Virgin London Marathon *Watch Live (3:55am Eastern Sunday) Or On Demand (After 9:00am) Without Knowing The Results

LRC Men's Preview: Kebede Vs. Makau Vs. The Field Once again, London has assembled a tremendous field, showing why it is the most competitive marathon in the world outside of the Olympics. Patrick Makau, the #1-ranked marathoner in the world in 2010, whose worst marathon last year was a 2:05:08 win in Berlin, takes on the top competitive marathoner in the world not named Sammy Wanjiru - Tsegaye Kebede - plus five more of the 24 guys who have ever run sub-2:06 in the marathon. We break down the field and take a look at the Americans' (Patrick Smyth and Mo Trafeh) chances, including whether Trafeh can get American Ryan Hall's marathon debut record.

LRC Women's Preview: Liliya Shobukhova Vs. The "Strongest" London Women's Field Ever Race Director Dave Bedford calls this without a doubt his strongest women's field and it's hard to argue against him. He's got the London champ, the New York champ, the Berlin champ, the World Champ, the Olympic Champ, and then a handful of others who may win, including the world half marathon record holder Mary Keitany. We break down the field, ponder whether we'll see the first sub-2:20 in three years (and wonder why women's marathoning has gone in reverse the last five years) and look at American Magdalena Lewy-Boulet's chances of a sub-2:25 clocking.

*NYC Marathon Champ Edna Kiplagat Considers Herself "One Of The Favorites" To Win London This Weekend "London's field is extraordinarily strong, but what would our sport be without competition? It would be boring."
*Defending London Marathon Champ Liliya Shobukhova Says She Respects But Does Not Fear Paula Radcliffe She's hoping to get the psychological edge on Paula when she returns to racing at Great Manchester 10k. *2nd Article

LRC The Week That Was This week, we investigate German Fernandez's Shoe-Gate, quote a 9th or 10th grader who says that more fans watch his 9th-10th grade meet than Leo Manzano, tell you why to be truly elite in the marathon you now need to be a sub-2:06 guy, and re-introduce you to Leilani Rios, the runner who was a national sensation 10 years ago when she was kicked off the Cal State-Fullerton track team for making a lot of money each night she worked.
*Athletics Weekly Weekend Recap: 9 World Leads Set, Including Men's Steeple, Marathon, Decathlon, And Men's/Women's 4 X 1 And 4 X 4

Doping News

International Stuff

Starting To Get Ready For Sunday's 2011 London *Click Here For Viewing Info

Interesting Reads

Sunday's Road Action *Rotterdam Marathon Thread

Rotterdam: Wilson Chebet Wins 2:05:26 Duel In Rotterdam Rotterdam officials had taken out insurance on the $350,000 bonus for a world record, as they know what we all should know now, the course is super fast. The world record didn't fall, but Wilson Chebet battled with Vincent Kipruto until the final kilometer to make it 2 more guys under 2:06 in Rotterdam. Two 2:05s, however, is actually a letdown to Rotterdam, as this may be the fastest course in the world (see below). Last year, Patrick Makau won the battle with Geoffry Mutai as 2 broke 2:05, and in 2009, 2 guys ran 2:04 as well.
*Rotterdam Marathon The Fastest? Rotterdam Now Has The Top 10 Fastest Average Times Interesting stats from Ken Nakamura. The bar has officially been raised, and in our opinion, sub-2:06 is the cutoff for being a truly studly marathoner. 75 guys have gone sub-2:07, but only 24 have gone sub-2:06.
*Vincent Kipruto Now Statistically One Of The Fastest Marathoners Ever He's got only one win but 5 fast times.
Amazing: 80-Year-Old Ed Whitlock Runs 3:25:40

Paris: Priscah Jeptoo's More-Than-4-Minute PR Wins Paris (2:22:55, #2 Time Ever), Benjamin Kiptoo Wins Men's In 2:06:31

Chicago:
Former NCAA XC Champ Simon Bairu Wins Bank Of America Shamrock Shuffle 8k By 17 Seconds Over High Schooler Lukas Verzbicas, Amy Yoder Begley Cruises 32,000 participants in the windy city. (Results).
*Race Press Release Check out the "quotes" by Amy and Simon after the race. No way they both said that after the race unless someone handed them a script to read from.

Milan: 80-Degree Heat Story At Milan Marathon IAAF

Ireland: Teenager Charlotte Purdue Wins SPAR Great Ireland Run Convincingly

Arcadia HS Action *Arcadia Results *More Coverage At Meet Website

He's Back!!!
Robby Andrews To Return To Action On Saturday For UVA
The sophomore phenom who defeated Andrew Wheating to win a NCAA title as a frosh will compete for UVA for the first time all year after overcoming a bout with plantar fasciitis.

Haile Gebrselassie Profile, Semenya Fit, A Wrong Turn In Jerusalem

When To Start?
Early Vs. Late Specialization: When Should Children Specialize In Sport?

Usain Bolt & Tyson Gay In The News

Recommended Read: Usain Bolt Shares His Unique Perspective On Running And Life In Profile On Front Page Of Sports In USA Today We promised to use this article as Quote of the Day for today, as there are enough quotes to last a week. Bolt talks about partying, psychologically destroying his opponents, the stupidity of getting married before your late 30s, and a pro soccer career after London 2012 (print edition only). Bolt: "Dancing is good physical activity. So don't think about partying and dancing as negative." Bolt also hints in the video that him and Gay talk a lot less since Bolt took over as the main star. *5 USA Today Questions With Bolt (video)
*AP: One-Track Mind - Gay Closing Gap On Bolt

April Fools News

LetsRun's 2011 April Fools Edition Yesterday's homepage was an April Fools prank. However, the news the day before on Alan Webb leaving Alberto Salazar and (according to our source) no longer receiving paychecks from Nike was not part of the prank.

Alberto Salazar Talks With More Detail And Says There Are No Hard Feelings With Alan Webb Leaving Oregonian

Alan Webb Parts Ways With Alberto

LRC Alan Webb Switching Coaches The American record holder in the mile has called it quits on the coaching experiment with Alberto Salazar after 19 months. No official word yet on where Webb goes next. This is Webb's third major coaching switch in his career due to performances he was frustrated with. And for those of you who question Webb's future, remember this Alberto Salazar quote from last year: "I would have to say that even my athletes agree as a group - Galen Rupp and Dathan Ritzenhein - we all know he (Alan Webb) is the most talented in the whole group."

Recommended Read Ato Boldon's 10 Pieces Of Wise Advise That Current Pro Track Athletes Don't Understand (But Retired Ones Do) Among the highlights, he advises staying away from European wine and women and to beware of falling in love with insincere shoe companies.

The Only Required Reading In The Industry

LRC: Week That Was: Flanagan Gets Bronze, Rupp Makes An Impressive Debut, An American Runs 2:27 At LA, And The US XC Dream Team Sure, we bet you know about Shalane Flanagan's bronze at World XC and Galen Rupp's half marathon in NYC. But we help put these in perspective and tell you about the American who ran 2:27 in LA (Amy Hastings) and wonder how well the US dream team of Lagat, Rupp, Solinsky, Tegenkamp and Ritz would do at World XC. And of course the most important news of the week, the fight at World XC.

Zersenay Tadese Misses His Own WR But Runs 2nd-Fastest Half Marathon Ever (58:30) In Portugal Despite having little help from rabbits and having to run into the wind the last 3 miles, Tadese was great as usual at the 13.1 distance.

2011 NCAA Champs *Full Results *2011 Event-By-Event Results With Splits *LRC Women's Preview *LRC Men's Preview *LRC Day 1 Photos *Video Highlights (48 Hours Only) Within Articles Or On Right

Day 2: LRC 3ks: Hasay Becomes A Legend, Heath Unleashes His Legendary Kick As of Fri. night, Jordan Hasay was viewed as the former teen prodigy who couldn't quite kick for the big one in college. Now, just as was the case for Galen Rupp two years ago, she is college distance running's biggest star, as she won the mile and then came back in the 3k to make herself into a legend by turning the tables on Sheila Reid. Stanford's Elliott Heath's kick was even more lethal, as he destroyed a super-talented men's 3k field over the final 140m. Includes last lap video coverage.

Day 2: LRC Mid-D: Hasay Gets Title #1, Batty Gets Title #2, Fred Samoei Wins A Nailbiter, And BYU's Bleazard Dominates After being outkicked in the DMR on Fri. night, Jordan Hasay outkicked the competition to grab her first NCAA title as BYU's Miles Batty completed the double in the men's mile, holding off a spirited challenge from Tulsa's Chris O'Hare. The men's 800 featured the best finish of the night as Michael Rutt's bold move to the lead 400 meters in almost held up. In the women' s 800, BYU's Lacey Bleazard won her 2nd indoor title - it's a shame the ESPN3 announcers had no idea who she was. Includes last lap video coverage.

Day 1: LRC DMR: Villanova's Reid Outkicks Oregon's Hasay, BYU's Miles Batty Holds Off Incredible 3:53 Anchor From Andy Bayer Both DMRs had great finishes. The women were first and 'Nova's Sheila Reid and Oregon's Jordan Hasay put on a battle for the ages. On the men's side, Andy Bayer split a sick 3:53 to take Indiana from 9th to 2nd, but it was not enough to overtake BYU's Miles Batty, as the night of incredible men's distance running continued with three sub-3:55 splits. Arizona's Lawi Lalang split 3:56.9 and his team lost 3 spots. Recap, interviews, photos, and video of last laps.

LRC 5,000m Recaps: Unheralded Leonard Korir Storms To NCAA Record, Jackie Areson Impresses, Mia Behm Surprises Everyone The men's 5,000m witnessed Iona's Leonard Korir winning a scorching-fast 5k in 13:26.01 over Sam Chelanga, as three guys broke the previous NCAA meet record. On the women's side, Jackie Areson put on a display over the last 600m and Mia Behm, who was 7th at the Big 12, shocked everyone to get 2nd.

Sad News

Sad News: Sally Meyerhoff Killed In Cycling Accident The two-time All-American and US Olympic Trials qualifier as well former US champion at 25km was killed on Tuesday in a cycling accident at the young age of 27 while she trained for the Ironman World Championship. *LRC MB: Sad News: Sally Meyerhoff Killed in Accident
*Abc15.com Article With Video On Meyerhoff's Death
*Ahwatukee.com Article On Meyerhoff's Death
*AZcentral.com Article
*USATF Article
*New York Road Runners Article
*More Sad News: Florida High School Track Athlete Sarah Landauer Dies After Collapsing At Practice

Melbourne Track Classic *LRC Melbourne Talk *Full Results *Event-By-Event Results *Photo Gallery *Post-Race 5k Interviews *Recap & 5k Video

A Dream Outdoor US Track Matchup In March In Australia
LRC: Bernard Lagat Wins And Leads Five To "A" Standard; Jeff Risesey Stuns Kiprop And Willis (And Webb) In 1,500; David Rudisha Cruises To 1:43.88 Win In 800 The Melbourne Track Classic was full of hot distance action. In the 5k, Lagat (13:08.43) pulled away from Chris Solinsky (13:10.22) and then held off a shocking late charge by Australia's Ben St. Lawrence, who had a massive 15-second personal best to finish second, as Matt Tegenkamp and the surprising Andrew Bumbalough also got the "A"' standard. In the 1,500, Jeff Riseley came in saying he was in even better shape than last year and then backed it up by getting an upest win for the second-straight year in 3:36.71, as American Alan Webb (3:37.82) drastically improved his 2011 fortunes by finishing right behind the Olympic gold medallist Asbel Kiprop (3:37.63) and well ahead of the Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis (3:38.76), as David Rudisha (1:43.88) and Nick Symmonds (1:45.08) opened fast.

Week In Review

LRC Week That Was: Haile G Jokes, Bernard, Galen And Jenny, The Track & Field Labor Dispute, And Our Hero Kawauchi We span the globe to cover the running world like no one else. From the roads of Tokyo to the mountains of New Mexico, we've got it covered.

The Secret Is ... There Is No Secret

Coaching: There Are No Secrets, Substitutes Or Shortcuts For Success ... Do The Work

Webb To UVA

Alan Webb Heads Back To Virginia To Be Coached By Jason Vigilante And Possibly Train With Robby Andrews The rumors are now true, as Steve Nearman, the guy who first broke the story about Webb leaving Michigan to turn pro, is reporting the Webb-UVA story and even though Webb hasn't confirmed it, Nearman can be trusted.
*Message Board Thread On Webb-Vig

Starting To Get Ready For Monday's Boston Marathon

US/NCAA News

Caster Semenya/Hyperandrogenism In The News

IAAF Issues New Rules For Females With Hyperandrogenism (Excessive Production Of Testosterone) *AP Article On Hyperandrogenism Ruling

Wow: Beaten Semenya Competitor Tries To Grab Microphone To Rant About Unfairness Of Semenya Competing Against Her At South African Champs

Caster Semenya To Make US Debut At Pre Classic On June 4th

News From Oregon

Vin Lananna Being Secretive About Oregon's Plans For New Indoor Facility
*Ken Goe Explains Why
*It's Official - Even Oregon Athletes Admit That 4th Graders Are Smarter Than Oregon Athletes
*A Trip Down Memory Lane: Washington President Rips Oregon Academics
*Some Oregon Multi-Eventers Competing At Mt. SAC

More News

Off-The-Track News

Brits In The News

Vaulting News

Isinbayeva Says One Reason She Went Back To Her Old Coach Was She Wanted To Be Closer To Her Parents

Steve Hooker Has Glowing Praise For His Youth Vault Coach Mark Stewart

Sunday's South African Champs *Results (Scroll Down)

NCAA Action *Texas Relays Results *Pepsi Invite Results *More NCAA Results

Vin Lananna Keeps Trying To Make Track More Popular / Other College Stuff

Stellar US Road Action

Washington DC: Lelisa Desisa Breaks 16-Year-Old Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Record In 45:36 To Win 2nd Race In Two Days And Complete $18,250 Weekend Desisa, who won Bolder Boulder and set a course record at Boilermaker last year, is making a name for himself on the roads. First on Saturday was a $10,000 sprint win at the Cooper Bridge Run in S. Carolina. He followed that up with a stellar 45:36 in DC to break the course record and win an additional $8,250. Julliah Tinega got the sprint win on the women's side. *Results

Carlsbad: With 2 Shoes This Time, Dejen Gebremeskel Outkicks Eliud Kipchoge To Win Carlsbad 5,000m, Aheza Kiros Gets Her 2nd Carlsbad Crown Gebremeskel is the guy who ran most of the Boston 3,000m this year with one shoe before outkicking Mo Farah there. In San Diego, he just sat on former world champ Kipchoge until it was time to win. Kiros is most known for winning Carlsbad, as this was her second win at Carlsbad.
*Results Jen Rhines and Bobby Curtis 3rd, Christin Wurth-Thomas 4th, and Ben St. Lawrence with a really bad performance (he's struggled since beating Solinsky at 5,000m in Australia).
*Carlsbad Photos
*IAAF Recap

Saturday: Lelisa Desisa Wins Cooper Bridge Run And $10,000

Ukrop Richmond Monument Ave. 10k: Megan Wright Defends, Julius Kogo Wins
*Results

2011 World XC *Results *New Women's Race Photos *New Men's Race Photos

LRC: Shalane Flanagan Gets Bronze The Olympic bronze medallist and ING NYC Marathon runner-up ran a stellar race to snatch the bronze versus a star-studded field. Flanagan appeared to be dropped with 2km to go, but dug deep to stay in contention and battle back for the bronze. World 5,000m champ Vivian Cheruiyot pulled away from World 10,000m champ Linet Masai for gold. The American women did very well to get a repeat bronze medal.
*IAAF Recap Of Women's Race
*Charlotte Purdue Is Top European On Weekend In 14th In Women's Race If you weren't born in Africa, you didn't finish any better than 21st in the men's race, which is where Craig Mottram finished - aided in part as two guys ahead of him came to blows as they ran down the finishing straight. *2nd LRC MB Thread On Fight
*Japanese Jr. Girls Earn Bronze
*Cheruiyot: "I have won everything now, save for that elusive Olympic medal."
*Nice Recap Of Women's Race *Nice Recap Of Races From Kenyan Perspective *Athletics Weekly Recap Of World 2011 World XC *Video Highlights Of World XC Women's Race

Men: Imane Merga Blasts Away From Four Kenyans In Sprint To Win The Kenyan men dominated the team competition and had 4 of the top 5 guys in the pack for the sprint the final 400m. However, the lone Ethiopian - Imane Merga, the Diamond League 5,000m champion - got the win the Kenyan nation wants most every year. Ben True was the first American in 36th, as he and fellow Ivy Leaguer Max King were America's two best.
*Merga: "Before I used to think of myself as a track runner but this winter I have got to like cross-country races more."
*Craig Mottram Finishes As Top Non-Afrrican Born Male In 21st As Two Guys Ahead Of Him Are DQed For Fighting In Race To Line Eritrea's Samuel Tsegay and Ethiopia's Abera Kuma were given the DQ.

Junior Boys: Geoffrey Kipsang Leads Kenya To 13th Straight Title Kipsang was only 4th at the Kenyan Trials but dominated. High schooler Craig Lutz was the first American in 29th.

Junior Girls: Faith Kipyegon Of Kenya Wins, But Ethiopia Edges Them For Team Title High schooler Aisling Cuffe was the first American in 17th.

Other Nationals *NCAA D3 Champs *NCAA D2 Champs *HS Nationals Results *Photos

HS: Lukas V. Runs Away From The Top Milers To Complete Historic High School Nationals Triple His double on Sunday was super-impressive, but we had completely forgotten about German Fernandez's 4:00, 8:34 double at the California state meet.
*IAAF Article On Verzbicas

We Wrote This Article Too Soon:
Gerry Lindgren's Legendary 47-Year-Old High School National Record Survives Scare From Lukas Verzbicas And Edward Cheserek Verzbicas hammered home over the final lap to pull away from Cheserek, but in the end, Lindgren's 8:40.0 lived to see another day, as Verzbicas ran 8:40.70 and Cheserek shattered the high school indoor and overall sophomore class records with his 8:42.66. More: Gerry Lindgren 8:40 indoors *LRC MB Lukas V. 8:40.7!! *LRC MB So close *Running Times Q&A With Lindgren About His 8:40.0 Note: This article incorrectly implies the record was set in a 16-lap race.
*
Lucas Verzbicas (14:06.78) & (Waverly Neer) 16:35.15 Set National HS 5,000 Records

Sally Meyerhoff News

Tokyo Marathon: A Legend Is Born *Photos

Hailu Mekonnen Wins, Japanese Amateur Yuki Kawauchi Runs Amazing 2:08:37 For 3rd And Faints At Finish Yuki Kawauchi's story is amazing. A 13:59 5ker and 29:02 10ker, he has a full-time job and has stayed away from the Japanese collegiate and professional system, yet he stunned all of Japan with a 2:08:37 run. Dreams do become reality.
*On The Boards: 13:59 5k, 29:02 10k Japanese AMATEUR Runs 2:08:37 at Tokyo Marathon and Passes Out

Records For Rupp And Farah *Video Of Rupp's And Farah's Race

Galen Rupp & Mo Farah Set National 5k Records! (13:11.44 and 13:10.60) The two Alberto Salazar-coached athletes put on a brave battle, with Farah coming out on top on the last lap, as Rupp regained his American record from Bernard Lagat by .06. Rupp and Farah will be training together through 2012 and their partnership is off to a strong start. Rupp is scheduled to go for the American 10k record next week in New Zealand. The meet also saw a cool 400m hurdles race (video here or on the right), an 8:30 3k and American Morgan Uceny going sub-2:00 in the 800.
*Mo Farah Breaks British 5,000m Record With His New Coach Alberto Salazar One Of The 8,000 In Attendance Telegraph.co.uk
*Farah Credits Salazar's Coaching
*Rupp/Farah 5k Video

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.

London Race Director Dave Bedford On The Men's Field At London

Desiree Davila Ready For Boston (More In-Depth Here)

Texas Relays Photo Gallery (That's The Final 100m Of The Men's Mile Below)

Updated Carlsbad 5,000m Photo Gallery

Adult Running Camp With 3-Time World XC Champ Lynn Jennings

Spice up your training June 12-17 with one of the all-time greats, who now offers the only camp in the country where runners can learn to scull. *Craftsbury Running Camps

Recommended Read: 2:12 Marathoner Peter Gilmore Calls It A Career

Question Of The Day?

Can Blanka Vlasic dunk??

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Multi-Event News

Dutch Heptathlete Jolanda Keizer Has Moved To Sweden To Train With Carolina Klüft Klüft, meanwhile, has still abandoned the heptathlon.

Women's World XC In Photos

Men's World XC In Photos

Ritz's Injury Is Serious

Dathan Ritzenhein Has Surgery On His Achilles And Has Neuroma Removed On Other Foot The good news is Ritz saw the same surgeon Paula Radclife saw for her foot surgery (and the unofficial West Coast LRC surgeon Amol Saxena (who did Rojo's Achilles surgery)).
On The Boards: Ritz under the knife

The Greatest Comeback Ever?

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Definitely Worth A Read

Hall Of Fame Running Back And Olympic 400m Bronze Medalist (46.8) Ollie Matson Dies Our sport's history is amazing, as is Matson's story. He was on the 1951 Univ. of San Francisco team that he called the "greatest of all time" (they went undefeated and are the only college football team with 3 future NFL Hall of Famers on it). However, there was one "problem" with the team. It had two black players on it. That meant bowl inviations only if the black players didn't play. The team said no, the team lost $70,000 and the school CANCELLED football the next year. Amazing. Great Frank Litsky writeup.

Last 800m (Or Full Race) Of Galen Rupp's American Record Run In Britain

This Is Awesome: Indoor 400m Hurdles At Aviva Birmingham Meet

Training Talk Is Back

Training Talk With New Marathon Star Stephanie Rothstein And Ben Bruce Stephanie lowered her marathon PR by over 10 minutes, skipping the 2:30s entirely, running 2:29:35 in Houston. And she's still got her sights on lowering it another 10 minutes. Textual recap coming later, but you can listen above or download the podcast here (1:30).

Last 250 (Or Full Race - Rewind It) Of Dejen Gebremeskel Outkicking Mo Farah In Boston With 1 Shoe

Save Some Cash

Two Of The Best Running Movies Of All Time (Don't Believe Us? Click Here)

Relive Men'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)

Save Some Cash

Train Smarter

Great Deals

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