2014 Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Is Sunday

Thursday In Chicago: The Pros Do Matter: Carey Pinkowski Honored For 25 Years As Race Director, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Talks Dennis KimettoWhen the mayor talks about Dennis Kimetto, it’s a good day for LRCers. Marathon fever is officially in Chicago.

LRC Men’s Preview:Kenenisa Bekele And Eliud Kipchoge Clash Again – Is It Time To Say Bye-Bye To World Record Holder Dennis Kimetto’s 2:03:45 Course Record? Last year’s Chicago race was truly special as Dennis Kimetto and Emmanuel Mutai waged an epic battle that resulted in the decimation of the course record. What will happen when Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele clash on Sunday?  Those two greats will be challenged by Tadese Tola (2:04:49 PR), Bernard Koech (2:04:53 PR), Sammy Kitwara (58:48 half marathon PR) and Dickson Chumba (Tokyo Marathon champ). The American field features 13:18/27:24 man Bobby Curtis (2:13:24 PR) and the red-hot Christo Landry (U.S. 10k road champ), but the biggest talker of all has been Matt Llano, who is dreaming of a 2:08 in his debut.

• Phil Hersh And The Chicago Tribune Take A Look At Why Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 Women’s Marathon World Record Is Still Untouchable 11 Years Later People under the age of 25, did you know that Paula set her first WR in Chicago in 2002 with some help from LetsRun.com?
• Becky Wade Withdraws From Chicago With Knee Injury She’s battled injuries all year long, racing only once, but a knee injury is the latest.
• Openly Gay American Matt Llano: “All along my main goal has been to run under 2:10.”

• IAAF Says It Had No Choice Over Justin Gatlin’s Nomination For AOY Award A spokesperson said, “Gatlin, as an eligible athlete who has had a great season is, logically, also eligible for consideration for the Athlete of the Year.”
• Former 800 WR Holder Wilson Kipketer Warns Of Dangers Of Athletes Switching Nationality This follows the Asian Games, where 14 of 22 running events were won by African-born athletes. Kipketer switched from Kenya to Denmark in 1990, but it took 7 years to become a full citizen and he wasn’t allowed to represent them at the 1996 Games.
• The Guardian Asks If Heel Striking Really Is “The Benchmark Of Poor Running Form” There is still a lot of debate on this topic and the sum of the article is there is no “no one-size-fits-all solution.” Switching from heel to forefoot striking isn’t necessarily going to make you faster or less injury prone.

US Distance Runners’ Q&As

• Nick Symmonds Q&A In Outside Magazine – He Wants To Set The WR Next Weekend Symmonds is getting ready for the Nick Symmonds Straight 800 – the only 800 road race in the country – where he’ll set the World Record on October 17.
• Q&A With Shalane Flanagan After She’s Taken 8 Days Off After Berlin Flanagan thinks she blew up the last 2k because she started to surge, trying to compete for 2nd place instead of grinding out the time.
• Q&A With Jordan McNamara, Who Reflects On His Breakthrough 2014 Season He’s enjoying his time off by staining the deck and flying his drone.
• Competitor.com Q&A: More Facts From US Marathon Champ Esther Erb Erb has been battling anemia so coach Terry Shea had her run less (90 mpw instead of 115) in this marathon cycle. Instead of the US champs, she considered trying to break 2:30 in Berlin.

Half Marathon News

• RRW 6 Story Lines For This Weekend’s BAA Half Marathon – Featuring Molly Huddle, Mamitu Daska, Betsy Saina, Mercy Wacera, Lelisa Desisa And Stephen Sambu A win by either Huddle, Daska or Sambu will result in $20,000 but the fields are stacked.
• The IAAF Should Hire The NYRR To Sell Sponsorships: 2015 United Airlines NYC Half – United Airlines And New York Road Runners Announce United As The Title Sponsor Of The NYC Half

Week That Was

LRCDavid Rudisha's Crazy-Fast High School, Middle School Love Denied For Ritz And Symmonds, All Hail Zap Fitness, And Don't Be Impressed By Marla Runyan's Blindness

LRCIdiot Runner Rescued Running Across Atlantic Ocean In A Bubble Claims His Rescue Transponder Went Off By Accident And Wants You To Donate To Get His Bubble Back

Eugene 2019, Doha 2019 Or Barcelona 2019?

• It’s Official – Barcelona, Doha And Eugene Have Bid For 2019 Worlds – IAAF Will Visit Eugene On Oct 26-27
• Sebastian Coe To Head IAAF Evaluation Commission For 2019 World Championships

•  Nike Has Hired More Than 2,000 Workers In Oregon In Last Year At Average Salary Of More Than $100,000 Each They had to hire at least 500 to get a tax break.
• “Basic Mistakes” On Bidding Delay Demolition Of Tokyo’s Old Olympic Stadium “There was a complaint about the process and it was recommended to us that we hold another round of bidding,”
• United States Olympic Museum Given $10 Million Grant Towards Construction

NCAA XC Review

LRC Elise Cranny Debuts, Patrick Tiernan Dominates, Stanford Looks Great On Paper, The Greatest Colorado Team Ever? Seven Thoughts On The Weekend’s XC Action We break down the action from last week for you. It was a challenging week for the Stanford women, but a big week for the UCLA, Michigan and Navy men. Along the way we introduce you to the Yankees of Canadian cross-country and wonder if we’ve finally found a challenger for Edward Cheserek.

•  More: New NCAA XC Rankings Are Out The only thing of note was the Indiana men plummeted from #7 to #23 and the UCLA men rose from #20 to #9.
  
• Updated D1 Regional Rankings: Wisconsin Men Reclaim Great Lakes Top Spot All other regions keep their #1 from last week.
• Villanova’s Patrick Tiernan And New Mexico’s Charlotte Arter Are DI Athletes Of The Week Tiernan dominated the Washington Invy by 20 seconds while Arter won Notre Dame by 10 seconds.
• UK XC: UKA’s Head Of Endurance Says Budget Issues Are Behind Decison To Only Send Athletes With “Top 30 Potential” To World XC Champs Yet they can afford to send full squads to other cross-country championships where they won’t have to compete with African nations.

US Distance News

• Interesting Read:Athletics Weekly Does Interesting Interview With Alberto Salazar About The Training Of Mo Farah And Galen Rupp Salazar talks about post-race workouts, mileage, Rupp and Farah not racing in practice, and not wanting Farah to do the marathon.
• Good Video Interview With Northern Arizona Elite’s Matt Llano About Coming Out As Being A Gay Athlete Llano is the only openly gay professional male distance runner we know of. He’s making his marathon debut at Chicago this Sunday and has talked about Ryan Hall‘s 2:08:24 American debut record.
  *MB: Who is Matt Llano and why does he think he can run 2:08?
  *MB: Can LR have a respectful conversation about Matt Llano’s announcement?
• Jim Ryun Wants To “Bring Back The Mile” To US High Schools Ryun: “If you say someone is a sub-4-minute Miler, they understand that. If they say someone is a sub-4-minute 1,600 meter runner, I think the response is going to be, ‘What’s that?'”