Quote Of The Day


"It (a 1991 article on human limits in the marathon) concludes that 1:57:58 is possible for 'a hypothetical subject with a VO2max of 84 ml/kg/min, a lactate threshold of 85% of VO2max, and exceptional running economy.' ... The key for me is that the athlete with a VO2max that high never has an exceptional running economy, so it is much like trying to find a motor vehicle with a 6 liter engine that also gets you 80 miles to the gallon (and those are the kind of unrealistic figures we're talking in combination)."


- Ross Tucker writing in the latest Science of Sport article to speculate on the limits of human performance, what determines those limits and what indicators we can measure to tell if we're really approaching unbreakable barriers. Tucker points out that predictions about human limitations will always involve assumptions and may overlook as-yet-unknown aspects of physiology, but at some point, something has to budge - the perfect athlete who tests the highest in every facet of running physiology is unlikely to exist. There must be limits imposed by our tendons/muscles/brains. The article also links to LetsRun's piece (which includes exclusive video) of the Monaco meeting of the last four 800m world record holders. 

HS XC Enters The Post-Season *Foot Locker Site *NXN Site

Three Foot Locker And Lots Of NXN Regionals Held We know a ton of Nike regionals were held, but the schedule is so confusing we don't care to figure out how many.

Foot Locker Regional Champs

Northeast Girls
: Last year's Northeast champ Aisling Cuffe (4th in the Finals last year and now a 3-time qualifier) left the field behind on Cardiac Hill at the new meet venue of Sunken Meadow Park (moved from Van Cortlandt Park) and cruised to a comfortable repeat win. Abbey Leonardi repeated as Regional runner-up. Holmdel record setter Megan Venables was only 4th but advanced with plenty of room to spare. Full Girls Seeded Race Results
Northeast Boys: Converted soccer player Chad Noelle, running in his first high school XC meet (he does have 4:09 and 9:04 track PRs) caught frontrunning Morgan Pearson with just under a mile left and prevailed in the sprint. Full Boys Seeded Race Results (PDF)
South Girls: Florida twins Kathryn and Erika Fluehr reversed the order of their state meet finish, with Kathryn winning as she normally does, and took the top two spots to both earn a repeat trip to Nationals. Third-placer Rachel Johnson had her first loss of the season (after winning NXN South a week ago and Texas state a week before that) but also made the Foot Locker Finals for the second year in a row. Full Girls Seeded Race Results
South Boys: With last year's South champion Craig Lutz opting to run only NXN this year (he won NXN South last week), recent Florida state meet course record setter Jimmy Clark took advantage and used a big kick to make it a Sunshine State win on both the boys' and girls' sides. Runner-up Blake Williams earned his second trip to the Finals in as many years. Full Boys Seeded Race Results
Midwest Girls: With temperatures in the 20s, Allison Woodward pulled steadily away from Gabrielle Anzalone with just over a half mile remaining. Third-placer Shannon Osika booked her 2nd trip to Nationals. Full Girls Seeded Race Results
Midwest Boys: Defending Foot Locker National Champion Lukas Verzbicas blasted a 4:35 second mile in the chilly weather and ran the 3rd-fastest performance in meet history (14:45) to hold off fellow 11th grader Futsum Zeinasellassie, who finished 7th at Nationals as a freshman in 2008. Full Boys Seeded Race Results
West Regional Races coming Saturday, Dec. 4.

For more in-depth coverage of Foot Locker regions, as well as NXN regions, you can find plenty of articles at ESPN RISE.

The Age-Old Question

The limit of human performance: How much faster? Science of Sport It seems like ever since people started recording how long it took to run a certain distance, they've speculated about what the final, unbreachable barriers of performance might be. Sixty years ago, most people thought a 4:00 mile might be the limit. Now the record is over 16 seconds faster than that. Where does it end? Will somebody eventually break 2 hours for a marathon? Do we now really know enough about human physiology to reasonably predict where the human body eventually reaches an asymptotic limit which can only be further approached but never surpassed? Or are we still imposing arbitrary limitations on ourselves?

Random Sunday News

*Two Kenyan Frosh Go Sub-28 For Takushoku (JPN) University We've always wondered how much damage the top Japanese universities could do at NCAA XC or how the top NCAA teams would fare in a major Ekiden. These teams are extremely good.
*More Uproar Over Gender Issues What happened to just stating the obvious?

Sad News

Bob Wheeler, Former NCAA Champ, 1972 Olympian Dies At Age Of 58 More info here.

Webb's Comeback Continues On Turkey Day!

INDIANAPOLIS - JUNE 24:  Alan Webb talks to the media
after winning the men's 1500 meter run during day four of the AT&T USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at IU Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium on June 24, 2007 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)Boards: Webb Over Rupp In Silicon Valley Trot
Ala
n Webb
 (13:36) kicked past Galen Rupp for the win in a last-minute matchup of training partners at the Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.
*Top 10 Men's Results NAU junior Diego Estrada wasn't happy with his 16th at NCAAs on Monday so he ran 13:50 for 4th on Thursday.
*TrackFocus Recap
*Mercury News Recap With Webb Quotes
*LRC Reader Gets Race Photos Word from out west is Webb looks fitter than ever.
*Video: Salazar Talks After The Race, Plus Men's Finish

Manchester Road Race: (link fixed) Sally Kipyego And Late Entry Moroccan Mourad Marofit Dominate In CT
Ben True
nabbed a 2nd-place sprint finish in his native Northeast, while Amy Mortimer claims she's a 5k runner now after her 3rd-place finish behind Delilah Dicrescenzo.
*Top Manchester Results
*Hartford Courant Recap Lori Riley writes a great recap with quotes from True, Marofit, Haron Lagat and Kipyego that described how the unknown Marofit's early move surprised the field and Kipyego's cautiousness likely cost her a shot at the course record she missed by 7 seconds.

Random Thanksgiving Day News - Drugs, Scandals, Big Brother

*Spanish Steepler - European Medalist Jose Luis Blanco - Tested Positive At National Champs Blanco has a career best of 8:12 and ran 8:19 this year to take bronze at Euros.

*Google StreetView Camera Catches Ex-WR-Holder's Javelin Mid-Flight

*Semenya Fall Guy Leonard Chuene Fights On After Court Dismisses His Interdict

*Nike Signs Deal With Nigerian National Teams

USATF News

2010 NCAAs Aftermath *LRC Men's Recap *Men's Results *LRC Men's Photo Gallery *LRC Women's Recap *Women's Results *LRC Women's Photo Gallery *See Who LRC Visitors Voted For Here (LetsRun $201,000 Contest Scores Here)

*Aftermath From Colorado: Runners Blame Wind - Wetmore Blames Himself Wetmore's men had their worst showing since 1989.
*Aftermath From Wisconsin: Badgers Felt Like They Were Going To Win It Recommend Watch: Video: Elliot Krause Talks About His Collapse In The Final 400, Which Moved Him From 16th To 137th
*Aftermath From Oregon Puskedra is pleased to prove freshman year wasn't a fluke but stunned that Chelanga could talk mid-race; Lananna said the guys went out too hard but that's the only way they know how to do it at the U of O.
*Aftermath From Gtown Ladies pumped to go from 21st to podium.
*Aftermath From Stillwater Everyone is obviously pumped that they won and ran great.
*Aftermath From Tallahassee "It was a great day to be a Seminole."
*Aftermath From Arizona Sambu ditched his pre-race plan to run with the second pack and Coach Li was pumped the women were 11th.
*IAAF Recap

2010 NCAA XC Men's Race

*LRC Oklahoma State And Chelanga Repeat!!! History repeated itself but things didn't necessarily go as expected, as Oklahoma State dominated and Sam Chelanga didn't win until the very end. Florida State went from 2nd-from-last to 2nd as the Cowboys' only real challenger on the day in Wisconsin faded, as their third runner totally blew up in the final 2k collapsed some 250 meters from the finish line.
*High Winds Hurt Colorado As Their Run-From-Behind Strategy Ran Into Difficulties The Buff men had their worst showing since 1989, as they were 15th.
*Okla. State Newspaper:
Cowboys Bring Home School's 50th NCAA Title & Third Largest Margin Of Victory 5th man Jonathan Stublaski had to lobby his way onto the team after bombing at conference and he came through with All-American honors. Meanwhile, the Okla. State paper features a LetsRun.com photo as we decided to be nice and give the poor college students one for free. T. Boone Pickens, please send us a check.

NCAA Men On The Boards:

*Oregon men only five runners?
*Stanford FAILS again!
*OSU's Ryan Prentice ran with one shoe for 9000 m
*Chris Derrick in elite company
*161 31:42.0 A.J. Acosta SR Oregon 31:42.0
*What happened to 25 year old David McNeil?
*Show Luke Puskedrsa some love, he earned it!!
*What if Ryan Sheridan had run for Iona?
(NCAA women's coverage in 2nd column)

800-Meter Royalty

Kenyans Are Pumped Rudisha Is 1st Ever Kenyan To Be Named World Athlete Of The Year *More On IAAF Athletes Of The Year David Rudisha And Blanka Vlašić
*Blanka Vlašić And David Rudisha Win IAAF Athlete Of The Year Awards *IAAF Release Additionally, both athletes will receive $100,000 despite the IAAF's financial situation.
LRC
Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha All Together In One Room For The First Time Ever There may never be a night like it for the 800m. The last four world record holders, Alberto Juantorena, Seb Coe, Wilson Kipketer and David Rudisha all gathered together to reminisce about their record runs, to pay their respects to one another and to discuss the uniqueness of the 800m. It was a truly special occasion and these greats were almost giddy about it. They mesmerized the room for 40 minutes. Juantorena and Kipketer wanted their own photos, Coe said the photo would be his Christmas card, and Juantorena also wanted a video of the occasion. We then were notified we have the only video of it in the world. Recap and video.

Sponsored Post

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More Great Stuff From The IAAF Meetings In Monaco

LRC Bernard Lagat Says The 5k Is His Focus; Watch Out For His Brother, Robert Cheseret The American 3k and 5k record holder talks about his 2010 season, what took him so long to get the American record, raising the bar for Americans, and the bar being raised by Dathan Ritzenhein. Plus he says watch out for his brother, Robert Cheseret.
LRC Dayron Robles And David Oliver Agree On One Thing - Allen Johnson Is The Best Hurdler Of All Time Robles and Oliver were really entertaining. Oliver is now one of our favorite US runners.
*Vlašić, Felix, Lemaitre And Wariner Meet The Media In Monaco
*President Diack's Remarks At The 2010 Athlete Of The Year Press Conference

Kara Goucher To End Maternity Leave At Rock 'N' Roll Half On Jan. 16th That's less than four months after giving birth, for those of you asking. Clearly, she's not following the Paula Radcliffe "take it slow" approach.

Big Names In The News

LRC The Week That Was We keep things brief as we talk about lowering expectatons for Haile's comeback and give props to Tulsa, Toledo and Richmond and Megan Venables and the great state of NJ.

US Stars Of Present And Future? In The News

Lance - It's Officially Time To Get Nervous
US Feds Meet With French Feds On Tuesday To Talk About Armstrong
If he's guilty, we hope jail is where he ends up.

Despite Protests, Olympic Marathon Almost Certainly To End In London Mall Meanwhile, we wonder if anyone thought about trying to recreate the marathon course that gave us the 26.2 mile distance from 1908.

Recommended Read Former Kansas Great And World 1,500 Record Holder Wes Santee Dies The NY Times Frank Litsky recaps Santee's career and life in great detail. He was America's best hope to be the first sub-4 guy in history. Want to know more about Santee? He was featured in The Perfect Mile.
*KU Release On Santee *2nd Article On Santee With Pic Of Him In Prime *3rd Article On Santee With Recent Picture

Italian Wins Turin Marathon In 2:10:58

HS Fan?

Lots Of HS State Meet Recaps Here Highlights included the F-M girls putting 15 on NY state once again and Megan Venables breaking the Holmdel course record.

News From Europe & Kenya

Top Young Women In The News

More Haile News

Double Jeopardy?
The NY Times Looks At The New IOC Doping Rule That Bans Anyone Who Suffered A Major Doping Suspension From The Next Olympics

News From Europe

Post-Commonwealths/NYC Marathon News

King Carl Seemingly Just Wants To Remind Us He's The Only 100m Champ To Repeat
Carl Lewis Says Usain Bolt Faces "Big Challenge" In Bid To Repeat As Olympic Champ

Preview Of 2nd IAAF XC Meet World XC silver medallist Teklemariam Medhin headlines. Last week he beat Ebuya in Spain.

Latest New York News *LRC Photos *LRC Men's Recap/Analysis *Women's Recap/Analysis *LRC Haile G Retirement Coverage

New York City Marathon PhotosJos Hermens, Haile's Agent, Says Gebrselassie Reconsidering Retirement Hopefully the Great One realizes his fans would love nothing more to see him compete again - New York 2011 and the Olympics in 2012. We didn't realize how much worse the sport will be without Geb until he said he was leaving.

LRC
Haile Gebrselassie Retirement Update The greatest of all time may be reconsidering. He at least is leaving open the door to coming back. We give you an update on all that we've learned since our last update on Sunday night.

More NYC : WSJ Looks At Changing The NYC Marathon Course The current course seems great to us and has a better finish than the proposed course (and pros generally choose marathons for the money, not the type of course).
*Sarah Shay Has Appendectomy Right Before NYC Marathon
*Katie McGregor Reflects On Winning USA Running Circuit Title, Her Run In NY

Non-NYC News

British News

Headline Of The Week, As It Made Us Imagine Track Being A Team Sport
Britain snaps up 2012 long jump contender Proctor The Independent She was 6th in the World Champs as a 22-year-old. Meanwhile, former UMich runner Tiffany Ofili has given up on the US and is now representing Britain.

*
A Look At Linford Christie's Reality TV Career Apparently he's a star after being dropped off in the Australian wilderness.

*Jessica Ennis Considering Helping Britain's Sprint Relay Chances In 2012 To read a brief summary of how much time Ennis spends in training, click here.

*British Qualifying Race For European Cross-Country Norwich native and Iona Gael Mitch Goose capped a busy week by placing 3rd in the U-23 division (to make the team for Euros) following his 65th place at NCAAs on Monday.

More Pro Cross-Country News

*World Champ Joseph Ebuya To Headline Sunday's XC Race In France The race is the biggest XC race of the year in France.
*
Some Hopefuls Using Sunday's Tilburg (The Netherlands) XC Race As Final Tune-Up For Euros Sweden's Mustafa Mohamed is highlighted and aims to add a fourth European Cross-Country medal to his collection after missing last year's race due to an operation. Adrienne Herzog, last year's bronze medalist at Euros, will have her hands full in Tilburg with red-hot Almensch Belete. For an interview with Herzog, click here. The Euro Champs are Dec. 12 in Portugal.
*4th Kenyan XC Race World Junior Silver Medalist John Chepkwony Outlasts 2008 World Junior 10k Champ Josphat Bett In Kenya

Asian Games Concluded On Saturday

GUANGZHOU, CHINA - NOVEMBER 26: Bilisuma Shugi Gelassa of Bahrain and Essa Ismail Rashed of Qatar in the Men's 10,000m Final at Aoti Main Stadium during day fourteen of the 16th Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 on November 26, 2010 in Guangzhou, China. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images) Thrilling 10k Battle Between Ethiopia & Kenya Bahrain And Qatar Highlight Next-To-Last Day Of Asian Champs A new record of 27:32 was set as the winner came back from 60 meters down over the final 3 laps to win narrowly.
*
Reminiscent Of Beijing 2008, Host China Puts On An Impressive Show The host nation once again wowed spectators with dazzling ceremonies, top-notch security and a record haul of 199 gold medals (all sports). Liu Xiang was of course one of the major stars.
*IAAF Day 6 Recap


Thursday News:

*Chinese Fans And Media Ecstatic With Liu Xiang's 13.09 Return
*Iran's Sajad Moradi And Iraq's Adnan Taees Akkar Go 1-2 In Men's 800
*Guangzhou Spent 20% More On Asian Games Than London Will On 2012 Olympics $18.3 billion in funds went to hosting the games in a a move local officials hope will pay off in long run with more events being hosted.
*Singapore Govt. Condemns National Flag On Front Of Swimmers' Speedos

Wednesday:
13.09 For Liu Xiang As He Wins Asian Games A surprisingly good time for Liu. In other action, World 1,500m champ Yusuf Kamel did not start the 800 a couple days after criticizing team officials for making him running the 1,500. He said then, "I know that I can't achieve anything."

Some NCAA XC Tidbits

Sprint News

Diamond League News - North American Viewers Go From 2 Million To 21 Million?

Pre-NCAAs Week That Was

LRC Week That Was We give some props to a guy you may not be familiar with (Geoffrey Mutai), analyze Vin Lananna's dig at other collegiate XC programs, compare the American men marathoners to the American women, look at the 15k WR by Leonard Komon and discuss a 400m star who may move up to the 800.

More Rudisha AOY News

Famed Coach Brother Colm O'Connell Says Rudisha's "Not There Yet" To truly be considered great, the world record holder needs a world and Olympic title.

"The Party Continues" The Standard of Kenya The worldwide domination of little LetsRun.com continues as this Kenyan article quotes from LetsRun.com detailing the incredible gathering of David Rudisha, Seb Coe, Wilson Kipketer and Alberto Juantorena in one room for the first time ever. If you haven't read our recap of the event or watched the exclusive video Juantorena wants a copy of, click here.

2010 NCAAs Are History *Women's Results *LRC Women's Photo Gallery *Men's Results *LRC Men's Photo Gallery

*LRC Sheila Reid Leads Villanova To Repeat Title!!! Individual champ Sheila Reid led 'Nova to a record 9th title as Florida State was 2nd and #10 Texas Tech was 3rd.
*Reid The Leader Of The Pack As 'Nova Repeats Reid has overcome the injury that ended Bo Jackson's career.
*Oregonian: Oregon Ends Up With Two 3rd Place Individuals In Hasay And Puskedra
*
AP Recap Of NCAA Meet *ESPN.com Recap *Philly.com Recap Of 'Nova And Reid
(More Men's Coverage in 1st Column)

2010 Co-Ed Chiba Ekiden

Recommended Read: Q&A With Famed Track And Field Journalist James Dunaway He'll be only the 2nd journalist inducted into the T&F Hall of Fame and he deserves the honor after more than 50 years in the sport. A great guy and an LRC visitor.

A Truly Crazy Read: Two Rochester, NY Old Guys Battling It Out To Become 1st Marathoner To Run 1,000 In History One is 79 years old and had a stroke and lives in a nursing home and has a walker but plans to run some more while his 90-year-old friend is playing catchup as he's 220 behind.

Other News Of Note

Pro Overseas Distance Action

Amazing 50-Year-Old Elina Zvereva Aiming For 2012 Games In Discus She's no slouch, as she did win Olympic gold at age 39.

British Teen Sprint Prodigy Jodie Williams Rules Out 2011 World Champs

NCAA D3s Are In The Books *Men's Results *Women's Results *MBoard Talk

Alberto - Read This: Scientists Say They Have No Idea How Form Really Works & How Fast People Can Truly Run This article seems to be written for people who believe Alberto Salazar's obsession with form is all wrong.

HS News: CBA's Mike Mazzaccaro Claims Title As Greatest CBA Runner In History As His 15:20 Leads Team To Fastest Avg. Time In NJ History
*Weekly HS Recap NJ MOC, MA state meet and a lot more.

Facility/Championship News

Swedish Steeple Star Mustafa Mohamed Will Run Marthon At 2012 Olympics

IAAF Meetings In Monaco (Wejo On Site)

19/11/2010: Prince Albert II of Monaco on Monaco DayLRC IAAF Rights Its Financial Ship While much of the running world is getting ready to travel to wonderful Terre Haute, LetsRun.com's beloved Wejo is living the life of luxury, attending the IAAF meetings in Monaco. Fortunately, after running into Bernard Lagat in front of the beautiful casino, he took the time to give you a few insights from Day 1 of the IAAF meetings, where it was announced the IAAF will balance its book through 2015 by cutting back on expenditures. Plus he looks at the sports popularity in Europe.

Haile Gebrselassie News

Gebrselassie Says Public Appeal Of Fans In Ethiopia Changed His Mind On Retirement

LRC Update Former Imprisoned Ethiopian Journalist Says Hermens'/Gebrselassie's Leak And Then Denial Of NY Times Report Is Part Of Attempt To Raise Awareness Of Geb's Plight In Ethiopia, Where He's Had A Lease To Land Worth At Least $7.2 Million Taken By The Government The story talks about the land being worth between 120,000,000 and 150,000,000 birr, which converts to $7.2 and $9.1 million US dollars.

Gebrselassie Says He's Still Planning To Run Tokyo Marathon In February
Geb's team is now smartly trying to change the topic of conversation. We'll hopefully have an update tomorrow on some of the emails we've received on the news below.

LRC Update
The NY Times Stands Firm: "The New York Times stands by its story." Plus we have commentary from an Ethiopian political expert who says making Geb and Hermens deny the story is typical of the government.

LRC
Jos Hermens And Haile Gebrselassie Take To National TV To Deny NY Times Story - Were They Forced To Do It? Hermens has denied telling the New York Times Haile's phones were tapped and Haile also ripped the paper. *Coverage On Ethiosports.com

Geb's Knee Pain Is Gone & He'll Run In Tokyo In February

Marion Jones Continues To Lie - Thankfully, We Aren't The Only Ones Who Are Outraged

Fukuoka Field Announced Jaouad Gharib & Kebede Tekeste will headline in December. Fasil Bizuneh and Andrew Lemoncello will race as well.

Swimming Reminds Us Of USATF
Swimming National Coach Fired Even Though He Was Promised He Could Continue For Six To 10 Years

LRC Tributes Pour In For The Great Haile Gebrselassie Last week, the world was shocked as the great Haile Gebrselassie retired. The retirement was short-lived but our inbox was flooded with tributes to the great Haile. We share some of them with you, including one from a man who calls Haile an inspiration for millions, another who admits he cried when he watched Haile retire and painted a picture of Haile in victory in Berlin, and lastly a note from a college sophomore in the US who found it easy to be inspired by Haile but hard to be inspired by US stars like Prefontaine, whom he calls an "alcoholic frat boy who refused to listen to anyone" or drug cheats like Alex Rodriguez and Marion Jones or others who have "sexually harassed women (Brett Favre, Kobe Bryant, Ben Roethlisberger)" or "abandoned his family or fans (Tiger Woods, LeBron James)."

Kenyan News

Paul Tergat Tells Daily Nation He's Happy To See Old Rival Geb Unretire Three Great Tergat Quotes:
1. "Legends of any sport do not retire; instead, they fade off the stage graciously and continue working in the disciplines they know best."
2. "Gebrselassie has done everything in the sport except win a marathon with stiff competition."
3. "Deep down, when he is all alone sitting by the fire, Haile must realise he dropped one of the biggest clangers of his running career."

Walk Back In Time - A Brief Chat From Wes Santee In 2005

Allyson Felix And David Oliver Win Jesse Owens Award The award goes to the top US track and field athlete each year.
*Jesse Owens Gets Street Named After Him In Cleveland
*European 100H Silver Medallist Derval O'Rourke Named Ireland's Athelete Of The Year

Off-Season News

Webb Beats Rupp - Silicon Valley Turkey Trot Finish Video - More, Including Interview With Salazar, At Spiked Up Psyched Up Blog

Previous Asian Games News

Old 15k WR Holder Interviews New WR Holder

They Both Crossed The Line First At Worlds

LetsRun.com's Message Boarders Rejoice

Despite Being European 400m Champ, Kevin Borlée's Dad Wants Him To Move Up To The 800 He is the "slow" Borlée twin yet was the European champ this year. He's not ready to move up.

NYC Champ Edna Kiplagat Getting Props In Boulder

Random News

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2010 ING NYC Photos

Geb's Emotional Retirement Speach

Fred Lebow Documentary Trailer - More Info Here

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