Goucher ... Torres ... Ritz ... And Vaughn?!


"I don't want to stand up and make excuses. It was a bad day. The second I stepped off, I was walking back and thinking, 'I'm going to find a job; I'm done running. This is the worst moment of my life.'"


- Brent Vaughn sharing his thoughts after he dropped out of US Half Marathon Champs in Houston last weekend. A week later he is the US XC National Champion! Proof of the importance of having faith in your training; you never know when you're going to have a great race.

New Balance Boston *Results *Photos

Russell Brown Cruises To 3:54 Win, Webb, Manzano And Verzbicas All Over 4 The men's mile featured Alan Webb, Leo Manzano, Nick Willis and high school star Lukas Verzbicas, but the star of the night was Russell Brown, who crushed the field winning in 3:54 as Webb, Manzano and Verzbicas all didn't break 4. Afterwards, Webb threw a tantrum (seriously, that's a fair way of describing it) before addressing the press, and we'll have more on that Sunday. In other action, Sally Kipyego turned back Jenny Simpson in the 3k, Phoebe Wright got another win in the 800m, but the performance of the night may have been Dejen Gebremeskel running 7:35 and outkicking Mo Farah with a last lap of 26 while having one shoe on for most of the race.

Post-Race: LRC Alan Webb Throws A Tantrum After Disappointing Opener Alan Webb's competitive fire is legendary and the dark side of that competitive fire was on full display after Webb's disappointing performance. We've seen many athletes get upset, but none like Webb on Saturday night, especially after an earlier season opener. We've got the details and try and give some perspective to Webb's behavior.
On The Boards: That Webb article is a breach of professional decorum.

*Boston Globe Recap: Brown Gets Surprising Win; Verzbicas Says He Was Nervous LV says he's not normally nervous for races.
*Boston Herald: Russell Brown Sets A PR In "The Biggest Race Of His Career" To Win New Balance Mile
*Boston Herald: Dejen Gebremeskel Outkicks Mo Farah To Win New Balance 3K Running With Only One Shoe

Eaton Breaks Record!

Ashton Eaton Shatters His Own World Record In Heptathlon! Eaton scored 6,568 points to break his own world record by an impressive 69 points, setting PRs in the shot, 60m, and 60m hurdles. His hurdles time of 7.60 seconds was so good it would have won the 2008 World Indoor Champs and actually breaks the hepathlon record of 7.74 held by Olympic decathlon gold medalist Bryan Clay.
*IAAF Recap

Fireworks In Stuttgart *Stuttgart Results

Yenew Alamirew Runs 7:27.80 To Lead 3 Under 7:30 Barrier For First Time Ever, David Oliver Runs Fast In Hurdles Alamirew dominated a late season 3k last year and backed it up here, showing he is the real deal. For the first time ever indoors, more than one guy broke 7:30 in a race, as Alamirew triumphed over Augustin Choge and Eliud Kipchoge. David Oliver easily dispatched Dayron Robles and nearly got the US record, and LRC favorite Silas Kiplagat lost in the 1,500m.
*IAAF Recap

Impressive: Belgian Dude Stefaan Engels Completes 365th Marathon In 365 Days Updated

Boston Pre-Race

Mid-Week Action

Great Upcoming Action

Next Week: NYRR Deuce Record Challenge
LRC Preview
Bernard Lagat To Go For US Two-Mile Record On February 12th At The Armory It's worth noting that Doug Padilla didn't even know he still had the record (8:15.02). It's also worth noting that Robby Andrews is expected to rabbit, so it looks like he's rebounding from his plantar injury.

In Two Weeks: World Dream Mile

Fastest 1,500m Runner Of 2010, Silas Kiplagat, To Race Reigning World Indoor 1,500m Champion Derese Mekonnen At Birmingham On Feb. 19th Mekonnen is fresh off his victory over Bernard Lagat at the Wanamaker Mile and Silas Kiplagat (3:29.27 1,500 last year) just recently said he thinks he's in shape to break El Guerrouj's 1,500 World Record, so this should be a great matchup.

End Of Month:
Galen Rupp To Attempt 10k AR On Feb 26 In New Zealand

Early March: 
Bernard Lagat Added To Melbourne 5K! For those not keeping score at home, that's Lagat, Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Craig Mottram all in one very fast 5k. *IAAF Preview (Doesn't Talk About Lagat)

Thomas Dold Sets Record For 6th Straight Win In Empire State Building Run-Up He ran up 86 flights of stairs in 10 minutes and 10 seconds.

Random But Interesting

Oops - BYU Doesn't Have A Track Conference To Compete In The Cougars decided to go for the money and go independent in football, leaving their track teams out to dry as the conference they joined for other sports doesn't even have track.

Unbelievable - Australia's 800m Record Is 42 Years Old There is some hope with David Rudisha racing down under that he'll inspire an Aussie to break the record.

The IAAF Profiles Two Of Its Biggest Stars

Records Crushed By Future Studs

  • Ryan Crouser Destroys Indoor HS 16lb Shot Record By 3 Feet Crouser started using the spin technique for the first time in competition, throwing a US #2 all-time 73-1 with the 12-pound high school shot, and then set the US high school indoor record with the 16-pound implement, throwing 63-11. That makes him No. 2 all-time, behind Michael Carter, who threw 67-9 outdoors 32 years ago and if he was in college he would have hit the NCAA auto mark.
  • Jodie Williams Sets European Age-17 Best In 60m The World Junior 100m champ ran 7.28, which would rank her 7th in the NCAA so far this year.

18 Things You Didn't Know About Steve Prefontaine

Some Countries Actually Put Track On TV! France will broadcast at least 20 hours of live footage from 2011 European Indoor Championships.

Marrakech International Marathon Recap 2:10:22, 2:37:00 get the job done.

Weekend Marathons *Houston Live Thread

Houston: Bekana Daba Nearly Goes Sub-2:07, Strong Day For Americans Daba, a 12:58 5ker on the track last year, had the credentials, but his first marathon wasn't great (2:14 in Amsterdam). He put that behind him, running a stunning 1:02:47 on the second half of the course to finish in 2:07:04 despite a bathroom break near the finish. American marathoning is definitely on the upswing; at the fast halfway split, there were 2 Americans in the pack (Nick Arciniaga and Brett Gotcher). Arciniaga would grab second and a 2:11:30 PR. Last year's surprise Gotcher blew up. On the distaff side, Mamitu Daska of Ethiopia prevailed in a duel with Ashu Kasim, as American Stephanie Rothstein surprised with a huge 10-minute PR and sub-2:30 clocking.
*Nice Recap From Houston Chronicle No wonder Gotcher blew up; the lead pack did a 4:29 mile for mile 14 (which is Gotcher's 10k PR pace and way faster than Nick Arciniaga's 10k pace) and then 3 sub-4:40 miles from 16-18.
*RRW: Americans Nick Arciniaga, Stephanie Rothstein Impress Nick was only slated to pace Gotcher through 25k, but he was open to the idea of finishing.

Osaka: Yukiko Akaba (Japan's Top Marathoner In 2010) Wins Osaka Marathon On Cold And Windy Day To Get Her First Marathon Win

Miami:
Dude Wins ING Miami Marathon By Nearly 6 Minutes In 2:12 (He Was So Far Ahead Until Mile 23 That 2nd And 3rd Place Thought They Were Winning)

Millrose *1-Page Results *Full Results

LRC Analysis
Millrose Behind The Scenes: Lagat Goes Down, Millrose Entertains
Employee #1 and his able assistant went into the bowels of Millrose to tell you what really happened at the grand-daddy of track and field meets in the world. High schoolers flashing U of O symbols, overlooked 3:34 1,500m runners, and pros addicted to LetsRun.com - we've got it covered.

Unlucky 7:
Deresse Mekonnen Snaps Bernard Lagat's Winning Streak At 6 The 23-year-old 2010 world indoor champ defeated the 36-year-old President of the Boards (or did Father Time win?) in a fantastic Wanamaker mile, but not without Lagat putting up a fantastic fight that saw him at least three times try to retake the lead in the final two laps.
*
Samantha Nadel Wins High School Girls Millrose Mile In 4:50.58
*NY's Chad Noelle Wins Boys Millrose Mile In 4:16.71
*Register-Guard:
World Pentathlon Record Holder Ashton Eaton PRs In Two Out Of Three Events To Beat Olympic Champion Bryan Clay And World Champion Trey Hardee Eaton set a new shot put PR at 46-8 and lowered his 60m hurdles time to 7.64.
*
Jamaicans Lose Sprint Showdown With USA Jamaicans Veronica Campbell-Brown and Nesta Carter won the sprints, but US sprinters claimed victory on points in the US-Jamaica challenge.
*IAAF Recap: Mekonnen Ends Lagat's Streak
*
Millrose Games: Nadel, Noelle Win HS Miles!
*
UVA Wins College 4 x 800 Without Robby Andrews

International Track News

Oregon News

Injury-Prone Dathan Ritzenhein Will Now Shift Focus To 10k At World Champs *LRC MB: RITZ! ENOUGH WITH THE MARATHON!

Lukas V Commits To Oregon For Real It's now official; two time Foot Locker XC national champ Lukas Verzbicas has an oral commitment to Oregon. The news was out unofficially last week. Letsrun.com has learned Lukas considered turning pro but the money he wanted wasn't there. Why would Nike pay big bucks for him when they can get him much cheaper in the U of O singlet?
*Message Board Thread

Read This To Your Kids Edwin Moses Receives World Fairplay Award In Recognition Of His Efforts Promoting Drug Free Sport The Act of Fair Play Award was also given to three other athletes: Amin Zadeh, an Iranian soccer player who kicked the ball out of play rather than score on an open goal when the goalie was injured, Darius Draudvila, a Lithuanian decathlete who cost himself a chance for a medal at Euros when he leant his pole to the eventual bronze medallist who broke his and couldn't find another, and Chinese wrestler Gao Feng, who carried an injured opponent from the arena to receive treatment even though the rival had been sanctioned for biting him during the contest.

60th Anniversary Of Pre's Birthday Keeps Generating News

Craig Mottram & Benita Willis To Lead Australia At World XC Championships Mottram will run for the first time since 2008 and will lead a squad that includes former NAU star David McNeill. *Australian XC Trials Results

News From Europe

Film Depicting The Life Story Of Double Olympic Marathon Gold Medalist Abebe Bikila To Be Screened In Portland On Feb. 17th And 18th

Another Edition Of The Famed Kenyan Armed Forces XC Champs Is In The Books (The 3rd-Toughest Race On The Planet)

Update On Nike's Golden Boys - Rupp & Lance

It's Official - Angela Bizzari To Mammoth Track Club Agree or disagree with the decision? It's a hot topic on the message board.

News From Japan

Dubai Marathon (World's Richest Prize) *Race Website *Live Thread *Top Results And Prize Money *Photos Here

David Barmasai And Asselefech Mergia Each Pocket $250,000
David Barmasai earned his $250,000 the hard way. Barmasai had only run marathons in Kenya before. There were 12 guys who went through halfway in 1:02:46. At 30k, according to message board reports, the leaders were only 25 seconds off of Haile G's world record split. Then however, the wheels came off. The final 5k was run in 16:47 and that gave Barmasai the win by nearly a minute over Evans Cheruiyot (2008 Chicago champ), who won $100,000 for 2nd place. Shows how hard Haile G's record is. On the women's side, Asselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was much more credentialed coming in (bronze at 2009 Worlds) and she was the only one to dip under 2:23 but missed the course record at the world's richest marathon in terms of prize money - $1,000,000 combined between men and women; not the $2 million we said yesterday.
*Top Results And Prize Money

Pretty Shocking

The Action Is About To Heat Up

A Great Mile Matchup In Europe: 2010 Outdoor Sensation Silas Kiplagat To Race World Indoor Champ In Lievin, France On February 8th; Kaki Also Running

Tokyo Marathon: 27:01, 59:50 Guy Gideon Ngatuny To Make His Marathon Debut In Tokyo, Taking On Gebrselassie The marathon is March 9th February 27th. We like the clever website name: www.tokyo42195.org.

Distance News

Galen Rupp Racing Paul Koech Over 5,000m In Düsseldorf, Germany On February 11 Rupp no doubt will be trying to regain his American record from Bernard Lagat (13:11). Koech ran 13:02 last year in Düsseldorf to become the 4th fastest ever indoors.
*Message Board Thread

London & Boston 2011

CHICAGO - OCTOBER 10: Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya collapses after winning
the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:06:24 on October 10, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jim Prisching/Getty Images) 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

US XC Champs In San Diego *Results

Brent Vaughn Wins Convincingly, Shalane Flanagan And The Other Winners Dominate Vaughn, the CU record holder at 5k (think about that for a second) dominated the field the 2nd half of the race to win by 6 seconds, the smallest margin of victory of the day. Shalane Flanagan totally destroyed Molly Huddle, winning by 44 seconds, and getting a little revenge for Huddle taking her 5k American record last year. Foot Locker champ Aisling Cuffe won the junior girls race convincingly. 49-year-old Master Pete Magill won in the men's masters ranks, while Colleen De Reuck showed she was in the wrong race, winning by 1:34.

*
Denver Post: Brent Vaughn Makes Surprising Comeback After DNFing At US Half Marathon Champs Last Weekend Vaughn was excited to "finally" get in a satisfying race and said, "I felt like I was getting the monkey off my back. It just feels good to finally get one."
*
San Diego Union-Tribune: Flanagan Dominated But Says She Didn't Know She Had It In The Bag: "I always run scared."

On The Boards: Men:
BRENT MF VAUGHN
Women:
Shalane Flanagan Takes USA Cross-Country Title By 45 Seconds In 25:47
Masters:
50-Year-Old Pete Magill CRUSHES

More Weekend Action

Don't Burn Out Too Early

Japanese Study Says To Become World Class, Don't Work Too Hard In Junior High

Proof That Most Times You Don't Even Need Drug Tests To Know Who's Doping
Third All-Time UK Shot Putter Mark Edwards Suspended For Failing Doping Test
The 36-year-old had been one of the UK's top shot putters for more than a decade, throwing 18-19 meters for years before setting a one-meter PR in 2008 with a throw of 20.88m.

Runners World: A Brief Chat With Bernard Lagat After two-mile record, he wants to get the 5k "A" standard out of the way in Australia.

Alan Culpepper Still Running Races Behind The Scenes - Working For Rock 'N Roll People On retirement: "It's a profession that you just can't keep going in," he said. "Eventually, abruptly, you start getting worse. It's not a pretty exodus. You have to come to terms with it. I'm thankful that I can still be in the sport in this fashion and be around like-minded people."

Olympic Stadium Decision Bound To Piss Everyone Off

Apolo Ohno Goes From Short Track Skating To NYC Marathon USA Today

IAAF: Cinque Mulini / European Club Championships Cross-Country Preview IAAF

IAAF: Beppu-Oita Marathon Preview Top runners from will include Samson Ramadhani, the 2006 Commonwealth Games Marathon champion with a best of 2:08:01, Ethiopian Abiyote Guta, with a career best of 2:09:03, and Moroccan Ahmed Baday, a 2:10:58 runner.

Great Half Marathon This Weekend

Stellar Half Marathon Sunday In Marugame Japan: Elvan Abeylegesse (1:07:07) Vs. Kayoko Fukushi (1:07:26) Vs. Nikki Chapple (1:08:37) Fukushi ran sub-31 for 10k 8 years ago as a 20-year-old, but has not gotten faster.

Track Action This Weekend

David Oliver Takes On All Comers And That's Why We Like Him

Week In Review

LRC Ritz's Injuries, Should Chris Solinsky Get Nervous?, Runner A Vs. Runner B, The Houston Course, Millrose Announcing And The Most Overlooked Performance Of The Weekend Once a week, we go beyond the headlines to cover the running scene like no one else. So before you turn your attention to the Super Bowl, give us 5 minutes and learn what's going on in the running world. Updated at noon with more on Houston course, praise for Tim Hutchings on ESPN broadcast.

Usain Bolt's London Uniform Will Be Designed By Bob Marley's Daughter Hopefully it's not contaminated with second-hand smoke.

Russia's 800m Runner Yuliya Rusanova Is First Woman Under 2 Minutes In 2011 1:59.44 in Belgorod on Saturday.

Oregon Fans, Eat Your Heart Out

Interview With Haile Gebrselassie: His Ideal Dinner Party Would Include Nelson Mandela, Obama, And Pasta

Review Of Ryan Hall's Book: Running With Joy

USATF News

Lananna Says He's Not A Finalist For USATF Job Eugene Register-Guard The article says USATF is down to 3 finalists. The article doesn't name the finalists, but only names three people (Lananna and Mary Wittenberg, who both have publicly said they aren't interested, and Rich Kenah (former World Championships bronze medallist)).

*Comparing Houston's Olympic Trials Preview Course To Last Year's Houston Course Runner's World
*New Executive Director Of Houston Marathon Pleased With Marathon Preparation For Olympic Trials Houston Chronicle

Good Read: Jerry Schumacher Profile In Portland Paper Got to be a quote of the day in here somewhere.

Good News: Spanish Steeplechaser Jose Luis Blanco Gets EPO Ban

Looking Back At Houston

Greg McMillan And Crew Reflect On 2011 Chevron Houston Marathon Nick ArciniagaStephanie Rothstein impressed in a big way while Brett Gotcher had a "tough day at the office."

2012 Olympic News

Kenyans In The News

US Half Champs In Houston *Results, Prize Money, Splits *Updated Photos *Live Thread

Men: LRC Mo Trafeh Outkicks Ryan Hall Ryan Hall, Mo Trafeh and Patrick Smyth battled together on the streets of Houston for 11 miles. In the twelfth mile, Hall tried to push ahead. Smyth was the first to crack, but Trafeh stayed on Hall's heels. With 200m to go, Trafeh gave it one final surge and passed Hall to get the win.
*
Photos
*Video Of Men's Finish *Men's Post-Race Interviews

Women: LRC
Jen Rhines' Return Trumps Burla's After a 4-year absence, Jen Rhines made a return to the longer distances with a win and a PR. However, her comeback was the least impressive of the day, as that award definitely goes to Serena Burla. Burla was second just as she was last year. However, in the last year, she had been diagnosed and beaten cancer. Pretty amazing. Mother of three, Nan Kennard, who trains with Colleen De Reuck, was a surprise third.
*
Photos
*Video Of Women's Finish *Women's Post-Race Press Conference

NCAA/US Track Action Really Heats Up

Week In Review: *More Dubai Photos Here

LRC Week That Was: Delaware Gets The Ax, Wanjiru Crashes, Dubai Makes Some Marathoners Rich, And The US Indoor Season Gets Going As usual, we recap the week in running like nobody else. Now that the holidays are behind us, the running world is starting to heat up again.

Caster Semenya Sits Down & Gives The BBC Her 1st Extended Interview Since Gender Controversy Arose Semenya said she doesn't want to dwell on the gender issues; she only wants to focus on running, but she did get irritated when asked if she was given hormonal treatment.

She Must Have The Same PR Agent As Lance

Marta Domínguez Remains Defiant In 1st TV Appearance Since Doping Raid She flat-out said she didn't use PEDs and admitted to only giving aspirin, vitamin C and iron to teammates.
*Lengthier Article On Domínguez Translated From Spanish Dominguez appears to say the charges may have a political connection and says she's clean because she's had a 16-year-long career.
*2nd Article Translated From Spanish

More Doping News:

Asian Games Silver Medallist Ahemed Dheeb Stripped Of Medal

Boston Globe Feature Article

Have Athletes Reached Their Limits? The author seems to think they have because so many world records have stagnated since the 1980s. He does acknowledge drugs played a role in many records from the '80s. However, he is perplexed by one athlete - Usain Bolt - and says Bolt's breakthroughs today are why he is so newsworthy. Track and field, by focusing on the competition and not the records, can stay relevant in our opinion.

Duke Senior Kate Van Buskirk Sets Collegiate Record In 1,000 She had an incredible weekend as she ran 2:41.00 after splitting 2:04.15 on a 4 x 800.

New Balance Armory *Full Results

More Men's Track & XC Programs Bite The Dust

Sports Illustrated Columnist Joins LRC Faithful In Ripping Delaware For Cutting Its Men's Track & Field / XC Teams Jeff Pearlman is a little biased as he used to run for them, but that doesn't mean he's not right on the money. UD Track is 100 years old this year.
*LRC MBoarders Express Their Outrage
*A Blogger Is Irate
*Delaware's Cowardly Release

Bemidji State's Men's Indoor & Outdoor Programs Get The Ax Not quite as old as Delaware, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, Bemidji track has been around since 1928.

Week In Review

Cross Country: IAAF World Cross Country Championships LRC: Week That Was Last week, we had to use sex to sell our Week That Was and this week, except for talking about LaShawn Merritt's penis, everything is clean. We actually are full of praise for some American stars helping the sport, some of the shoe companies, and more. Plus, we cover some XC, India's #1 marathoner, and some Oregon football.

TIA/Unbelievable: Two Of Kenya's Brightest Junior Prospects For World XC May Not Be Able To Race, As They Allegedly Were Beaten By Their Teacher For Not Passing Tests Apparently, in Kenya there is some sort of automatic passing going on that made the teacher irate and he supposedly beat one of the students unconscious.

Alberto On Galen

LRC: Update On Galen Rupp's Training: Two Distinct Seasons For Rupp In 2011, More Mileage Alberto Salazar has done a tremendous job crafting Galen Rupp's career despite the critics (we specifically remember pro athletes who saw Galen train as a high schooler saying he'd burn out). Alberto says 2011 will be a bit different for Galen than 2009 and 2010, with 2 distinct peaks (and time off in between) and that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of training mileage. Plus, we take a look back at Galen's incredibly long and consistent 2009 and 2010 seasons.

It's Not 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?"
*
Sammy Wanjiru Arrested For Attempting To Kill His Wife And A Domestic Worker

Worth Reading

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.

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.

The Stars Of Track And Field Party In Monaco *Wejo's Photo Gallery 1 *Pro Photo Gallery 2

LRC Polls