At Ole Miss's Kirui Brothers (Barnabas And Martin)

    Never In America

    Mo Farah Honorary Captain Of Denver Broncos On Sunday

    He's Doing Better

    1:50 800m/Academic All-American Dale Dunn From Coppin St. (& Jamaica) In Critical Condition After Being Shot In Chest He was talking to his mom on the phone when shot.

    NYC Marathon News

    Crazy Stories

    Random News

    Week In Review

    LRC The Week That Was Ryan Hall's big move, Doug Logan's law$uit and his contract with USATF being revealed, and LaShawn Merritt's ban being handed down. We've got it all covered plus some great quotes from Steve Jones and Galen Rupp.

    LRC NCAA XC Polls

    Vin Lananna LRC NCAA Super Polls: Stanford And Villanova Reign Supreme On the men's side, Stanford and Oklahoma State distanced themselves from #3 Oregon. On the women's side, Villanova remains the #1 favorite. We break it down and give you the LRC Fans' Conference Predictions.

    Bolt

    Olympic Marathon Medallists In The News

    Group Funded By NFL And USOC Donates $1.3 Million To Study Blood Spinning

    Random News From Europe
    *Nordic XC Champs Recap
    *Belarus XC Champs Recap
    *Slovenian Prime Minister's Office Issues Release Saying Olympic Hammer Champ Is Back & Out Of Retirement

    Weekend Marathon Action

    Dublin: Dublin Marathon Goes Sub-2:09 For 1st Time 2:26 won the women's race.

    Casablanca: 3 Break 2:10

    Korea:
    Bejamin Kiptoo Throws Down Hammer From 35k To 40k To Win Chuncheon Marathon In Record 2:07:54 Deriba Merga apparently dropped out.

    Venice: Fall In Final 400m Determines Outcome Of Venice Marathon The marathon finished with the runners crossing 13 bridges to get in the center of Venice. Wonder if the fatigure from the turns caused the fall.

    Beijing: Gena Siraj Pulls Away From Gert Thys In Final Km To Win Rain-Soaked Beijing Marathon In Slow 2:15

    Drugs, Drugs, Drugs

    Only In Europe
    Seb Coe: "It Is Illegal To Sell An Olympic Ticket And We Will Enforce This Rigorously"
    *London 2012 Official Hedging On Promise To Pay For All Athletes And Officials Airfare Now they'll only pay a certain amount, which apparently is going to screw the poor countries.

    LRC Exclusives Galore

    LRC Exclusive: Doug Logan Sue$ USATF: The Details Of His Law$uit And Employment Contracts The lawsuit has already resulted in the release of Doug Logan's two employment contracts with USATF and we've got the dirty details for you. The caviar, the first class flights, the $500,000 offered severance - read all about it (the caviar and first class flights are a joke).

    LRC Legal Correspondent Matt Lane:
    "RULE 45": Is LaShawn Merritt Banned From The London 2012 Olympics? 11-time NCAA All-American and 4th place finisher at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Matt Lane,  has graciously shared his legal knowledge with us and takes on the IOC's attempt to ban LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 Olympics.

    Recommended Read 25 Years Later, Steve Jones Still Has British Marathon Record The Welshman isn't happy to still have it as he says, "I'm sad that I've still got the British marathon record because you want to see the sport move on." The article is full of great quotes as Jones rips charity marathoners.

    Performance Of The Month - Kara Goucher Already Has Lost 27 Pounds & Will Be Up To 50 Miles A Week Next Week Remarkable considering her baby was born less than a month ago (9/24).

     Mebrahtom Keflezighi/></a><script type=LRC Week That Was: Unspoiled Kenyans, High Mileage Success, Wilson Kiprop And Menjo And The Knights We go behind the scenes to cover the last week in the running world. We take a look at Stefano Baldini's lifetime mileage, our beloved Menjo, Wilson Kiprop and more.

    Something We Missed From Last Weekend
    9 Break 28:00 In Japan Seven of them were Kenyan, but it's impressive nonetheless.

    David Torrence Talks About His 2010 Season Torrence is only moderately satisfied with the year as while he ran 3:34, he failed to run well at the indoor or outdoor USA finals.

    Sponsorship News

    He Said / She Said: Question Now Is Will Merritt Be Eligible In 2012?

    LRC Legal Correspondent Matt Lane: "RULE 45": Is LaShawn Merritt Banned From The London 2012 Olympics? 11-time NCAA All-American and 4th place finisher at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Matt Lane, has graciously shared his legal knowledge with us and takes on the IOC's attempt to ban LaShawn Merritt from the 2012 Olympics.

    S. African News

    LRC Poll
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