October 02, 2014 Homepage Archive

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Archived Homepage For October 02, 2014

Quote Of The Day

“I remember as if it were yesterday. I can also recall every step and that does not dim. I remember what the weather was like, who I was competing against, and even incidents in the race.”

“That day changed my life forever. Many times I thought it was the worst things I ever did, but for the most part it was the best thing I ever did.”

“I did not know I was capable of running this time in the marathon. I did not wear a watch and did not know what the record was.”

– Welshman Steve Jones talking about the 2:08:05 WR he set in Chicago 30 years ago. Even at mile 23, he had no idea he was on record pace. When he finished, he thought he might have set the course record, not the WR. The 2014 Bank of America Chicago Marathon is next week.

LRCWeekend XC Preview: Notre Dame Invitational, Washington Invitational Headline Action

Notre Dame has an extremely deep men's field (10 of the top 25, led by #10 BYU), but the best race of the weekend is Saturday in Seattle, where half of the men's top 10 (#2 NAU, #5 Portland, #6 Stanford, #7 Indiana, #9 Villanova) will square off. The women's races aren't as strong, but #3 Oregon vs. #4 Stanford at Washington should be compelling, ~~with a potential debut from Stanford's Aisling Cuffe.~~ In other action, the #6 FSU women trek up to Paul Short to face #5 Georgetown while the #1 Colorado men race at the Rocky Mountain Shootout.
*Aisling Cuffe Out For Most (Or All) XC Season With A Stress Fracture According to this blog post by one of the Stanford men.

Week That Was

WTW All 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.

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

Kimetto (And Mutai) Get Hero’s Welcome In Kenya

Dennis Kimetto Receives Hero’s Welcome, Sucks Down Some Fermented Cow’s Milk, On Return To Kenya

More News From Kenya:

Doper Matthew Kisorio Will Race For 1st Time Out Of Country In Return At Valencia Half Marathon On Oct. 19
Spikes Mag Catches Up With Kenyan Road Racer Margaret Wangari Muriuki She shares a funny anecdote about struggling on the police firing range with Asbel Kiprop, whom she claims isn’t a good shot. She also talks about being chased by a family dog when staying with a host family at a road race.

Crazy 800 At Asian Games

All Three Medalists Disqualified In Men’s 800m On Day Of Controversy At Asian Games Two lane violations and an obstruction so the medalists finished 4th, 5th, and 6th. Agar Almntfage of Iraq celebrated like he actually earned it.
*6th Placer Who Ended Up Third: “I was sad for the disqualified three guys.”

Margarita Mukasheva Wins Women’s 800 In 1:59.02 India NR holder Tintu Luka held on for silver after going out in 1:27.43.

Random

Asian Games News

Yuki Kawauchi Wants Gold In Friday’s Asian Games Marathon The favorite is Ethiopian born Shumi Dechasa, who won the Hamburg Marathon in May with a personal best 2:06:43.
*Kawauchi Could Secure Olympic Spot With Top 8 Finish If he wins, he’s on the 2015 World Championships team. To lock up an Olympic spot, he only has to be top Japanese and top 8. Go figure.
Ehsan Hadadi Wins 3rd Straight Discus Title – Iran’s First Gold Of Asain Games In the rounds of the 400H, Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya got her second Games record by running 55.09.
*Chinese Athletes Win The Three Other Golds Given Out At Asian Games
5 Of 1st 7 Golds At Asian Games Awarded In Non-Walking Events Went To African-Born Athletes

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

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

News From Kenya

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.