August 8, 2014 | LetsRun.com

A Real Running Hero

LRC A Real Running Hero: The Flo Groberg Story Two years ago today, former Maryland track and field and cross country runner Flo Groberg helped thwart a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan. This is his story.

Track And Field History 101

History Lesson: 60 Years Ago: Roger Bannister Defeated John Landy In Miracle Mile –
Exclusive Interview: Sir Roger Bannister On The Miracle Mile A great read. Bannister, who now has Parkinsons, talks in great depth about his career. Find out more about him in a new autobiography that just came out: Twin Tracks.
Canadian Runners, Including One Who Was In Race Inspired By Miracle Mile
Q&A With Joan Benoit Samuelson, 30 Years After Her Historic Olympic Marathon Gold In LA A good read for sure on the woman who had knee surgery 17 days before the Olympic Trials.
Adios, Irving! Irving Saladino Announces His Retirement The 31-year-old was the 2007 and 2008 gold medalist and is the only Panamanian to win Olympic gold in any sport.

2014 Bupa Great North Run

Mo Farah To Return To Great North Run On Sept. 7 Farah looks like he’ll be in shape just in time for the post-season $ircuit. Stephen Kiprotich is in the field as well. Last year’s race was legendary. *LRC Kenenisa Bekele Holds Off Mo Farah In One Of The Most Thrilling Road Races In History – 2013 BUPA Great North Run
(Lord) Seb Coe Will Play A Key Role In The Bupa Great North Run Millionth Finish Celebrations 1,000,000 finishers over 30 years.
Edna Kiplagat Leads Bupa Great North Run Women’s Field

Oscar P – Closing Arguments

Mid-D Stuff: Nick Willis’ Michigan Track Classic Is Sunday *Full Fields

Stacked Fields Set For Sunday’s Michigan Track Classic: Nick Willis: “We’re trying to show another side of racing where it’s a spectator sport, not an event to sign up to race.” link fixed Willis has organized a great event as he faces Nate Brannen, Garrett Heath and Cory Leslie in the men’s mile. Women’s 800 has Ajee Wilson, Morgan Uceny and Kate Grace.
*Willis Hoping To Bounce Back For A Fast Mile In Michigan After Disappointing Commonwealth Games Willis got 3rd, but was upset that his tactics put him in a spot where he had no shot to win. He’s talking fast times for this weekend.
Great Read And Race Video: Donnie Cowart Blogs About His First Sub-4 Minute Mile, Which Came At The Sir Walter Miler After Being Sick And Vomiting For The 24 Hours Beforehand Cowart titles his blog “A 15 Year Journey To 4 Minutes” which started with a 5:29 in 8th grade, progressed to a 4:22 as a senior and a 4:04 as a college senior and now has reached a 3;58.43.
*LRC Archive: We Called Cowart “The Happiest 4th Place Guy In History” After The Steeple At The 2012 Olympic Trials
Good Read: Alysia Montano’s Journey As A Running Mom-To-Be During her 26th week of pregnancy she beat her husband (a sprinter) in a mile with a 5:40.
Louis Zamperini Memorial Slideshow Photos spanning his whole life from childhood, to running in the Olympics, to war and even hugging Angelina Jolie.
*Watch The Trailer For “Unbroken”

UK News: Commonwealth Drama Continues On Twitter

UK Distance Runners Lynsey Sharp And Andy Vernon Get In Fight Over Twitter Their exchange led to Sharp calling him “Andy Vermin” and Vernon saying, “I don’t use a drip to get my medals.”
40-Year-Old Jo Pavey Not Ruling Out Competing In The Next Commonwealth Games In 4 Years
IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Interviews UK’s World Indoor 60m Champ Richard Kilty
UK Sport Thinks They’re On Course To Break “Post-Hosting Olympic Record” By Winning More Medals In Rio 2016 Than They Did In London 2012

European Champs Start August 12th Schedule Entry List

France’s Pole Vault WR Holder Renaud Lavillenie Going For 3rd Consecutive European Title He says that if he wins there, his winning streak will be at 20. We counted 22 on tilastopaja, but we guess he probably knows better than we do.
European Champs Sprints Preview
*Entry List Mo Farah is listed in the 5K/10K.

Hurdling News / Sex Sells

Eurosport Writer Upset That Australia’s “Jiggling” Hurdler Michelle Jenneke Overshadows Sally Pearson We disagree that Pearson was “overshadowed.” We read a ton about her win and dispute with the Aussie head coach. We didn’t come across anything on Jenneke and didn’t realize she actually finished 5th until reading this article.
*LRC Archive: Michelle Jenneke , the savior of track and field
Scottish Media: “Five Lies About Stage-Bomber Genevieve LaCaze” LaCaze’s closing ceremony antics definitely got her some attention from the Scottish media/men.
Lolo Jones Tweets About Nightmare That She Lost Her Abs

IAAF Recap Of Ibero-American Championships Colombian Rafith Rodriguez won the 800 in 1:44.77.

Our Weekly Recap

WTW Commonwealth Games Awards, Sportsmanship At Its Finest, Ryan Vail > Mo Farah, Is Shalane Too Old, And Steve Hooker’s Wife Gets Busted This week we throw our British visitors a few bones by handing out Commonwealth Games praise and showing the Brits exactly where they are superior to Americans, before reversing course and saying how Ryan Vail > Mo Farah. Along the way, we wonder if Shalane Flanagan is too old to get the AR and talk a lot about Steve Hooker’s wife / a Russian beauty getting busted. Plus, track promotion at its finest in NC, where Ford Palmer broke 4:00.

Meb Went To The White House

At State Dinner, Meb Got Seated At Obama And Carter’s Table Jimmy Carter asked Meb about cross training. Meb was sure to give props to ElliptiGo.

Interesting Profiles of Note

800 World Junior Champion Margaret Wambui Returns Home To Hero’s Welcome, Dedicates Win To Her Mom Their battle against poverty is inspiring. She and her mom work in the fields for $2.27 per day.
Alan Abrahamson: World Junior 100 Champ Kendal Williams Is A Sprinter We Can Believe In Abrahamson loves the fact that Williams comes from a close-knit two-parent family and went to a top-notch academic school. His dad said him doping is out of the question.
Shannon Rowbury Talks About How Her Training Is Different Under Al Sal Versus John Cook The volume on her hard days has nearly doubled and she has more easy days.
Profile Of Badwater Champ Harvey Lewis Lewis certainly is an endurance man. In the 5 days after winning, he also climbed Mt. Whitney and then ran Rim to Rim to Rim at the Grand Canyon.
*Doctors Give Out 10 Tips For Ultramarathon Success

News From Canada

Athletics Illustrated Takes A Long Look At 3:47.39, 8:07.95 And 14:08.93 Man Justyn Knight, Who Is Headed To Syracuse He should be a big addition to Chris Fox‘s program.
Canada’s 2:10:47 Man Dylan Wykes Will Run Toronto Marathon, 5 Days Before His Wife Is Expected To Give Birth To Their First Child

News From Kenya

Kenyan Paper: International Press “… was impressed by the improved communication skills and literacy levels of Kenyan athletes.” The Kenyans are pleased that their athletes now speak English better and no longer are the “butt” of social media jokes.
Kenyan Athletes Now Focused On African Championships, Which Run August 8-10
Athletics Kenya Wants There To Be An Investigation Of World Jr. Steeple Champ Ruth Jebet’s Switch To Bahrain

News On The Roads

58:47 Man Atsedu Tsegay Will Take On Defending Champ Philemon Limo Mattoni At The Usti nad Labem Half Marathon On September 16th
Interesting: Mathematical Analysis Used To Determine Projected Finishing Times Of The 5,624 Runners Who Were Stopped Early After The Bombings At The 2013 Boston Marathon There are a few methods and the most accurate seems to be the “nearest neighbor” algorithm, which compares your splits to years of past data to project the finishing time.
Go Figure: Competitor Group Event, “1/2 Of The Half Las Vegas” Sells Out Why a 6.5-mile race? Was the concept of a 10K too complicated for people?
Half Marathon On Monterey Bay In November Offering Added American-Only Prize Money And Bonuses To Olympic Trials Qualifiers
Another Article On Study Saying Men Pace Marathons Better Than Men Do
Pyongyang Marathon In North Korea Will Again Be Open to Foreigners Last year was the first time.

Phys.Org: Will A Human Ever Run 100m In Under Nine Seconds? They say it could eventually happen. But people say sub-2 hours in the marathon could happen too.

Oscar Pistorius’ Older Brother Carl In Intensive Care After Serious Car Crash

Genevieve LaCaze’s Stage-Bombing Performance At CGs Closing Ceremony Could Earn Her Appearance On Dancing With The Stars Sports bettors put her odds at $5 while they offer $7 for her to have a dance-off on TV with Michelle Jenneke.

African Distance News

Corruption Is Everywhere: Commonwealth 10,000 Champ Moses Kipsiro Bitter With Ugandan Athletics Federation Kipsiro says that there are a lot of politics involved protecting some corrupt officials and punishing Kipsiro for speaking out. Kipsiro actually wasn’t even on the Commonwealth Games team until the Uganda Olympic Committee intervened.
Edna Kiplagat And Mary Keitany Will Go Head-To-Head At Bupa Great North Run On September 7th Stephen Kiprotich leads the men’s field.
Extensive Interview With Kenya’s 1988 Olympic 5,000 And 5-Time World XC Champ John Ngugi

Once A Runner, Always A Runner

A Must Read: Follow-Up With Former University Of Alaska-Anchorage Runner Marko Cheseto, Who Had His Legs Amputated 3 Years Ago After Being Lost In The Snow For 3 Days Cheseto is a runner again as he has “cheetah” prosthetics and is training to make Kenya’s paralympic team in the 400, so far having run 50 seconds without any coaching.
*LRC MB Archive: UAA runner missing after snowstorm *UAA runner Marko Cheseto found *UAA runner Marko Cheseto has feet amputated *ESPN Documentary On UAA Runner, Marko Cheseto.

Jenn Suhr’s Pole Snapped In Practice

MB: Suhr is hurt as a result. Video below.

Several Events That Don’t Need To Exist Are Happening Soon

Team USA Athletes Ready To Make Their Mark At Youth Olympic Games Aug. 20-26 In China
79 US Athletes Are Set To Compete In The 2014 NACAC U-23 Championships, Aug. 8-10 Michigan’s Erin Finn is in the 5,000.

Random News Of Note

Pierre-Ambroise Bosse Talks About Racing In A Soccer Jersey In Paris His timing was a bit off as the French were eliminated from the World Cup the day before.
New Zealand Athletics World Mourns Loss Of 91-Year-Old Joe McManemin – Chief Architect Of Auckland’s Bid For The 1990 Commonwealth Games
Team Honda Wins Second-Straight Towada Hachimantai Ekiden Title In Japan
Paula Radcliffe Will Fly In To Bud’s Run 5k To Support Bud Baldaro Baldaro, the former Univ of Birmingham (UK) coach, has Parkinsons.
Papa New Guinea Wrestler Cleared Of Sexually Assaulting A Man In Supermarket Toilet At Commonwealth Games We certainly praise the Scots for a speedy trial as the incident took place on July 21.

European News

UK Hepathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Pulls Out Of European Champs With Inury Same injury that kept her out of Commonwealth Games.
British Javelin Record Holder Goldie Sayers Named Team Captain For European Champs
The Netherlands’ World Heptathlon Bronze Medalist Dafne Schippers Will Be Focused On The Short Sprints At Euro Champs She decided to focus on the 100/200 after she set two NRs over 2-hours at the Glasgow DL meet last month. There she ran 11.03 in the 100 and followed it up by beating Allyson Felix in the 200 with 22.34.
European Champs Hurdles Preview
Will Commonwealth Games Success Lead To Scottish Independence? Writer feels that success of the Games showed younger voters that Scotland is “capable of running its own affairs.”
RIP Hungary’s 1968 Olympic Javelin Champion Angela Nemeth

US News

A Look Back At The Top 4 Memorable Performances Of Jason Hartmann’s Career Hartmann recently retired and will coach at Saginaw Valley State University, a DII school in Michigan.
30 Years Ago Yesterday Joan Benoit Samuelson Won The First Women’s Olympic Marathon In 2:24.52
*Highlights Video
A Look At Staten Island’s New $93 Million Indoor Track Set to open in October, the facility has had several construction delays, including issues caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Camas Mayor Declares “Alexa Efraimson Appreciate Day”

Tuesday’s Distance Updates

Police Report Confirms That Four Ethiopian World Junior Athletes Defected From Their Home Country To Escape Civil Unrest Two of them have signed shoe contracts, one with adidas and the other with Nike.
Paula Radcliffe Slightly Critical Of Mo Farah’s Decision To Skip Commonwealths; Hopes Does Euro Champs Radcliffe: “I was surprised he took the decision to pull straight out of the 10,000m. … I looked at the likes of David Rudisha as someone who’s not quite where he wanted to be in terms of fitness but still risked it and he acquitted himself well.”
Coach Of NZ’s Robertson Twins, Zane And Jake, Defends Jake’s “Explosive Rant” At CGs Their coach thinks that they can eventually be world beaters and that Jake’s comments were blown up and just post-race frustration. He actually likes their anger, saying, “They’ve got a bit of tiger in them.” If you missed it, here is his rant on Nick Willis, Kenyan tactics and lapped runners.