Galen Rupp Running New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Mile On Saturday

Saturday’s US Track Action: Alexa Efraimson Breaks HS 3k Record *Results: *UW *Camel City *Penn State National *IU Relays *New Mexico *All Weekend NCAA Action

• LRC Alexa Efraimson Breaks Mary Cain’s High School And US Junior 3,000m Record With 9:00.16 High school junior and 16-year-old Alexa Efraimson came in 4th place in the 3,000m at the UW Invy, breaking Mary Cain‘s 9:02.10 record. We share a few quick thoughts on Efraimson’s extremely impressive run and tell you where it stacks up compared to Cain.
• University Of Washington Invy: Lawi Lalang Destroys 3k Field With 7:44 Lalang won easily with Stanford freshman Sean McGorty 2nd (7:59) and Chris Solinsky a DNF. Luc Bruchet ran 3:57.71 to take down Evan Jager and Dan Huling as Alan Webb was way back in 4:03. Amanda Winslow ran 8:56 to win the 3K and Lauren Fleshman continues comeback from pregnancy with 4:42 in the mile for 2nd.
  *MB: Solinsky with another DNF
• Camel City Hilton Garden Invitational: Nick Symmonds Opens Season With 1:48.64 Victory Symmonds beat a field that included Brooks Beast TC teammates Mark Wiezorek (3rd) and Cas Loxsom (4th) as Heather Kampf ran 2:04.28 to beat Phoebe Wright by .01 and Maggie Vessey was 5th. Sara Vaughn won the mile in 4:35.07.
• Symmonds Says He Felt Sluggish Coming Down From Altitude But Was Happy With 1:48 Season Opener He said this was actually his first race on a flat 200m track.
• OSU Dominates Razorback Invy 3k, Going 1-2-3 As First Four Places Go Sub-8 Kirubel Erassa won in 7:54.05.
  *Texas A&M Gets Two World-Leading Marks Deon Lendore set the 400 WL with 45.47 as the Aggie women’s 4 x 400 ran a WLing 3:31.07.
  *No. 1 Ranked Arkansas Wins At Home
  *Full Results From Razorback Invy Arkansas’ Grace Heymsfield took the mile in 4:34.22 over teammate Dominique Scott (4:36.11). Ryan Schnulle won the 800 in 1:48.05 as top 6 all went under 1:50. OSU freshman Savannah Camacho won the women’s race in 2:05.41.
  *Drive Safe: Bus Carrying FSU Track Team Slides Off Road In Arkansas No one was injured.
• Indiana Relays Full Results: Molly Beckwith Runs 4:34 Mile Saucony sponsored Molly Beckwith dominated the mile by 12 seconds with 4:34.44 as Team Indiana Elite’s De’sean Turner won the men’s race in 3:58.50.
• Full Results From Penn State National Stanford’s Justine Fedronic won the 800 in 2:03.25 over teammate Amy Weissenbach as Georgetown’s Billy Ledder won the men’s race in 1:48.92. Penn State’s Brannon Kidder took the mile in 3:59.55 as Duke’s Audrey Hutch won in 4:42.93. Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan set a 3,000m facility record with 7:57.75 as Emily Lipari won the women’s race in 9:09.37.
• MB: Morgan Uceny 2:04, Jen Rhines 9:16 at Harvard Katie Matthews won the 3k in 9:11.
• MB: Canada’s Nate Brannen 3:58.04 to win at SPIRE Institute
  *Full Results
• 2014 New Mexico Team Invy Full Results Arizona State’s Shelby Houlihan won the mile in 4:43.70 as Notre Dame’s Jeremy Rae won the men’s race in 4:02.62.

Mo And The Marathon

• Mo Farah Accuses Kenenisa Bekele Of Taking The “Easy Route” Ducking The Competition In London “I was looking forward to [racing Bekele] but it’s up to him. If he really wanted it he could make it work. I could have chosen the easy option and gone somewhere else for my first marathon but I’ve gone straight in there because that’s what I do.”
• Farah Criticized For Cliff Jumping Off 100 Foot Cliff In The Caribbean Includes video of Farah’s jump.
• The Guardian: “Mo Farah turns his back on family to take 42,195 steps into unknown.” He’s spending 3 months in Kenya ahead of London and said of his kids, “If I was with them it would probably be harder for me because [I’d] want to play with them. I wouldn’t rest as much, so it’s good for me to be here.”
• Farah Says He’s Preparing For His Marathon Debut With The Same Thoroughness David Beckham Used To Practice Free Kicks Farah has a team analyzing the right combination of carbohydrates, protein and salts for his mid-race drinks and has been studying split times and elevation changes for every mile of past London Marathons.

• Paula Radcliffe Would Like To Run One More London Or NYC Marathon To End Her Career On “Her Terms” Radcliffe: “I’m not thinking I can get back and run 2hr 15min, but if I could come back and run like a sub 2hr 30min then I’d like to do it. I’m not saying I could win London or New York but I would like to just run one more and finish on my terms.”
• Radcliffe Is Healthy Enough To Run Again And Is In Kenya Training She can run once a day, 1-2 hours. She doesn’t want to push it though since she wants to be able to run recreationally later in life.

Un-American Quote Of The Day? Nick Symmonds Isn’t Going To Watch The Super Bowl “Apparently, it is called the ‘Super Bowl,’ and several hundred million people will sit down to watch it. I know I’m in the minority, but I must be honest: I couldn’t care less about this particular game or the sport of football in general.”

Japan Road News

• Martin Mathathi Wins Kagawa Marugame International Half Marathon In 1:00:11 As 20-Year- Old Kenta Murayama Gets Second In 1:00:50 For Japan Collegiate Record Aussie Collis Birmingham was 15th in 1:02:40 as the top 26 all broke 1:03. In 27th at 1:03:00 was US’s Jeffrey Eggleston. 59th place was Tomoki Kawamura, who ran 1:04:08 to set a Japanese HS record. Eri Makikawa won the women’s race in 1:10:27 in her debut.
  *IAAF Recap
• Uganda’s Abraham Kiplimo Sets 4-Minute PR To Win Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon In 2:09:23 He beat a couple of Japan’s top marathoners to do it, including 2:08:00 man Kazuhiro Maeda. Back in the “masses,” Yuki Kawauchi‘s youngest brother Koki Kawauchi ran 2:21.48 for 32nd. Further back, 59+ world record holder Yoshihisa Hosaka became the 5th fastest 65-year-old ever by running 2:49:01. Crazier than that, his 2:49 got him 427th place!
  *IAAF Recap
• Tadashi Isshiki Wins With 1:03:01 CR In Debut At Kanagawa Half After Last-Minute Wrong Turn

• Mo Farah Putting In 130-140 Weeks In Kenya Getting Ready For His “Toughest Test” At The 2014 London Marathon “It’s hard, but I have to do it. It’s London. I could easily sit back and say I’m going to stay at home and train but I need to come out here to give it 110%.” Farah doesn’t share a specific time goal but says he’d be disappointed if he didn’t break Steve Jones‘ 2:07:13 UK record.
• London Race Director Hugh Brasher And Elite Athlete Coordinator David Bedford Talk About London Field And Mo Farah Brasher pointed out that Jones’ record from Chicago 1985 is the longest-standing UK record and if Farah gets it, he’ll have everything from 1,500 to the marathon and that has never been done in British history.

Let Us Introduce You To The Hottest Runner In The NCAA

LRC Will Geoghegan Q & A: The Secrets Of Going From 4:05 To 3:58 In The Mile Are Revealed Will Geoghegan‘s story shows not all track stars are born overnight – it just seems like it as he went from 4:05 to 3:58 last week. The Dartmouth senior is on a roll in 2014, leading the NCAAs in the mile, but it was not an easy ride to the top. Freshman year, he quit the Dartmouth team and was flunking his courses; now he’s going to have his pick of schools for his fifth year, unless he takes an LRC internship.
*MB: Will Geoghegan to NOP?

Phoebe Wright Blogs: “The time I prepared for New Years Eve like I did the US champs.” Wright explains how with extreme dedication you can be an elite distance runner and still party on New Year’s Eve.

Kenyan News

• Athletics Kenya Regions Hosting Their XC Championships This Weekend In Next Step To Choose Team For Africa XC Championships Road 10k/15k WR holder Leonard Komon, Emmanuel Bett and World junior XC champ Faith Kipyegon among those competing.
• Former World 10,000 And Boston Marathon Champion Moses Tanui Urges Kenyan Athletes To Pay Taxes On Their Prize Money
• AK Head Isaiah Kiplagat Says Not To Worry About Top Kenyans Saying They Won’t Run Commonwealth Games “In the past, we have had big names saying they will not compete at the Commonwealth Games but that is nothing to worry about. We have many athletes who realise competing for their nation is the best thing that can happen to their career.”

• Competitor.com Talks To Ben Bruce Ahead Of His Debut Marathon This Sunday In At RNR New Orleans He says he just wants to win and maybe run around 2:15.
• Aaron Braun Blogs About Recovering From The US Half Champs And Starting His Training For His Debut Marathon In LA In March

• Sochi 2014 Forced To Backpedal On Comments Made By Top Official After He Contradicted IOC President Thomas Bach The Russian head said that athletes wouldn’t be allowed to express their political views in press conferences when Bach had already said they could.
• France To Send Extra Protection For Its Athletes At Sochi 2014
• Two Suspects Arrested In Connection To Russian Suicide Bombings

The Week In Review – Week That Was

LRC Bye-Bye Alan Webb, The Bold Galen Rupp And Mary Cain, Marathoning’s New Era, Can Ryan Hill Challenge Rupp? And Much More Alan Webb says goodbye to track and field, fortune favors the bold and Galen Rupp and Mary Cain, and do we have an American challenger who can beat Mr. Rupp? A proposal to save the marriages of NCAA track coaches, a star retires at age 25, and those crazy youngsters – a teen runs two half marathon PRs to win $200,000, a look at Britain’s great young talent, some fast NCAA times by Laura Roesler, and someone break up the Big Green of Dartmouth.

More Webb News:

• Q&A With Alan Webb On Triathlon.com About His Goals For The Sport Webb dreamed big in running and he’s dreaming big again here.
  *MB: LOVE YOU ALAN appreciation thread
• Kevin Sully Looks Back At The Impact Of Alan Webb’s Career

Distance News

• Suzy’s Back: MB: Suzy Favor Hamilton posts new facebook photo & blog post
  
• MB: She’s back – Suzy Favor Hamilton returning to running as head of LA marathon charity team

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