Not So Fast, Sammy
Sammy Wanjiru's Wife Says She Hasn't Reconciled And That She Wants A Divorce She also claims her mother in law is a royal pain in the ***.
Alan & Galen, Jessica Ennis Ain't Whipped
Jessica Ennis Puts Off Marriage Until 2012 Games She just got engaged but doesn't want any thoughts about her marriage to interfere with her 2012 preparations.
Sprint News
- Bolt Sees Doc & Confidently Claims: "I'm On The Right Track." "Everything looks good. I have no more problems, my muscles feel great, my back is in tip-top shape. I'm on the right track."
- Even Kenyans Eagerly Awaiting For Gay, Bolt & Powell Clash
Are You Irish? Read This
Irish Track & Field Athletes Have Already Started Buildup For 2012 Games The article talks about former Providence star Mary Cullen amongst others. In 2006, Cullen beat American record holder Molly Huddle for the 5k title.
Are You Jewish? Read This
Some Jewish Runners Are Upset 2011 Chicago Comes Day After Yom Kippur Carbo-loading might be tough for those that fast for 25 hours.
IAAF Review Of Year 1 Of Diamond League - Part 1 (Thru June 12th New York)
IAAF Review Of Year 1 Of Diamond League - Part 2 (After NY)
Sad News: Former JMU Runner & Sub-4 Miler Jason Long Dies In Plane Crash At Age 32 The JMU school record holder in the 800 and 4-time All-American was a very accomplished pilot who died doing what he loved as his plane hit a medical helicopter.
More: *Fellow Runner Remembers Long As "Good, Loyal"
*Wing Was Sawed Off After Collision With Medical Helicopter
*Crash Victim Loved To Fly
*Friends Remember Men Killed (payment required)
*LRC MBoard Talk About Long's Passing
XC News
- European XC Champ Jessica Augusto Is Girlfriend Of Portuguese Goalkeeper She'll be competing in Scotland this week.
- Here Are The Athletes To Watch On Saturday In Scotland
- Fantastic News: Bay Area Cross-Country Challenge To Be Held In Heart Of San Francisco On January 16th Thanks to David Torrence for letting us know about a new XC meet that will feature pros and amateurs alike.
The JV Race Gets Weaker
- Dathan Ritzenhein Is Injured And Pulls Out Of BUPA XC Race Ritz appears to still be made of glass as not even the Nike money can keep him healthy. He'll now miss this weekend's JV contest - we say JV as the Africans are in another race. *On The Boards: Ritz hurt again and out of XC race
- European 10,000 Meters Silver Medallist Chris Thompson Pulls Out As Well The article reveals the Americans are looking for a replacement for Ritz.
- Varsity Race (With Africans) Should Be Great: Linet Masai Using Edinburgh As Test For Her Quest To Win First Sr. World XC Title
Running The Way It God Intended It - No Entry Fee & No Race Registration, Alcohol Optional
Amby Burfoot Leads Hundreds On New Years Day On 5 Mile Run From Home Of 1957 Boston Marathon Champ Into Ocean Many of the runners were drunk, but it looks like a lot of fun based on this video. More info here.
News From Britain
- An Absolute Must Read Meet The World's Greatest Female Endurance Athlete - Triathlete Chrissie Wellington Wellington didn't even start competing as an athlete until 2004 when she was 27. Recently, she's knocked more than 26 minutes off the Ironman world record.
- Seb Coe Officially Supports Plan To Keep Athletics Track After 2012 Games Not a real surprise as there are two competing proposals and one soccer club would keep the track in the stadium, whereas the other has the soccer club taking over the stadium and demolishing the track but supporting athletics elsewhere.
- Mo Farah Confident He Can Bridge Gap On Africans The article is worth clicking on, as you can see from the photo just how close he came to beating Imane Merga in Italy on Friday.
- Britain's Liz Yelling Hoping To Prove She Belongs At 2012 Olympics At London Marathon
New Year's Action
*Haile Crushes LRC Favorite Menjo In Angola
*Stephen Furst And Desiree Davila Set Course Records At Emerald Nuts Midnight Run In NYC
*Millennium Mile Results In New Hampshire
*Dos Santos And Timbilil Cruise To Sao Paulo Wins
*Fulfilling Favorite Roles, Tadese And Augusto Prevail In Madrid
*Merga And Cheruiyot Take Dramatic Victories In Bolzano
*Toyota Takes First New Year Ekiden Title
*Kipchumba Breaks Course Record At Xiamen Marathon (2:08:07)
Do You Take Running For Granted? Don't - And Let These Two Runners Inspire You
- Gaza Runner Aims For London Olympics Feel like your running options are limited when it's cold and snowy outside? Be glad you aren't in Nader el Masri's shoes. It's tough to train in the Gaza Strip, but Nader - like many of us - has found a temporary escape with running.
- World XC Champ Joseph Ebuya Is Focused & Ready To Try For Repeat Win In 2011 Unlike attempted murder suspect Sammy Wanjiru, Ebuya, a former goat herder, knows the Kenyan people view him as a role model and he knows how lucky he is to be on top of this world. How about this great quote? - "I want to be a role model to my former goat herders ... I pray God that my dreams will come true."
A Look At Two Of The US's Top Two Women Mid-D Names
- US 800m Star Alysia Johnson Has Excelled In Any Sport She Tried Johnson has never been one to avoid new challenges. In virtually any sport she's tried, she believed she could win - and she has.
- Former High School Phenom Jordan Hasay Still Improving After struggling through a growth spurt in her freshman year at Oregon, Hasay is showing she definitely didn't burn out in high school. Message board thread about the growing number of young phenoms here.
End-Of-Year Races
San Silvestre Vallecana Preview IAAF Half marathon WR holder Zersenay Tadese and European XC champ Jessica Augusto are the favorites. This is the event that is set to dole out medals before the race starts.
Millenium Mile In NH Cornell alum Toni-Lynn Salucci and Brian Gagnon headline.
More Looking Back At 2010
- Dominant Year For Kenyan Runners From World XC to the African Championships to David Rudisha's world records, it was a banner year for Kenyans.
- Farah And Thompson Going 1-2 In 10k At Euros Was A Big 2010 Highlight For British Athletics Farah came back to get the 5k gold at the same championships.
- A Look Back At All The European T&F Stars For 2010 European Athletics
Women's Sprints *Women's Middle Distances *Women's Hurdles And Steeple *Women's Long Distances *Women's Road Races And Walks *Women's Jumps *Women's Throws *Women's Multis Of course it's Jessica Ennis leading the pack. *Men's Sprints Christophe Lemaitre was obviously a big newsmaker. *Men's Middle Distances *Men's Hurdles And Steeple *Men's Long Distances Double Euro champ Mo Farah all the way. *Men's Road Races And Walks *Men's Jumps *Men's Throws *Men's Multis
US News
- Bobby Curtis, Desiree Davila Highlight 2011 Emerald Nuts Midnight Run Fields
- Will Comcast And NBC Bid For Olympics Like GE And NBC Did? New York Times Comcast may try to use its Versus station to compete with ESPN.
- Former Marathon Great Kim Jones Recaps What She Ate Before Marathons, And Helping A Fallen Wheelchair Racer In Boston With Uta Pippig
- Galen Rupp And Alan Webb Running 200m In Nike Hallways
Popular On The Boards: Solinsky says he'll go after 10,000 WR within the year then backs off pledge - "When I came to Alberto, I thought I was done being hurt" - Ritz
Sponsored Post
Get In The Holiday Spirit, Spread The Joy Of Running To Kids, And Get Guaranteed Entry To The 2011 NYC Marathon And Other Events The NYRR's Team for Kids program is a great program. It brings the benefits of the world's simplest and greatest sport, running, to underprivileged kids throughout the world. In return for some fund raising, its participants, that would be you, get guaranteed entry into various sold-out NYRR events, including the ING NYC Marathon. Click for more info.
Maybe We Aren't A Nation Of Wussies After All
Blizzard Doesn't Stop Polar Bear Race (& Ocean Plunge) In NJ From Going On As Scheduled The race has never been cancelled and it wasn't this year. Afterwards, the competitors stripped off their clothes and ran into the ocean. UWashington's Allison Linnell almost got the overall win in the tough conditions. *Photo
A Legend Passes
Olympic Legend Bud Greenspan Dies If anyone did more to spread the greatness of the Olympics, we'd like to know who it was. Greenspan's documentaries brought the Olympics to life for millions. Not familiar with Bud? Check out his work here.
*NPR Obituary On Bud Greenspan *AP Obituary Of Greenspan
On The Boards: Bud Greenspan RIP
Recommended Read: IAAF Was Long Suspicious Of Marta Domínguez (LRC Translation) The IAAF basically knew she was doping from her blood profile (it was too consistent) but couldn't prove it. They repeatedly tried to nail her and even tested her an hour before her semifinal at Worlds in 2009, when she ran poorly in the semi but rocked the final. Eventually, we hope the doping authorities will start banning people on their biological profiles alone.
Bizarre: Two-Time Beijing Paralympic Silver Medallist Ruled Ineligible For 2012 As She Can Now Walk A bizarre story of someone who lost use of their legs, then regained it but now misses competing and isn't sure what her passion will become.
ESPN Says 8.99 100m Will Come In 900 Years We cant imagine how annoying ESPN will have become in 900 years.
Toby Tanser To Give Out Foor & Supplies To Poor On Tuesday In Kenya He's raised a ton through Shoe4Arica.
More Year-End Stuff
- 2010 Marathon Year In Review: 124 Men Broke 2:10, And The Year Of The Ethiopian Woman Yes, 124 men went sub-2:10. Patrick Makau may be the marathoner of the year with a 2:04:48 win in Rotterdam and 2:05:08 win in Berlin, but Geoffrey Mutai was 9 seconds total behind him in both races (7 in Rotterdam, 2 in Berlin).
- Eugene Register Guard Remembers That Barbara Bowerman And Scott Davis Passed In 2010
- Andrew Wheating And Ashton Eaton Are Rated As 5th-Biggest Oregon Ducks Sports Story Of 2010
- "Turkish" Women Dominated European Long Distance In 2010 Click on the link to see why we have the "".
- Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) Howard Aris Pleased With Work His Group Has Done In Last 12 Months
Think Your Year Was Bad? Read This
Recommended Read British Beijing 10k Olympian Kate Reed Had 4 Surgeries & Nearly Died In 2010 A simple Achilles surgery nearly killed her.
Bored? Tired Of Family? Japanese High School Ekiden Will Be Broadcast Live At 8 PM EST XMas Night Girls race is at 8, boys at 10 as Japan is 14 hours ahead of New York.
Xmas Is Often About Trips Down Memory Lane
- Recommended Read A Look Back At The Magical 1979 NCAA XC Meet In addition to the matchup between Alberto Salazar and Henry Rono, the race featured an unreal field, as it included the following big names as well: Sydney Maree, Mark Nenow, Jim Spivey, Ray Treacy, Bruce Bickford, John Tuttle, Frank O'Mara, Suleiman Nyambui, Jon Sinclair, Kip Koskei, Rudy Chapa, Thom Hunt, James Rotich and Samson Kimobwa.
- XCNation.com Takes A Look Back At 1980 And 1981 When Craig Virgin Won World XC And Then Asks When Will America's Top Stars Compete Again At World XC? *Craig Virgin responded to the article and there is lot of chatter about it here.
Week In Review
LRC Week That Wasn't: Haile G And Johnnie Walker, Ritz And Rupp Running JV Race In Europe Not too much happened on the dirt or roads last week, but there were some developments off of it. And a large percentage of the LRC staff did not realize the race we were all excited Rupp and Ritz are running in Europe next month is a JV race.
More XC: Ed Moran Joins US Team At Great Edinburgh JV Race
Definitely Not The JV: Reigning World Track Champs Vivian Cheruiyot And Linet Masai Join Edinburgh XC Field
Good News
Recommended Read: IAAF Was Long Suspicious Of Marta Domínguez The IAAF basically knew she was doping form her blood profile (it was too consistent), but couldn't prove it. Eventually, the doping authorities will start banning people on their biological
profiles alone.
Suspect Arrested In Shooting Of Coppin State 800m Star Dale Dunn Dunn was shot while coming home from the grocery store and as of last month was still in the hospital.
Brett Gotcher Confident He'll PR In Houston Next Month He's sticking to the same cycle of training in hopes that it will result in even more in 2012 than it did in 2010 when he ran 2:10:35. Gotcher: "I feel like there is more in the tank there."
Andrew Carlson Leaves USA Arizona To Return To USA Minnesota *Message Board Thread
Don't Drink Too Much In Your Next Marathon If You Want To Run Fast Tim Noakes says, "The clear evidence is that drinking just to thirst is the optimum strategy."
Spanish Doping News
- Marta Domínguez Testifies In Court And Is Released, Says "I'm positive that I'm innocent."
- Recommended Read: Natalia Rodriguez's Coach Talks About Doping Scandal, Looks Back To 2009 And Sees Some Things Differently Rodriguez was the women who crossed the line first at Worlds in the 1,500 but was then DQed. She was booed by some and her coach couldn't understand why. Another Spanish guy told him, "Outside of Spain they think that Spain supports doping." He was surprised. Looking back, he's no longer surprised and he sees some of his interactions with the suspected coaches differently.
- 350 Spanish Coaches Speak Out Against Doping
Legends Of The Sport On The Comeback Trail
- Former World Steeplechase Champ Dorcas Inzikuru Wins 10k In Over 40 Minutes
- LetsRun.com's Wejo Runs A 39:20 10k
- Christine Ohuruogu To Train Along Side Usain Bolt This Winter
XC News
- Mo Farah & Chris Thompson To Race Ritz & Rupp In Scotland *IAAF Release *Farah Named British Track & Field Athlete Of Year
- 12:55er Lucas Rotich Wins XC Race In Spain
Haile G To Race In Special Half Marathon In Vienna In April He'll race the half but be trying to beat the guys in the marathon, who will get a huge head start.
Sorry, Ladies
David Rudisha Gets Married 2010 will be a year Rudisha never forgets. 2 world records and now he has married his long-time girlfriend Elizabeth.
Congrats to David and Elizabeth. 2010 also saw Galen Rupp and Alan Webb get married.
More News From Kenya: Sammy Wanjiru Focused On World Record, Ndereba Wants Another World Title
Train Smarter
- Marathon Training Thread -- Week Ending 12/19
- When is it ever a good idea to train with rivals?
- Soup to Nuts - Letsrun Train Me
- Legs start to burn/hurt when I start to go faster, what gives?
- Master runners, what is your 400 meter time?
Weekend XC Action
- Sergey Lebid's Hot Streak Continues As He Wins IAAF XC Permit Meeting In Snowy Brussels *Ireland's Fionnuala Britton Finishes 2nd Overall Britton just missed out on a medal last week at Europeans and beat the European gold and bronze medallist on Sunday.
- 21-Year-Old 12:57 Man Matthew Kisorio Wins Domestic XC Meet In Kenya *IAAF Recap
Recommended Read Meet The Only Two-Time Olympic Pole Vault Champ - The Amazing 84-Year-Old Bob Richards He's lived an amazing life, as he also founded the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, won 11 straight Millrose Games, was an Olympian in the decathlon and had a son who went 18-2 in high school.
The Independent Talks To One Of Britain's Best Hopes For 2012 Gold In Phillips Idowu Idowu has hit his stride in his 30s thanks to a new coach. Now he's Mr. Clutch at the big meets.
US Distance Stars In The News
- Kara Goucher Running 95 Miles A Week 3 Months After Giving Birth, Running Boston, Then Track At Worlds
- Alberto Salazar Reflects On Ritz And Rupp Running XC In Scotland, Says He Considered Having Webb Run
- A Look At Greg McMillan's Flagstaff Training Group McMillan has discovered what we told you a decade ago - Flagstaff, Arizona is the best place to train in America (maybe the world). McMillan-coached Brett Gotcher is going to end the year as the third fastest American in the marathon.
- AP Profile On Lopez Lomong And The Movie Being Made On His Life His story really is worthy of a movie.
- Ryan Hall In The Woodlands (Texas) For Launch Of New Marathon
- Discover Magazine Blogging About New Yorker Piece On AlSal
Bureaucratic News
- NYRR Head Mary Wittenberg Talks To Runner's World If you want to know what one of the brightest minds in the business is thinking about, read part 1 here or part 2 here.
- Joann E. Flaminio Has Been Elected The First Female B.A.A. President
- Good News: Track And Field To Still Get Huge USOC Subsidy In 2008, track got $3.2 million.
- Seb Coe Says Athletes Have Funding - Doesn't Want To Hear Any Excuses In 2012 For Poor Performances
- The Rich Get Richer Thanks To Government Help In Kenya, Too
Kenya's Medallists Paid At A Political Reception - A Commonwealths Gold Gets You $6,230.53 From The Kenyan Govt. - Stars Enjoy Athletic Kenya's 1st-Ever Awards Gala
2011 World Championships News
- Planning On Winning A Medal At 2011 World Champs? Click Here To See What Your Medal Will Look Like
- Click Here To See What The 2011 World's Track Looks Like The IAAF is a fan of Boise State blue.
Interesting: Cross-Country Is In Crisis But Edinburgh XC Meet In Scotland Is A Lone Bright Spot The race even gets good television ratings in the UK. Meanwhile, in the US, track and field is rarely on mainstream TV.
London & Boston 2011
Incredible 2011 Virgin London Marathon Field Announced: Wanjiru Vs. Kebede Vs. Makau On Men's Side Director Dave Bedford is calling the women's field "undoubtedly our strongest ever," but we once again are amazed with his men's field. London's got the top 3 men's marathoners in the world Sammy Wanjiru, Tsegaye
Kebede and Patrick Makau going head to head to head. This year's Chicago marathon with Wanjiru vs. Kebede duelling to the finish was incredible and left Sammy Wanjiru exhausted (photo above). Now throw Makau (Amsterdam and Berlin champ) into the mix. *Message Board Thread On London
*European XC Champ Jessica Augusto And Hayley Yelling To Make Marathon Debuts In London
American Hopefuls Kara Goucher And Desiree Davila To Run Boston 2011 Davila has come a long way in her career, as she got equal billing with Goucher in the press release. Last week it was announced Ryan
Hall is running Boston.
On The Boards: Desi will kick Kara's butt this April
More Spanish Doping News
- LRC A Bag Of Blood From Operation Puerto In 2006 Was Linked To Marta Dominguez And Helped Kick Off This Probe Dominguez is going down, as apparently the feds wired her phone. 2009 European XC champ Alemayehu Bezabeh is hoping to get off as he says he never actually doped - he was just about to - and he says four recent drug tests will prove it.
- LRC Spanish 1,500 Record Holder Nuria Fernández Responds To Doping Rumors
Kenny Moore Has New Book On "Track Town" USA
Lengthy Eugene Register-Guard Article On Book We highly recommend Kenny Moore's classic "Best Efforts" if you want a great read on some of the legends in the sport.
Distance Reads
- USATF Posts CEO Job Description
- Neely Spence Interview The DII star, whose dad was 1991 World Championships bronze medallist in the marathon, commits a cardinal sin and publicly admits to visiting LetsRun.com.
- Lengthy Feature Profile On Amy Begley runningtimes.com
- Dylan Wykes Talks About Winning Cal International
- Mark Wetmore Video Interview On Why He Doesn't Coach Pros Full Time Wetmore lives in the real world and knows college coaching is more financially secure.
- USATF Club Nationals Photos
Honolulu - America's 3rd-Largest Marathon *Top Results
Despite Assistance, Belainesh Gebre Declared Honolulu Marathon Champ The Flagstaff-based Gebre has been tearing it upon the roads. She was not invited to the elite field so she flew to Honolulu on her own and entered the race with her boyfriend. He paced her during the race and they shared drinks, but despite a protest she still got the $40,000 prize.
Men: Last Year's Runner-Up Nicholas Chelimo Pockets $40,000
Week In Review
LRC Week That Was - Fukuoka, Working Hard For A Living, Cal International And NXN We go beyond the headlines to give you the scoop of what is happening in the sport. We present to you a difficult way you can make $77,000 a year from running, analyze American vs. Japanese marathon depth, show you the favorites always win in our sport and then turn around and have some interesting stories from NXN on underdogs coming out on top. We even point out the first mistake ever made from the Nike marketing department.
Some Older Gentlemen Share Their Wisdom
- Q&A With USATF Masters Runner Of The Year Doug Winn At age 60, Winn won 8 USATF titles and bangs out 80 mpw (+ 20 more on an elliptical). The 61-year-old Winn is going to try to do a steeple. *Video Feature Of Winn Where He Talks About Recovery Winn is obsessive about recovery.
- Q&A With Jeff Galloway, Who Admits Running 140-Mile Weeks With 30-Mile Long Runs, Not Walking, Was Key To His Marathon Success On low mileage, Galloway was very, very average.
XC News
- Kenya's Coach Hoping Top Elites Will Show Up For This Weekend's XC Race They might as they need to get in shape for Worlds.
- World Champ Joseph Ebuya Won't Be In Kenya As He's Racing In Italy On Thursday Italy's European 10,000 bronze medallist Daniele Meucci is one of his competitors.
- Caster Semenya To Run XC Race On January 22nd
News From South Of The Equator
- Australia's Top Marathoner Gives Amateurs Training Tips You must develop a routine, as "once you get in a routine, it just happens."
- Power Balance Wristbands Maker Admits They Have No Evidence Behind Them
Jimmy Carter Wasn't The Only One
Margaret Thatcher Didn't Want British Athletes To Go To 1980 Olympics Thankfully they went anyway.
3 Recommended Reads
- RR#1: Meet Former World Beater Adrian Royle The scrawny Brit shocked the world when he won the 1981 US XC title over more famous stars like Alberto Salazar, Steve Scott and Henry Rono. The 27:47 performer then suffered a mysterious illness that wiped him out for 18 months. *Wikipedia Page Here
- RR#2: Chris Solinsky Sees Himself As A Serious Medal Threat This profile on Solinsky by Parker Morse is a must-read and full of great quotes.
- RR#3: Unbelievable: Runner Who Was Whistle Blower On Leonid Shvetsov Being Eddy Hellebuyck's EPO Provider Was Repeatedly Threatened By A Man With Russian Accent Before NYC Marathon Canadian Bruce Raymer ended up not going for the Canadian masters national record and running another race instead. In our (and many people's) minds, he's a hero. Our apologies for not getting this up before Christmas.
Random
- London To Give Athletes Free Internet Access For 2012 Games We didn't realize why this was big news until we saw that they'll be charging members of the media $235 for the right to go online.
- Reigning World Indoor Silver Medallist Jenny Meadows Is "Terrified" About Indoor Opener We can relate to her feeling as she says the indoor opener really tells you how your winter base period went.
- Coming Soon: Unbroken - The Movie The best-selling book will also be a movie.
The Biggest Race In Japan Produces! Should It Be Considered The Greatest Collegiate Distance Championship In History?
Imagine NCAA XC - But With Way Better Teams & Over Two Days And All On National TV
Japanese Collegiate Ekiden Ends In Thrilling Fashion!!! The two greatest collegiate teams ever assembled (both teams had seven guys with 10,000m PRs under 29:00) put on a show as they both broke the course record and ended up with the closest finish in the 87-year history of the most prestigious Ekiden in the world. *Day
1 Recap
What Nike Money Can & Can't Buy You
- Dathan Ritzenhein Is Injured And Pulls Out of BUPA XC Race *On The Boards: Ritz hurt again and out of XC race
- Galen Rupp & Al Sal Have $375 50-Yard-Line Seats For BCS Title Game
- Galen Rupp & Alan Webb Run 200-Meter Repeats Inside Nike's Mia Hamm Building This happened last Tuesday and many are wondering why Nike just doesn't build an indoor facility. As for those who wondered why they didn't just go out and get wet, it was probably because the temps were pretty low (40s). *MBoard Talk #1 *MBoard Talk #2
Double Commonwealth Silver Medallist Nikki Hambling Runs 9:18 3k
A Look Back At All Of The IAAF Track Meetings From 2010
OJ Only Wishes It Was This Easy In America
Olympic Marathon Champ And Accused Attempted Murderer Sammy Wanjiru And His Wife Supposedly Reconcile Press reports are indicating that the families of Wanjiru and his wife got involved and urged a reconciliation which may result in charges being dropped, although his wife was a bit coy in her responses to the press (as we're sure $$$ is still being negotiated). *Updated LRC MBoard Talk: "He is now officially qualified to be a professional American athlete. Can some of the women on this board tell me why abused women stay with their abuser. Often, until they are beaten to death?"
2010 Is In The Books
LRC 2010 Quote Of The Year Voting Instead of waiting for 2010 to end, we've decided to let you get a head start on the 2010 Quote of the Year voting. Voting is simple - we give you quotes to pick from and you tell us your favorite. It's an easy way also to revisit LetsRun.com 2010.
End-Of-Year Accolades
- David Rudisha Unanimously Named T&FN's Male Athlete Of Year For the third straight year, there was a unanimous selection. Previously, that had only happened twice in 40 years.
- David Oliver Is T&FN's US Male AOY Chris Solinsky was only 8th in the voting, behind Bernard Lagat, who was 7th.
- Blanka Vlašić Named T&FN's Female Athlete Of Year
- Allyson Felix Is T&FN's US Female AOY Alysia Johnson was #9 in the voting with Molly Huddle #10.
Sammy Wanjiru In Serious Trouble
Sammy Wanjiru Arrested For Attempting To Kill His Wife And A Domestic Worker The charges against the world's greatest marathoner are very serious: attempting to kill (murder in some accounts) his wife and a housekeeper, and wounding a security guard by striking him with a rifle butt. Wanjiru
is out on Sh300,000 bond ($3700 USD). Wanjiru allegedly came home drunk, had an argument with his wife, and then attempted to shoot his wife and the watchman according to this second article. He was in possession of an illegal AK-47 according to this third article.
*Message Board Thread
*Wanjiru's Court Date Is February 9th
Proof That Runners Are A Bunch Of Misfits
- Indoor Winter Marathons On The Rise At least you never have to go long without checking to see if you're running the right pace.
- Canadian Runner On The Verge Of Completing 250 Marathons In One Year Martin Parnell has battled some truly awful weather, has gone through 25 pairs of shoes and has made about 180 doctor visits during his quest to raise $250,000 for charity by running 250 marathons in 2010. The 55-year-old Parnell averages about 5:30 (with some walking stints included) per marathon.
- Gee, Ya Think? Runner's World Daily Blogger Ponders If Runners Might Be "A Bunch Of Misfits"
Wednesday's News
- USATF President Stephanie Hightower And British 5,000m Star Ian Stewart (The Dude Who Passed Pre) Getting Married This appears to be the case from an online invite.
- USATF To End 2010 Within Budget
- Bobby Curtis Ran 28:08 In Australia This Month With No Track Work Beforehand He's the male headliner on the Emerald Nuts New Year's Race in Central Park.
- Good Idea: IAAF Proposes Certain Dates Each Year For Countries To Hold Their National Championships
- Chris Solinsky Tweets About Going For Medals, Not World Records Solinsky, believe it or not, has 0 US Championships. Until 2010, he was the guy who always finished behind Tegenkamp.
- Britain's Mo Farah About To Wrap Up Training Stint In Iten, Kenya Before Next Week's "B" Race In Edinburgh We were calling it a "JV" race earlier in the week, but think "B" race is more accurate. What do you think?
- Lance Armstrong Not To Do Triathlon Next Month In New Zealand
Week In Review
LRC Week That Was And Some Horrifying News From The Week That Will Be Not much went on last week on the roads (the biggest news was Bud Greenspan's death and USATF responding to Doug Logan's lawsuit). As a result, this week's Week In Review has a LetsRun.com first: its emphasis on something that is going to happen this week when one of the world's larger races will hand out its medals before the race is even run.
International News
- Nigerian Sprinter Obinna Metu (10.16, 20.55) Training With Usain Bolt
- Jamaican Tourism Spent J$2.4 Million ($28,335 USD) On Usain Bolt Parties To Promote Tourism
- Shoes4Africa To Help With Martin Lel School In Kenya
- Kenyan Runner Running 650km To Uganda In Support Of Reelection Of Uganada President Yoweri Museveni
- IAAF Year In Review: Mid Distance
Random: Victor Conte Says A Quarter Of Cops May be On Steroids
3 Interesting Reads
- Fantastic Japanese HS Ekiden Ends With Sprint Finish On Track Remember the name Charles Ndirangu, as he came within 1 second of Sammy Wanjiru's seemingly unbreakable record of 22:40 pace for 8.1075 km. That's 4:30 mile pace for a HSer. Meanwhile, a Japanese HSer led off with a 29:35 10k. The winning team equaled Haile G's world record in the marathon of 2:03:59 and got the win in a sprint finish on the track.
- Fail At Dancing From Age 4-10? Check. Fail At Badminton From 10-16? Check. Become One Of World's Best 800 Runners By Age 25 The IAAF takes a look at the amazing year Russia's Mariya Savinova had at 800 and tells us the background to the story. Without stating it directly, her coach blames her poor showing at 2009 Worlds on
Nikethe fact that they decided to get ready for Penn Relays. - Adams State's 3:36 Man Craig Huffer Writes About His First Semester In America & His Decision To Go D2 And Not D3 Amazingly, he's only their #4 in XC.
Parity Rules: IAAF End-Of-Year Review For Long Distance Track Races Parity was the name of the game as there was no dominant male or female figure.
Think Track Is Popular In Europe? Read This
Head Of Snooker & Darts Thinks Idea Of Keeping Olympic Track Is Totally Stupid And Not Viable
More Than 2 Million People Have Signed Up For 2012 Olympic Tickets
Interesting Reads
- Nigerians Have Discovered 9 Kids Living On Top Of Mountain They Want To Train To Be Distance World Champions We're not making this up, we swear.
- European Athletes Trying To Stage Christmas Day Protest Against WADA They are going to try to leave the box where you can be found for random tests blank to protest what they views as WADA's invasion of their human rights.
- In Lieu Of Paying Bolt Endorsement Money, Jamaica Tourism Board Instead Covered His Parties, Which Cost 2.4 Million Jamaican That's only about $28,000 US.
Awards/Year End Stuff
- Russia's Mariyia Savinova Had Incredible Year At 800m In 2010 The world indoor champion hadn't lost all year until her final two races of the year, when Janeth Jepkosgei beat her.
- British Queen Has 2012 Olympic Fever As Her XMas Message Relates To Sport This Year
- Hurdler Dai Greene Makes List Of Sportspeople Who Had Memorable 2010s In The UK
- Christophe Lemaitre Named French Athlete Of The Year
- Gay's Beating Of Bolt Was Joe Battaglia's Top Moment From 2010 It even topped the time when Gay succumbed to Dix.
Profiles
- Hard Work Has Brought Canadian Hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep To The Top The article also mentions Priscilla suffers from lipodystrophy, which is one of the reasons she is so muscular. CBC
- After European 1,500m Gold, Spain's Arturo Casado Ready To Take On World IAAF
- Mark Lewis-Francis Got European And Commonwealth Games Silvers At 100m, But His 10.15 Only Left Him 43rd In The World Independent.co.uk
Track Year In Reviews Starting To Appear
- British Hurdler Dai Greene Looks Back At His Incredible 2010 Season He even managed to beat Batman at the World Cup.
- Reuters Gene Cherry On The 2010 Year In Review
- A Look Back At The Year In Road Racing In Europe
- Triathlon: Science Of Sport Blog Takes A Look At Chrissie Wellington's Place In History She finishes top 10 overall in most events. They conclude that is mainly because the women are just catching up to the men in the triathlon relative to the man/woman difference in other sports.
Things Worth Reading
- A Must Click Track With A Hill On It Is Built
- A Recommended Read Discoverer Of EPO Dies Eugene Goldwasser never patented EPO and never got fame or fortune. Rather, Amgen is the one who reaped billions off of it.
- Interesting Read The New York Times Looks At Why We Feel Warm For Hours After A Workout Good news also comes from the article, which reveals intense athletes burn more calories hours after exercise is done, whereas average athletes do not.
- A Look At Toby Tanser's Shoe4Africa Charity Work He got the idea for the charity after he was nearly killed when robbed of his shoes in Africa. *Tanser.org Website *Shoe4Africa.org *Buy One Of Tanser's Books On Amazon.com
- Class Act Last Placer At Foot Locker Reflects On Finishing DFL At Nationals
LRCer Small Business Spotlight
EscapeeJays We're in the holiday spirit and, despite being a huge corporate behemoth ourselves, we have decided to highlight some of the small businesses of LetsRun.com Viewers (LRCers). We're starting off today with EscapeeJays, maker of escape-proof pajamas for toddlers. EscapeeJays is the brainchild of Paul Stoneham, Wejo's former Flagstaff training partner. These functional PJs have a unique, patent-pending design that makes them not only escape-proof
but diaper access-proof as well. For more info, click here. If you're an LRCer with a cool business, email us.
Chinese Oil Company Becomes Sponsor Of IAAF We guess the Chinese can't spend all their money on buying up the US.
US News
Bernard Lagat To Go For Ninth Wanamaker Mile Title At 2011 Millrose Games Lagat's days as a miler are over, but winning the Wanamaker mile is apparently still in the cards. We talked
to Lagat last month in Monaco about his 2011 plans and his move to the 5k. More on that here. To see him in his tux, click here.
Boston News: Boston Globe: BAA At A Crossroads? We think the article is a bit sensationalist but its worth a read. It gives the impression the change in leadership at the BAA was not voluntary. The BAA's main "problem" is a good one to have - too many people want to run its race. The solutions are simple. Pick from these options: raise the qualifying standards, charge
the
charity runners
more to run the race, and/or get rid of the charity runners and charge the qualifiers more.
BAA Expected To Make Changes To Boston Qualifying Times Bill Rodgers has a great quote: "You've got to be good with the computer these days. I'm not. If I was a qualifier, I would lose out"
On The Boards: The Boston Debate
*Do you seriously think they are going to lower BostonMarathon qualifying stds for next year?
All That Is Great About LetsRun.com
LRC NCAA And Foot Locker Contest Recaps: The Greatness Of You Recapping our contests always reminds us what is greatest about LetsRun.com - that is you, our incredibly loyal, smart and interesting readers. This time our contest winners impress as usual. Not only do we have acts of sportsmanship, but we have a runner with MS who can no longer run anymore but it still super-dedicated to the sport, a college coach who nearly pulled off the NCAA D1, D2 prediction double (and btw went to high school with the rocket scientist who has won two of our previous contests), a guy who watched malmo win an NCAA XC race, and a guy who issued a challenge to Aaron Braun before he won last week's club XC champs.
Haile G In The News
- Angola's The Place To Be For New Year's A True LetsRun.com Dream Matchup: Haile G Vs. Menjo At 10k On New Year's Eve In Angola The race is a dream matchup for true letsrun.com fans.
- Haile G Speaks To Reuters He's back in full training (35km per day), still denying the NY Times and talking about a future career in politics.
NCAA Divsion 1 XC Nationals To Return To ISU In 2011 Apparently the NCAA was uncomfortable that the meet in Oregon was going to be at a race track. Hello NCAA, the high schoolers handle the site just fine. Please get a brain.
Gay/Bolt News
- Tyson Almanac: Tyson Gay Says It Will Snow In Florida, Arkansas Will Beat Ohio State In 2011, And More Sub-10s And Sub-20s In 2011 Than Ever Before
- Usain Bolt's Coach Glen Mills Thinks Bolt Will Peak In 2 Years
- BBC Radio Interview With Usain Bolt's Coach Glen Mills
- Usain Bolt Has Nearly 3 Million Fans On Facebook (And 75% Of Them Are Male) Just like LetsRun.com (minus the Facebook fans). We make you come here, which you keep doing in increasing numbers.
The 10 Best High School XC Runners Ever
LRC Week That Was: The 10 Best High School XC Runners Of All Time, Verzbicas, Tribute To Gary Reed, The NY Times & The NE Patriots And More We've got the entire running world covered from San Diego to Japan, from the high school ranks to the pros, and even talk about the NE Patriots and the NY Times.
XC News
Rupp And Ritzenhein To Race "B" Race at Great
Edinburgh XC On January 8th Great to see some Americans running XC. Message board thread on their decision here.
*Serhiy Lebid To Lead European Team At Edinburgh XC
*Lebid Would Love To Get His 10th European XC Title Next Year
Tuesday's Spanish Doping News
- Marta Dominguez's Former Coach Talks About Marta Switching Coaches, Cutting Her Off Completely Google translated.
- 4 Years Ago In Operation Puerto, Cyclists Spoke Out Against Doping Raids; 4 Years Later, Track Athletes Speak Out Against Doping Google translated.
- Spanish Athletics Doping Scandal: Sergio Sanchez Opens Up About Doping In Spain "It's very easy to walk into a doctor's office with 7,000 bucks in your pocket (5,000 euros) and tell the doctor that 'the time has come to reach my full potential.'"
Gary Reed Calls It A Career
- It's Official: Gary Reed Has Retired!!! The sport needs more class acts like him. A Recommended Read for sure.
- 2nd Nice Article On Reed's Retirement
- Athletics.ca Announcement
2010 Foot Locker Finals Are History *Results *Action Photos *Boys Finish Photos *Girls Finish Photos *2000 Race Photos *Photos Of All The Foot Locker Winners Here *$20,010 LRC Prediction Contest Scores
LRC Favorites Lukas Verzbicas And Aisling Cuffe Take Care Of Business Verzbicas cemented his legacy as one of the all-time greats as he became just the third boy to repeat. Cuffe capped off a truly dominant senior year as she won by 34 seconds.
*Photo Above From TrackandFieldPhoto.com, More Photos Here
*Verzbicas' Facebook Page Had Been Focused On Number 2 For Weeks
*Stanford Signee Cuffe: "I tried to break them early." She certainly did that.
European XC *Results
European XC Men: Serhiy Lebid Gets His Ninth European Title Afterwards, Lebid says he has given up hopes of training for the marathon. He is great at one thing ... cross-country.
European XC Women: Portugal's Jessica Augusto Gets Gold on Home Turf The Brits are happy as Charlotte Purdue won the junior race and the women got a silver.
Recommended Read: Meet "The Next Sonia" - Ciara Mageean At 15, she was the Irish 1,500 champ. She might make an NCAA school real happy real soon. *Mageean Is Watching Last Year's Runner-Up Gulshat Fazlitdinova *Ireland's
Best Year By Year At World XC
Excellent Read: 10-Year Anniversary: Ritz Over Webb Over Hall At Foot Locker
It was an epic race and Ritz dominated. Classic 2000 Race photos here. Photos of all past winners here. More FL history here. It's the 20th anniversary of Louie Q's dominating win.
US Distance News
- Khannouchis Are Divorcing, But Sandra Will Still Coach Khalid And They're Both Moving To Colorado Springs Sounds like a very amicable divorce. Clearly Special K has not given up on competing.
- USATF Club Champs Preview: Michael Crouch, Aaron Braun, Brett Gotcher And Jason Hartmann All Running Hansons, Boulder Running, McMillan Elite all will be running this weekend.
- New Balance Indoors To Be Only National High School Meet This Winter
- Bill Rodgers Runs 1:39:39 For Half Marathon He was duking it out on the course with a woman age-grouper most of the race. He had a similar battle with Letsrun.com's Rojo 12 years ago with Rojo coming out on top.
The Stars Of Track And Field Party In Monaco *Wejo's Photo Gallery 1 *Pro Photo Gallery 2
Week That Was (Last Of Year)
LRC The Week That Was (to end the year) We're still suffering from a post New Year's hangover and have an abbreviated Week That Was for you once again (hopefully for the last time during the Holiday season) but we do talk to you about the best collegiate distance race on the planet - the Hakone Ekiden in Japan.
Logan Vs. USATF
LRC Exclusive USATF Strikes Back With Charges Of Tax Evasion, Expense Report Abuse And The Real Reason Doug Logan Was Fired We're far from lawyers and most of you aren't either, but this is worth a read, as USATF has filed its response to former CEO's Doug Logan's lawsuit. USATF hurls some serious charges at Logan and some dirt (improper gifts to a
female athlete), but none of them are the real reason Logan was fired. We've got it covered, plus news who on the USATF board Logan referred to as Fantasia and Opie.
*Message Board Thread
More Year In Reviews
- Britain's Daily Telegraph Track And Field Year In Review
- IAAF Year In Review - Sprints
- 2010 Year In Review From Kenyan Perspective: Rudisha, World XC Dominance And More
- 2010 In Track And Field: The Year Of David (Rudisha And Oliver And David Vs. Goliath)
Training Corner
- How to deal with depression caused from injury?
- plantar faciitis will not go away! Any tricks you used to get rid of it?
- Sets and Reps for Lifting Program for High Schoolers
- Most Mileage You've Ever Done in a Week
- More in our training forum
Recommended On The Boards: The Legend Of Steve Jones Grows
More On The Boards
- Ritzenhein not in London field - targeting World XC instead?
- Why is it that when American kids run 14:20 we freak out but when Kenyan Kids run 13 minutes we don't care?
- Alan Webb vs. Lauren Fleshman bet
Geb's Johnnie Walker Commercial
Two Of The Best Running Movies Of All Time (Don't Believe Us? Click Here)
The 10 Best High School XC Runners Ever
LRC Week That Was: The 10 Best High School XC Runners Of All Time, Verzbicas, Tribute To Gary Reed, The NY Times & The NE Patriots And More We've got the entire running world covered from San Diego to Japan, from the high school ranks to the pros, and even talk about the NE Patriots and the NY Times.
Female Stars On Different Ends Of The Spectrum
- Foot Locker Champ Aisling Cuffe Has Been Chronicling Her Season All Year On Milesplit
- Neither Molly Huddle Nor Her Coach Thought She Could Break 5k American Record
Highlights Of Menjo's Win Down Under At Zatopek 10k
London $012
What's Next For Rudisha After Hero's Welcome In Kenya? (If You Haven't Heard About Rudisha, Coe, Kipketer And Juantorena Getting Together, Click Here)
Relive Men's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)
Relive Women's NCAAs: *Recap *Results *Photos *New (2nd Photo Album Added Here)
800m Royalty Together For The First Time Ever: Juantorena, Coe, Kipketer And Rudisha (It's Well Worth A Watch If You Have The Time, Or Read The Recap Here)
Webb Beats Rupp - Silicon Valley Turkey Trot Finish Video - More, Including Interview With Salazar, At Spiked Up Psyched Up Blog
Old 15k WR Holder Interviews New WR Holder
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.
Save Some Cash
2010 ING NYC Photos
Geb's Emotional Retirement Speech
Train Smarter
- Long run, 25% of your weekly mileage?
- 5x1 mile repeats with 1:1 work/rest ratio, 10k time?
- Marathon Training Thread - Week Ending 10/17
- Could I break 33 mins. in the 10k based on this workout
- Does anybody here train using Daniels Running Formula
Menjo On Video! Winning One Of The Coolest Races We've Seen (Race Through History In Belgrade)
Great Deals
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