Quote Of The Day


 
"I had no idea what I was doing."


- US sprint star Wallace Spearmon on his first Olympic Trials as a 19-year-old in 2004. In 2005, Spearmon was the silver medallist (behind cheat Justin Gatlin). 7 years later, Spearmon's still looking for that elusive Olympic medal, but healthier and faster? than ever. LRC profile in advance of his European track debut at 200m Friday in Ostrava.

Bolt In Ostrava Today

Ostrava Preview: Bolt In 100, Fabulous Women's 800 Highlight Ostrava Meet On Friday Usain Bolt is hoping to run 9.7. The women's 800 has Pamela Jelimo vs. World Champ Caster Semenya and Fantu Madiso. Plus, Sanya Richards-Ross/LaShawn Merritt in the 400s, Veronica Campbell-Brown/Wallace Spearmon in the 200s and Lolo Jones will open her season in the 100 hurdles.

LRC: Rededicated, Healthy Wallace Spearmon Ready For All-Comers In 2012 Wallace Spearmon has a ton of talent. He used to hate it when people reminded him of that. Now after a career-threatening injury last year, Spearmon accepts the talent, and has added even more hard work to the mix. Pick up basketball with Usain Bolt and NBA stars will have to wait until after the Olympics, as first Wallace is focused on the 200 in London.

Also This Weekend:
*Sunday: Hengelo 10,000m: Gebrselassie, Imane Merga, Sileshi Sihine And Gebre Gebremariam Running, Kenenisa Bekele Not Running This race is the Ethiopian Olympic Trials and apparently Bekele will be wild carded on the team.
*Olympic Champ Natalya Dobrynska, World Champ Tatyana Chernova And Jessica Ennis Square Off At Gotzis This Weekend
*Geoffrey Mutai, Wesley Korir And Tadese Tola Running Ottawa 10k On Sunday It's shameful that Mutai is not running the Kenyan Olympic Trials at Pre next week.

More Ostrava:

Week That Was

LRC WTW: Dibaba's 3:57.77 Dashes US Medal Hopes?, Rupp's Medal Chances Rise, Meet Nick Hartle, And 1,500m Tactics First off, we put Genzebe Dibaba's 3:57.77 blazing 1,500m in perspective. Then we turn to Galen Rupp's speed and what it means, talk about 1,500m tactics and introduce you to a new high school star.

The Guy In The Fall

LRC The Collegiate Career Of Jake Hojnacki, The Guy In The Epic Steeple Fail, Comes To An End If you're like the other 516,654 people who have seen this video, you know Jake Hojnacki as a guy who took a dive into the steeple pit and pretty much almost drowned. Turns out Employee 1.1 is one of Jake's coaches. Jake's collegiate career came to an end this past weekend in notable fashion. We bring to you his story as runners like Jake represent the heart and soul of LetsRun.com.

Recommended Read: Two Years Ago, Joey Stoltz Almost Died And Today He Is A Marathoner "Less than two years ago, I was at the hospital and the doctors told me I wouldn't run again so those last two miles [of the marathon] were so emotional."

Kenyan News

More US News

US News: Lolo Jones Talks About Being A Virgin, Shalane Thinks The Kenyans Underestimate Her *NCAA Regionals Start Lists

Olympic Trials Start 1 Month Away

1 Month And Counting:
Track & Field News Olympic Trials Men's Form Chart
They've got Khadevis Robinson, Leo Manzano not in the top 3. Which reminds us, when is Centro Jr. going to race? He could not make the team.

On The Boards: Pick Em (Oly Trials 2012)
*answer this: webb, andrews, centro, wheating, lopez, leo are together with 400 to go at oly trials 1500... Plus Robby Andrews indicated he could run it and so did Nick Symmonds as the 1,500 is after the 800.
*Men's US Olympic 1500m team 2012


Track & Field News Olympic Trials Women's Form Chart They've got Shannon Rowbury not making the team. 1 of the big 4 in the 1,500 will be left out.

Great Action Sunday In Manchester *Manchester Run Results

BUPA Great Manchester Run
Haile Gebrselassie Wins In 27:39, Thinking Olympic 10,000m
The great one turned back the clock in Manchester on Sunday with a comfortable win 27:39 over Tsefaye Kebede, Patrick Makau and Ayele Abshero. After the race, Geb turned his attention to making the Olympic team next weekend in Hengelo at the Ethiopian Olympic Trials, saying, "I am not surprised to run that fast. I wanted to run under 27 minutes."
*
BBC Interview With Geb After Race *Top Results *IAAF
On The Boards:
Great Manchester 10km - Gebrselassie DOMINATES!

Manchester City Games Street Meet: Wallace Spearmon, Sanya Richards-Ross, Jessica Ennis All Got Wins In Cool Conditions Ennis beat Olympic champ Dawn Harper in a PR but afterwards they found out there were only 9 hurdles instead of 10. She was understandably very annoyed. Spearmon looked great in his 14.87 150m win.
*Dwain Chambers Admits He Was Worried How The Crowd Would Greet Him He got 2nd to Spearmon.

2012 USATF Occidental HP *Results *LRC Photos

LRC Men's Recap: Mo Farah Wins Twice! Galen Rupp 3:34 & Robby Andrews 3:34! Donn Cabral Collegiate AR! Ritz 13:14! What a meet! The men's very entertaining from start to finish. The meet started off with an Evan Jager face plant and American collegiate record in the men's steeple and ended with a world champion rabbitting and then winning the men's 5,000. Along the way, Galen Rupp showed speed he's never shown before that made us think he might be a medal contender and Robby Andrews PRed by 5.99 seconds as both ran 3:34, David Torrence got the "A" and a whole lot more, including an Andrew Wheating loss to a guy you've probably never heard of. Oh yeah, so much happened we almost forgot Alan Webb ran 3:37.
*Dathan Ritzenhein Visibly Happy And Excited In Interview After 5k

LRC Women's Recap: Morgan Uceny Loses, Anna Pierce Almost Wins & Deena Kastor Does All The Work
The women's action at the 2012 USATF Occidental High Performance meet confirmed what we already knew - the US women's 1,500 team is going to be very hard to make (world #1 Morgan Uceny was beaten and world champion Jenny Simpson ran 2 seconds slower than she did last year), Deena Kastor is very tough and still motivated at age 39, and Bridget Franek, Lisa Uhl and Jackie Areson are all in good form even if Uhl and Areson did zero work and let Kastor do it all. Plus Shannon Rowbury wins.


Occidental On The Boards:

News From The UK

A Fantastic & Informative Read: Learn All About 9-Time Olympic Gold Medallist Paavo Nurmi A fascinating read. Nurmi was an absolute machine. Did you know that in 1924 that after winning the 1,500 and 5,000 he was mad he wasn't named to the 10,000 team so he ran a 10,000 on the practice track faster than the winner of the 10,000 at the same time of the race just to show he should have been selected to the event? He also divorced his wife because his son was born with feet too small for a runner.

Lots Of Additional Action

Thursday: Craig Miller And Heather (Dorniden) Kampf Take Titles At 2012 USA 1 Mile Road Championships *Results Kampf will always be a LRC heroine for winning one of the most amazing races we've ever seen.

Sunday: Meb Keflezighi Racing Bay To Breakers Up against former Boston Marathon winner Deriba Merga and CR holder Sammy Kitwara.
*Bay To Breakers To Feature Sobriety Checkpoints

*Kara Goucher Running Sunday's Rock N Roll Portland Half Marathon Ryan Bak and Sage Canaday headline men's field.

75 74 73 Days Until London - USOC Media Summit

LRC: Bernard Lagat Talks London 2012: "I'm More Hungry Now" The American 5,000m star talks about the Olympic Trials, admits Chris Solinsky almost cracked him last year, looks ahead to London, and gives his assessment of rivals Kenenisa Bekele and Mo Farah. Text and video.

LRC: Michelle Obama Gives Track Athletes Some Love The First Lady attended the US Olympic Media Summit to expand her "Let's Move" campaign. In the process, she gave LaShawn Merritt and Wallace Spearmon great TV time standing behind her, Lashinda Demus got a hug, and Bernard Lagat a handshake.
*Alan Abrahamson On Michelle Obama's Visit

LaShawn Merritt:
"When I was at home, looking at a bank account when I wasn't getting paid, it was, 'OK, what am I going to do if I won't be able to run in the Olympics?'"

Samsung Diamond League Doha *Results *LRC Recap *MB: Discussion *IAAF Recap

Doha: LRC LetsRun.com's Recap Of Doha 2012: The Samsung Diamond League Starts Off In Style If all the meets this year are as good as this one, we're going to have an incredible Olympics. Asbel Kiprop went sub-3:30 for the first time ever and lost to Silas Kiplagat, a race was perfectly designed for Vivian Cheruiyot to lose and she won, Kenenisa Bekele looked average, Paul Koech tore up the steeple, and Pamela Jelimo may have a new challenger. American stalwarts LaShawn Merritt and Allyson Felix impressed, and Americans Russell Brown and Molly Beckwith did what they wanted in the distances.

Pro Distance News

Korir Running Chicago
LRC Wesley Korir: From #T248 To #1 At Chicago
The first time Wesley ran Chicago (photo here), he paid his entry fee like everyone else and started with the masses. Now 4 years later he's returning as the Boston Marathon champ. Learn more about Wesley (he hopes to be a US citizen soon) and how the late Sammy Wanjiru inspired Wesley to be a champion.

Women's 2012 London Is History *Top Results *Live Splits *Video Highlights *Mary Keitany Photo Gallery From Kenya *Getty Images Photos From Kenya

LRC Mary Keitany Runs Fastest Final 10km In Marathon History To Repeat & Become The #3 Performer In History The Kenyans certainly came to play when it was time to battle it out for the title and London Olympic spots, as they went 1-2-3-4-5, but in the end, everyone was left talking to about Keitany, who used a 5:07 23rd mile and 4:59 24th mile to pull away from world champion Edna Kiplagat and mark herself as the Olympic favorite.

On The Boards: *Live Update Thread *
Kenyan Olympic team

NCAA Regionals Underway Results: *East *West  Live Streams: *East, West Schedules *East, West

Thursday's News

Lolo Jones Virginity Update

Next Week

2020 Olympics In Tokyo, Madrid, Or Istanbul ... 2024 In The US???

News From Over The Pond

A Result We Missed From The Weekend: Pasalia Chepkorir Kipkoech 30:57 10k On The Roads In Brazil

Upcoming Action

You Might Want To Read This High School Track News

Bizarre: Bill Bowerman's 41-Year-Old Daughter-In-Law Takes 17-Year-Old To Prom And Is Rightfully Fired As Volunteer Track Coach Her husband is 73-year-old Jon, son of legendary coach Bill. They are the two who found the original Nike Waffle Iron and gave it to Nike earlier this year and in return got a track built. *Deadspin Has More Message board thread here.

Shameful:
Pennsylvania Officials Claim To Kick Star Sprinter Out Of Meet For Being Disrespectful, But Reporter Overhears The Real Truth Officials said they kicked Eric Futch out of a meet; a reporter, however, overheard them conspiring in the press box. Thanks to Milesplit.com for sending us this. More here.

Random But Great Video: 91-Year-Old Woman Long Jumps, Throws The Disc And Shot

*Shanghai Diamond League #2: Saturday *Results *Yahoo Photos

LRC: Shanghai In The Books: Liu Xiang And Genzebe Dibaba Impress, Bekele's 5,000m, 17-Year-Olds Go 1-2 In Tthe 800, And More Liu Xiang's 12.97 in the rain was incredible, as was Genzebe Dibaba's 3:57.77 world leader in the 1,500. There wasn't a sub-4:00 all last year and now there was one in the first DL race of the year. In other action, two "17"-year-olds went 1-2 in the 800, VCB and Carmelita Jeter battled in the women's 200 in a driving rain, and of course Kenenisa Bekele's return to 5,000. Recap, analysis and results.
*Race Videos In Recap

LRC:
Women's 1,500 And Men's 5,000: Genzebe Dibaba Runs Brilliant 3:57.77! And Kenenisa Bekele 5th In 13:13.89 We break down the two most important distance races of the night. The full recap of the meet above has this story as well.
*5,000m Winner Hagos Gebhriwet Only Started Running 2 Years Ago

On The Boards: *Bekele's Done!
*Shanghai Live Thread

LRC Rojo Speaks: Is Kenenisa Bekele Done? Rojo says everyone who is predicting Kenenisa Bekele's demise is jumping the gun. He compares Bekele's run to Dathan Ritzenhein's the night before.

Ethiopian Marathon Team

LRC: Ethiopian Olympic Marathon Team Announced And Tsegaye Kebede Is Not Even An Alternate Kebede, Ethiopia's best marathoner the last four years, wasn't even named to the team as an alternate as Ethiopia went solely off of times people ran in races in 2012 and did not factor in courses or fields. 21-year-old sensation Ayele Abshero leads the men's team and 2:18 perfomer Tiki Gelana leads the women's.
*Discuss

Sammy Wanjiru RIP: Nov 10, 1986 To May 15, 2011

4 Really Great Recommended Reads *Also Look For A Great Wanjiru Article In Print Version Of The New Yorker

#1 - Journalism Still Exists: ESPN The Magazine's Shaun Assael Writes 5,122 Word Epic On Sammy Wanjiru's Life And Death From his start as a schoolboy to details as to why his mother claims he was murdered, Assael leaves no stone unturned. He also points out that many other successful Kenyans before Wanjiru have also struggled with fame, including Paul Kipkoech, Richard Chelimo and Benson Masya, who all died young. Sadly, Wanjiru was going to train in San Diego to get away from it all but couldn't because of a gun charge. *Interview Of Author On Right Column

#2 - 50 Stunning Olympic Moments No. 30: Zola Budd In 1984 Do most people remember Budd was just 17 when she set the WR in the 5,000 at 15:01 and when she collided with Mary Slaney? The article reveals that Budd's family disintegrated after she left South Africa to compete for GBR and it also reveals Mary Slaney to have been unbelievably rude to rip a 17-year-old. *Zola Budd - In Pictures

#3 - Wall St. Journal Profile Nails Abdi Abdirahman's Personality Perfectly!!! "Going for Gold - or Whatever The Secret to an Aging Olympian's Endurance: Don't Let Training Get in the Way of Fun" Is Abdi's love of life (ohers might say laziness) an asset?

#4 - What Really Happened At 1st Olympic Women's 800 In 1928? Despite what was reported, 5 of the 11 runners didn't drop out with another 5 collapsing at the finish. The only person collapsing at the finish that year was Paavo Nurmi, but women's mid-d and distance running would be banned for years nonetheless.

Swarthmore Last Chance Meet

Columbia's Kyle Merber Sets American Collegiate Record* Of 3:35.59 updated *Instagram Proof If You Don't Believe Talk about your dreams becoming reality. Merber pulled a Brian Hyde and beat a stellar field and lowered his PR nearly seven seconds!!! A guy who was recently 14th at Stanford in 3:42.49, got outkicked by Donn Cabral at Penn, and has never scored a point at NCAAs is the NCAA American record holder. Unbelievable. But Merber is legit as he was a former Millrose champ in HS who missed all of last year with an injury. He may have just missed the Olympic "A" of 3:35.50 but we bet he doesn't care as he likely started the race hoping to not embarrass himself. Merber was in 9th with a lap to go. Nick Willis paced for 1,300 before dropping out. Jordy Williams 2nd (3:36.74), Nate Brannen 3rd (3:36.77). Will Leer and Lee Emanuel were back in last and second to last. *MB Thread
*
Video Of Merber's Race

Kenyan News

One Year Later, The New Yorker Looks At Sammy Wanjiru's Death & Says He Looked Into Running For Qatar We imagine that piece of info was included to get people to read it, as he wasn't hurting for money. *New Yorker Article On Wanjiru (Subscription needed for whole article)

A Brief Chat With "Running With the Kenyans" Author Adharananand Finn
The subtitle is "Discovering the secrets of the fastest people on earth."

Ryan Hall

Meb, Abdi, Ryan Go To The Empire State Building
LRC: Ryan Hall Talks Olympic Marathon Atop The Empire State Building
Prior to Saturday's UAE Healthy Kidney 10,000m with a $25,000 first prize, the US men's Olympic Marathon team of Meb Keflezighi, Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman talked to the media on Thursday atop the Empire State Building. Employee #1 talked Olympic Marathoning with Ryan Hall. Read all about it.

Men's 2012 London Is History *Top Results *Live Splits *Video Highlights *Getty Images Photos From Kenya

LRC A New #1: Wilson Kipsang Destroys One Of Greatest Marathon Fields In History In his first marathon major, Kipsang certainly wasn't scared of the bright lights, as he did something unheard of in major marathoning in the year 2012. He took off before halfway and used a 14:09 fifth 5km to obliterate the lead pack, as a 1:02:12 halfway wasn't fast enough for him, and he went to earn the largest margin of victory in 30 years, while Martin Lel was second. We recap it and speculate as to who gets the Kenyan Olympic spots and tell you why a DNF in our minds is a positive for someone's Olympic hopes.

LRC Meet Wilson Kipsang: "If I had to compare him to an NFL quarterback, I'd compare him to Peyton Manning."

Alberto's Book On Sale Now, Buy It From Our Partner Amazon And Support LRC

Great Read If You Didn't Read It Yesterday: Alberto Salazar Unplugged - Part II This interview with Amby Burfoot is great. From Ritz's struggle in the marathon, to Ritz's form change, to Alberto's competitive relationship with Jerry Schumacher, to Galen Rupp's marathon future and, to Alberto's biggest regrets, Amby Burfoot leaves no question unasked and Alberto doesn't shy away from any of them and talks about Rupp running 12:45 and in the 26:20s.
*Part I: Alberto's Book & The "Duel In The Sun"
MB:
An Incredible Amby Burfoot Interview With Alberto Salazar

Non-London Marathon News

Meet Glenn Randall
LRC The Story Behind Glenn Randall (The Guy Who Led Boston) Who was that dude leading the first 10k of the Boston Marathon? Believe it or not, he's an NCAA champion (in another sport). LetsRun.com talks to the guy who made the first 10k of the marathon entertaining. His frontrunning was no stunt and has paid off big time in the past. This time it resulted in a 2:37:13 61st place finish.

Boston Marathon Monday *Men's Results/Splits *Women's Results Splits *Winners Photo Gallery *Video Highlights

Recommended: Excellent Post By Science Of Sport On Boston Conditions: The Surge Between 25 And 30k And The Sun Did The Leaders In We'll have more LRC analysis but this post does an excellent job of explaining what happened. Also read this post that explains why telling people to over-prepare for the heat may not be the best idea. And only 427 people deferred to next year's race.

The Wait Is Over

LRC LetsRun.com T-Shirt Design Contest The Empire State Building was built in a year, Hoover Dam took 5, so we figured 12 years is long enough for LetsRun.com T-Shirts. We pay homage to the 99%, and you let your LRC faithful come up with the design.

Usain Bolt Earns Some Of His $10-15 Million By Being Beaten By 2-Year-Old Girls

Show Me The Money

New Running Documentary On Chris Derrick, Kyle Merber, Erik Van Ingen And Riley Masters Now Out! (More Info Here, Trailer Below)

Oxy High Performance Photos *Men's Recap *Women's Recap *Results

Doha Photos Now Up

Shanghai Photos

Drug Corner

Big Story? Doping widespread in Kenya? Fresh allegations by German journalist

Unbelievable: Convicted Drug Cheat Dennis Mitchell Coaching Justin Gatlin This isn't new news and has been the case all spring, we just didn't realize it. 6 years ago, little LRC pointed out Mitchell, the guy who claimed he tested positive because he had five beers and sex four times with his wife (maybe Dennis can give his advice here), an excuse USATF accepted, was coaching a USATF international team. USATF then tried to claim a different Dennis Mitchell, the University of Akron coach, was the actual coach. Mitchell is free to coach whomever he wants. You'd think Gatlin might be concerned about public perception.

Week In Review

LRC WTW: Lawi Lalang, Charles Jock, Nick Symmonds, Russell Brown, Nervous Drug Cheats, Ryan Hall, Kenenisa Bekele And More This week we wonder if Lawi Lalang is cooked, teach Nick Symmonds and Robby Andrews and you about the merits of frontrunning in the 800m, talk about something inherent about track and field that makes it unpopular, analyze the fantastic Diamond League opener in Doha, and Ryan Hall speaks and we listen.

UAE Healthy Kidney 10k Photos

Eight Days Of Glory

LRC Eight Days Of Glory Surprise: Kenyan Olympic Marathon Team Analysis The marathon world has turned upside down in 2012, as the six best marathoners in the world in 2011, all from Kenya, have run their spring marathons and only one, Wilson Kipsang, came out on top. The Kenyan Olympic team of Kipsang, double World Champ Abel Kirui, and Moses Mosop is not the team that would have been selected at the end of 2011. Emory Mort, author of the 8 Days of Glory Series, tries to make sense of it and he looks at the Kenyan and American medal chances in London.

Another Steeple Fail (Getting Picked Up By USA Today Blogger)

We Never Posted These: Paula And Haile G In Vienna

Interesting Read

Bekoji, Ethiopia: Town Of Runners By now many of you have heard of Iten, Kenya - the tiny town where many Kenyan stars train. The Ethiopian town of Bekoji may be even more impressive, as it is where Kenenisa Bekele (3 Olympic golds), Tirunesh Dibaba (2 Olympic golds), Derartu Tulu (2 Olympic golds), and Fatuma Roba (1 Olympic gold) were all born. Lengthy Guardian profile on the town and its unheralded coach Sentayehu Eshetu. A movie on the town - "Town of Runners" - comes out later this month.
*Bekoji Photo Gallery

Virgin London Marathon Photos

More London

Employee #1 Goes To Kenya
LRC Meet Mary Keitany The half marathon world record holder destroyed the best women's field in the world last year in London. Then on the hilly New York course, she went out faster than Paula Radcliffe during her world record before falling apart miserably. Now she has to qualify for the Olympics in London. Get to know Mary Keitany.
*Keitany Photo Gallery *Getty Images Photos From Kenya

LRC Meet Wilson Kipsang: "If I had to compare him to an NFL quarterback, I'd compare him to Peyton Manning." link fixed We share with you this unpublished segment on Wilson Kipsang from Employee #1's final piece in the 8 Days of Glory Series. Short segment with video interview with Kipsang overlooking the Rift Valley.

LRC The Electrifying Abel Kirui The two-time World Champion has dominated non-rabbited races. Learn all about him.

Training Corner (More In The Training Forum)