LetsRun.com

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.

Marathon(er)s In The News

• Desiree Davila Explains Her Decision To Run The Berlin Marathon Citing Among Other Reasons, The Course Is "Flat And Forgiving" Women's field includes Davila, 2011 winner Florence Kiplagat, 2:19 runner Irina Mikitenko, and 2012 Boston champ Sharon Cherop.
• 2011 Winner Florence Kiplagat Says She's In Good Form Ahead Of Sunday's Berlin Marathon She's hoping to better the 2:19:44 from last time.
• Los Angeles, Cincinnati And Houston Bidding To Host 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Which Will Be In March 2016 If LA wins they'll host the trials the day before their annual LA Marathon. USATF will announce their decision in December.
• LA Hoping Hosting 2016 Marathon Trials Could Serve As Showcase For 2024 Olympic Bid Deena Kastor has given the city her support.
• 5 Things You Should Know About Me: Top US Road Runner Mattie Suver Maybe you don't know Suver, but she has finished in the top 5 at the US 15k, 20k and Half-Marathon Championships this season. She'll be running the NYC Marathon.
• Some Quick Stats On The World's Fastest Marathons And Marathoners In History
• Ethiopia's Netsanet Achamo Going For The 2:22:43 CR At Next Month's Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon The former steepler's PR is 2:24:12.
• Italy's European XC Champs Andrea Lalli To Make His Marathon Debut In Venice On October 27th He has a 1:01:11 half pb.

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 PR 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 Years Who could possibly beat him?
• Poland Thrower Pawel Fajdek Is Up For European Athlete Award
• Vote Here For European Athletes Of The Year
• Russia: If 2004 Olympic 800 Champ Yuriy Borzakovskiy Is Named Head Of Russian 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

IAAF Profile On Two-Time Olympic Javelin Champion Barbora Spotakova, Who Returned To Competition Less Than 4 Months After Giving Birth

With The Olympic Stadium Under Construction Until At Least 2015, London DL Meet May Be Moved To Hampden Park In Glasgow, The Host Site For 2014 Commonwealth Games

XC News: A Lot Of Big NCAA Action This Weekend

• USTFCCCA Extensive Weekend Preview: Autumn — and the First Big Weekend of XC — is Here Roy Griak, Oklahma State Cowboy Jamoboree and Boston College Coast-To-Coast Battle In Beantown highlight weekend action with top ranked teams going head to head.
  *Minnesota Daily Griak Invy Preview
  *Coach Roy Griak Celebrates 50 Years at the University of Minnesota
  *MB: Big XC Meet in Boston this Fri: Wisco, Oregon, Syracuse, and more *University of Oregon: running in Boston this Friday? Why?
• Crazy: Charging Moose Shot At Middle-School XC Race In Anchorage, Alaska It was shot and killed by a police officer when it charged at a pack of girl runners on the course. The officer was there watching his daughter race.
• Strength Equals Speed: Minnesota 800 Runners Using XC To Get Ready For Track They do the XC workouts, but tailored for mid-d training.
• DyeStat's Doug Binder Shares Some Insight On The Debate Among Minnesota High Schools About Moving The Girls Up To The Same 5k Race Distance As Boys Currently Minnesota is among the minority of states where HS girls race shorter distance in XC; here they do 4k.
  

Stuff From Track Season

• Yohan Blake Is Back In Training From His Injury
• Iceland's 17-Year Old World Youth 800m Champion Anita Hinriksdottir Favorite For European Athletics' Female Rising Star of the Year Award
• Cool: "Compact" Track Facility Built In London To Allow Track And Field In Places With Limited Space It includes a sprint straight, a long jump straight and pit, a high jump area, a throws area and a running trail around the school and is meant to allow school children and the local community more opportunities to do track.
• Could 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games Have Both Usain Bolt And Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce?

After Winning US Road 5k Champs Molly Huddle Says She Wants To Step Up And Do The .US Road Racing Champs 12K In November

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 doesn'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 To 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 Full 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 DQed 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 in 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.