RAK Half Marathon Was Early Friday

World’s #1-Ranked Marathoners Lelisa Desisa And Priscah Jeptoo Win 2014 Rak Half Marathon As Record 8 Men Break 60:00 In A Single Race Desisa, the 2013 Boston Marathon champion, won in 59:34 as Jeptoo (2013 NY and London winner) ran in 67:00.
*MB: RAK HALF
*LRC Preview

USA Cross-Country & Kenyan XC Championships Are This Weekend *Meet Entries *Watch Live Starting At 12 Noon ET *USA Meet Website *Full 2014 USA XC Coverage

• Denver Post: Jenny Simpson Favored And Confident Entering U.S. Cross-Country Championships In Boulder Simpson: “I feel like I’m back on an upswing, and I don’t want to interrupt that momentum.”
• A Look At The Big Names Competing At 2014 USA XC – Chris Derrick And Jenny Simpson Headline Even without WChampionships spots on the line, the field is full of quality as it includes among others 2013 champ Bobby Mack, 2011 champ and CU alum Brent Vaughn, Nick Arciniaga, Jake Riley, Luke Puskedra, 20k champ Meghan Peyton, Mattie Suver and junior stars Elise Cranny and Sean McGorty. *Full Entries
  

• Kenya: IAAF Preview: World XC Champs Japheth Korir, Emily Chebet & Faith Kipyegon Lead The Fields Other top names racing are Geoffrey Mutai, Isiah Koech, Joseph Ebuya and World Championships 5,000m silver medalist Mercy Cherono.

How Much Is An Olympic Gold Medal Actually Worth? For Sochi 2014, anyway, the gold medals are actually made up of more silver than gold, but are worth $548.

Study Finds Vitamins C And E May Lessen Fitness Gains From Workouts The study said, “Vitamin C and Vitamin E hampered cellular adaptations in the exercised muscle.”

International

• Japan Running News Weekend Preview: National Corporate Half Marathon Championships, A National Record Shot Over 30K, Yuki Kawauchi’s 2014 Marathon Debut and More
• Video: Asafa Powell Appears In Court In Jamaica On Doping Charges Case has been adjourned until February 26th.
• Oscar Pistorius Settles In Alleged Assault Case From 5 Years Ago He was arrested in 2009 and accused of causing an injury to a guest at a party at his house after slamming a door.

• Elite Field Announced For March 2nd Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon Defending champion Vincent Kipruto takes on fellow 2:05 man Bazu Worku and Yuki Kawauchi.
• Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton Announced For SPAR Great Ireland Run 10K In April

Other News Of Note

• Olympic 1,500 Finalist Laura Weightman, Still Just 22, Enjoyed Training In Kenya And Daily Seeing Mo Farah And Paula Radcliffe Train The fact that Radcliffe is training in Kenya is exciting for us.
• “Maximalist” Shoe Brand Hoka One One Signs 800-Meter Runner Mike Rutt
• Photos Of Desiree Linden (Davila) Training In Kenya We almost didn’t link to it as they annoyingly make you see 16 adds to see 16 photos.
• Are You A Wimp? Train For Six Weeks And You’ll Increase Your Pain Tolerance
• Oregon Ducks T&F Class Announced It includes WYouth 1,500 5th placer Blake Haney.
• Kirani James Has Moved On From Moscow Disappointment, Is Doing More Weights To Get Back On Top In 2014 “I always had the mindset that one day I was going to have a bad race. Mine just happened to be in the biggest race of the year, but because it happened to be at the World Championships, it was magnified. I just had to look at it as a bad race, learn from it and move on.”
• Hearings To Be Held To Potentially Suspend 31 Comrades Course Cutters From 2012 And 2013 Fact of the day: Only 2 of the last 30 Comrades winners have failed to run a negative split.
• Meet 11.26 19-Year-Old French Sprinter Stella Akakpo This summer, she temporarily took France from 4th to 2nd on the anchor of the 4 x 100 before a DQ.

NOP Updates

• More Info On Rupp’s DNF: According To His Physiotherapist, Rupp’s “Cuboid Bone” Popped Out Of Place During The Race He performed an adjustment on it afterwards before Rupp did his post-race workout, of which Alberto Salazar said, “I wouldn’t say it was as hard as the mile repeats he did two weeks ago, but it was very good, and we were pleased. Galen said that his foot felt fine.” Asked about workout specifics he said, “My athletes don’t like it when I tell the competition what we’re doing. We don’t want to give away everything.”
  *MB: Cuboid Bone and Rupp- Doctors, Podiatrist comment?
• London Marathon Tune-Up? Athletics Kenya Has Invited Mo Farah To Compete In Saturday’s National XC Championships No word on whether he will or not.
• Tomorrow Night: Ask Mary Cain Your Questions In Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Wednesday At 7PM ET
• MB: Willis calls out Rupp

Running Science

• Does Attractiveness Predict Endurance Performance? Study found that people found top finishers at Tour de France more attractive than slower riders.
• Study Proves That “Crash Training” (Trying To Cram A Lot Of Workouts In Quickly) Doesn’t Work The study had a group of runners do 24 hard workouts over eight weeks and another group do the same 24 hard workouts in 3 weeks and compared the two. The 8-week group improved a lot while the 3-week group got worse.

Sochi 2014

• Lolo Jones Says She’s Out Of “Quarantine” After Battling Cold In Sochi
• List Of Top Track Stars Competing In Women’s Bobsled At Sochi 2014 Five of the six women on the US team have track backgrounds and well over a third of competitors from all countries do as well.

Got Your Room? Boston Area Hotels Filling Up Fast

Recap Of NJ-NY Track Club Performances From The Weekend

• Kaoru Hirosue Wins Karatsu 10-Miler In 47:17, Beating Sub-60 Half Marathoner Mekubo Mogusu And Yuki Kawauchi Kawauchi was 4th (47:28). Elsewhere, Kazuki Tomaru won the Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon, running 2:11:43 in his debut. Many other races in Japan, including the  Chiba International Cross-Country Meet, were cancelled due to heavy snow.
• Daniel Rotich Wins Uganda National Half Marathon Championships In 1:02:15 As Moses Kipsiro Gets 4th In His Debut (1:03:15)
• Eleni Gebrehiwot Defends Her Title At ING Eurocross In Diekrich, Luxembourg Qatar’s Alex Kibet won the men’s race. Elsewhere, half marathon WR holder Zersenay Tadese won a XC meet in Torrejoncillo, Spain.

US Mid-D News

• Recommended Read: Oregonian: Alan Webb Moves Forward At Peace With His Decision To Leave Track For Triathlon Webb: “Some guys move up and run marathons. This is my way of moving up.” He also indirectly referred to the LRC message boards as a “blessing” as it gave him notoriety and helps “niche sports like running.”
  *Webb’s Close Friend, Portland State Distance Coach Jonathan Marcus, Says He Wouldn’t Rule Out Webb Going Back To The Track Eventually
• Nick Symmonds Interview With Radio Free Europe About Speaking Out Against Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws

Upcoming

• Elite Fields Announced For 2014 RAK Half Marathon On February 14th The ridiculously-deep fields include 11 men who have gone under 60 minutes and 7 women who have run under 68:00. Men’s side includes Bernard Koech (58:41), Stanley Biwott (58:56), Chicago Marathon champ Dennis Kimetto, former Half Marathon world champ Wilson Kiprop and  2011 10,000m world champ Ibrahim Jelian. On the women’s side, there is London/NYC Marathon champ Priscah Jeptoo, Boston champ Rita Jeptoo and former 10k world champ Linet Masai making her half debut.
• Olympic And World Championships Medalists Highlight 107th NYRR Millrose Games A look at the elite fields for next weekend’s Millrose Games.
• Abdi Abdirahman, Ryan Vail, And Bobby Curtis Lead Deep Field For Publix Gasparilla Half Marathon In Florida In Two Weeks Also on the men’s side is Fernando Cabada and Shadrack Biwott, while the women’s field includes Jen Rhines, Mattie Suver and Adriana Nelson.
• 2003 World 5,000 Champ Eliud Kipchoge Announced For April 13th Rotterdam Marathon Kipchoge was 2nd at last year’s Berlin Marathon in 2:04:05.

From Mid-Week: Australia’s Suzy Walsham Earns Record Fifth Title At Empire State Building Run-Up; Norway’s Thorbjørn Ludvigsen Won For The Men

NB Pre-Race

LRC Leo Manzano Reveals He’s Now Self-Coached, Hoping To Represent USA At 2014 World Indoors We flew up to Boston a day early and are glad we did as the pre-race press conference certainly was informative. Ryan Ponsonby is no longer coaching Leo, who is looking to hit it hard in indoors this year. Guess what he ran recently for 1k in practice?

• LRC Galen Rupp, Leo Manzano And Nick Willis Talk About Where They Keep Their Silver Medals
• LRC Jenny Simpson Talks About Genzebe Dibaba’s World Record And Her Own Fitness Prior To 2014 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Simpson thinks she’s in real good shape, but reveals she won’t be doing World Indoors.
• LRC Mary Cain Talks About Alexa Efraimson And A Possible American Record In The 1,000 Tomorrow Cain reveals she’s willing to skip graduation to run, but not her AP exams.
• LRC Kim Conley Says She Won’t Do World Indoors, Is Focused On Running Fast 10,000 At Stanford
• LRC Emma Coburn Is Hoping To PR In Mile Next Week At Millrose

Press Conference Photo Gallery Here

Major Drug Scandals?

• Did Former IOC President Jacques Rogge Help Cover Up Two Positive Doping Tests From 1984 LA Olympics 2004 Salt Lake Olympics? Don Catlin, the former head of the U.C.L.A. Olympic Analytical Laboratory, said two biathletes from those games tested positive, but the IOC chose to ignore it because “it would raise a huge stink around the world” and they couldn’t handle fighting 2 more court cases in addition to the 3 they already had.
• The Economist: Russian Athletes Using Xenon Gas To Stimulate EPO Production And Enhance Endurance Author claims that the use of Xenon gas has the government’s blessing and it isn’t yet specifically banned by WADA, but probably should be since they ban anything that artificially raises EPO levels.

Adidas Sues Under Armour Saying MapMyFitness Infringes On miCoach Patents

Week That Was: January 27th – February 2nd

LRCWeek In Review: Was Genzebe Dibaba's 3:55.17 The Fastest Clean 1,500 Ever Run? The Marathon Trials Go To LA, The Depth Of Japanese Road Racing And Fast Collegiate DMRs And 3Ks

UK News: GB Indoor Champs This Weekend

• 1976 Olympic 10,000 Bronze Medalist Brendan Foster Angry That UK Education Secretary Has Proposed Using Running Laps As A Form Of Punishment In Schools Foster: “This is an absolute disgrace and a real step backwards in terms of education and health. … Mr Gove is sending out a clear message that [running] is bad – a form of punishment on a par with picking up litter or doing 100 lines.”
• Athletics Weekly Preview Of This Weekend’s British Indoor Championships Hannah England is in the 3,000, and in the 800, it’s Olympic finalist Andrew Osagie vs. Guy Learmonth, who recently ran 1:16.48 for 600.
• UK’s 2009 World 800 Bronze Medalist Jenny Meadows On The Comeback After 2 Years Of “Physical And Mental Torture” After two year’s of injuries, the 32-year-old says one more setback and she’ll be done. She opens her season at British Indoor Champs this weekend.
• Sub-10 Sprinter James Dasaolu Says It’s Time To Move On From Dwain Chambers Being The Forefront Of British Sprinting Dasaolu is the second-fastest ever for the UK at 9.91, but has only broken 10 twice in his career. He’ll face Chambers in the 60m this Saturday at the British Indoor Champs.
• Recently Retired Discus Olympian Abdul Buhari Says The UK Lacks Enough Good Throwing Coaches, Not Throwing Talent It also probably doesn’t help when you lose your best discus thrower to the 49ers.

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