December 24, 2014 | LetsRun.com

Three Interesting Distance Reads

RunnersWorld’s Amby Burfoot: “What’s The Women’s Equivalent Of A Sub-2 Hour Marathon?” Apparently the Journal of Applied Physiology say Paula Radcliffe has already hit it with her 2:15:25 WR. They say her time is worth 1:59:55 for a man.
*MB: RW: Radcliffe has run the equivalent of sub-2 hr marathon
Janet Bawcom Blogs About Training In Kenya She says the big difference in Kenya vs. the US: “Hills and Fartleks.” How about 30 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute “easy” where by the end you are alternating 4:30 pace and sub-6:00 pace.
Interesting Piece In The New Yorker About The Limits Of Endurance The Role The Mind Plays In Fatigue A recent study found that subliminal messages could be used to actually increase endurance in time-to-exhaustion tests. This shows, as many runners have found, that endurance sports are mental as well as physical.

More Distance News

Angeina Jolie And Louis Zamperini Actor Jack O’Connell Discus Movie “Unbroken” Which Opens In Theaters Tomorrow Jolie: “[Zamperini] never reconciled himself to the thought of surrender. He found reserves of energy and fight and rocketed forward with a last lap so impressive that Hitler himself requested to meet ‘the boy with the fast finish.'”
1500 Field Released For February 1st Russian Winter Meeting: Silas Kiplagat Vs. Bethwell Birgen And Aman Wote
LA Marathon Director Tracey Russell Preping For 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials As Well As Potential 2024 Olympic Bid The OT course has not been finalized yet, but is expected to include four six-mile loops run central to downtown Los Angeles.
Bring Back The Mile: 53 U.S. Women Have Broken 4:30 They list the sub-4:30 US women in chronological order. 8 were added to the list this year.

Distance News

Running Times Sits Down With Four Colorado Runners To Rehash Their “Dream Season” And Talk About The Upcoming Track Season Blake Theroux, Ammar Moussa, Jake Hurysz and Connor Winter say this year they want to “shut everyone up who says we can’t run track.”
Quick Interview With Brooks Beasts’ Megan Malasarte The soon-to-be Georgia alum (she graduates this month) was 4th in the 800 at NCAAs last year and joined Brooks Beasts in September. She only had a 2:17 PR in high school, but has progressed to 2:02.06.
Good Article Catching Up With Josh McDougal After He Won The Stockadethon 15K In November (You either need to be a subscriber to The Daily Gazette or pay $2 to access.)

Some Random MB Threads On A Slow News Day

Bad News For Road Racing

Ohio City Adds To The List Of Cities Increasing Restrictions On Road Closures For Races
Tokyo-Area Marathon Cancelled Two Days Before Race After Organizers Fail To File Use Permits Many runners showed up on race day with no idea it had been cancelled.

Track And Field Legends In The News

Ron Hill Talks With Athletics Weekly As His Unbroken Running Stream Reaches 50 Years Hill says during his career he experimented with 150-160 mile weeks, but found it was “too much.” He also talks about being inspired when he was young by a running comic book character, Alf Tupper.
*MB: Congratulations to Ron Hill — 50 Years of Daily Running
BBC Radio Program “Great Lives” Does 30-Minute Episode On Emil Zatopek
Jesse Owens Honored In US Senate Resolution

RIP 1948 US Olympic Hurdler And Jumper Jean Barnett She was 88.

Marathon News

Good Read: Kenenisa Bekele’s Agent Jos Hermens Says The Disappointing Race At Chicago Was A Good “Wake-Up Call” For Bekele Hermens said Bekele wasn’t doing enough mileage or long enough long runs before Chicago and that he moved to Renato Canova because he realized he needed “more scientific training with a good coach.”
Paula Radcliffe’s Marathon WR Is No Longer An Outlier Performance Compared To The Men’s Percentage wise, Radcliffe’s record is similarly slower compared to Dennis Kimetto‘s 2:02:57 as other women’s records are compared to men. However, it is still a huge, huge outlier compared to any other woman ever.
*MB: Radcliffe record not an outlier: Athletics Illustrated
Meb Keflezighi’s 2014 Boston Marathon Victory Named Universal Sports Network’s #1 Moment Of 2014

Pros And Others In The Sport Tweet About Latest Doping Issues

Two Interesting Reads

Group Launches Campaign To Have Someone Break 2:00 In Marathon Within 5 Years – Ross Tucker Says “No Chance” (link fixed) Greyhounds and horses haven’t gotten faster for 30+ years. We may be waiting for sub-2 in 2114.
How Many Days Have You Run In A Row? Sunday, December 21, 2014 Will Be The Day That 1970 Boston Marathon Champ Ron Hill’s Running Streak Reaches 50 Years “I used to find back streets to run down for my training runs because runners were considered an oddity. People used to shout ‘run, rabbit, run!’ or ‘up, one, two, three, four!’ and we had none of the fancy things that runners have today like GPS watches or heart rate monitors.”

Administrative News Of Note

Oklahoma State Star Sprinter And WR Tyreek Hill Is No Longer Part Of Track Or Football Teams After Arrest For Hitting Pregnant GF Hill, who ran 20.14 for 200 in HS, was starring on the gridiron this fall after getting 5th at NCAAs last year in his first year as an NCAA trackster.
*MB: Ok State star WR and sprinter Tyreek Hill Arrested (and Now Dismissed From Teams) for Hitting His Pregnant Girlfriend
TV Rights For Rio And Sochi Total $4.1 Billion – Up From $3.85 Billion Previous 4 Years
Brazilian Olympic Fever – Brazil Receives Over 240,000 Applications For Volunteers, 60% Of Them From Brazil
Chicago Tribune Hopes Chicago Hosts One Or Two Olympic Events To Save Money

Previous Administrative News

Recommended Read #1: Columnist: IOC’s Consideration Of Dropping 200/10k Is Absurd – Here Are A Few Better Alternatives Modern Pentathlon, Fencing, Equestrian and U-23 soccer are his ideas. We certainly think the 200 – home of two of the greatest Olympians ever in Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt – and 10,000 – home of Haile G, Billy Mills, Lasse Viren – should be locks to remain.
Recommended Read #2: Elliott Denman Slams IOC’s Talk Of Eliminating Track Events At Olympics Memo to the IOC: What other sport had 80,000+ for 9 straight days? Answer: None. JV U-23 soccer should go before the 200. “Every single current event in Olympic track and field/athletics deserves to be given ‘sacrosanct’ status.”
We Know It’s Easy To Hate USATF, But This Is A Guy We Respect
Recommended Read #3: Alan Abrahamson Writes Passionate Defense Of Stephanie Hightower And Max Siegel We respect Abrahamson a great deal. If you are anti-USATF, you owe it to yourself to challenge your viewpoint and read the article. Others have called for Hightower’s resignation.
*MB: Damning indictment of Stephanie Hightower

XC News

Duck, Duck, Mo
MB: January 10th Edinburgh XC Meet Is Stacked with Birech, Kiplagat, Kiprop, Lagat, Longosiwa, Soi And More, But Mo Farah Won’t Be Racing Them (He’ll Be In The Easier Non-International Race)
World Jr. Champs Joshua Cheptegei And Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet, Garrett Heath, Mo Ahmed, Andrea Lalli And Daniele Meucci Are All Running 58th Campaccio International Cross-Country On January 6th
Albert Rop And Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon Get Top Billing At Sunday’s Lotto Cross Cup Meeting In Brussels World Jr. 10k silver medalist Elvis Cheboi is also racing.
99 Days To Go Until 2015 World XC In Guiyang, China 2015!

Sprint Stuff: Don’t Touch Usain Bolt’s 200

Usain Bolt Speaks Out About Talk To Remove Track Events (Possibly The 200) From The Olympics “Normally I’m not a controversial person, but I think that’s just stupid. … try to take events away from the track and field event, it is just ridiculous and I don’t think the IAAF should stand for that at all.”
Recommended Read: US’s World #3 400 Hurdler Georganne Moline Says “Track Changed My Life” Moline had a tough childhood as she lived out of a car with her mom for a while. At Arizona she had a lot of injuries and disappointments before finally getting her big break when she unexpectedly made the Olympic team in 2012.
GB’s Euro 100 Champ James Dasaolu Will Face World Indoor 60m Champ Richard Kilty In Birmingham Indoor GP In February

The Heisman Of Track And Field

University Of Oregon’s Laura Roesler And Texas A&M 400 Runner Deon Lendore Win 2014 Bowerman Award This is track’s version of the Heisman.
*Video Replay Of Awards Presentation

Don’t They Know It’s Christmas? Doping And Kenyan Controversy

Russian Coach Vladimir Kazarin To Sue Over German Documentary’s Doping Allegations Specifically, he’s filing lawsuits against program maker Hajo Seppelt and Russian mid-d runner Yulia Stepanova and her husband Vitaly Stepanov.
Athletes Angered That Athletics Kenya Made “Irregular” Deductions From Their Prize Money And Bonuses Earned At The IAAF World Relays Reportedly, they took more than $55,000 in athlete money to pay coaches and officials and there is suspicion that some of the money went missing completely.
Multiple Kenyan Athletes And Officials Demand Athletics Kenya Issue An Apology To Wilson Kipsang For Releasing His Confidential Information About A Missed Out-Of-Competition Test
Apparently ESPN Has Been Living Under A Rock: “Distance Runners Now Facing Scrutiny: Positive Tests For Big Names Draw Attention To Previously Unchallenged Athletes” This writer seemed to think because distance runners are “scrawny” they are less likely to be doped.
Mayo Clinic Physician Dr. Michael Joyner (One Of The Authors Of Recent Paula Radcliffe Sub-2:00 Study) Talks To RW About Whether Or Not “All Exceptional Performances Are Suspect” LetsRun’s “Clean or Dirty” polls get mention and the general consensus is that it’s “reasonable and rational to consider all exceptional performances suspect, but it’s also important to remember that some turn out to be real.”

Random Stuff

Dawn-To-Dusk Race Run In Alaska On Winter Solstice Runners ran as far as they could with the only 3 hours, 41 minutes and 30 seconds of daylight they had. Dallas Critchfield covered the most ground with 25.5 miles, while Hillary Zelton was the top woman with 18.6 miles. Temperature during the race was -9 degrees.
Video: Runner Races DC Metro She exited at one stop and ran to the next, trying to make it in time to board the next train. Watch the video to see if she made it.
RunningTimes Gallery Celebrates Running In Art
IAAF End Of Year Reviews: Relays … USA Wins Inaugural World Relay Women’s 4 X 800

Other Random Stuff

TMZ Sports: Usain Bolt Hit Up Three Parties In One Day This Past Weekend
Did Police Recover Cathy Freeman’s Missing Bodysuit Which Mysteriously Disappeared During The 2000 Olympics? Aussie sprinter Freeman wore the famous outfit when she lit the flame at the Sydney Olympics, but it was stolen from her dressing room.
Scary: Earlier This Month A Runner Was Mistaken For A Deer And Shot By A Hunter The man who was shot was listed as stable and transported to the hospital while the hunter was arrested for multiple charges including unlawful possession and careless use.

Doping Updates

Full Interview (Translated) With Russian Doper / Whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, Who Says Even Though WADA And IAAF Are Supposedly “Investigating,” Neither Has Contacted Her To See All The Extra Evidence She Has She says she told WADA 2 years ago about Russian systematic doping, but they did nothing. She calls them a “toothless tiger” and says Russia should be suspended for 2 years.
Jamaican Parliament Passes New Law To Give Jamaican Anti-Doping Commission More Power JADCO’s budget has also been increased by 110% so it can conduct in- and out-of-competition testing.

Strange / Random News

That’s One Way To Fill An Empty Stadium: In Qatar, Migrant Workers Are Paid To Be “Sports Fans” Article says these workers fight to squeeze onto buses to get the chance to sit through an event they don’t care about to earn 5 bucks.
New Event Company Hosting 0.0 Mile “Instant Gratification Run” In Philly Basically a post-race party without the race.
*MB: Are Color Runs Just Too Competitive for You? Don’t Worry, An Alternative Exists…
Alysia Montano Racing USAs Pregnant Featured In Boston Globe’s “Nine Women’s Sports Stories That Deserved More Attention” In 2014 They link to LRC’s post-race interview with her.

The Next Dibaba? The Next Huddle?

Profile On Ethiopia’s Former Steeple WJR Holder Turned 5,000 Runner Almaz Ayana, Who Is Being Called The “Successor To Tirunesh Dibaba And Meseret Defar” Ayana actually beat Genzebe Dibaba to win African Champs and also won the IAAF Continental Cup. She has a 14:25.84 5,000 best and talks about going for Tirunesh’s 14:11.15 WR.
USATF Ratifies Alexa Efraimson’s US Junior Road 5K Record From The Silicon Turkey Trot She ran 16:08 to break Molly Huddle‘s previous mark, despite collapsing near the finish and getting back up and finishing.

Another Day, 2 More Drug Positives

Rita Jeptoo’s B Sample Confirms Positive Doping Test Jeptoo was the best marathoner in the world the last two years, winning 4 straight WMM and the $500,000 WMM title. No more. Now she’s a drug cheat.
US High Jump Champ Inika McPherson Gets 21 Months For Testing Positive For Cocaine Metabolite She loses her 2014 USA Championship and the only 2.00m jump of her career. She’s the jumper known for the tattoos and colorful hair. She wasn’t even trying to cheat and got a longer suspension than Tyson Gay, who was trying to cheat.

US News

Spikes’ 20 Most Incredible Pics For Track And Field From 2014 Chanelle Price was stunned when she won gold and a very pregnant Alysia Montano made the list.

HS News

Preview Of Sunday’s National High School Ekiden Championships In Japan The top boys HS team in Japan has a 7-man avg. of 14:08. The top girls team has a 9:13 5-girl avg. for 3k.
*Meet On Live On NHK At 8:05pm ET Saturday Night (10:05am Sun. Japan)
*MB: Truly incredible: Top Japanese HS team has 7 man avg 5k pb of 14:08

Meet Jr. European XC Champ Yemanebernane Crippa Of Italy – The Orphan Born To Run One of 9 orphans adopted from Ethiopia by an Italian couple, his idol is Mo Farah. “The sprint of Mo is magic. It is also about his personality.” He got help in winning gold as Russia’s Aleksandr Novikov sprinted a lap early.

The Latest Doping News

Rita Jeptoo’s B Sample Comes Back Positive, Doping Hearing Set For January
US HJ Champ Inika McPherson Banned For 21 Months For Cocaine Recreational cocaine use shouldn’t result in a 2-year ban.
*MB: USADA suspends McPherson for 21 months for testing positive for cocaine metabolite
Sonia O’Sullivan Gives Rob Heffernan His 2010 European Bronze Medal Due To Russia’s Stanislav Emelyanov’s Ban
70-Minute Half Marathoner Joyce Jemutai Kiplimo Says She Made 12 Trips To Athletics Kenya, Never Got A Hear, But Was Banned For Doping Anyway She says she’s got medical documents to explain her positive test but was treated with contempt.

Previous Doping News

Mo Trafeh at the 2011 London Marathon, which he briefly led.

LRC 6 Thoughts: Mo Trafeh, Liar And Drug Cheat, Gets 4-Year Ban: Who Else Was Doping In Flagstaff? The 8-time USA road champion officially got a 4-year ban from the sport and the arbiter’s report showed he lied to LetsRun.com. We’ve read over the report and have our key thoughts.
On The Boards: Mo Trafeh’s Suspension and Who Else Was Doping in Flagstaff

*Moses Kiptanui Feels Vindicated By Rash Of Doping Positives In Kenya “When I raised the red flag a few years ago, officials condemned me.”
*Boit, Keflezighi, Landry Named USATF Champions After Mo Trafeh Is Banned

LRC USA Olympic Coach Jon Drummond Gets Banned: 4 Big Thoughts, Including Was Tyson Gay On HGH Prior To The Summer Of 2012? We carefully read the 24-page decision in the Jon Drummond case and conclude this story is far from over as the report includes a bombshell on page 5 – Tyson Gay had a bottle labeled HGH which someone had given him before even met Dr. Gibson or moved to Dallas to work with Drummond in May in 2012. Then why did Gay’s suspension only begin in July?
*MB: A bombshell in the Jon Drummond decision? Report says Tyson Gay had a bottle labelled HGH in May of 2012

Bring Back The Mile’s Top 10 Mile Moments From 2014 From Mary Cain just missing the World Jr. record by .01 to Ayanleh Souleiman running a US All-Comers record of 3:47.32.

News From Africa

World Steeple Champ Milcah Chemos Had Back Surgery In October In India, Still Hoping To Defend Title In 2015 “I suffered Spondylolisthesis, that is the forward displacement by vertebra, and doctors said it was exerting pressure on my spinal cord hence affecting my nerves.” *MB: An opening for Coburn? Milcah Chemos had back surgery in October
World Jr. 10k Champ Joshua Cheptegei Laps Field In 10k In Uganda

News From The UK

Feminist Slams BBC For Celebrating Jo Pavey For Being A Mom Instead Of Being A 40-Year-Old Star Runner Pavey was third in BBC Sports Personality of Year award battle.
Adam Gemili Taking Things More Seriously After A Friend Of His Is Killed In An Accident

Doping Corner

Rita Jeptoo’s Drug Hearing Will Be In January To Officially Determine Length Of Her Suspension And Which Marathon Titles She’ll Lose
From BALCO To Russia, RunnersWorld Looks At Six Key Doping Busts In Running History Includes a “comical screw-up” from 1984 where Finnish distance runner Martii Vainio stopped taking steroids before the World Championships, but tested positive because he was also blood doping and injected blood that had been taken and stored from when he was on steroids.
Italy’s Former Race Walk Olympic Champ Alex Schwazer Avoids Jail Time With A Plea Bargain In Italy doping is a criminal offense and Schwazer got an 8-month suspended prison sentence and had to pay a $7,350 fine.
Paul Tergat Calls For End To Infighting In Athletics Kenya Federation There have been calls from many AK officials for long-time president Isaiah Kiplagat to resign after recent doping/financial scandals.
USATF News And Notes: Chaunte Lowe Named 2014 US HJ Champion After Inika McPherson’s 21-Month Ban For Cocaine Team USA named for Bupa Great Edinburgh XC meet on January 10th.

End Of The Year News

Usain Bolt And French Steepler Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad Make Irish Newspaper’s “Anti-Sports Personality Of The Year Award” List Bolt for allegedly calling the Glasgow CGs as “a bit shit” (he denied this report) and Mekhissi-Benabbad for stripping in the last 100 for the European Championships.
IAAF Lists The Best Of Their 2014 “Work, Rest And Play” Interview Responses Some entertaining answers from a slew of US and international athletes.
France’s Renaud Lavillenie, Germany’s Robert Harting And Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic Named Sports Personalities Of The Year In Their Respective Countries
IAAF Starts Their 2014 End Of Year Reviews: Race Walking

Weekend International Results

One To Watch For World XC? Sheila Chepngetich Keter Remains Undefeated For The Season At Iris Lotto CrossCup In Belgium She won over Commonwealth 1,500 champ Faith Kipyegon and Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton. On the men’s side, Alex Kibet won over Abraham Kapsis Kipyatich and Bahrain’s Albert Rop.
IAAF Weekend XC Highlights: Uganda’s Timothy Toroitich Wins His 3rd Spanish XC Meet Of The Season Mimi Belete dominated the women’s race by 26 seconds over European 1,500m champion Sifan Hassan.
Kenyans Julius Chepkwony Rotich (2:14:04) And Alice Jemeli Timbill (2:34:55) Win Taipei Marathon
Philip Langat And Sela Jepleting Win AK XC Series Race On Saturday Jepleting won over a solid field that included Mercy Cherono and Lucy Kabuu.

UK News: Seb Coe For Mayor?

London Mayor Boris Johnson Backs Seb Coe As His Successor Coe has previously resisted, but Johnson said, “The athletics thing is a boring, bureaucratic job. Seb will think again. Seb Coe is not out of the running at all for mayor.”
Telegraph: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Coming Of Age On And Off The Track As She Shakes Off Jessica Ennis’ Shadow Johnson-Thompson just missed truly competing as Ennis has taken time away to have a baby. Who will be on top when she returns?
Athletics Weekly: Seven Brits Make Top Five In Their Events In 2014 World Merit Rankings Multi-event athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads the way with their only #1 ranking.

High School Corner

DyeStat Final Boys XC Individual Rankings: Grant Fisher Obvious #1, NXN Champ Tanner Anderson Ranked #2
Girls Rankings: FL Champ Anna Roherer Ranked #1, NXN Champ Allie Ostrander #3
MileSplit Weekend Highlights: Marissa Sheva Wins Mile In 4:50.73 As Three Go Sub-5 Minutes

Japanese Results

Yuki Kawauchi Wins Hofu Marathon In 2:09:46 Hisae Yoshimatsu wins women’s race in 2:3755, breaking her own CR by 2 seconds.
Sera HS Runs All-Time #4 2:02:39 For Japan National High School Boys Ekiden Title
Osaka Kunei Girls HS Win First-Ever Japan National High School Ekiden Championships

Intersex News

Dutee Chand Will Be Allowed To Compete Domestically In India Until CAS Rules On Her Hyperandrogenism Women’s athletics as we know it will be obliterated if intersexed or transgender people are allowed to compete as women.
Athletics Kenya Asked To Have 5 People Take Gender Tests – Claims It Will Cost More Than $33,000 To Do So The tests reportedly cost $6,629 each and they are going to do test on 3 women and 2 men “elevated hormonal levels of opposite gender.”
*MB: Help me out letsrun: Why would Kenya spend $13,000 to test 2 men for possess elevated women’s hormonal levels?

More News From Kenya:

Athletics Kenya Defends Its Anti-Doping Record By Saying They Aren’t As Bad As China Or Russia Isaiah Kiplagat is proud they’ve had way fewer athletes banned than Russia or China. “We are not saying we have no doping issues, in fact we have a big problem. But we have taken appropriate action in accordance with the provision of the rules as provided for by the (IAAF).”
9th Edition Of Toby Tanser’s Shoe4africa Race Is Xmas Eve In Iten

News From South Of The Equator

Australia Sets Qualifying Standards For 2015 Worlds – Should Be Easier To Go Than In Past “Australia can send three female 800 runners to Beijing provided all have run 2:01.00, or faster.” For the men’s 5,000, the mark is 13:23.
2012 Kiwi Olympian Sarah Cowley (Heptathlon) Calls It A Career The 30-year-old was 26th in London. “For over half my life I have dedicated myself to running fast, jumping as high and long as possible and throwing implements as far as possible. It has been an absolute privilege and truly been a blast but it is time for me to move on.”
Val Adams Wins Lonsdale Cup For A Record Fifth Time “The Lonsdale Cup goes to the athlete or team who made the most outstanding contribution to Olympic or Commonwealth sport in the preceding year.”

Previous Doping News

Max Siegel Statement On Drummond *BBC Article
Athletics Kenya Drops The Ball Big Time: Recently-Banned Kenyan Runner Viola Kimetto Furious With AK As They Never Even Told Her She Failed A Drug Test AK completely ignored the notice from the IAAF saying Kimetto was banned and even cleared her for a travel visa to go race a marathon in Zagreb.
Russian Whistleblowers Say They Have More Proof To Support Their Allegations About Doping In Russia One would think this is something an “Independent Ethics Commission” would look into?
The Telegraph Asks What The Worst Federation Of 2014 – Was It The IAAF? They decided that while the IAAF was a strong rival, FIFA was the worst.

The Olympics Are Coming

An Early Look At The Potential US Bids For The 2024 Olympics
One Of The Most Important Things For US Olympic Bid Is A Charismatic Leader Worked out well for London. They had Seb Coe.
Mexico Olympic Committee President Wants To Revive Joint Tijuana-San Diego Olympic Bid For 2024 Agenda 2020 changes would allow such a bid, but USOC is unlikely to go along with it.
IOC President Thomas Bach Welcomes US Decision To Bid
Rio 2016 Convene Task Force To Tackle New “Super Bacteria” Threat To Sailing Venue

Week That Was

LRCKenny B Commits To Dubai, Foot Locker, USATF And European XC Mania, Meb "Dusts" Ryan Hall, And No Love For Stephanie Hightower?

What are the Olympic chances of Grant Fisher and Anna Rohrer? How will Kenenisa Bekele do in his marathon in Dubai next month. Plus Club Nats XC, European XC, Kevin Sullivan moving to the marathon, Stephanie Hightower making the wrong news off the track, and LRC on the BBC.

LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”