Archived Homepage For October 23, 2014
Archived Homepage For October 23, 2014
Quote Of The Day
– Professional tennis player Caroline Wozniacki talking about how her marathon training for the 2014 New York City Marathon helped her have the endurance to beat Maria Sharapova in a 3-hour and 15-minute tennis match.
Week That Was
LRC50 Years Waiting For American Gold, The Men's Marathon World Record Progression Is Speeding Up, Proof Track Isn't Popular In Eugene, Steve Scott's Cancer Battle And Jerome Drayton's Record Lives On
We recap the week of pro track and field: "Look at Mills, Look at Mills!," the marathon world record is dropping faster than ever,the Canadian marathon record lives on, a big week for Nick Symmonds, a bad week for Jeff Demps, and what about the OSU runner who flipped off Justin Gatlin?Plus we talk about Steve Scott's manhood battle with cancer.
Half Marathon News
- The Wall Street Journal Looks At The Meteoric Rise In The Popularity Of The Half-Marathon “The business plan wasn’t promising: Take a storied running event, chop it off in the middle and give it a name like a second-rate movie sequel. Yet the half marathon has become … the darling of amateur distance runners.”
- Should The Half Marathon Have A New Name? Should it be called “Pikermi” after a town in Greece that is about halfway between Marathon and Athens?
- Kenyan First Lady Margaret Kenyatta Launching Second “First Lady’s Half Marathon” To Raise Money For Better Healthcare The race will be on March 8th.
Other International Pro News
Road News
- Haile Gebrselassie Pulls Out Of Sunday’s Great South Run He says he’s had setbacks in his training which have forced him to pull out.
- Olympic Gold Medalist Cross-Country Skier Bill Demong Trying To Run 2:36 At New York City Marathon He’s wanted to run a marathon for a long time, but knows XC skiing fitness won’t necessarily make him fast.
Funny Picture Of The Indian Marathon Leaders Who Got Lost And Ended Up Running In Traffic They ultimately stopped running and took a bus to the finish line.- Family Of Runners: Five-Year-Old James Reed Runs 24:08 5K To Break Single-Age World Record He broke the previous record by 2:09 while his sister Lauren was in the same race and set a Georgia state record for 9-year-olds with 20:52. They also had their father and two other siblings in the race.
- Kenyans Hillary Yego And Nancy Joan Rotich Will Return To Defend Their Titles At The Athens Marahton On November 9th Yego will face Raymond Bett; both have 2:11 PRs.
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.
Domestic Pro News
- Big Money: Max King Wins Warrior Dash World Obstacle Championships
He took home $30,000 in prize money. Not bad for winning an obstacle race.
*Full Results10:069:51 steepler Kimber Mattox won the women’s race with Renee Baillie and Julia Webb 2nd and 3rd.
*King Beat Would-Be Sub-2 Hour Marathoner Hobie Call Pretty hilarious interview you might remember from a couple of years ago. - Ben Bruce Wins His Fourth Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon This Year In St. Louis Bruce won in 2:27:32 while Lindsey Scherf won the half in 1:17:30 and Scott Wietcha won the men’s in 1:05:51.
- In-Depth Interview With US Marathon Champion Tyler Pennel If you want to get to know the 2014 marathon champ who won in his debut (2:13:32), then this is a good place to start.
- Complex Opinion And Analysis Article: Should College Athletes Be Paid?
- Patrick Smyth And Maria Dalzot Win USATF Half Marathon Trail Championships
The Scientific Experts Agree With LetsRun.com
Recommended Read: Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker Agrees With LetsRun.com: “Two hours will not be broken in the next 30 years.” We don’t even have any scientific training – we just know distance running, but it’s nice to have the support of a scientific genius.
Good And Bad Administrative News
- The Good:Construction Work On Rio 2016 Olympic Park Progressing Well – Some Is Even Ahead Of Schedule
- The Bad: Morocco Says They Can’t Afford 2015 Pan Arab Games And Pulls Out With as few fans that showed up for the Continental Cup, it’s a good thing they aren’t hosting.
Marathon News: Frankfurt Is Sunday
- 2:04:32 Man Tsegaye Mekonnen Leads Field Of Ten Sub-2:09 Men For Sunday’s Frankfurt Marathon His top competition will be Vincent Kipruto (2:05:13). CR holder Meselech Melkamu (2:21:01) leads women’s field as she faces Aberu Kebede (2:20:30) and Sharon Cherop (2:22:28).
*2011 World Bronze Medalist And Two-Time Boston Winner Sharon Cherop Was A Late Entry To Frankfurt 
Caroline Wozniacki Credits Marathon Training For Tennis Endurance As She Defeats Maria Sharapova In 3-Hour, 15-Minute Match “I just feel like right now with all the training and running I’ve been doing …”- Marathon WR Holders Dennis Kimetto And Paula Radcliffe Will Race Montferland Run 15K On December 7th
- Australia’s Commonwealth Games Marathon Champ Michael Shelley Gives His Advice On “How To Win A Marathon”
- Yokohama International Women’s Marathon To Be Discontinued After This Year’s Race The race is being stopped due to financial difficulties and also likely the starting up for a mass-participation race, the Yokohama Marathon.
Doping News: Keeping Kenya In Check
- The Science Of Sport’s Ross Tucker: “What (Not) To Say When Doping Accusations Come Knocking” An interesting question. When dopers get caught, they all have the same lame excuses. So if you were ever truly wrongly accused, what should you say?
- AK Head Isaiah Kiplagat Says Kenyan Athletes Are Being Targeted Unfairly For Doping He goes on about how most Kenyans who have been caught are just victims of foreign coaches and doctors. Sports minister Hassan Wario, on the other hand, feels AK isn’t doing enough to fight doping.
- WADA Representitives Meet With Kenyan Government Officials To Discuss Development Of A Kenyan National Anti-Doping Organization
What Are You Drinking?
- Study Finds Sugary Sodas Appear To Contribute To Aging One 20-ounce can a day can lead to 4.6years of extra aging.
- Study Says That Red Bull Does Nothing To Improve Isometric Muscle Performance No difference in max force or muscular endurance compared to drinking a placebo.
More On Oscar P’s Five Year Sentence *See All Trial Coverage Here
Oscar Pistorius Banned From Competing At Rio 2016 Paralympics Even If He Is Let Out Of Jail Earlier He could, however, compete at Tokyo 2020.- Reeva Steenkamp’s Mother: No Closure “Unless You Can Magic Her Back” She also said it “didn’t matter” Pistorius could be out of prison after 10 months. “He’s going to pay something,” she said.
- AP Article With Reactions On Oscar P’s Sentence “He’s now set a precedent for future crimes. If a man wants to kill his wife, all he has to do is wait for her to go to the bathroom and shoot her through the door.”
- Telegraph On Oscar Pistorius: “Sport Afforded No Protection Against His Tragic Fallibilities”
Updated NCAA Rankings
- Men: Colorado Continues Streak As Unanimous No. 1 In Final Regular Season Coaches’ Poll Oregon stays #2 while Syracuse made a big jump up from 6th to 3rd and Iona from 14th to 5th. Previous #3 and last year’s runner-ups NAU move down to 10th.
- Women: Michigan State Emerges At No. 1 In Division I XC National Coaches’ Poll Previous #1 Michigan moves down to 4th while Georgetown moves up to 2nd.
NCAA XC Analysis
LRCWeekend XC Recap: How Low Can CU Go, Michigan State Makes A Statement, Syracuse's Podium Chances And A Wild Women's Individual Race
The two biggest races of NCAA cross-country's regular season - the adidas Wisconsin Invitational and the Pre-National Invitational - are in the books and they produced a ton of data for us to analyze. We make sense of it all and give you eight takeaways from the weekend's action.
- More: Ranking Update: Wisconsin & Pre-Nats Produce Significant Shift In DI Regional Rankings Michigan State moves ahead of Michigan in the Great Lakes region.
- Stanford’s Maksim Korolev And Iowa State’s Crystal Nelson Are DI Athletes Of The Week Korvolev and Nelson won their respective races at Wisconsin Invy.
- JapanRunningNews Compares The The Wisconsin adidas Invitational And The Hakone Ekiden Yosenkai 20K Road Race Some interesting analysis finds that the Japanese schools ran a faster average pace with more team members for a long distance. However, as the title admits, this is trying to “compare the incomparable.”
- DyeStat HS XC Weekend Recap
More Distance News
- IAAF Work, Rest And Play Interview With Nick Symmonds Symmonds says his least favorite workouts are long sessions like 1,000m to mile repeats or tempos. When he was with OTC, he used to run them with Sally Kipyego and she would run away from him.
Wow, Harsh Critics:Yuki Kawauchi Got Hate Mail After His Winning Bronze In The Asian Games Marathon He received mail at work addressed to the “civil shithead” and saying things like, “Never run the marathon again!”- Another Good Article On Jo Pavey, Who Had An Amazing Track Season As A 41-Year-Old Mom Even if you’ve been reading about Pavey all summer, this article has some new, interesting anecdotes including talking about her junior coach who is now blind, but still listened to her race on the radio.
- Kenyan Silas Cheboit Wins Gyeongju International Marathon In South Korea With 2:07:15 This was Cheboit’s 2nd marathon and he only had a 2:19 PR so had to pay for himself to get to the meet as he wasn’t an invited athlete.
- Edna Kiplagat Feels She Has More To Prove At The NYC Marathon Kiplagat: “The course is tough and the competition stiffer, but am not a weakling and will take my battle to them and see how fast we can go. I want to win in New York.”
- Germán Silva, George Spitz, Allan Steinfeld And Kathrine Switzer To Be Inducted In NYRR Hall Of Fame
Stars In the News
Maggie Vessey Talks To Spikes About Her Fashion-Conscious Race Outfits She started wearing them after getting dropped by New Balance.- Billy Mills Got Some Tips From A Guy Schooled In Arthur Lydiard Training Before His 1964 Gold
- Seb Coe Is Accused Of “World-Class Hypocrisy” As His Company Has Come Up With Plans To Demolish Athletics Stadium And Indoor Training Facilities At Crystal Palace
- London Olympic Gold Medalist Tiki Gelana Leads Yokohama International Women’s Marathon Elite Field On Nov. 16th
- Mary Keitany: “There is no way you can be lazy in training and still hope to become a champion.”
- Tegla Loroupe Wins Billie Jean King Contribution Award Loroupe is a former world record holder in the marathon who now promotes world peace.
Doping News From Kenya
- Govt. Slams Athletics Kenya For Not Taking Doping Problem Seriously – 17 Positives In 2 Years “It is the Taskforce’s view that the AK president was disrespectful, treated the matter lightly and in contempt and appears not to take doping matters and the allegations against the Kenyan athletes seriously.”
- The Winners Of This Year’s Madoka Half Marathon On Saturday Will Be Drug Tested
NXN Moving To New Course
- 2014 Nike Cross National Championships Will Be On Brand New Course For the first time in 11 years, NXN won’t be at the Portland Meadows horse racing track.
- DyeStat Article/Reaction FM coach Bill Aris: “I like this course. I think it’s a great improvement. We lose the hay bales, the mud, the pretender hills. This course affords a good challenge and covers a lot of bases.“
- Running Times Article
- Photo Gallery
- MB:NXN departing Portland Meadows
OP Updates
- Oscar Pistorius Spends His First Night In Jail He was placed in a single cell in the hospital wing where 8 other disabled inmates are held away form the regular prison population.
- SA Sports Minister: “For me, that [Pistorius’s conviction and sentence] was the end of the road of his journey … I do not think Oscar will be able to come back in terms of athletics.”
- Reeva Steenkamp’s Parents Say They Don’t Want “Revenge” On Oscar Pistorius Or For Him To Be Harmed, They Just Wanted A “Fair Punishment”
Miscellaneous
- Group Of Runners In South Carolina Hear Screams And Find Woman Who Had Been Missing For 4-Days She was found trapped in a ravine and had to be pulled out by rescue workers. Her parents say that someone put her there and “left her to die”.
- Academic Advisers At UNC Get Caught Encouraging Athletes To Take “Sham Classes” As GPA Boosters Apparently this went on over an 18-year period. One of the classes would let students write one 10-page paper in place of ever having to go to class or contribute to discussions.
- Flocasts Using Its Recent $8 Million In Funding To Expand Into Other Sports They might move into volleyball or lacrosse.
Nick Symmonds’ Book Is Out
LRCBook Review: Life Outside The Oval Office, By Nick Symmonds
The book by the 2013 World Championships silver medallist and third-fastest American of all-time at 800 (1:42:95) is out today. It's a good read. Symmonds is forthcoming and doesn't pull many punches, explaining what goes on at the Olympic Trials once the racing is over, why he pulled stunts such as asking Paris Hilton on a date or selling ad space on his left shoulder, and why he signed with Brooks in January. He even goes into (too much) detail about his love life.
Track Stuff
- Track Wins 3 Out Of 12 Awards At The Golden Podium Awards The competition highlights the best sports video sequences of the year. One of the awards was won by a video of the US’s 4 x 100 baton exchange at World Relay Champs. The three videos are here, here and here.
- IAAF Inside Athletics: Ato Boldon Interviews US’s 2004 Olympic 100H Champ Joanna Hayes
- Spikes Mag Gives A Quick Rundown Of The 6 AOY FinalistsDennis Kimetto, Mutaz Essa Barshim and Renaud Lavillenie for the men. Genzebe Dibaba, Valerie Adams and Dafne Schippers for the women.
- Special Seminar In Italy Planned To Mark 50th Anniversary Of Valeriy Brumel’s 1964 Olympic HJ Victory The title of the seminar translates to, “The Straddle: the beauty of a style which was an art before it became a sport.”
- Athletics Canada Announces New Identity And New Bilingual Logo The logo is pretty cool.
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
NorthBirmingham 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
LRCInstant Analysis Of Men’s Race At 2014 adidas Wisconsin: Syracuse Puts On A Clinic And Arrives On The National StageChris 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
LRC Instant Analysis Of Women’s Race At 2014 adidas Wisconsin: Michigan State Dominates As Crystal Nelson Stuns The Field Which of the 22 ranked teams bombed? Which teams overachieved? We break it down for you.
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
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
LRCAll 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.
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