January 16, 2014 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For January 16, 2014

Quote Of The Day

“Wietecha, ninth at the 2013 Houston Marathon, orders the Rueben and a disposable plate overflowing with French fries. Next door is the best donut shop in town, he says …

The 32-year-old elementary school gym teacher visits this tiny strip mall often. He has a body built from trans-fats, corn syrup, and white flour, and whittled by 130-mile weeks. ‘I used to tell my wife on Mondays that this is it, I’m going to clean up my diet,’ Wietecha says. ‘It’s been a hundred Mondays and I’m not much better.’

But in 2013, despite his fast food binges, full-time job, high mileage, and the birth of his second child, never has he placed as high or run as fast. And despite what he’s accomplished, going into the Houston Marathon on Jan. 19, never has Scott Wietecha been hungrier.”

– Excerpt from a piece by Jon Gugala on Scott Wietecha, a 32-year-old teacher and father of two who is dreaming of 2:13 in Houston this weekend. After a disappointing end to his collegiate career, Wietecha, who used to be be maniacal about his diet and recording his workouts to the hundredth of a second, quit running altogether. Now he’s back and maniacal in his races.

BU Record Attempts – Rupp (and Levins Deliver) – Cain and Moser Come Up Short

LRC 5 Thoughts After Galen Rupp’s American 5000 Record and Mary Cain’s World Indoor 1000 Junior RecordTeam USA Fans, we’ve got great news. Alberto Salazar said Rupp’s #1 goal for indoors isn’t these records but taking on the World in Poland.

LRCGalen Rupp Breaks American Indoor 5000 Record – Runs 13:01.26 in Boston Lopez Lomong‘s American record didn’t even last 365 days. Rupp took the lead with 1600 to go and shattered Lomong’s mark as his old college rival Sam Chelanga ran 13:04.35 and Cam Levins got the Canadian record of 13:19.16. Mary Cain and Treniere Moser were nowhere near Jen Toomey‘s American record but Cain did get a new world junior mark.

Messageboard Talk:2014 N.O.P. Women’s 1k – Men’s 5k AR Attempt Live Coverage Thread
*Galen MF Rupp 13:01.26!!!!!!!!
*My wife is going to have a baby within 2 hours, should we name it Galen?

Pre-Race: LRCThree Thoughts About The Nike Oregon Project’s American Record Assaults In Boston In 2014 Will Jen Toomey‘s 2:34 women’s 1k AR go down? No chance. What about Lopez Lomong‘s 13:07 men’s 5k? Discount Rupp at your own peril. Plus did you know that Galen Rupp‘sattempt at the mile record on Feb. 8th won’t happen live on national TV at Reggie but instead will happen the same day at a college meet? What about the Sport?
*BU Press Release: Galen Rupp And His NOP Teammates Will Be Going For 6 American Records At BU Over Next 4 Weeks

Toni Reavis Slams Track And Filed’s Focus On Times “Trying to market the sport via time is self-defeating.”

Sprint News

Asafa Powell Says He Only Listed 3 Of 9 Supplements He Was Taking On His Doping Control Form Because He Couldn’t Remember The Rest Of Them Yet he says he and his agent spent hours researching them on the internet to make sure they were legal.
*BBC Article
Powell Contradicts Testimony Given By MVP Coach Stephen Francis That There Was A Club Rule About Disclosing Supplements Despite testimony by Francis saying otherwise, Powell says Francis was happy to see him working with Canadian trainer Chris Xuereb. Both Powell and Sherone Simpson have left the MVP club.
Nesta Carter Talks To The IAAF About Wanting To Improve On His 60m Silver From The 2012 World Indoor Champs He talks about the difficulties of racing indoors when there are no indoor tracks to practice on in Jamaica.
Usain Bolt And Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Announced For This Summer’s Ostrava Golden Spike Meet Fraser-Pryce will race the 200 and Bolt is undecided on what he will run in his 7th appearance at the meet.
“White Lightning” Christophe Lemaitre Has Ambitious Goals For 2014 For 2014, he says, “I want to become the undisputed number one sprinter in Europe again.”

Obituary For Former UK Steeplechase Record Holder And 1972 Olympian Andy Holden Holden ran 8:26 for the steeple in 1972.

February 2nd Japanese Road Action

Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon Announces Elite Field For Race The field is led by Martin Mathathi, 60:10 man Amanuel Mesel (Eritrea), Aussi Collis Birmingham and Japanese Olympian Arata Fujiwara.
Elite Field For Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Announced: Fastest Japanese Man In 2013 Kazuhiro Maeda (2:08:00) Leads

Police Searching For Missing New Jersey MarathonerDavid Bird went for a walk Saturday afternoon and hasn’t been seen since.

Drink Up

Study: Zero Connection Between 4 Cups Of Coffee A Day And Dehydration “Coffee, when consumed in moderation by caffeine-habituated males, contributes to daily fluid requirement and does not pose a detrimental effect to fluid balance.”

Sex Up

10 Track And Field Athletes Who Excelled After Childbirth Inspiration for Christin Wurth-Thomas, Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce and Jessica Ennis.

Let's Throw

New Zealand Is Getting Ready To Enjoy Decade-Plus-Long Rivalry Between Shot Phenoms Tom Walsh And Jacko Gill Up until now, the 19-year-old Gil has gotten all of the publicity, but the 21-year-old Walsh is the national record holder despite the fact he works 3 days a week as a builder.

Doping News From Jamaica

Asafa Powell Will Attempt To Save His Career When He Shows Up At Anti-Doping Inquiry On Tuesday And Wednesday And to think this all could have been avoided if Powell had just eaten breakfast: “After a few days he observed [I wasn’t eating in the mornings] and told me that I should be taking better care of myself. It was then that he recommended the supplements.”
Veronica Campbell-Brown’s Legal Team Is Upset IAAF Hasn’t Ruled On Whether She’ll Get Off With Just A Warning Or Not
Jamaican Columnist Decries Fact That Jamaica Is Only Country In World That Has Public Drug Hearings We agree with this: “Having public hearing is unfair to the athletes in many ways.”

More Distance Results: Yuki Kawauchi Loses To A Fellow Amateur

IAAF Weekend XC Round-Up: World XC Silver Medalist Hiwot Ayalew Wins Elgoibar XC RaceLinet Masai and World 5,000 silver medallist Mercy Cherono were third and fourth. Ugandan Timothy Toroitich won the men’s race over Kenyan studs Conseslus Kipruto and Emmanuel Bett.
Unknown Runner Hideyuki Ikegami PRs By More Than Two-And-A-Half Minutes To Beat Yuki Kawauchi And Get CR At Tanigawa Mari Half Marathon Ikegami ran 1:03:09 to Kawauchi’s 1:04:17. Kawauchi’s two brothers also ran, one finishing 13th (1:09:18) and the other 26th (1:11:53).
World Champs Marathon 4th Placer Ryoko Kizaki Leads Kyoto Team To National Women’s Ekiden Win
Jorge Maravilla Sets CR To Win US 100K Trail Championships In Texas Maravilla ran 8:02:27 (7:45 pace) to win. 52-year-old Meghan Arbogast took both the women’s open and women’s masters titles in 10:12:57 (9:51 pace).

More Pro News: Farah Running From Taxman

Mo Farah Claims U.S. Residency To Avoid UK Taxes The headline says it could save him millions in taxes.
Video Of Fernando Cabada Doing A 10-Mile Tempo In Preparation For This Weekend’s US Half Marathon Championships In Houston Cabada says he’s in great shape and has had the best training/racing of his life and is shooting for the win (or at least top 5) in Houston.
Former Olympic Champ Pamela Jelimo Is Fit And Healthy As She Prepares To Defend Her World Indoor 800 Title In March
UK Writer Criticizes Media For Analyzing Jessica Ennis’ Pregnancy From An Athletic Perspective What does she want from them? Her pregnancy wouldn’t be newsworthy if she wasn’t an athlete, so of course people are going to ask questions with athletics in mind.

USA Half Marathon Champs Are This Weekend In Houston – Houston Marathon And Half

RR: The Hunger Of Scott Wietecha: 32-Year-Old Teacher, Father Of Two Is Dreaming Of 2:13 In Houston This Weekend This is an EXCELLENT and inspiring read by Jon Gugala.
Q&A With Aussie Stephen Dinneen, Who Is Making Marathon Debut Sunday In Houston Hoping To Run 2:14-6 He’s got a 29:08 10,000 PR.

2 Recommended Reads

Tom Schepers, Vietnam Vet Who Ran Across The United States To Raise Support For The National World War II Memorial, Dies At Age 67 Schepers ran across the country in 2000 at age 54 “carrying the American and POW/MIA flags on a 10-foot pole with a 10-pound weight strapped to his waist, the weight a symbol of veterans’ emotional weight.” *RWorld On Schepers
Twin Power: Identical Twin Gives Up Spot On Olympic Team So Other Twin Can Go Alan Abrahamson tells you abut this great Winter Olympics story.

Other Upcoming Action

One Month From Wednesday – Feb 15th: Olympic Gold Medalist Ashton Eaton, Brianne Theisen-Eaton Are Millrose Games Bound
Feb 15th: 2014 USA Cross-Country Championships To Be Broadcast Live On USATF.tv For Free
Feb. 8th: Interview With Keith McDermott: Director Of Reggie Lewis Center – The Home Of NB Indoor GP – The Reggie: It’s Far More Than Just A Track From Haile G to Obama, The Reggie has hosted lots of royalty over the years.
More Boston News:Celtics Assistant Coach Jamie Young To Run This Year’s Boston Marathon In Middle Of Season It will be his first.

Latest Asafa Powell Doping News – Case On Break For A While

Asafa Powell Says Coach Francis Seemed Happy With Xuereb – The Opposite Of What Francis Said In July Francis: “I told him I did not want this person around my training sessions. I told him I don’t trust people from Canada because they are usually quacks. The person who he says recommended this guy is not good. I told him we would find someone else. The Canadians have a bad reputation.”
Athletics: Powell’s Therapist Wasn’t Certified Agent Paul Doyle admits not that Xuereb wasn’t a certified therapist but that didn’t know one way or the other when he hired him to work full-time in 2013.
Asafa Got Double Dose Of D1 Tablets On Day Of 100m Final At Jamaican Champs Powell, agent Paul Doyle, and others are coming across as amateur hour in these hearings.More Sprint News
“White Lightning” Christophe Lemaitre Has Ambitious Goals For 2014 And Is Focused On European Outdoor Champs – Will Not Run World Indoors “I want to become the undisputed number one sprinter in Europe again, and I dream of another 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m treble this summer like I did in Barcelona (2010).”
WC 200 Silver Medallist Warren Weir Plans To Test His Speed Over 100m In Non-Championship 2014 He has a 10.02 PR.
Beijing Olympic 100 Finalist Jeanette Kwakye (GBR) Hangs Up Her Spikes The 30-year-old, who has been hampered by an Achilles problem in recent years, said one of the highlights of her career was being the U-15 schoolgirls champ in the UK.

Weekly Recap

WTWMary Cain Loses, Excitement For Desi And Ritz In Boston (And Bekele In Paris), Garrett Heath's Scalps And The Underpaid UK Athletics CEO?

This week, we don't panic about Mary Cain's loss in her pro debut, we get excited for Ritz and Desi to run Boston, praise Garrett Heath for taking the ultimate two scalps, and we note an ignominious anniversary for Ryan Hall. Plus talk of Geoffrey Kipsang, John Trautmann, Mark Coogan, Kenenisa Bekele, Chris Derrick and more.

US Pro News

Another Funny Blog Post From Phoebe Wright On Why Injury Sucks And Some Tips For Those Who “Swim Like House Cats”
Runners World Looks At The Fight For A Spot On The Olympic Bobsled Team Between Sprinters Lolo Jones And Lauryn Williams The team decision will be announced on January 19th.
Original Nike Prototype Shoe Sold For $1,500 The shoe was dug up a few years ago in Bill Bowerman‘s backyard and recently sold to an Oregon shoe collector.
Canadian Marathon Record Holder Lanni Marchant Rooming And Training In Kenya With Desi Davila

Distance News

MB: 2013 NCAA 10,000 Runner-Up Paul Katam Of Kenya Drops Out Of UNGC And Joins US Army He’ll still be trying to get his undergrad and masters degrees but won’t be running collegiately any more.
*LRCArchive:Katam Gets Surprising Second In 10,000 At NCAAs
Svetlana Karamasheva (Podosyonova) Runs World-Leading 2:39 For 1k In Russia The 2013 IAAF World Championships 1,500m semifinalist, who has an outdoor best of 3:59.61, ram 5:55 for 2,000 earlier this month. The meet also included a world-leading 6.98 in the long jump by Svetlana Biryukova (Denyaeva).
Former NCAA Steeple Champ For Butler, Victoria Mitchell, Offers Permanent Tattoo On Ankle To Sponsors For $10,000 She wants to go to a 2nd Olympics but needs $30,000 over three years. Should we go for LRC or the whole logo if we pony up?
World Steeple Champ Milcah Chemos Won’t Go For Commonwealths Title – Will Do African Champs Instead Why she would want to do the African champs versus be on TV throughout the Commonwealth is a mystery to us, but then again we know little about how the $$$ work.
Jenny Simpson Believes HSers And Random Fans Like Accountants Should Race Pros So People Will Realize How Talented Pros AreQueen Harrison thinks track would be popular if it had its own TV channel. Our response – It’s called Universal Sports.
Q&A With Northern Arizona Elite Coach Ben RosarioGreg McMillan has moved on and Rosario is now coaching in Flagstaff.
After Seventh-Place Showing In 4k At BUPA Great Edinburgh XCountry, Britain’s 8:38 steepler Jonathan Taylor Hoping For Big 2014

2014 Bupa Great Edinburgh XC – Double American Victories To Start 2014 *Results

LRCGarrett Heath Over Asbel Kiprop And Kenenisa Bekele; Chris Derrick Dominates 2014 got off to a great start for Americans Garrett Heath and Chris Derrick as Heath beat both Bekele and Kiprop to win the 4k and Derrick dominated the 8k. It was a long day for the American women. Also, who finished higher? The third placer at Foot Locker or third placer at NXN in the junior boys race?

IAAF Recap: USA’s Heath Upsets The Stars In Edinburgh Heath, who is aiming for World Indoors, blasted Kiprop on the finishing hill, “I just put my head down, sprinting and hoping that nobody would come past me.” Derrick’s getting ready for USA XC and ultimately the Brussels 10,000.
Athletics Weekly: Gemma Steel & GB Women Have Good Day
*European Athletics Recap
Full Video Replays: *Men’s 4K*Men’s 8K*Women’s 6K*More Videos
MB:Garrett Heath wins Great Edinburgh Cross-Country
MB:Great Edinburgh XCountry 8K – Derrick Dominates!!
MB: Bupa– USA Men, Team Silver, Indiv Gold
Pre-Race:Asbel Kiprop Looking To Defend As He Launches A Season Where He Plans On Attacking Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500 WR

NCAA Indoor Gets Going *All NCAA Weekend Results

Arkansas Men & Women Win Season Opener At HomePatrick Rono won the 600 (1:19.92), Kemoy Campbell (1:52.01) the 800 and Stanley Kebenei the 1,000 (2:26.47).
*Full Men’s Results
*Full Women’s Results
University Of Florida Opens Indoor At Birmingham Invite With 13 Event Victories NCAA 1,500 runner-up Cory McGee won the 800 in a meet record of 2:07.47.
Penn State Women Set Collegiate 4 x 200 Record (1:35.65) Running At HomeRobby Creese and Brannon Kidder led Penn State to victories in the 4 x 800 (7:36) and DMR (9:59). *Full Results

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

LRCWhen Should You Give Up The (Olympic) Dream? We Tell You - The Oldest American First-Time Olympians Revealed

Along with the oldest American first-time Olympians, we crunch the numbers and tell you which US 1,500 guys should "hang 'em up" before 2016 and why there is hope for Chris Solinsky to make his first Olympic team in 2016.

*MB:At What Point Did You Give Up On Your Dream Of Being A Great Runner?
*MB: When should a 3:38 guy give up the dream?

Things To Ponder Before Buying Your Olympic Tix

Russia: Siege Kills 4 Special Ops, 3 Suspected Terrorists Some 500+ Miles From Sochi
Brazil: Stunning: Laureus World Sports Awards – The “Oscars of Sport” – Planned For Rio In March Are Cancelled Those that think Brazil isn’t ready for WC 2014 and Olympics in 2016 just got a big boost by this development.
AP: Laureus Cancels Rio Awards In Blow To Brazil Ahead Of World Cup And Olympics

More News From Brazil

Brazilian Pole Vault Star Fabiana Murer Thought About Retiring After Disappointing 2012, But Couldn’t As She’ll Be The Face Of Rio 2016

More Olympics News

2014 London Is Going To Be Awesome – Men’s Field Announced – Mo Farah Faces A Stiff, Stiff Test

LRC6 Thoughts On The 2014 Virgin Money London Marathon Elite Men’s Field – A Win By Mo Farah On April 14th Would Be The Greatest Achievement Of His Career Fantasy marathoning will once again be taking place in the real world in London yet again this year as the field is loaded. We break it down and tell you why if Farah wins it will be the best accomplishment of his career. But we also tell you how last year’s field was deeper and who isn’t running London.
*RRW: 2014 London Elite Men’s Field Announced – Mo Farah To Face Stacked Men’s Field The field includes six sub-2:05 guys, including world record holder Wilson Kipsang and 2:03:02 man Geoffrey Mutai.
*UK Headline:Farah Braces Himself For Baptism Of Fire In London Marathon
*MB:FARAH TO FACE WORLD’S BEST AT 2014 LONDON MARATHON :elite field announced
*MB:Ibrahim Jeilan Running London!

News From Kenya: Silas Kiplagat Calls For Lifetime Bans

+1 For This Guy: Kenyan 1,500 Man Silas Kiplagat Says The IAAF Should Move Drug Bans From 4 Years To Life Kiplagat blames his disappointing 6th place finish at Worlds on “overconfidence” and is looking forward to defending his titles at the World Indoor Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2014.
Athletics Kenya Seeking A Coach To Help Their Team Prepare For The 2014 World Relays AK president Isaiah Kiplagat says they have already contacted the UK, the US, China and Japan for help. Seems like they missed one in Jamaica.
Kenyan “YoutTube Man” Julius Yego Hoping To Keep Making Waves In The Javelin At The Commonwealth Games Other Kenyan throwers have also been improving under Yego’s tutelage and Yego said he’d be happy to see someone come up to challenge him.

And The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Will Be In … Houston Or LA

Toni Reavis: 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Will Be In Houston Or LA. Volunteers Want Houston, USATF Business Interests Want LA. Who Wins Out? LA in March really hurts elites’ chances of trying to come back for the 10,000 team.
Road Race Management On Trials: Can USATF CEO Unilaterally Pick Trials?
Archive:2004 US Olympic Trials Photos

College News

2012 US HS Athlete Of Year And 10.19 Prep Abraham Hall Enrolls At UCLA And Joins Track Team Originally he was going to Army, but after a year at Army Prep, he’s now at UCLA.
*Archive: 2012: Prep Superstar Abraham Hall, Who Is Bound For West Point, Has All Time In World To Run 9.7
Arkansas Men, Texas Women Are No. 1 In Pre-Season NCAA Indoor Rankings

2014 Sochi News

Nick Symmonds Hopes Winter Olympians Do Protest Russia’s Gay Law “If 5,000 athletes wave a rainbow flag, I’d like to see the Russian government do anything about it.”
Alan Abrahamson Laughs At Hypocrisy Of US Govt. For Issuing Travel Alerts About Sochi In the travel alert, Americans are warned that Russians can read your emails and listen to your phone calls. Sound familiar?
*NY Times: Americans Traveling To Winter Games Cautioned
*Official US Russia Travel Alert
More Olympics News:Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori To Lead Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee For The Olympics And Paralympics

Formerly One Of The Toughest Races In The World To Win

2011 World Jr. XC Champ Geoffrey Kipsang, 2009 World XC Champ Florence Kiplagat Win 2014 Kenyan Police XC Champs If the Kenyans don’t put the 58:54/2:06:12 21-year-old Kipsang on the World Half team in March in Copenhagen, they are foolish. Kiplagat, who won Berlin in Sept, remained red hot as she also won in Delhi recently.
Geoffrey Kipsang Is Planning To Run The Tokyo Marathon And The World Half Marathon Championships In 2014
Florence Kiplagat Says She Wants To Win The World Half Marathon Championships And Break Mary Keitany’s 1:05:50 WR
IAAF RecapGeoffrey Mutai said he wasn’t on top of his game here as he’s packing some extra weight and recently had malaria. He is thinking about focusing on XC for a while and running the African Cross-Country Championships in March.

No, It Isn’t April 1st:Convicted Oregon Pimp Sues Nike Over Lack Of Shoe Warning Label Apparently he stomped some guy’s face in, was sentenced to prison and is suing Nike for $100 million as they didn’t have a warning label saying the shoes could be used as a deadly weapon. You can’t make this stuff up.

LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”