NCAA XC Conference Mania Begins *LRC NCAA Polls Open

LRC ACCs Preview: Syracuse Men Could Nearly Be Perfect; Florida State Women Go For 7 Straight The #3 Syracuse men should have no problem winning their second straight ACC title on Friday as they dominated the Wisconsin meet. #12 Florida State will have a harder time defending its title as it’s one of five ACC women’s squads ranked between #12 and #18. Syracuse’s Martin Hehir and Boston College’s Liv Westphal lead the individual fields.

LRC PAC-12 Preview: Can Anyone Stop Colorado Or Cheserek? What About Shelby Houlihan Or The Oregon Women? The PAC-12 meet is the best XC conference meet in the country and we break it down for you.
On The Boards: Pac 12 Predictions

LRC XC Fan Polls: Who Are Your Top 10 In The Nation And In The Power Conferences? We want your votes.

Strange News

• Australia Senator Nova Peris Accused Of Seeking “Taxpayers’ Money To Help Her To Carry Out A ‘Freaky’ Extra-Marital Sexual Tryst With Olympic Medallist Ato Boldon” Some alleged racy emails indicate that she used Athletics Australia money to pay for Boldon’s trip there to take part in a youth program while also spending intimate time together. *MB Thread
• Ato Boldon And Senator Nova Peris Deny Accusations Made By Australian Paper Boldon says he will pursue legal action against the paper.
• Video: Jogger Runs Into British Prime Minister The jogger was tackled and detained for an hour, not having any clue what he had done. Afterwards he said, “How good is Cameron’s security if I managed to run between it before they stopped me?”
• Deer On Course Stops XC Race In England

South African Prosecutors Will Appeal Oscar Pistorius Trial Conviction And Sentence In South Africa, an appeal does not involve a retrial or the submission of any new evidence. Prosecutors want a 10-year sentence instead of the 5 Pistorius got.

• Nick Willis Finishes 14th At Speed Golf World Champs Willis shot 90 for the course, finishing in 43 minutes.
• Julia Webb Runs 38:15 10K While Pushing Stroller To Break The Guinness WR By Almost 5 Minutes Alan Webb and their 2-year-old Joanie were out of town so she “rented” a friend’s baby. She’s thinking of going for the 1:31:51 half record in the future.

Get Psyched: NYC Is Sunday

• Recommended Read: Lauren Kleppin: The Beer-Drinking Artist From Wisconsin Who Had The Courage To Risk It All To Chase The Dream Kleppin moved to California with no money and no plan, but made her way from a 2:42 marathoner working 3AM shifts at the bar to a 2:28 pro with Denna Kastor and the Mammoth TC.
• Ryan Vail’s Pre-NYC Marathon Promo Video The 2:10:57 man was the top American last year.
• IAAF Work, Rest And Play Q&A With Former Marathon WR Holder Wilson Kipsang Kipsang says his favorite type of running is easy running because he “can really enjoy the running” and his favorite training partner is Geoffrey Mutai.
• Weather Forecast Looking Good Reports call for dry conditions with a high of 49 degrees and a low of 42.
• NY Times Article On Tennis Star Caroline Wozniacki Running NYC  Wozniacki’s tennis game has actually improved a ton since she started training for the marathon.
• Heads Up For People Running NYC: Millionth NYC Finisher Will Win Guaranteed Entry for Life The race’s millionth finisher is expected to come in the 4:00-4:10 range.
• There Are No Runners From Ebola-Stricken Nations Coincidentally, the NY doctor recently infected with Ebola is an avid runner who did NYC last year.
• NBA Commissioner Adam Silver And Former Stars Completing 24-Person Marathon Relay At NYC The group is trying to encourage kids to exercise and each celebrity will run with a local student from the NYRR youth programs. Former pros running include Charles Oakley, Bernard King and Allan Houston.
  *AP Article

More Weekend Road Results

• Sara Hall Beats Kim Conley At Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon, Running 72:54 Sergio Reyes won the men’s race (67:53).
• Esther Wanjiru Macharia Runs 2:34:19 To Just Beat Out Ireland’s Maria McCambridge By 4 Seconds At The Dublin Marathon Kenya’s Eliud Too won the men’s race in 2:14:48.
• Irishman Tony Mangan Completes 31,000 Mile Run Around The World As He Crosses Dublin Marathon Finish Line Mangan is decent at non-ultra distances too as he has a 2:38 marathon best. He started his run 4 years ago at Dublin 2010.
• Samuel Kosgei (2:22:12) And Meghan Curran (2:51:47) Win Marine Corps Marathon 40-year-old Michael Wardian was 4th in 2:25:42.
• Confusion And Falling Numbers Hit Nairobi Marathon Registration was down 6,000 and the men’s 10K was led the wrong way. On a positive note, 2013 London and NYC marathon champ Priscah Jeptoo continued her injury comeback, finishing 2nd in the 10K.
• XC: USTFCCCA’s NCAA Athletes Of The Week

US Weekend Action

• Canada’s Rachel Hannah (16:37) And Iona Alum Mitch Goose (23:46) Win B.A.A. Mayor’s Cup XC Meet At Franklin Park Juliet Bottorff, Jen Rhines and Abbey D’Agostino finished a very close 2-4. Bobby Mack was 2nd in the men’s race.
  *Women’s Results *Men’s *Press Release BAA swept the team competition.
• RRW Abbey D’Agostino Reflects On  Her Professional Debut And 4th Place Finish At Mayor’s Cup She says that she’s always been “adamant at not taking naps everyday” but as a new pro finds she needs them.
  *MB: Abbey D’agostino a 16:48 in pro debut at 2014 Mayor’s Cup?
• Jeffrey Eggleston Wins Rock ‘N’ Roll Los Angeles Halloween 1/2 Marathon In 64:12

• T&F News On Eugene’s 2019 World Champs Bid: “David Takes On A Pair Of Goliaths” They ask, “Is there any way Eugene can beat Barcelona and Doha?”
• Register-Guard: “Championships belong in Eugene … track and field is in the city’s DNA” Eugene’s selling point is their enthusiastic, knowledgeable fans.

• National Review Says We Should “Eliminate College Sports” In Wake Of UNC Scandal With the new NCAA rules this year, aren’t collegiate athletes pretty much going to be pros anyway?
• Huffington Post On UNC Athlete Scandal The author said even Cornell in the 1960s had “Rocks for Jocks.” Employee 1.1 (who graduated in 2011) says the equivalent when he was there was called “Earthquake!”
• MB: HUGE Student-Athlete Academic Scandal at UNC

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.