Upcoming Action

• New Year’s Eve: Preview Of San Silvestre Vallecana In Madrid: Desiree Linden Takes On UK’s Euro XC Champ Gemma Steel France’s Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad vs. Kenya’s Mike Kigen in the men’s race.
• New Year’s Day: JapanRunningNews’ New Year Ekiden Preview: A Battle Of Past Champions
• Jan 23: Ethiopia’s Two-Time Dubai Marathon Winner Aselefech Mergia Coming Back For A Hat Trick The 2:19:31 runner hasn’t raced a marathon since 2012 as she took time off to have a baby. She’ll face a deep field including defending champ Mulu Seboka (2:23:12), Lucy Kabuu (2:19:34), Frankfurt Marathon champ Aberu Kebede and World Half Marathon champion Gladys Cherono, who is making her marathon debut.
• Feb.: Carmelita Jeter Vs. Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure In Birmingham 60m In February

More Distance News

• Good Read: RunningTimes Q&A With Anna Willard, Who Talks About Being “Too American” For England, Being Injured For 2 Years And Almost Quitting The Sport Willard is finally healthy and training consistently again after barely racing in 2014 and not at all in 2013.
• Analysis By Swiss Researchers Shows Runners At “Short” Ultramarathons Are Getting Younger And Faster Article mentions Cornell alumni Max King (2:14 marathon) and Sage Canaday (2:16), who have started dominated the ultra scene from 50K to 100K.
• Central Park Track Club Member And 1:46 800 Man Dustin Emrani Raising Money To To Help Underprivileged Children In NYC As part of his fundraiser, Emrani is making a video of him jumping into the freezing cold Hudson River in January. Even a small donation will get you entered in a drawing to have the jump dedicated to you.
• Pro Football Half Of Fame Marathon In Ohio In April Will Have Age Group Prize Money
• Study Finds That Special “Rocker” Shoes Could Help Facilitate Post-Marathon Recovery

More End-Of-Year News

• Science Of Sport 2014 Wrap Up: Week-By-Week Musings A lot of interesting stuff was written in 2014 by Ross Tucker and we definitely recommend you check some of it out. He covers everything from doping to talent and youth development to the 2-hour marathon.
• IAAF End-Of-Year Review: Road Running
• Japan Running News’ Top 10 Japanese Men Of 2014: 27:49 10K And 60:50 Half College Runner Kenta Murayama Ranked #1
• Top 10 Japanese Women Of 2014: Ayumi Hagiwara’s 70:17 Half Marathoner Ayumi Hagiwara Ranked #1
• European Championships Retrospective Day 4

• This Guy Might Need Police Protection: Jamaican Columnist Says Proposal To Axe The 200 From The Olympics Is “Understandable” We already didn’t like his arguments, but when he said “there should be no problem in sacrificing” distance and sprint races to add events like chess, he completely lost us.
• British Athletics Reveals New Policy Which Could Bar Athletes From Competing At Both International Age Group Championships And World Championships Dumb move. That’s like saying if you compete at NCAAs in June, then you can’t go to the Olympics in August.

Jamaica’s Stars Give Back

• Usain Bolt Successfully Hosted Charity Event For 500 Kids Once Again On Boxing Day (Dec. 26) Bolt: “We wanted it to be a day for the kids so they could play and also go home with presents.”
• Yohan Blake Spent His Christmas Day Giving Pep Talks To Prisoners “I believe everybody needs a second chance in life. So when they come out I want them to have positive thoughts so they can contribute to society.”

Good Profile: World Jr. 100 Champ Dina Asher-Smith Turned Down Harvard And Florida State So She Could Pay $14,000 A Year To Go To King’s College In The UK She’s a very serious student.

Fernando Cabada Returning To Brad Hudson As His Coach Cabada has been self-coached for the last year and a half, but worked with Hudson in 2012.

Upcoming

• Sunday: Kenya’s Cornelius Kangogo Will Defend His Title At The Corrida Pedestre International de Houilles 10K He faces a competitive field in Olympic 5,000 bronze medalist Thomas Longosiwa, Micah Kogo and Frankfurt Marathon champ Mark Kiptoo. Bahrain’s 9:20 World Junior steeple champ Ruth Jebet leads the women’s field in her first race over 5,000. She faces 1:09 half runner Peris Jepchichir.
• Jan. 25: Ukraine’s Two-Time Osaka Women’s Marathon Winner Tetiana Gamera Will Return This Year To Go For Her Hat-Trick Win She’ll face 2012 winner Risa Shigetomo, 38-year-old Jelena Prokopcuka (won in 2005, 4th in NYC this year) and 2:23 Kenyan Margaret Agai.

The IOC Can And Has Done Worse: Creator Of World Of Warcraft Says Video Games Should Be In The Olympics His argument is that “Video games are well positioned to be a spectator sport.” There also is mention of “lightning quick reflexes.” *10 Wackiest Olympic Events Ever

Pro News

• Jeff Benjamin For SILive.com: “The State Of Athletics Worldwide: Can It Get Any Worse?” If you haven’t been following all the drug scandals and other controversies recently, this will give you the basics real quick.
• A Now Healthy Chanelle Price Is Reunited With Coach J.J. Clark
• Chris Derrick To Lead US Team, Defend Title At Great Edinburgh XC
• Olympic Discus Champ Robert Harting Apologizes To Winter Sports Athletes After Winning German Athlete Of Year Award Is it really harder to win an Olympic medal in the Winter Games than at the European Championships in a summer sport?
• IAAF End-Of-Year Review For Multi-Events

Unbroken Opens Today

• “Unbroken” Stirs Resentment In Japan Let them be pissed: “According to the U.S. Defense Department, nearly 40% of Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese during World War II died in captivity.”
• Eugene Residents Recall Louis Zamperini Visiting Eugene High School in 1958

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 says 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.

• 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

• 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.