December 31, 2013 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For December 31, 2013

Quote Of The Day

“My coach and I call it ‘the almost year.’ I almost get on the World Championship team, which was my No. 1 goal. … I can’t be disappointed with 13:11, but with how every workout was going and where we felt we could have been, it is a disappointment. So it’s the almost season.”

– American Ben True talking about his 2013 campaign, which did include a World XC team silver in the Miracle on the Mud.

Week In Review

WTWDistance Runners Can't Dance, Run Over The Summer, Don't Set Goals, The Joys Of Being Called A Steroid-Using Hermaphrodite And Words Of Wisdom From Janet Bawcom

In the final week of 2013, Janet Bawcom reflects on Christmas and how far she's come, Phoebe Wright gets cult status on LetsRun.com after giving out some dating advice, Haile G can't dance, free goal setting advice, free healthy living advice, and a flash mob from India.

News From The Commonwealth

Its A Boy! Canadian Olympian Hilary Stellingwerff Expecting First Baby In June The former Badger Stellingwerff, who ran a 4:05 1,500 PR this summer, is still running six days a week right now.
Australia’s Steeple National Champ, James Nipperess, Blogs ABout Life At Lornah Kiplagat’s High Altitude Training Center Some good insight in this piece.
Dave Bedford Named Officer Of The Most Excellent Order (OBE) By Queen Athletics Weekly‘s long-time photographer Mark Shearman was named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
New Zealand’s Dick Tayler, 1974 Commonwealth Games 10,000 Champ, Named Member Of The New Zealand Order Of Merit Tayler was a 27:46 guy back in the 1970s.
Jessica Ennis-Hill Thinks Rising Star Katarina Johnson-Thompson Will Eventually Get Her British Record

News From Japan

Brett Larner’s Ranking Of The Top 10 Japanese Men Of 2013 The ranking system is numerical in nature and seems flawed as somehow Yuki Kawauchi is just #9.
MB: Really? Brett Larner ranks Yuki Kawauchi #9 for Japanese men – ranks Alberto’s 13:20 guy #1?
1964 Olympic Cauldron Will Be Used In 2020 Tokyo Stadium They’ll also save “a plate bearing the names of gold medalists” from the 1964 Games.

Doping News

2013 Daegu And Istanbul Marathon Winner Abraham Kiprotich Of France (Via Kenya) Tests Positive For EPO (Translated From French)
*MB Thread: Twitter rumour about Marathon EPO positive
Simon Hart: 2013 The Year Of Doping For Track And Field? The women’s Olympic 1,500 champ was involved in a drug scandal as were Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson and VCB.
Jamaican Editorial: Despite Successes Of Usain Bolt And SAFP In 2013, Let’s Remember The Harsh Lessons Of 2013 Harsh indeed as Asafa Powell, VCB and Sherone Simpson all tested positive.

Pole Vault / Jumps / Walking News

MB: British men’s walking takes huge hit – first male Olympian/World Champ walker since 1996 defects to Ireland
After Injuries Cost Her Much Of Outdoor Season, Holly Bleasdale Thinks She’s Back Better Than Ever “I’m hungrier for training. I feel like the break did me good psychologically … I feel like I’m in a much better place now.”
IAAF 2013 End-Of-Year Reviews – Jumps

Distance News

Phoebe Wright Blogs About Why Professional Distance Runners Are Fun To Date – They Are Excellent Binge Drinkers And TV Watchers And Are Good At Spending No Money (‘Cause They Don’t Have Any) A funny read to say the least.
Free Coaching Advice To All US Marathoners: Bill Rodgers Broke 2:10 And Won Boston For 1st Time – One Month After Running At World Cross
What Happens To Items Left At Pre’s Rock? They get thrown away.
Boston Marathon Director And Big-Time Runner Dave McGillivray Has Big-Time Heart Disease Just because you run a lot and don’t gain weight doesn’t mean you don’t have heart disease.
Emmanuel Mutai Is Running Half Marathon In India This Weekend – Says Berlin Is Faster Than Chicago As Weather Is Constant All Day Long
After Hosting Worlds, Moscow Hopes To Host IAAF Diamond League Meet At Luzhniki Stadium They also are hoping to get 2016 World Juniors.

Field Event/Sprint News

Distance News

Good Read:Janet Cherobon-Bawcom Blogs About Spending Her Christmas In Kenya, About How She Never Thought She’d Be A Runner When She Was Younger And About Not Setting Goals She includes this picture of her when she was in high school before she became a runner.
RunnersTribe Q&A With Mid-D Runner Zoe Buckman On Her 2013 She was 7th in the 1,500 at Worlds.
MileSplit Weekend HS Coverage: Some Decent Indoor Meets In NY

Athletes Of The Year

In Tightest Voting Ever, HJer Bohdan Bondarenko Wins Track & Field News Athlete Of Year Award The 23-year-old HJer, who went 7-10¾ this year, edged Usain Bolt by a single point as Mo Farah was third and Mo Aman fourth.

LaShawn Merritt & Brianna Rollins Are TFN’s US Athletes Of The YearJenny Simpson (#5)and Brenda Martinez (#7) and Nick Symmonds (#5) and Galen Rupp (#10) were the only mid-d/distance women/men in the top 10.

More End-Of-Year News

Bernard Lagat And Shalane Flanagan Are Running Times US Runners Of YearNot sure how Lagat is ranked ahead of Galen Rupp when Rupp ran 3:50/7:30 indoors and was 4th in 10,000 at Worlds versus Lagat’s sixth. Ben True was third. Canadian winners were Cam Levins and Andrea Seccafien, which again shows the flaw in the rankings, as how a 16:05 5,000 runner is ranked ahead of a national record holder in the marathon is bizarre. For international runners, Mo Farah and Meseret Defar were the winners.
2013 IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews Of Road Running The IAAF spends a lot of time looking at Kipsang’s world record, and has some good 13.1 stats showing how the 13.1 is dominated by half marathon specialists, not marathoners or 10,000 men. On the year, 13 men broke 2:06:00.
Usain Bolt Named AIPS Athlete Of The Year Again AIPS is the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). Tennis star Serena Williams won the women’s award as Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayevaand Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were second and third.
Ben True Reflects On His “Almost Season” – 4th In 5k And 10k At USAs We don’t think of it as an “almost” year as he does have a silver from World XC.
Toni Reavis 2013 Year In Review
Athletics Weekly’s Month-By-Month Review Of 2013
Q&A With Moscow LJ Bronze Medallist Ivana Spanovic – The First Serbian Medallist In WC History

Sunday Action

MB: Bernard Kipyego has won 2013 Cochin Half Marathon in 62:56 over Emmanuel Mutai in 62:56 The winner of the women’s race was Helah Kiprop.
19-Year-Old Cornelius Kangogo Upsets Micah Kogo In France With 27:57 Win Kangogo ran 13:15 earlier this year and turns 20 on the 31st (meaning his B-Day was likely made up). Kogo ran 28:06. Ethiopia’s Afera Godfay won the women’s race (32:06) over Worknesh Degafa (32:12).
UK: Jonny Mellor Wins Ribble Valley 10k In UK In 29:12 The Brit ran 28:42 in Stanford this year.
*Triathlete Georgia Taylor-Brown Wins Women’s In 10k Debut In 33:34
Australia: Australia’s 18-Year-Old Jake Birtwhistle Beats Kenyans To Win Mile At The Silverdome In Tasmania
The Year 2013 In Photos According To Australia’s Athletics Illustrated

Sprint/Jump News

UK Sprints Coach Says Adam Gemili Still Has A Long Way To Go Despite Finishing 5th In MoscowLloyd Cowan: “At the Commonwealth Games I think it will be different because the Jamaicans can put out a B-string team and they’d still be good enough to get a winning time.”
Jamaica Gleaner: An Athlete Ranked 15th In The World Now Makes Less Than Half (Just 15-20k) Of What He Or She Did A Few Years Ago
IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews Of Hurdles Action

Another Slow Weekend

Track & Field News Female Athlete Of The Year Is Valerie Adams(link fixed)Abebe Aregawi (5th), Meseret Defar (7th) and Tirunesh Dibaba (10th) were the only distance runners in the top 10.
Led by unbeaten Adams and shot putters, it was a great year for NZealand in track & field Adams has won 42 in a row and many of NZealand’s other top WC performers are young so “the future of New Zealand track and field looks bright.”
“What Determines A Runner’s Natural Running Pace?” Matt Fitzgerald Has The Answers Short answer – your brain.
Before Boston Bombing, College Dropout Was Living At Home With His Mom Working At Costco. Now He’s Traveling The Globe, Got $3 Million And A Book Deal But Is Legless
Japan Running News: The Top Ten Japanese Women Of 2013 It was a pretty good year for Japanese women as one got third in London, one got third in Moscow and the third fastest 10,000 also was run.
Prime Minister Medvedev Is “Not Sure That Everything Will Be Ideal And Smooth” For 2014 Winter Games*More From Medvedev
Micah Kogo To End Successful 2013 With 10kmRace In Paris On Sunday Kogo has had a nice year in 2013 – his first in the marathon – as he was 2nd in Boston and 4th in Chicago. He’s seeking his fourth victory in Corrida Pedestre Internationale de Houilles outside Paris.
*AFP: Except For 2 Marathons, Kogo Is Undefeated On Year With Wins At Falmouth And Beach To Beacon
Where Weather’s Always Fine For A Run – The NYTimes.com Guide To Working Out On An Indoor Track

Yearly Review

Memorable Moments 2013: A Look Back At Mo Farah’s Double-Double At Moscow Worlds Some inside info that we hadn’t read before. Historically, Mo has gone into the call room at the last minute – this year, he went there early.
Memorable Moments Of 2013: A Look Back At Christine Ohuruogu Winning Worlds Gold With Late Dip

Doping

Coach Of UK 400 World Champ Christine Ohuruogu Feels Her Best Years Are Bet To Come Even Though She’s Almost 30 He says “she is a 29-year-old in a 26-year-old’s body” and they are planning on her being at the peak of her career in Beijing 2015 and Rio 2016.

Nothing’s Going On – Get Off The Computer And Spend Time With Your Family

Mike Lupica’s Sporting Heroes For 2013 Are Men Like Tommy Meagher – Those Who Ran Into Chaos At The Boston Marathon
European 800 Champ Lynsey Sharp Is Training On Christmas – Are You? “I like to train on Christmas morning as then I’m hungrier for my Christmas dinner!”
A Video Merry XMAS/Happy Holidays To Everyone From USATF’s Star Athletes Zero distance runners make the cut.
Video: BBC Sport’s Coolest Sporting Moments Of 2013 Include Ohuruogu And Isinbayeva
Boring: Olympic HJ Bronze Medallist Robbie Grabarz Wants Curtains For His New House For Xmas
2013 Wasn’t All Bad For Athletics In South Africa Thanks To Johan Cronje And Lusapho April Yes, Athletics South Africa was a mess and Oscar P killed someone but Johan Cronje got a bronze and Lusapho April was third in NY.
2013 IAAF End-Of-Year Reviews – Relays

The Most Innovative Product Wejo Saw While at The Running Event 2013

LRC Bia Multi Sport GPS: The Only GPS With A Cellular Modem, SOS Alert And Live Tracking

LRC's Wejo travelled to the annual running specialty conference, The Running Event, in Austin earlier this month and he left being most impressed with a product that officially wasn't part of the conference. It's called Bia and it's the only GPS watch with a cellular modem, SOS Alert, and live tracking. If a loved one wants to know where you are when you're running and you don't want to carry a phone, this is the product for you. Read all about it.

Not Your Normal Races

40 Finish Half Marathon On Indoor Track In Massachusetts For the record, it was 207 meters long. 102 laps, 13.1 miles. If you missed the race, they are doing a full marathon next month.
Runners At San Fran’s Resolution Dash 5k Made New Year’s Resolutions Before Start Of Race

Or Normal News

Olympic Writer Alan Abrahamson Slams Dennis Rodman For Going To N. Korea Next Month “Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is not engaging in ‘sports diplomacy’ by going to North Korea and hanging out, or not, with the dictator Kim Jong Un. All he’s doing is creating publicity for Dennis Rodman.” Kim Jong Un is a bad, bad man. “On his birthday last year, Kim reportedly handed out copies of’ Mein Kampf‘ as gifts.”

Looking Ahead To 2014

Spikesmag’s 11 Things To Get You Pumped For 2014 They mention Mo Farah‘s marathon debut (they forget Kenenisa Bekele‘s) and the comebacks of Jessica Ennis-Hill, David Rudisha,Sanya Richards-Ross and Yohan Blake.
Scott Douglas’s 5 Wishes For The Marathon In 2014 He’s hoping Mo Farah races Kenny B in London. We don’t see that one happening.
Competitor: What Running Retailers Say About Shoe Trends For 2014 – Minimalism Is Fading; Maximalism Is In For every action, there is a reaction. Minimalism is fading and high cushioning category (aka “maximalism”) is in.
MB: Shoe nerds help me out – what the hell is Hoka and is it worth $170?

Blog It Up

Foot Locker Champ Tessa Barrett Blogs About Her Amazing Foot Locker Win The trip to San Diego started with the first plane trip of her life and ended with her first national title. As for mileage, she reveals it’s 40-45 mpw on six days and also reveals her favorite workout.
Dave McGillivray Gives The Inside Story On His Battle Against Heart Disease: Staying Alive (Healthy Vs. Fit) “For the better part of my entire life, I thought I was as close to invincible as was humanly possible. With all the running I have done, I thought no physical challenge was insurmountable,” says Dave McGillivray. “The biggest lesson I have learned from all of this is that being fit does not necessarily mean being healthy … I totally changed my diet (no meat, no fat, no soda, no beer, no anything that is bad for you) and have lost 21 lbs in these short two months””
*Previous: Boston Herald: Boston Marathon Director And Big-Time Runner Dave McGillivray Has Big-Time Heart Disease