Get Excited: London Is Sunday

• Mo Farah Ahead Of Marathon Debut: “For me, in terms of my ability and setting myself a target, my main target is going after the British record (2:07:13). But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe I could win.” Talking about Kenenisa Bekele‘s debut, he said, “It gives me good confidence and makes me think if Bekele can do it, why can’t I do it?”
• Video Highlights From Mo Farah’s Pre-London Press Conference Q&A
• Headline In Kenyan Press: “Farah faces Kenyan baptism of fire.” Wilson Kipsang: “It’s not going to be easy (for Farah) and he’s not likely to win.”
• Two-Time World Champ Edna Kiplagat Not Worried About Tirunesh Dibaba’s Debut “I know the London Marathon course well. I want to win this year and I think it will not be easy for Dibaba to run the show as she does on the tracks. Marathon is four times bigger than her 10,000m speciality.”
• Gemma Steel Withdraws From London Marathon Due To Torn Calf Muscle She got the injury during the NYC Half in March, where she ended up dropping out after 8 miles. London was to be her marathon debut.
• Are You Running The London Marathon? Do You Like Free Food And Drinks? Many area restaurants and bars giving free/discounted food and drinks to marathon runners.

Oscar Pistorius Testifies Again

• Oscar Pistorius Takes Stand Again And Sobs As He Explains The Sequence Of Events That Led To Him Shooting His Girlfriend “I shouted for Reeva to get on the floor and for her to phone the police. I screamed at the people to get out … Then I heard a noise from inside the toilet that I perceived to be somebody coming out of the toilet. Before I knew it, I had fired four shots at the door.”
• Pistorius Will Return To Stand For Third Time On Wednesday
• Defense Expert Says Oscar P’s Lawyers Should Be Concerned About Cross Examination By The Prosecutor, Who Is Known For Being Aggressive “If he’s genuinely emotional, when he gets put under pressure he’ll be worse than he is now, and [prosecutor Gerrie Nel] will carve him up into little pieces.”
• Video With Some Audio Of Pistorius’ Testimony
• Pistorius Defense Presents Texts To Contrast Those Put Forward By Prosecution The defense shared texts that portrayed a loving happy relationship between Pistorius and his girlfriend while the prosecution’s showed bitter and jealous fights.

Florida Men Take Over Top Spot In DI Team Rankings; Arkansas Move Down To 3rd, Oregon Up To 2nd Texas A&M stays #1 for the women as Florida moves to #2 and Oregon goes down to 4th.

US Pro News

• Kara Goucher Out With Sacral Stress Fracture She says her training had been going well and she was dreaming of running a sub-31 10K and sub-15 5K this summer.
  *MB Thread
• Alberto Salazar Says Mary Cain Is Healthy And Talks About Her 2014 Racing Schedule He says it’s difficult to plan as they have to schedule races around her AP testing schedule, but she’ll definitely race the Pre Classic, and other meets, including World Relay Champs, are on the table. She might skip US Champs to focus on World Junior Champs.
• Q&A With Ryan Vail, Who Will Head The American Charge At The London Marathon Vail says he’s done more quality and volume than he ever has before and is confident about attacking his 2:11:45 PR.
• Phoebe Wright Blogs: Is “Professional Runner” Code For “Unemployed”? While potential employers might hear pro runners and think “unemployed,” Wright explains how it really means “168-hour weeks” running her own small business.
• Heather Kampf And World Indoor 1,500 Bronze Medalist Nicole Sifuents Headline May 8th Medtronic TC 1 Mile
• IAAF “Work, Rest And Play” Q&A With US High Jumper Brigetta Barrett Barrett talks about her life as an athlete and her other big passion/talent in life, singing. She also reveals that she is a twin.

• World Leads By Dedric Dukes And Roxroy Cato Highlight USTFCCCA’s NCAA Athletes Of The Week Dukes ran a world-leading 19.97 200 while DII athlete Cato ran a WL in the 400H with 48.67. The top woman of the weekend was Marielle Hall, who PRed by more than a minute with a 15:19.26 5K at Stanford, which is the 9th fastest in NCAA history.
  *MB: Abbey D watch out – Texas’ Marielle Hall wins Stanford 5k in 15:19 over Alisha Williams!!!
• Daily Relay’s College Weekend Recap: Florida Relays, Duals, Fast Distance

• Recommended Read: Kenenisa Bekele’s Marathon Debut Gets 1,264 Words Of Coverage In NY Times A great piece which also talks about Farah’s debut in London. Bekele’s agent Jos Hermens has some pointed words for Bekele: “He has to get his act together, and stay motivated and forget about business and run for five or six years.”

• MB: Awesome NY Times article on Bekele’s debut in Paris – Hermens on Bekele and Haile – ‘They’re not really friends’
• MB: Bekele aims for world record in debut!
• MB: Bekele Marathon Debut Prediction Thread

Lesser European Races

• Crazy: MB: So awesome: Big half marathon in UK (Sheffield Half Marathon) cancelled as race organizers had no water – runners run anyway
  
• Zurich: Olympic Triathlon Champ Nicola Spirig Runs 2:42:53 – Under 2:44 European Qualifying Time – May Or May Not Be Selected
• Milan: Francis Kiprop (2:08:53) And Visiline Jepkesho (2:28:40) Win

Bizarre News

• Looking For A New Challenge? 200 Lucky (Or Unlucky) Tourists Will Be Allowed To Run A Marathon In Pyongyang, North Koreaon April 13
• Pat Butcher Writes About The Fact It’s Now Illegal To Jog In Groups In Burundi
• Kenya’s Kericho Marathon, Which Ended Up Being 52K Last Year By Mistake, Will Be 42.2 This Year And Features $17,000 In Prize Money It costs $5.80 US to enter.
• Veteran Modesto, CA Runner Survives After Making Wrong Turn On Trail Run And Being Lost In Snow For 55 Hours

High School News

• JamaicaObserver.com: 2014 Champs Were A Record-Breaking “Champs” To Be Remembered Not only did the boys 100 (10.12) and 400 (45.00) records fall, 19 other records fell as well.
• Q&A With US HS #1 At 3,200 (8:53.99) Ian Milder, Who Is Headed To NC State

US News: USATF Too Big To Succeed?

• Toni Reavis Argues That USATF’s Scope Is Too Broad And The Organization Should Be Broken Up Into Smaller Parts “Consider if Little League Baseball, Slow Pitch Softball, Wiffle Ball and Major League Baseball all came under the same organizational umbrella, with MLB having no standing, more or less, than any other component.  What odds of success would you offer that arrangement?”
• When Did The Boston Marathon Actually Start Being Called The “Boston Marathon”? The 117-year-old race was first called the “American Marathon”when it started in 1897 and different names have been used throughout the years.
• San Diego Wants To Bid For 2024 Olympics

UKA Performance Director Neil Black Says He’s Confident About Mo Farah’s Fitness Ahead Of London After Visiting Him In Kenya Black said, “Alberto’s very happy. The type of phrases being used are ‘best shape’ and ‘best athlete in the world.’ Everything is positive in terms of what Alberto is seeing and understanding. … [Farah is] in absolute peak physical shape to approach the marathon.”

Oscar Pistorius Expected To Take The Stand When His Trial Resumes Monday

• Scottish Steeplechaser Eilish McColgan Expects Home Commonwealth Games To Be Highlight Of Her Career She was 10th in the Moscow 2013 steeple final.
• Scotland’s Most Decorated Athlete In Last Decade, 400 Runner Lee McConnell, Announces Her Retirement At Age 35 She had a baby in October and had thought about continuing to compete in the Commonwealth Games at home this year, but has decided to hang ’em up.

Interesting: You Think Breaking A WR Is Tough? It’s Even Harder For Horses Human WRs have dropped significantly in the last 50 years, but horse times haven’t got much faster. This article looks at some of the reasons why.

Sprints / Jumps

• Watch Out In 2016, Usain: Are We Seeing The Future Of Sprinting In Trayvon Bromell And Zharnel Hughes? Last weekend, Bromell tied the WJR with 10.01 and Hughes ran 10.12 to win Jamaica’s prestigious Boys and Girls Champs.

• Lolo Jones Returning To The Track At Drake Relays She’ll run the shuttle hurdle relay instead of open 100H.
• IAAF Q&A With Qatar’s World Indoor HJ Champion Mutaz Essa Barshim He says he’d like to go over 2.40m this outdoor season.
• Australia Could Send A Rare “Full Quota” Of Sprinters In The Women’s 100H To Commonwealth Games Unlike the US, Australia doesn’t try to send all the athletes it can to major championships, but it has 3 under or close to the “A” standard in the 100H, led by Sally Pearson. The other two are Shannon McCann and Michelle Jenneke.
  *Day 1 Recap Of Aussie National Champs
  

Oscar P’s Defense Lawyers Expected To Call Pathologist As First Witness Pistorius himself is expected to take the stand eventually.

Berlin Half

LRCLeonard Komon Runs Fastest Half Marathon Debut Ever - Wins In 59:14 In Sprint Finish In Berlin