Quote Of The Day 

“Who knows, you could be seeing Nick McDonald’s running in the Olympics next year."

- Nick Symmonds joking(?) that he's even willing to legally change his last name to satisfy potential sponsors, as an athlete's name is prominently displayed on bibs worn in competition.

2011 Fukuoka Produces Compelling Drama *Photos *Top 10 Results

Josphat Ndambiri Wins In 2:07:36 Debut; Yuki Kawauchi 3rd In 2:09:57 In the most memorable Fukuoka since Sammy Wanjiru's debut in 2007, sub-27 man Josphat Ndambiri, the fastest Kenyan in Japan, lived up the hype in his marathon debut, as he won comfortably and now people expect him to pursue Olympic glory in the spring overseas. But once again the story of the day in Japan was the WILL of the amateur Kawauchi, who yet again produced another supreme effort to take home to Japanese honors in 2:09:57 and end up in the medical tent. Alistair Cragg was a DNF and Andrew Lemoncello struggled with a hamstring problem and ran 2:24. MB: *2011 Fukuoka MB Thread *Yuki Kawauchi is a bada$$
*IAAF Recap Kawauchi talks about his new tactic of surging at the water stations and his plans to race the Tokyo Marathon in February.
*Alistair Cragg fails to finish in Japan Cragg, who was hoping to break John Treacy's 23-year old Irish record of 2:09:15 dropped out after the 25km mark after going through halfway in 1:03.29. The Irish Times wasn't nice to Cragg as they said he dropped out "as he has done far too often in the past, including a few high profile track races."

Don't Know Kawauchi? Well, he's a man who approaches races with the mindset of "Every time I run, it's with the mindset that if I die at this race it's OK." He made headlines by fainting at the finish of Tokyo this year. *Video Of Tokyo
*More: *13:59 5k, 29:02 10k Japanese AMATEUR Runs 2:08:37 At Tokyo Marathon And Passes Out *Kawauchi Appreciation Thread *Kawauchi hospitalised with heat exhaustion

Other Weekend Action

The LRC PUMA 55 - The 12 Days Of PUMA

Day #4: LRC The LRC Puma Faas 55 #4: Married Guys With Kids And A Guy Whose Wife Of 12 Years Left Him And Took The Kids Everyone knows the LRC man is an expert on women. Today we salute the LRCers, married with kids, who still are banging out high mileage weeks and even making the Olympic Marathon Trials. Plus we have some sympathy for a dude whose wife and kids left him and running is his refuge. You think you're worthy to put the PUMA Faas shoes to the test? Enter the LRC PUMA Faas Challenge here.
Day 3: Winter Wonderland: South Dakota, A National Champion Coach, Valdez, Alaska, and TxRUNNERgirl Represent
Day 2: #6-10: A 27:31 10ker, A Marine Corps Marathon Champ, A Girl From Our Favorite High School, And A Guy Who Loves Asics
Day 1: LRC Introducing The LRC PUMA 55

RR: Looking Back: Sally Meyerhoff's Promising Path Cut Short Some very good quotes from her and her training log. Her family has started a foundation as tribute to her.

Paul Lonyangata And Margaret Wangari Win In Wet Conditions At Kenyan XC Series Meet

Pre-Race Fukuoka News

*Japanese Running News' Fukuoka Viewing Guide - Japanese 1,0000m All-Comers Record Holder Josphat Ndambiri Is Making His Debut In Fukuoka The guy is a stud who was 5th in the 10k in 2007 at WCs. In 2009, he was the first man to break 27:00 on Japanese soil and he accomplished the feat twice in 13 days. Recently, he beat World 10k champ Jeilan in Japan. He seems ready.
*IAAF Preview: 1st Of Three Japanese Olympic Qualifying Races Has Lots Of Interesting Sub-Plots Will amateur Yuki Kawauchi make the Olympic team? How will former NCAA star Alistair Cragg do in his marathon re-debut? (Cragg dropped out of his debut in Boston).

*Preview Of Sunday's Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore

Las Vegas Pre-Race News *Results Here

80-Year-Old 3:15 Marathoner Ed Whitlock Breaks A Rib

Show Me The Money

Matthew Centrowitz Explains His Decision To Leave Oregon Early To Turn Professional "I weighed both ends of this. It took me a couple months to decide. ... I had to make the decision based on what would keep me progressing, and keep me hungry."
*Centro Jr. Turns Professional *Matthew Centrowitz Jr., World Championships bronze medallist, has given up his final year of track to run professionally. Financially, it seems like a no-brainer for the former Oregon Duck.
Discuss: Centro Jr Turns Pro

LRC Archives: Worlds: Men's 1,500m: Matt Centrowitz Closes In 51.6 To Get Bronze As Asbel Kiprop And Silas Kiplagat Get Gold And Silver
USATFs: Men's 1,500m Final: Matt Centrowitz Jr. Pulls Away From Bernard Lagat
Video: *Centro's 1,500m Bronze Race *Post Race Reaction/Interview

Turkey Day Action *Manchester Results *Silicon Valley

Manchester: Brian Olinger, Sally Kipyego Win 75th Manchester Road Race ZAP's Landon Peacock and Team USA Minnesota's Andrew Carlson were 2nd and 3rd.
*Local News Coverage www.courant.com
*MB: Brian Olinger, Sally Kipyego Win

Silicon Valley: David McNeill, Jackie Areson Win Silicon Valley Turkey Trot McNeill ran 13:33, Arizona redshirt Stephen Sambu was 2nd, Diego Estrada was 3rd only 3 days after NCAAs, Ritz was 5th (13:49). Race videos/photos posted here.
*Video Interviews With McNeill, Areson And Estrada
*MB: Ritz running 5K on Thanksgiving

Australia: Craig Mottram Runs A Comfortable 13:46 To Win Victorian Champs 5k

Sacramento: Stember Runs 19:30

*Adam Goucher Lists 10 Running Things To Be Thankful For
*10 Things To Be Thankful For In TrackTown USA

Historic Irish Track (Home Of 4 X 1 Mile Record) To Be Ripped Up *MB: Historic Track Ripped Up

Some Interesting Science

*Science Of The Sport Examines Talent Vs. Training And Refutes The "10,000 Hour Rule" Says the "10,000 hour rule" is "nothing more than the realization of genetic potential."
*How Laziness Makes You A Better Runner Basically a study says your body tries to finds a stride/form that uses the least energy when running.

LRC Jason Vigilante Leaves The University Of Virginia Vigilante (the coach of Alan Webb and Robby Andrews), who rose to fame as the mid-d and distance coach at the University of Texas, has confirmed to LetsRun.com that he is no longer leading the Virginia program after three-plus years in Charlottesville. *Discuss: Vig out at UVA

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Men: LRC Wisconsin Badgers Take Control Early As Lawi Lalang Dominates Lawi Lalang waited until 5k before deciding it was time to crush the competition once and for all, while #1 Wisconsin showed no fear and put a stranglehold on the competition from the very beginning and held off a belated charge from Oklahoma State and a surprising Colorado team as the Cowboys tried to three-peat. American Chris Derrick took home individual runner-up honors to cap a brilliant career in style. *Discuss

More: Wisco #1: *Give 'em five: Badgers lay claim to program's fifth national title *Krause earns redemption as Badgers storm to fifth national title host.madison.com
OSU #2: *Dave Smith Calls Loss "Disappointing" - But Expected www.okstate.com
Colorado #3: *Wetmore Calls Medina Most Improved Runner In Country www.denverpost.com *CU Coach Mark Wetmore Pleased With Buffs 3rd Place Run
Individual: Coach Li - I Think Lalang Would Have Got Course Record If He Was Pushed www.arizonawildcats.com

NCAAs On The Boards

UK Shot Putter Gets Nine Months In Prison For Trafficking Steroids, UK Anti-Doping Trying To Figure Out Who Drugs Were For Give him one month less of prison for every athlete he spills the beans on.

Philly Was Sunday *Results *Half Results

*RIP: Two Runners Die After Collapsing In Philly Marathon A 21-year-old man collapsed at the finish line and a 40-year-old collapsed about a quarter-mile before it.
*Philly Marathon: Tuko Folisho Wins In 2:19:16 Mariska Kramer wins women's in 2:35:46.
*Philly Half Results: Samuel Ndereba Wins In 64:04 (Close Race Places 1-6) Yihunlish Delelecha wins women's in 1:12:42.

International Weekend Results

Doping

Steve Mullings Found Guilty He may face a lifetime ban as this is his second offense. *2nd Article
*BOA Chariman Colin Moynihan Accused Of Making "Misinformed Allegations" By Angry WADA Chief
*Colin Moynihan To Defend Anti-Doping Policy Against WADA

Week That Was

LRC Geoffrey Mutai Amazes Again, Adam Goucher Retires, & Lukas Verzbicas Calls It Quits We go behind the scenes to take a look at the last two weeks in the running world, which included the NYC Marathon, Adam Goucher's retirement, and Lukas Verzbicas leaving Oregon mid-season. Plus we take a look at the Phil Hersh-Ryan Hall spat and compare Hall to Tim Tebow.

Shoe News

Alan Webb Still With Nike

Look Out, Nike: Kenyan Brand Kourage Launched Of course Nike and Kourage both don't have a chance since Puma has partnered with little LetsRun.com for the LRC Puma Faas Challenge.

2011 ING NYC Marathon *Men's Results *Women's Results *Viewing Info *Flash Yahoo Photos

LRC 2:05:06!!! Geoffrey Mutai Caps Year In Style An unbelievable year in men's marathoning had an appropriate finish, as the Kenyan man who had the most unbelievable of all years, Geoffrey Mutai, smashed the previous NYC Marathon record by a stunning 2:38 - that's two minutes and 38 seconds. If it wasn't the greatest 2nd-greatest men's marathon performance ever, you'll have to tell us what was. American Meb Keflezighi hung with the leaders for 20 miles after a blistering 63:16 1st half and ended up with a much-deserved PR. Mutai picked up $200,000 by winning, but the big financial winner was runner-up Emmanuel Mutai, who won $635,000 ($500,000 for the WMM title).

LRC Mary Keitany Beats Herself The women's race was full of gut-wrenching drama, as Mary Keitany went out in a crazy 67:56. The problem was she came back in 74:42, as unheralded Firehiwot Dado (Rome Marathon champ) got the win.

LRC Post-Race Interviews: Meb And His Coach Bob Larsen Talks About His PR Despite Throwing Up Plus the winners Geoffrey Mutai, Firehiwot Dado, men's and women's top 3, Ed Moran, Molly Pritz, Lauren Fleshman and Bobby Curtis.

RnR Las Vegas Half-Marathon *Results

SEAN HOUSEWORTH IS SURPRISE WINNER AT RNR LAS VEGAS HALF-MARATHON Houseworth won in 1:03:12 over Jason Hartmann (2nd - 1:03:34), and Jason Lehmkuhle (3rd - 1:03:37), but says he probably won't run the trials. Australia's 2004 World XC Champ Benita Willis won the women's race in 1:10:40 over Amy Hastings (1:11:22).
*Marathon Recap: Peter Omae Wins In 2:28:13; Zsofia Erdelyi Win's Women's In 2:48:59
*Lots of OT qualifiers at CIM More American OT qualifiers at California International Marathon.

Administrative Stuff

NXN: CBA And FM Win It *Results

Two Recommended Reads From New Zealand

  • Jake And Zane Robertson Chasing A Dream In Deepest Africa If you aren't familiar with their story, the two twin brothers left home four years ago at 17 to live and train in Kenya. Apparently they are now living separately with African girlfriends, one in Kenya and one in Ethiopia.
  • For 16-Year-Old Jacko Gill, Olympics Are Just One Throw Away Jacko's dad, Walter: "When he goes into a build-up phase, he does three training sessions a day. Some of them are in the middle of the night. The house shakes and the dog runs outside. We might be asleep, and he'll be lifting weights or bounding up and down the stairs to our bedroom door. He's definitely different. How we ever produced that, I'll never know, but we're very proud of him."

USATF Convention

Upcoming: Defending Champs And World Champions Imane Merga And Vivian Cheruiyot To Lead Fields At New Year's Eve Run In Bolzano, Italy

Ethiopian News:
*Ethiopia’s New York Runner-Up Buzunesh Deba Will Run Boston Marathon She'll spend the winter in Albuquerque, New Mexico to get away from the Northeast snow.
*"Geb: Ethiopian Legend Who Ran His Way To Fortune"
*The Great Ethiopian Run Struggles To Clean Up The Post-Race Mess

Vivian Cheruiyot And Patrick Makau Receive Kenyan Awards

2 Weeks And NCAAs In Review

LRC NCAAs Go According To Form, Chris Derrick's College Career Comes To An End, Tim Tebow = Don't Overtrain, Track Returns To The Garden, And Alan Webb Has Sex Now that we've got your attention with the Alan Webb headline, get your weekly read on the running world. After the Thanksgiving break, we're back with a good week in review if we must say so ourselves. Plus a little comedy if you haven't seen the Border Clash XC false-start video.

Protesters In India Burn Seb Coe's Effigy They are upset that Dow chemical is sponsoring the Olympic stadium wrap as Dow now owns Union Carbide - a company which killed at least 3,700 Indians 27 years ago.

Doping News

More News From Europe

US News

The Uganda Witch Trials
Moses Kipsiro & Other Top Athletes Flee Home Training Area Because Of Witchcraft Where the 12:50 performer Kipsiro lives, the police get three reports a week of witches operating. Recently two women in their 80s were thrown off a cliff.

A Brief Chat With 4:07 1500-Meter Runner Katie Follett A recent engagement has resulted in a new coach for the first year pro.

Olympic Marathon Trials Are Next Month

Bad News: 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials Will Not Be Available Live Online Or On TV All is not lost, as there will be 2 hours of same day tape delay national TV coverage, but this really sucks. We can't think of any sporting event of substance these days that isn't available live somewhere.
Discuss: Olympic Marathon Trials Will Not Be Streamed Online Live

This Weekend: Benita Willis, Patrick Smyth, Jason Hartmann, Jason Lehmkuhl, Amy Hastings, Katie McGregor And Kathy Butler Running Zappos Rock N Roll Vegas Half
*Sunday's Cal International Marathon In Sacramento Is One Of Last Chances To Qualify For Trials

This Would Have Been Quote Of The Day Had It Not Been For Centro: Question For NCAA #4 And Canadian XC Champ Cam Levins - Q: What was your average mileage per week throughout the fall season? A: 155+ miles *MB: Cam Levins is my new favorite runner

Recommended Read Rich Castro, Founder Of Bolder Road Runners, Retires As Head Of Road Runners We loved this quote: "Before there was a running boom in Boulder, before Frank Shorter won his gold and silver Olympic medals and helped Steve Bosley start the Bolder Boulder 10K, before the Boulder Creek Path and all the area training groups, there was Rich Castro."

Getting Ready For The US Olympic Marathon Trials

Wow - A Realistic Athletics Head - Chinese Athletics Chief Will Be Happy If Liu Xiang Gets A Medal of Any Color "I think everybody will be satisfied whatever medal - gold, silver or bronze - he wins because he has spared no efforts in his sport."

US News

Post-NCAA XC News *Men's 2km Standings *5km Standings *8km Standings *Final Men's Results *Women's 4km Standings *Women's Final Results *Entire Race Video Replays *LRC Puma Prediction Contest Scores Here *DII Prediction Contest Scores (DIII Coming) *LRC Men's Photo Gallery *LRC Women's Photo Gallery

2011 NCAAs Are History *Men's Results *Women's Results *Entire Race Video Replays

Women: LRC Georgetown, Reid Win Tight Battles Six women kicked for home over the last 400m of the race but in the end it turned into the duel many expected and Sheila Reid of Villanova got the narrow win over Jordan Hasay. The big surprise was in the team's race, where the Georgetown women, who were only third at Big East, won by eight over Washington as #1 Florida State faltered and finished 4th. *Discuss

More: *Georgetown Gets Its First National CC Title GUHoyas.com
*Washington Comes Up 8 Points Short GoHuskies.com
*#1 FSU Finishes 4th & Coach Karen Harvey Pulls No Punches"I felt like I was watching a nightmare. I really thought there was no way this is happening." www.seminoles.com
*Wetmore Says 11th-Placed Colorado Women Purposely Peaked For PAC-12s, Not NCAAs www.denverpost.com
*The FSU women finished fourth and the men 12th at NCAA Cross Country Championships www.seminoles.com
 *Lananna Says Hasay's Runner-Up Finish Was A Big Step Forward As She Didn't Get Antsy & Kick Too Early www.oregonlive.com

A Former Leading Lady In The News

Soap Opera: 1991 World 10,000 Champ Liz McColgan Cleared Of Attacking Husband But the evidence reveals she had been having an affair, he had installed spyware on her computer to track her typings, and he had a secret SIM card to send her and her boyfriend text messages.

USATF Showing Some Leadership

Track And Field Will Be Back In The Garden The Millrose Games may have died moved to the Armory but USATF has stepped up and shown some leadership by announcing they will put on a new meet at Madison Square Garden next year, the US Open. Bernard Lagat says he's running it and most importantly ESPN will be televising it, showing the world our sport is not a complete joke and can be held on a grand stage. Three cheers for USATF (we're not sure if we've ever said those words in the same sentence). *MBoard Thread *USATF Article

He Will Be Missed Adam Goucher Retires Goucher is having knee surgery on Friday and says his competitive racing career is over. We've always said that one way to judge whether a runner's career was a good one or not is simple: Were They Good Enough That They Could Retire Or Just Quit? Goucher certainly is retiring, as he had an INCREDIBLE career - Foot Locker champ, NCAA champ indoors, NCAA champ outdoors and NCAA champ in XC, USA champ in XC and track and an Olympian. Goucher is a runner at heart and we wouldn't rule out seeing him in the 2016 Marathon Trials.
*MB: Adam Goucher retires

Frankfurt *Larger Image Of Kipsang At Finish

Frankfurt: Oh-So-Close: 2:03:42 - Wilson Kipsang's World Record Assault Comes Up Just Short IAAF The world of marathoning continues to be simply amazing on the men's side.
*AP Recap Levy Matebo was second (2:05:16) and Albert Matebor third (2:05:25) as the women's CR was broken by Mamitu Daska (2:21:59).
Pre-Race: Last Year's 2:04:57 Course Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Says World Record Can Fall At Sunday's BMW Frankfurt Marathon Kipsang may be getting a bit ahead of himself, but he's very good. More on Kipsang here.

Bank Of America Chicago Marathon *Results *Yahoo Photos

LRC Moses Mosop A Superstar, Liliya Shobukhova Becomes Second-Fastest Woman Ever Updated Moses Mosop dominated the final miles in Chicago after Wesley Korir tried to make it interesting. Russian Liliya Shobukhova ran 2:18:20 to become the second-fastest woman ever. American Ryan Hall ran 2:08:04 for 5th. Great for any other American marathoner, so-so for him.

LRC: Wesley Korir Impresses With 2:06:15 Second Place In Chicago The former Louisville Cardinal broke the race up with a surge at 30km. Afterwards, he revealed what he was trying to do.

Ryan Hall Says He Needs More Time At Sea Level To Work On Turnover RW

LRC Non-Quotes Of The Day From 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Hall talks about what 2:08 means, Canova talks about the world record.

LRC Quick Recap With Men's Splits: Moses Mosop Breaks Course Record At 2011 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon, Shobukhova Runs 2:18:20

Introducing The LRC PUMA 55 - The 12 Days Of PUMA

Day #3: LRC The LRC Puma Faas 55 #11-15: Winter Wonderland, South Dakota Represents, TxRUNNERGirl And A Dude Who Will Lose $200 If He Doesn't Break 16 Minutes For 5k Puma is out to prove its Faas line of shoes are worthy of the LetsRun.com runner and can withstand the toughest of environments. Today our FAAS 55 winners are from Alaska, South Dakota, and Idaho. Read all about them. You think you're worthy to put the PUMA Faas shoes to the test? Enter the LRC PUMA Faas Challenge here.
Day2: #6-10: A 27:31 10ker, A Marine Corps Marathon Champ, A Girl From Our Favorite High School, And A Guy Who Loves Asics
Day 1: LRC Introducing The LRC PUMA 55

NCAA Women's Photo Gallery

NCAA Men's Photo Gallery (500+ Photos)

Beautiful People (NCAA XC Banquet Photos)

Sprint News

Asafa Powell And Veronica Campbell-Brown Racing At US Open (Madison Square Garden Games Should Be The Name) Tickets go on sale today. In other news, the Meet Formerly Known as the Millrose Games announced its schedule (Brittney Reese and Jesse Williams jumping). This all would be much easier if the meet going to be held in the Armory let the meet being held in the Garden have its name back. Track and Field needs to be on the biggest stage possible. That means national TV in the Garden. We didn't realize that the meets are even on the same day. Update: The meets are on different days. The problem is "the Millrose" meet at the Armory does not seem to be in control of the Millrose website, so we looked at last year's date by accident.

Good Read: 60 Seconds With Maurice Greene (He Talks About Partying, Jon Drummond Peeing In His Lane Before A Race) We're still grateful for the time Maurice threw a party in LA in 2005 and it was open bar for a half an hour on his tab.

Usain Bolt Q&A And Video Interview With ESPN The Magazine

NCAA XC Is Here

LRC NCAA XC Prediction Contest Powered By Puma Our world-famous NCAA Prediction Contests are back. Tell us who will win in Terre Haute and you could win some cool Puma gear or $200,010 if you have a perfect ballot.

Cross-Country For The "Geekiest" And "Nerdiest" (Discuss Here)

LRC Catching Up With Olympian Michael Stember:
Olympian Stember On Dunking A Basketball, Nerds Running Cross-Country, And Trying To Break 18 Minutes For 5k We know it drives a few people nuts when we call one of our own interviews a MUST read, but we are quite proud of this one. Stember talks about everything - from wondering if he really should have been an 800-meter runner, to having figured out the inner-city school problem, to solving the energy crisis and much more. Along the way he admits he once ran a 4-minute mile after months of drinking and only 3 weeks of running, admits to Gallowalking during his current training and says he has secured a rabbit to pace him to a sub-18 5k so he can win his bet on CharityBets.

NYC Men's Photo Gallery

NYC Women's Photo Gallery

Training Corner (More In The Training Forum)

BMW Berlin Marathon Photos! Makau Takes Geb's World Record

Great Deals

A Scintillating Men's 10,000 Finish (US Visitors Only)

Train Smarter (More In The Training Forum)

Great Deals

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