Tracksmith Launches New Gear / Getting Rave Reviews

Tracksmith Launches Two New Limited Edition Singlets – The NYC and BQ Singlets The BQ singlet is for Boston qualifiers only – hobbyjoggers can’t even purchase them.

Tracksmith in the Press:

• Esquire: Retro Running Gear Made in the USA  Tracksmith has “a vintage cast, (but) the details are thoroughly modern.”
• Wired: A New Line of Running Gear for People Who Love Old-School Style “You could call Tracksmith the anti-Nike…The company’s products are high tech without looking high tech…”
• GQ: “Stylish gear reminiscent of Prefontaine-era track and field.”
• Runner’s World: “One of the items (the Longfellow short) will be a go-to piece for years.”
• Techcrunch: “When I first saw the clothes, my first thought was “Chariots of Fire”
• Acquiremag: “Each piece has been designed to be lightweight, luxurious, and classic.”
• Hypbeast: “Surely a brand to follow in the coming seasons”
• Uncrate: “Based at the halfway point of the Boston Marathon”
  
• Selectism.com: “Just running  in its most organic form.”

Marathon News

• Post-Chicago Interview With Bobby Curtis Curtis shares some of his key workouts and reveals that he’ll be running US XC Champs.

• Runners World: What’s The Optimal Temperature For Marathons The writer says optimal temps for elites is 43 degrees and has an interesting theory that Paris is on average actually faster than Chicago because of this. They argue the point was proven by Kenenisa Bekele’s slower Chicago time compared to Paris.
• Q&A With Haile Gebrselassie, Who Says He Thinks The 2-Hour Marathon Barrier Could Be Broken In 10 Years
• Yuki Kawauchi Wins Kitami Half Marathon In 64:33
• Daily Relay: 26 Thoughts On The Chicago Marathon
• WSJ: In A Post-Sandy City, NYC Marathon Trims Charity Slots Fewer charity runners and more modest fundraising projections.

More From The Weekend/Monday

• RRW Jordan Hasay Outlasts Caroline Rotich To Claim Tufts 10K Title Hasay won in 31:38.3 to Rotich’s 31:40.7, a fine showing for Hasay, who has a 31:39 track PR. A slew of other top Americans were in the field, including Jen Rhines finishing 12th in a new American Masters record of 32:32.6.
  *MB: Jordan Hasay wins Tufts 31:38.
  
• Joyce Chepkirui Beats Emily Chebet At Asics Grand 10K In Berlin After Ridiculously Close Finish They were both timed with 31:02, but Chepkirui was given the win after they both broke the tape. Ethiopia’s Kinde Atanaw won the men’s race (27:49).

• Kenenisa Bekele’s Training Partner Tilahun Regassa Wins Eindhoven Marathon In 2:06:21 The debut of Leonard Komon didn’t go well as he ran 2:14:25.
  *MB: Official Eindhoven Marathon Discussion Thread
• Kenyan Dominic Ondoro Defends His Title To Win Melbourne Marathon In 2:11:30 As Australia’s Nikki Chapple Won In 2:31:05
• IAAF Recap Chinese Track Championships: Xie Zhenye Breaks 200 NR With 20.47

• Weekend NCAA XC Recap: Not Much Action As Most Teams Prepare For Pre-Nats Next Week Providence men and New Hampshire women won New England Championships.
• Forham’s Quincy O’Connor And New Hampshire’s Elinor Purrier Are DI XC Athletes Of The Week Purrier won New England Champs as O’Connor won NYC Metropolitan Champs. American International’s Mike Biwott is the DII athlete of the week for 3rd time this year (he also won New Englands).
• DyeStat Weekend HS XC Coverage: Alex Ostberg Joins Edward Cheserek As Only Two Preps Under 12 Minutes At Van Cortlandt Park Eritrean immigrant Weini Kelati won the top women’s race, but Jessica Lawson in the “C” race actually had a faster time by 2 seconds. Teamwise, FM boys and girls won easily.

Friday Press Conference: Kenenisa Bekele On The 2-Hour Marathon: “A human being can not go that (fast).” Kenenisa Bekele, the world’s most credentialed distance runner, says we’ll see a 2-hour marathon “if the scientists create different human beings.” His agent Jos Hermens is much more optimistic.

Updated 2:05pm Saturday
LRC What Marathon Racing Shoes Are The Pros Wearing In Chicago? What shoes do the pros race in? We tried to find out. Kenenisa Bekele, the world’s greatest distance runner, said, “The yellow ones.”

Training Article/Vid Of Week: Christo Landry With 150-Mile Week & 32-Mile Long Run Ready To Rock Chicago

LRC Hansons-Brooks Teammates Bobby Curtis And Jake Riley Ready For Chicago Curtis is hoping his 27:24 10k translates to a sub-2:10 marathon and Riley anticipates his debut.

Doping News

• USADA Head Travis Tygart Says Justin Gatlin Deserves Second Chance “If somebody commits a violation, serves a ban and comes back to the sport, part of the rule is this idea of redemption.” As for steroids helping one forever, he says, “you have to be cautious about changing the goalposts in the middle of the game based on a few sound-bites in the press from one paper on mice.”
• Justin Gatlin Mystified As To Why He’s Getting So Much Backlash For Being Nominated For Athlete Of The Year “I’m sad to say that a lot of people out there feel that, ‘Once a doper, always a doper.’ But that makes no sense. That means you don’t believe your system is working.”
• Doper Matthew Kisorio Says He’s Going To Go For Half Marathon World Record Next Weekend

• Wilson Kipsang And Geoffrey Mutai Want To Break Mutai’s 2:05:06 NYC Marathon CR Mutai will be going for his 3rd victory in NYC, but will face stiff competition from the former WR holder.
• Standard Chartered Marathon In Kenya Nets Almost $2 Million In Sponsorship Money 25,000 runners are expected to run this year.

Fan Voting Open For Jesse Owens And Jackie Joyner-Kersee Athletes Of The Year A lot of distance runners on the list: Jenny Simpson, Molly Huddle and Emma Coburn for women, Meb Keflezighi, Galen Rupp, Evan Jager and Christo Landry for the men.

Somewhat Interesting Reads

• Good Read: Spikes Mag Takes A Look At The Amazing Life Of Alfred Gilbert – The Man Who Invented The Pole Vault Box If you like this man who helped save Xmas in America, then read this piece on him from 2012.
• Parents: New Study Shows Excercise Boosts Kids’ Brains
• With More Than 50% Of Racers Being Women, Do Women-Only Races Still Have A Purpose?
• Article On How Tim Noakes Is Now Advocating A “Low-Carb, High-Fat With Modest Protein Intake” Diet His book, the Real Meal Revolution, isn’t yet out in the US.
• A Day In The Life Of … Sally Gunnell – The Only British Woman To Win World, Olympic, European And Commonwealth Titles The 48-year-old former WR holder gives motivational speeches these days.
• Oklahoma State Is Using The Fact They Are A Rare School That Will Let Football Stars Run Track As A Recruiting Tool Running back Tyreek Hill was 5th in the NCAA 200 last year indoors.
• London 2012 Ticket Director Says Olympics Needs To Change Policy On Ticket Sales “The problem is that the current Olympic business plan for selling tickets doesn’t recognise the existence of the internet.”

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.