October 01, 2014 Homepage Archive

Behind The Scenes At Colorado

LRC Feature The Wetmore Formula Those who know him best insist there aren’t any secrets to Mark Wetmore’s success as a distance coach. Yet few can match his accomplishments. How does he do it? We go back to his Bernard High roots in the 1970s and do our best to explain. Chris Lear has read this piece and loved it: “This is why I go to letsrun. Thanks for the read.”

Discuss On The MBoard: LetsRun.com Investigates: What Makes Mark Wetmore So Special?

LRC The Gunslingers Of Boulder Mitch Kastoff catches up with the defending champs, who return everyone from last year and then some, and finds a very confident group.

Sprint/Field Event News

Justin Gatlin Says Focus Will Be On 100, But Eyes 19.4 In 200 In 2015
*Gatlin Says He Partied With Bolt In Brussels
Lauryn Williams “Playing With The Idea” Of Bobsled This Season, But Is 100% Done With Track And Field Williams, who didn’t compete in track at all this year, had thought she’d retired from both sports.
Yelena Isinbayeva Gave Birth To Her Daugther In Monaco, Hopes To Return To Russia Soon She calls her daughter the “biggest victory” of her life.
Dai Greene Has Dumped His Coach – Colin Jackson Backs Greene’s Decision

Post-Berlin: And So The Talk Of Sub-2 Hours Begins

RR: Excellent Blog Post From Marathon Coaching Guru Renato Canova: “The ‘2:03:00 Wall’ Finally Falls Down” Canova gives a nice analysis of Kimetto’s WR as well as who he expects can break the WR next and how fast they can run. He thinks it’s not long until someone can run 2:02:23.
*MB: Renato Canova QOD – He’s right but wrong (Kebede and Korir came from behind, Wanjiru, not Geb attacked in ’08)
Wilson Kipsang Says He’s Happy For Dennis Kimetto Breaking His Record, But Thinks He Can Still Run Faster And It Can Soon Be Under 2:02 Kipsang: “If I get a chance, I want to return to the same course in Berlin in 2015 … I believe I can run faster. That record can be brought down to under two hours and two minutes.”
NY Times Writer Thinks We’ll See It In Our Lifetime If the current trend continues, the sub-2 hour mark would go down in a decade or two. We still say no way.
LRC Archive: The Myth Of The Sub-2-Hour Marathon
Interesting Marathon WR Analysis From Guy Who Predicted Back In 1991 That Someone Might Break 2 Hours Before 2040 He talks about the ideal conditions for a marathon WR attempt, but financial incentives, course and weather conditions.
Kimetto Warns Rivals To Expect Another Decade Of His Marathon Virtuosity Will he get the Masters WR too?
RW’s Roger Robinson Explains Why Dennis Kimetto’s WR Wasn’t All That Historic And That We’re Still Not Close To A Sub-2 Hour Marathon He also asks why women’s marathoning hasn’t progressed like men’s.
Kimetto And Emmanuel Mutai Both Think Sub-2 Hours Is Possible
Cool Event:Kid Relay Runners Have A New Goal Of 2:02:57 Thanks To Kimetto Teams around the world complete the challenge to break the record with kids running 200m each. Apparently one school has already run 1:59:24.

Previous Asian Games

IAAF Asian Games Day 3 Recap: Mutaz Essa Barshim Wins HJ In Meet Record With 2.35m Barshim’s younger brother Muamer took bronze. Disgraced doper Rachid Ramzi won silver in the 1,500 as Qatar’s Moroccan-born Mohamed Al-Garni won. Maryam Jamal (formerly Ethiopia) won the 1,500 in 4:09. Qatar’s Abubaker Ali Kamal (just finished a 2-year EPO ban last month) won the steeple in 8:28.72.

Week That Was

WTWAll Hail Larry Rawson And Dennis Kimetto, Sub-2 Here We Come, Shalane And Emmanuel Win By Losing, Rupp's Medal Chances Go Up, & Proof Runners Are Crazy

Last week was a momentous week with Dennis Kimetto breaking the 2:03:00 marathon barrier. We take another look at that, compare Tsegaye Kebede to all American marathoners ever, praise Shalane Flanagan, like Galen Rupp's medal chances, and tell you why runners are officially crazy.

Women’s Distance News

German Marathon National Record Holder Irina Mikitenko Retires, Says Farewell To Her Glorious Career The 42-year-old was 3 times top 5 at Worlds in the 5,000 without medaling but then found 2:19:19 glory in the marathon at age 36 just months after missing the Beijing Games due to injury. She ran 2:24 last year at age 41.
Great Read: Runners World Catches Up With Marla Runyan People under the age of 25, if you don’t know who Runyan is, read this. Recruited as a high jumper for college, she became a heptathlon star. Then she moved to the 800 and quickly to the 1,500 where she made the Olympics. Then she made the Olympic team at 5,000 and was soon 4th in NY at 26.2. And here’s the kicker – she’s legally blind.
Running Times Looks At The Remarkable Success Of Matt Roe’s Butler Bulldogs They had a MAGICAL 2013 as they got 3rd at NCAAs and they have just six women’s scholarships. That’s what we call coaching. How he wasn’t coach of the year is beyond us.
Lisa Uhl Blogs About Her Debut Marathon Next Weekend In Chicago Before her struggles, she thought she’d be going for the American debut record. Now she knows that’s not realistic but she’s fine with that as she’s “realized that the best way to think about this marathon is to go back to the basics, just like how I became an Olympian – through small steps and consistency and focusing on getting the most out of myself instead of comparing myself to others.”
After Earning Bronze At Commonwealths, Kate van Buskirk Is Now Getting Ready For 2015 Pan Am Games In Her Native Toronto
Michigan St. Is Now #2, Michigan #1 In NCAA Rankings, 1st Time 2 Teams From Same State Have Been 1-2
Thank You For Being Beautiful: Nick Symmonds’ Book Excerpt: Symmonds Took Up XC So He Could Hang With A Hot Girl In 8th Grade
*Daily Relay – 5 Takeaways From Symmonds Book
*Symmonds Doesn’t Name Names In His New Book You can google and figure it out but they aren’t named specifically.
Kelly Holmes, Who Started At Age 14 And Believed She’d Be Olympic Champ, Is Focused On Her Foundation’s Work Now
*Holmes’ “Get On Track” Trust Helped 26-Year-Old With Criminal Record Get A Job
Good News, Ladies: Study: Gender Equality Leads To More Olympic Medals For Men And Women Countries with greater parity – particularly for measures of educational equality – had more women and men reach the podium, irrespective of GDP.

News From The UK

Gebrselassie Headlines Great Scottish Run As Jo Pavey Pulls Out Geb’s competition includes former Iona runner Stephen Chemlany. *Start Lists
2:15 Marathoner Andi Jones Of GBR Has Moved To Qatar
Usain Bolt-Signed Vest And Spikes Signed By Jessica Ennis-Hill Among Items Being Auctioned To Raise Money For Parkinson’s UK As Part Of Bud’s Run & Bash Bud’s Run is the creation of coach Bud Baldaro, who was diagnosed in 2009.
Larry Eder Raves About Tom Bedford’s Richmond Running Festival In London

News From Kenya

Nick Symmonds’ Autobiography Out Next Month *Excerpt

RRW: Q&A With Nick Symmonds On His New Book, “Life Outside The Oval Office: The Track Less Traveled” Symmonds talks about the writing process and what kinds of things he included in the book. He also says he’s 100% healthy and training great. He’d like to run a 5,000 and 1,500 this spring, but his next race on the track will be a beer mile.
MB: Nick Symmonds book excerpt, you’re gonna want to read this!
Symmonds Talks With ESPN About His Autobiography And Says There Were Punches Thrown At USATF He said USATF was not sent an advanced copy of the book: “They can buy a copy and I’ll take my royalty.”
Excerpt From Symmonds Book

Berlin MarathonPhoto GalleryComplete Coverage Here *Berlin Results

2:02:57 World Record for Dennis Kimetto in the Marathon

LRC Dennis Kimetto 2:02:57: The 2:03:00 Barrier In The Marathon Is Gone Dennis Kimetto and Emmanuel Mutai put on a marathoning exhibition on the streets of Berlin and both broke the previous world record in the marathon and Kimetto was rewarded with a 2:02:57, the first sub-2:03:00 ever. *Video Highlights

Berlin Photo Gallery Updated Again
(Shalane Drinks The Big Beer)

Worth A Read?

Administrative News

No Excuses: WADA Releases List Of Banned Substances For 2015
We’ll Host It: Alan Abrahamson: IOC Will Give $880 Million To Host Of 2022 Winter Games
B.A.A. To Review Boston Marathon Registration Process Since 1,900 Qualifiers Found Out They Actually Hadn’t Qualified Either have a qualifying time or don’t.

Bizarre

Lonely Wife Marathoner Recounts How She Used Rage, Sexual Frustration, Cigarettes And Wine To Train For Her First Marathon In terms of actual training, she did just 15 to 25 per week. *Discuss
42-Year-Old New Zealand Barefoot Runner Hoping To Set 24 Hr. And 100km Guinness Records This Weekend

More NCAA Collegiate XC Analysis

LRC Emma Bates Struggles, Alexa Efraimson Collapses, All Hail Southern Utah And Watch Out For … Furman? Seven Thoughts On XC’s First Big Weekend We give you the scoop on the key XC results from last weekend. Along the way, we also talk about the men of Oklahoma State and Providence.

More: Updated Division I XC Regional Rankings After First Week Of The “Real” Season
Shelby Houlihan And Southern Utah’s Nate Jewkes Are DI Athletes Of The Week After Theirs Race At Roy Griak
High School: Big Upset As #17-Ranked Elmira Girls Beat #1 Nationally-Ranked Fayetteville-Manlius By 4 Points At McQuaid Invitational Unranked Shenendehowa was only another 4 points back in 3rd.

Washed Up Or Coming Back?

Moses Mosop Released From Contract With International Athletics Consultancy The IAC director says, “I have no doubt that Moses can still compete with the best our sport has to offer, only if this was his priority. … Moses has shown disappointing lack of commitment to his training and professional conduct.” Apparently Mosop also broke his contract by entering a race in Italy set for October 11th.
Former Marathon World Record Holder Patrick Makau Will Race Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Half Marathon On October 19th

Berlin Women

LRC Deena Kastor’s American Record Survives As Shalane Flanagan Runs 2:21:14, 2nd-Fastest Time Ever By An American, For Third At 2014 BMW Berlin Marathon Shalane Flanagan went for the AR in Berlin, but paid the price the second half. She was rewarded with a PR and the #2 time ever by an American and a third place finish as Tirfi Tsegaye (2:20:18) and Feyse Tadese (2:20:27) went 1-2 with PRs in front of Flanagan. *Video Highlights
*Shalane Flanagan Has No Regrets After Missing U.S. Marathon Record “We went big. I don’t race conservatively. We’d come to test our limits and we found out today where it was.”