Great Op-Ed in NY Times: Losing Is Good for Kids The author decries the fact that everyone gets a trophy, even multiple trophies nowadays.
Week That Was
LRC 5th Avenue Mile, Bumbalough Over Teg and Solinsky, Jenny Simpson, Kara Goucher, Geoffrey Mutai, More on Competitor Group We span the running globe and look at the 5th Avenue Mile presented by Nissan, Andrew Bumbalough beating Matt Tegenkamp and Chris Solinsky, ponder Kara Goucher's prospects, look at Geoffrey Mutai and weigh in some more on the Rock N Roll Marathons.
Upcoming Marathons
- This weekend: Since 1977, Berlin has seen 8 marathon world records - Will Sunday produce #9? The field is loaded as 2:03:42 man Wilson Kipsang headlines against former 5k world champ Eliud Kipchoge who debuted in 2:05:30 in April, Tokyo champ and 2:04:16 man Dennis Kimetto, and 2011 world jr xc champ and 2:06:12 man Geoffrey Kipsang.
- Oct. 20: Rob Watson running Toronto Marathon - his 4th marathon in 7 months - and expects to break 2:13:37 pb after finishing 20th in Moscow
- Oct. 27: Meselech Melkamu will defend title in Frankfurt Last year, the 2nd fastest 10,000 runner in history (29:53.80) had the 3rd fastest marathon debut ever in Frankfurt (2:21:01).
News From Europe
- If Mo Farah is named European athlete of year, he'll be 1st man to win it 3-straight year Who could possibly beat him?
- Poland thrower Pawel Fajdek is up for European athlete award
- Vote here for European athlets of the year
- Russia: If 2004 Olympic 800 champ Yuriy Borzakovskiy is named head of Russiance endurance centre, he'll retire immediately
- From Scotland: Chris O’Hare, Steph Twell and others pre-named to 2014 Commonwealth Games team for Scotland
- Haile G and Scottish runners Susan Partridge, Freya Ross and Steph Twell to race 13.1 at Great Scottish Run on Oct, 6
- 2011 IAAF World Discus gold medallist Li Yanfeng is back competing after May back surgery but is getting married and hoping to get pregnant soon
US News
- Desiree Davila Talks To RW Ahead Of Her Marathon Comeback On Sunday In Berlin; She Hasn't Finished A Marathon Since January 2012 On her goal for Berlin: “Some days I feel like I can run 2:26, some days I think if I break 2:30, I’ll be really happy. At this point, I’m not going to force anything. I don’t need to be a 2:22 person right now. It’s just not realistic. One step at a time.”
- Friday: #1 Ranked Providence Vs #3 Oregon And #9 Cornell At Boston XC Meet
- Updated DI National XC Rankings: No Changes To The Top 7 Men's Teams Or Top 10 Women's
Russian Race Walker Igor Erokhin (5th At London Olympics) Given Lifetime Ban For 2nd Doping Offense
US News
- Nick Symmonds To Run 1,500 at 2014 USAs, Then Switch To 800 Focus In Europe
- Ryan Hill Joins Jerry Schumacher's Training Group
- Good Read: Learn about the life story of Diane Nukuri-Johnson who enjoys being safe training in Iowa As a teen in Burundi, she was a on a bus when the passenger next to her was killed by gunfire. Now she's a 2-time Olympian training for 2013 NYC.
Bizarre But Interesting News
- Cheating exists in all sports: Snooker player banned for 12 years for match fixing How match fixing doens't result in a lifetime ban is beyond us.
- Did you know?
IOC President is a volunteer but IOC pays more than $700,000 for him live in Lausanne's Palace Hotel - Usain Bolt partying it up at Oktoberfest in Munich
*Hilarious video of Bolt dancing - Did you know Ryan Hall and Amy Yoder Begley are on gluten free diets? Should you be as well? More info: GFOlympian.com
- Married cancer patients live longer than single ones
- Woman running half-marathon, misses turn off and runs and wins whole marathon Her time? 3:12:01.
- Women wins overall race at Big Cottonwood Marathon in 2:46:30- but is more pumped about PR than win Danya Crawford's next goal is the 2:43 Trials standard.
- Doc says lack of sleep is likely to get you sick and hurt running
- Blessing Okagbare reveals the key to her 2013 success - not training for the long jump She's focused on the sprints and her jumping got better.
One Of The Biggest Doping Scandals In The Sport Was 25 Years Ago
- Drug Cheat Ben Johnson Returns To Seoul Olympic Stadium 25 Years After He Was DQ'd For Doping After Winning The 100 Final In 9.79 “25 years ago, I was here as an athlete who cheated, but today I stand here as an anti-doping campaigner and I’m proud to be able to say that.”
- Johnson: "There's people who murder and rape people, go to jail and get out. I just break the rules in sport and I've been nailed to the cross." He claims that 25 years later he's "still being punished".
- Johnson: "This is where history was made. Some might call it bad history, but I don't see it that way." He also continues to repeat that he thinks he would have won the Olympics even without drugs.
- Interesting: Photographer Who Had Special Access To Johnson During The 1988 Games (And Also Took Photos Of Bolt In 2012) Recalls His Experience Photographer Gary Hershorn recounts how he gained Johnson's trust by not snapping a picture of him when he dropped his shorts on the training track as a way of testing the photographer.
- Should American Calvin Smith Have Been The 100m Olympic Champ And WR Holder In 1988? He finished 4th place and was one of only 2 from the final who never had a connection with drugs.
- Sports Journalist From 1988 Recalls His Sleepless Night When He Found Out About Johnson's Positive Test At 3AM When He Was Drunk
- A List Of Some Major Sprinting Doping Scandals Since Ben Johnson The long list includes a lot of names from the BALCO scandal.
- Video press conference with Ben Johnson who returns to Seoul for anti-doping campaign
- AW Talks To Director Of 9.79* Documentary Who Interviewed All 8 Sprinters From The "Dirtiest Race In History" Includes trailer for the movie.
- Marketing Experts Says Johnson Scandal Stunted The Sport's Commercial Growth
Marathon News
- Interesting Read: Wilson Kipsang Going For The WR At Sunday's Berlin Marathon; Talks About Paying Athletes To Pace Workouts And How Some Elites Sabotaged The Pacing In London This Year On London, he said, "I'm sorry to say so but some elite runners interfere with pace making for their own selfish ends and to spoil for others. It happened in London this year when after agreeing on the pace; some athletes pushed the pacemakers so much. Between the 20km to 25km split, the pace was well below the world record and this is not what we had discussed and agreed. I'm bringing Edwin [to Berlin] because I trust him and he knows how I run. ... I'm not taking chances."
- Ryan Hall Blogs From Kenya About Meeting Sammy Wanjiru's Old Coach And Gives Some More Validity To The Stereotype About Kenyans Having Inaccurate Ages He asked a brother and sister he was having dinner with how old they were and the brother said 29 until he had a 5-minute argument with his sister and changed his answer to 32.
Usain Bolt Renews Puma Sponsorship Deal Through After The 2016 Rio Olympics
*Deal Estimated At $10 Million A Year He'll also reportedly still get $4 million a year after he retires to act as a "Puma ambassador"
XC News
- Adam Goucher's Colorado Prep 5K XC Record Broken Cerake Geberkidane ran 14:46.50 to set the unofficial record, breaking Goucher's 14:54.7 time from 1993.
- Updated D1 XC Regional Rankings Not many changes from last week as most teams didn't race.
- Arkansas' Stanley Kebenei And Duke's Juliet Bottorff Are USTFCCA DI Athletes Of The Week Kebenei won the Missouri Southern Stampede in 23:25.75 and Bottorff set a course record of 16:28 at the 5K Adidas XC Challenge.
2013 5th Avenue Mile Photo Gallery
Where Is The "Sport" Headed?
Good Read: "The Festivalization Of Sport": Toni Reavis Adds To WSJ Article On How The "Everyone's A Winner" Mentality Is Taking Over And The Latest Generation Of Runners Are Less Competitive "But with the advent of the first Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in San Diego in 1998, we began to see the Lebow-anticipated devolution toward the participation-based completion model. ... accordingly, we have seen the gap between elite and also-ran grow to a black-hole depth as the linking ground of effort has been allowed to go fallow."
Recommended Read: WSJ Article On How Today's Generation Of "Runners" Are Slower, Don't Run Hard And Are "Turning Some Races Into Parades" Article includes a quote from LRC's Rojo: "If you're going to get just as much praise for doing a four-hour marathon as a three-hour, why bother killing yourself training? It's hard to do well in a marathon if your idea of a long session is watching season four of 'The Wire.'"
Doping: 7 Tested Positive At Worlds In Moscow
- 7 Athletes Failed Drug Tests At Moscow World Champs: Guatemala's Jeremías Saloj Was 33rd In The Marathon; Ukraine's Roman Avramenko Was 5th In The Jav The other athletes were Massoud Azizi (Afghanistan, men's 100m), Elyzaveta Bryzgina (Ukraine, women's 200m), Ayman Kozhakhmetova (Kazakhstan, women's 20km walk), Ebrahim Rahimian
(Iran, men's 20km walk) and Yelena Ryabova (Turkmenistan, women's 200m).
*IAAF Says 1,919 Athlete Blood Samples Were Taken At Moscow World Champs
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