Nick Symmonds’ Book Is Out Today

LRCBook Review: Life Outside The Oval Office, By Nick Symmonds

Unreal: Oscar Gets 5 Years Just 10 Months

• Sentence Finally In: Oscar Pistorius Gets Five Years For Killing Reeva Steenkamp Lawyers say he is expected to serve between 10 and 20 months of the sentence behind bars and the rest on house arrest. The judge also gave Pistorius a 3-year suspended jail sentence for the firearm charge. *Discuss
• BBC: Steenkamp Family Say Through Lawyer That “Justice Was Served” Article includes embedded twitter reactions to the sentence.
• Reactions To Oscar P Sentence: Prosecution Say They Have An “Appetite” To Appeal, But Are Studying Whether There Are Grounds To
• National Prosecuting Authority Spokesman Says They Have 14 Days To Appeal, But Haven’t Decided Yet He also said he believes South Africa will be satisfied with Oscar P’s sentence.

RIP Czech 1968 Olympic HJ Champ Miloslava Rezkova-Hubnerov
*IAAF Obit

 This Weekend’s Road Action

• 21-Year-Old Abraham Cheroben Wins Valencia Half In World-Leading 58:48 Cheroben moves to 5th fastest in history but wasn’t satisfied as he thought warmer-than-ideal conditions kept him from the WR. “I’m convinced I can break the 58-minute barrier.” Kenneth Kipkemoi was second in 59:01. Doper Matthew Kisorio pushed the pace and ran 59:50. 2-time World XC winner Emily Chebet won the women’s race in a course record of 1:08:01. No info on Patrick Makau.
• Bernard Kipyego (2:06:22) And Ethiopia’s Betelhem Moges (2:28:35) Claim Victory In Amsterdam Three time defending champ Wilson Chebet was a DNF after 30k, two-time world champ Abel Kirui was 5th in 2:09. The women’s race went out in 1:12:40 but came home slower. Burundi’s Diane Nukuri Johnson got a new national record of 2:29:35 for third. *The Standard
• Laban Korir (2:08:15) & Mulu Seboka (2:23:14) Win 2014 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (updated with article) Korir has a 2:06:05 PR.; it was the third win on the year for Seboka. Canadian Eric Gillis PRed at 2:11:22.
  *MB Thread
• Beijing Marathon Runners Don Masks To Cope With Hazardous Smog The US Embassy said the conditions were “hazardous” but the race went on.
  *Girmay Birhanu Gebru Of Ethiopia Wins Beijing In 2:10:42 Without Mask He has a 2:05:49 PR. Fatuma Sado won the women’s race in 2:30:03.
  *Video: Is Beijing The World’s Unhealthiest Marathon? As runners cross the finish line, you can see they were visibly affected by the smog.
  *IAAF Recap
  *MB Joker: Galen Rupp to make marathon debut in Beijing in 2015

• Kenyans Joel Kimutai (61:39), Polline Wanjiku (70:48) Get Upset Wins At Bupa Great North Birmingham Run 26:51 man Emmanuel Bett only ran 62:33 and Linet Masai only 71:45 in her 13.1 debut.
  *IAAF Recap
• Future Star? 3:39 1,500 Runner Kota Murayama Front-Runs And Gets Fastest-Ever Japanese Win (58:26) At Yosenkai 20k – The World’s Deepest 20k

International Stuff

• Amantle Montsho Seeing Psychologist For Counseling To Deal With Positive Drug Test Montsho has asked for a hearing and the Botswana Athletics Association hopes her case will be done in the next two months.
• Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton Prepping For Euro XC Champs And Hoping To Regain The Title She Lost Last Year When She Was 4th Her attitude about World XC was disappointing as she said, “I’d like to do the world cross-country but it’s in China. It’s not like just going over to Poland.” Does she know where 2015 Outdoor Champs are?
• UK 41-Year-Old Jo Pavey Targeting Her Fifth Olympic Games In Rio 2016 Pavey had thought about retiring after this year, but then she medaled at Commonwealth Games and Euro Champs and that changed her mind.
• Chaos At Indian Marathon As Leaders Miss Turn And Take Bus To The Finish Line The top 3 were taken off course by the lead vehicle and ran 4K in the wrong direction. Apparently they borrowed money from spectators for the bus, but we don’t know why the lead car couldn’t take them.

NCAA XC Action *Pre-Nats Results *Wisconsin Results *All NCAA Results

LRC #1 Colorado Men Crush #2 Oregon, #4 Georgetown Upsets #1 Michigan Women (Results) Edward Cheserek and Rachel Johnson were your individual winners. Colorado had 6 in the top 14.
*Official Pre-Nats Discussion Thread

LRC Instant Analysis Of Men’s Race At 2014 adidas Wisconsin: Syracuse Puts On A Clinic And Arrives On The National Stage Chris Fox‘s harriers showed the nation how pack running is done as they had five finishers within 14 seconds, all in the top 24, as they dominated the 18 other ranked teams and got the win. *Official 2014 adidas Wisconsin Discussion Thread

Journalism At Its Finest – A Highly Recommended Read: 

If You Read One Thing Today, Let It Be This: For Former AR Holder And World #1, Tyke Peacock, It’s Been A Long Road Back From Drug Addiction And Prison Peacock was the AR holder in 1983 in the HJ and on top of the world. A year later, he reveals that he purposely bombed out of the OTrials as he knew he wouldn’t pass the drug test. Prison soon was on the horizon but a judge gave him lenience 4 years ago and he’s been sober ever since.

Stuff Worth Reading

• MB: Alan Webb’s switch to the triathlon gets featured in the NY Times
  *MB: Alan Webb AND Lukas Verzbicus in last World cup in korea this weekend
• Finally Having Fun: Brent Vaughn Finds New Perspective As A Pro Who Works Construction And Raises A Family Versus Just Running
• ESPN Takes A Look At Bob Schul’s Gold – 50 Years After The Fact – And His Amazing 1964 Track Season Schul is still the only American to ever win Olympic 5,000 gold.
• American Mile Legend Steve Scott Being Treated For Prostate Cancer Scott, the former AR holder in the mile, broke four 137 times in his career.
  *Steve Scott’s Cancer Gets Article In LA Times
• Q&A With Amy Hastings After Her 5th-Place Showing In Chicago She says she actually had some better workouts before NYC last year when she bombed 2:42 versus the 2:27 she ran in Chicago.
• Interesting Q&A With Japanese Running News’ Brett Larner About His Website And Role In The Running World
• Cemetery Holding Road Races On Grounds To Attract New Clients
• Eugene Register-Guard Takes A Look At Nick Symmonds’ Life Outside The Oval Office

Kenyans Making News

• Cool Stuff: 5-Time World XC And 1988 Seoul Olympic 5,000m Champion John Ngugi Has Been Coaching HSers In Britain For The Past Week
• Ezra Sang, Caroline Kilel Win Masai Mara Half Marathon In Kenya
• Another Kenyan – Edwin Rutto – Is Starring At St. Benedicts HS In NJ (Same School As Cheserek) Rutto is already a sub-16 performer at Holmdel.

Random

• Exercise May Lower Depression Risk By 19 Percent
• Alan Abrahamson Thinks Surfing Should Be Part – A Big Part – Of Summer Olympics

Oscar P Sentencing

• Prosecutor Nel Demands 10 Years Jail For Pistorius – Sentencing Will Come Tuesday
• Columnist Is Irate Some Want Us To Pity Poor Oscar Pistorius, Who Has Had His CV Ruined

News From The UK

• American Rana Reider’s “Sacking” As British Coach Is Crazy, Says Martyn Rooney UK Athletics denies that the man who guided the Brits to unprecedented sprint success this year was sacked – says he’ll still freelance for them.
• Stephen Maguire To Lead Sprint Relay Program In UK Starting Jan. 1
• Steve Cram Looks On As His Daughter Josie Gets 4th Out Of 333 At Start Fitness North East Harrier League XC Meet

Week That Was

LRC All Hail Emily Sisson, Quenton Cassidy, Kenenisa Bekele, Eliud Kipchoge And Rita Jeptoo, Find Us Some Steroids, Bad Marathon Coverage, And Proof That Road Races Are Too Expensive We break down Chicago 2014 for you some more and refuse to go negative about Kenenisa Bekele. We also try to highlight some action that was overshadowed by Chicago last week – including a great run by Emily Sisson and wins by Quenton Cassidy and Josh McDougal. Then we wonder if we should get on steroids, complain about the price of road races (in Kenya) and tell you how Japanese running is being overrun by Kenyans and Ethiopians.