Yet Another Star Dies Way Too Young

RRW Remembering Mbulaeni Mulaudzi – South Africa’s Greatest 800 Athlete, Who Has Died At Age 34 The six-time global medalist and two-time world champ (once indoor) who beat the great Wilson Kikpeter in the Olympics and David Rudisha at Worlds will be missed. RIP at age 34.
*MB: R.I.P 2004 800m Olympic Silver Medalist – Mbulaeni Mulaudzi

• Tributes Pour In For Olympic Silver Medalist The president of South Africa said, ““The nation has lost a true hero and one of our most disciplined and talented athletes.
• Quiet Hero Who Turned Into A Beast On The Track
• IOC Head Thomas Bach Hails “True Olympian” Mulaudzi
• Authorities: Mulaudzi Lost Control Of Vehicle On Curve
• Details Of Mulaudzi’s Accident Emerge

Women Making News

NYT: 1/3 Of Elite Women In NYC Are Mothers Including Kara Goucher: “I watched Paula win New York, basically leading from the starting gun to the finish tape, and afterward she picked up her baby. I realized I can do both. And I want to do both.”

Kate Grace Is Inspired By Her Mom Kathy Smith – A Fitness Icon Who Sold 16 Million Videos “My mother also taught me the value of the full-body workout of strength, flexibility and mobility.”

•  Desiree Linden Feels Ready For Her NYC Marathon Debut She says she’d like to run around 5:30 pace (2:24) and a top 5 finish.
• 13 Celebrities Running The 2014 NYC Marathon List includes Caroline Wozniacki and former NY Giants running back Tiki Barber.

• All-Athletics.com Ranks USA As The Top Track And Field Nation In 2014 With Russia And UK 2nd And 3rd The overall athlete rankings have Justin Gatlin and discus thrower Sandra Perkovic as the top athletes of the year.
• Lengthy T&F News Q&A With Molly Huddle Huddle talks a lot about her 2014 season and the balance between 5,000 and moving up to the 10,000.
• Allyson Felix And Paula Radcliffe Participate In Nike Fashion Show In NYC

On The Roads This Weekend

• Athletics Weekly Preview Of Sunday’s Bupa Great South Run 10 Miler Kenya’s Great Birmingham winner Joel Kimutai faces 26:51 10K man Emmanuel Bett, as well as Commonwealth Games marathon champion Michael Shelley and GB’s Andy Vernon. Linet Masai vs. Gemma Steel on the women’s side.
• Podcast With Frankfurt Marathon Defending Champion Vincent Kipruto Kipruto wants to break his 2:05:13 PR.
• Former African Silver Medalist Irene Kipchumba Headlines Field For Sunday’s Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon So far 20,000 have signed up and they expect to break the 25,000 barrier. Even Kenya has mass participation races.

Random But Interesting

• Shoplifter Gets Chased Into Woods And Apprehended By Ultrarunning Employees A rumor said that one employee yelled to the crook, “Man, I can do this for about 23 more hours!”
• One Heck Of A Family Reunion:31 Members Of The Hughes Family Running Dublin Marathon To Break World Record For Most Family Members In Same Marathon Apparently, 30 years ago, eight of the Hughes brothers ran this race together to set a WR for “most siblings to complete a marathon.”
• NY Times: How Music Can Boost A High-Intensity Workout The study found that listening to music led to higher power output while keeping the same perceived effort level.
  *MB Archive: Dumb Arizona female runner calls out Olympic runner for running with headphones

• Justin Gatlin And Francena McCorory Named North American, Central American And Caribbean Athletes Association (NACAC) Athletes Of The Year Tori Bowie was named “Emerging Female Athlete” while Kaylin Whitney got the junior female award.
• Allyson Felix Says She’s More Willing To Explore The 400 In 2015

• After Getting Dropped By Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jeff Demps Joins The Colts In the past, Demps was putting more emphasis on track, but now says he’s “putting everything into football.”
• 2014 US 200m Champ Jeneba Tarmoh Thinking About Switching Nationalities To Represent Sierra Leone At Rio 2016 Tarmoh’s parents immigrated from Sierra Leone shortly before she was born.
  *LRC Archives: An Insider’s Look At the Jeneba Tarmoh, Allyson Felix 100m Tie Fiasco At The 2012 Olympic Trials 
• Cool Video:The World’s Toughest 400 Race The “Red Bull 400” in the Czech Republic goes straight up a ski slope with 200m vertical gain over a 400m race.

• 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.

• 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.