January 20, 2015 | LetsRun.com

Marathon News: Get Excited, 2015 Dubai Is Friday, 2015 Boston Is In April

LRC Three Thoughts On 2015 Boston Elite Field: Who Has A Better Shot At Victory – Meb Or Shalane? How Does It Compare To London? Could We Have A “Wild Card” Winner? 10 sub-2:07 guys and six sub-2:22 women will battle it out for glory. Which American has the easier path to victory? Meb or Shalane?
*Press Release: John Hancock Announces 2015 Elite Field
*RRW: Meb Keflezighi To Face Patrick Makau, Lelisa Desisa At 2015 Boston Marathon
*MB: 2015 Boston international field announced – Meb will have his hands full with 5 sub 2:05, 10 sub 2:07 guys!!!

Kenenisa Bekele To Face A Field With Twenty Other Sub-2:10 Marathoners In Dubai Topping Bekele’s competition are 2:04 men Lelisa Desisa (2:04:45), Berhanu Shiferaw (2:04:48) and Feyisa Lelisa (2:04:52). On the women’s side, CR holder Aselefech Mergia (2:19:34) faces Lucy Kabuu (2:19:34) and a slew of other women who have run 2:21.
London Doesn’t Have All The Talent: April 12th Paris Marathon Shaping Up To Be Deep Race Moses Mosop leads the way as he faces Vincent Kipruto (2:05:13), Bazu Worku (2:05:25) and Deressa Chimsa (2:05:42).
Kellyn Taylor’s 2:28:40 In Houston Is Tied For The 6th-Fastest Marathon Debut By An American She’s tied on the list with Shalane Flanagan. Taylor: “I feel like I’ve been good at a lot of different distances for a long time. I want to be great, though, and I’m hoping the marathon is what I can be great at.”

Is Cross-Country Sexist?

RunningTimes Asks Why Men And Women Race Different Distances In XC (Even Though They Run The Same On The Track And Road) It seems to be a leftover practice from when women were seen as “weaker and slower than men” and it just hasn’t changed. While some would like to make it equal, around half of women surveyed are fine the way it is.
Iowa Girls High School XC Races Will Now Be As Far As Boys Previously they did 4K instead of 5K. Apparently the switch came out of fear of legal action, as some states have seen inquiries from Civil Liberties groups. However, there are still six states where girls race a shorter XC distance than boys.

European News

Iceland’s 19-Year-Old 800 Star Anita Hinriksdóttir Opens Season With World-Leading 2:02.88 She dominated the race as second place was only 2:05.29.
AW Weekly Round-Up: UK Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Makes Comeback From Injury At North Of England Champs Johnson-Thompson won the LJ in 6.63m and equaled her PR in the 60H to win with 8.40. She also was 4th in the SP (12.32m). At the same meet, Adam Hague vaulted 5.51m to break his own British junior record.
IAAF Q&A With Stanford Alum And European PV Silver Medallist Ekaterini Stefanidi Something she mentions you might not have thought about: WR holder Renaud Lavillenie is apparently overcoming a big disadvantage with his height. (He’s only 5’9″ while Sergey Bubka is 6’0″.

Chevron Houston Marathon Results Photo Gallery

Ethiopians Yebrgual Arage And Birhanu Gedefa Win 2015 Chevron Houston Marathon As American Kellyn Taylor (2:28:40) Has Nice Debut

Ethiopians Yebrgual Arage (2:23:23) and Birhanu Gedefa (2:08:03) got the wins as American Kellyn Taylor (2:28:40) had a nice debut and Aaron Braun (2:12:54) was the top American man.
On The Boards: Also at Houston - Aaron Braun 2:12:54; Kellyn Taylor 2:28:40

Houston Half/Full Photo Gallery

2015 Houston Half And Full Photo Gallery

Chris Derrick Says It’s A Shame The US Or European Countries Don’t Want To Host World XC Champs And That The UK Won’t Send A Full Team “I think the athletes, myself, other top Americans and Europeans need to make a commitment to show up and do it. If we’re not going to commit to it, the fans aren’t going to commit to it.”

US Women’s Distance News

Good Q&A With Lauren Fleshman, Who Says She Wants To Run 14:50 For 5,000 In 2016 Her PR is 14:58 from 2008. This year she just wants to try to get the World standard of 15:20.
Recommended Read: Alexi Pappas Blogs About Meeting President Obama And Her Discussion With Him On The Hard Work Vs. Talent Debate The President was on the side of talent and the meeting forced her to analyze how much of her success comes from hard work vs. talent.
RRW: Kim Conley Goes Long To Open 2015 Season In Houston Conley has been implementing more mileage and longer workouts in preparation for the Houston Half. Last year during the winter she focused on speed, but this year it’s strength.
This Is Why Results Of RNR Races Are Often Irrelevant: Amy Hastings Approaching PF Chang Rock ‘N’ Roll Arizona Half Like A Tempo Workout She wants to run around marathon pace and said specifically she’ll hold back from going “to the well” in this “race” as her focus is on the Boston Marathon.
RunnerSpace Q&A With Duke Alum Juliet Bottorff Ahead Of Her Half Marathon Debut In Houston
Heather Kampf Wins KPMG Bermuda Front Street Mile
*Results: Heather Kamfp Wins Bermuda Road 10K
*Jamaican Bermuda Mile Recap: UK Man David Bishop Won The Elite Race In 4:20.15

Upcoming

Today: Heat Sheets For UW Indoor Preview: Matt Centrowitz, Evan Jager, Andy Bayer, Mary Cain, Jordan Hasay, Shannon Rowbury Among Pros Racing (updated) Also Cam Levins, Alexa Efraimson, Treniere Moser, Genna Lara, Phoebe Wright. *Live Results *Meet Home *Pre-Meet OP FB Post
USTFCCCA Weekend College Preview: Dual Meet Between Arkansas And Texas, Washington Preview, Texas A&M Invitational, Aubrun Invitational
Iceland’s 800 Star Anita Hinriksdottir Will Start Her Last Season As A Junior At The The Reykjavik International Games
Sunday: Deep Fields Set For Santiponce, Spain XC Meet: World XC Bronze Medallist Teklemariam Medhin Vs. Timothy Toroitich, World 10,000 Bronze Medalist Paul Tanui And World Jr. 10,000 Champ Joshua Cheptegei Also 26:52 man Bedan Karoki and Euro XC champ Polat Kemboi Arikan. Women’s race has World 5,000 silver medalist Mercy Cherono, 2-time World XC champ Emily Chebet and former World 10,000 champ Linet Masai.
Japan National Men’s Ekiden Preview: Hometown Hiroshima Looking Like the Favorite
Feb. 1: Japanese World Champs 5th Placer Kentaro Nakamoto (2:08:35) Will Take On Defending Champ Abraham Kiplimo (2:09:23) At February 1st’s Beppu-Oita Marathon Also in the field: Yoshinori Oda (JPN) 2:09:03 and Fekadu Lemma (ETH) 2:09:50.
US 100 Champ Mike Rodgers Vs. Former World 100 Champ Kim Collins In Russian Winter Meet 60m
Feb. 7: Field Set For New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Boys Junior Invitational Mile

Two More Recommended Reads

RR #2: 50 Years Ago Today (Jan. 16), Ron Clarke Set A 5k WR Of 13:34 To Kick Off A Magical Year In Distance Running Every world record from 1k to 1 hour was smashed on the men’s side in 1965.
RR #3: Toni Reavis: Internet Streaming Instead Of TV Is Bad For Our Sport Toni is dead on when he says: “It is broadcast TV viewership that fuels the next generation of fans and participants. Station surfers will run across an event and say, ‘I gotta try that.’ What internet coverage does is maintain what you already have, but it doesn’t attract any new viewers.”

Not Your Normal Boring Q&A: Good Chris Derrick Q&A – “I think I can run with anyone in the world.” “My college teammate Garrett Heath just went out there and beat the world cross-country champion. I never lost to Garrett in cross-country, so if he can do that, I want to be able to do that, too.”
*MB: Chris Derrick talks big: “I think I can run with anyone in the world.”

More Good Stuff: Alan Abrahamson Breaks Down The 2024 Boston Bid Like Only He Can He said it was obvious Boston was the choice when Thomas Bach came out with an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe two days before. Also was Boston selected because it’s on the East Coast?
*Boston 2024 Likely To Get Insurance To Protect Against Cost Overruns

LetsRun.com’s 2014 Awards – We Need Your Vote

LRC Meb Or Galen? Vote For LetsRun.com’s 2014 Award It’s time to vote. Vote and tell us who are the male and female runners of the year for the World, US, and NCAA. Plus vote for the “best record-breaking performance,” the “race of the year,” the “moment of the year” and “unusual moment of the year.”

Recommend Read: Kudos To The Ultimate Internet Sleuth: MB: Canadian proves that 2012 Russian Olympic champ competed on Dec 30th while banned! Evan Dunfee has done an amazing job showing you how the Russians have doctored photos to make it look like Elena Lashmanova‘s race took place in 2012, not 2014. *IAAF Investigating

News Regarding Two Of Africa’s Biggest Stars

Genzebe Dibaba To Chase World Indoor 5,000m Record In Stockholm On Feb. 19th The indoor record is 14:24.37.
*MB: Genzebe Targets 5K Indoor WR Will she flame out again outdoors?
At Rita Jeptoo’s Doping Hearing On Thursday, Her Agent Federico Rosa, Coach Claudio Berardelli And Former Husband Noah Busienei Are Expected To Testify
*Boston Globe Article

Jeremy Wariner May Open 2015 With 800m Run If he does, thousands of LetsRun.com fans will get the answer to the ultimate hypothetical they’ve been debating for years.
*MB: At last our dreams will become reality: Jeremy Wariner may open 2015 up at 800m!!! How fast (slow) will he go?

High School Sensations In The News

Meet High School Frosh Pole Vault Phenom Armand Duplantis, Who Went 16’1″ Last Week At Age 15 At age 10, he was already doing 12’8″.
Don Kopriva Q&A With Grant Fisher

More News From Boston

LRC 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Jenn Suhr And Husband/Coach Rick Suhr Share Thoughts On The “Year Of The Vault” Since the women’s pole vault is expected to be one of the marquee events of the 2016 Olympics with hometown favorite Fabiana Murer, it’s time for you, the LRC visitor, to learn about one of the event’s biggest stars. We sat down with Jenn Suhr on Tuesday in Boston. She’ll be back there for the NBIGP and USAs this winter.

Check Out The Boards On A Slow News Day

US Track: Oregon Project Cleans Up At UW Preview

2015 UW Indoor Preview Results: Shannon Rowbury (2:40.25 / 4:27.86) Beats Teammates Jordan Hasay, Treniere Moser In Both The 1,000 And Mile; Matt Centrowitz Wins 1,000/Mile Double Over Evan Jager And Cam Levins Stanford’s Elise Cranny was 4th in the 1,000 (2:42.39). In other action Mary Cain was 4th in the 600 (1:30.03) and then won the 800 (2:07.21), German Fernandez was 2nd in the 3,000 (8:04.59). Pros Andy Bayer, Phoebe Wright, Geena Lara also competed.
*Stanford Article On Sean McGorty’s Sub-4 Mile And Elise Cranny’s Impressive 1,000

*USTFCCCA Weekend NCAA Highlights Collegiate leads for Oklahoma State’s John Teeters in the 60 (6.54), Texas A&M’s Shavez Hart (20.76 in the 200), Oregon’s Jasmine Todd (7.15 60m), NCAA indoor 200 champ Dezerea Bryant (23.12 in the 200). Video Highlight: Purdue vs. Indiana women’s dual came down to a photo finish in the 4 x 8 with Purdue getting the win by .001.
*MSU Open: Cristian Soratos Runs Altitude Converted 3:56.87 Mile (4:05.18)
*Texas Posts Nation-Leading Marks In Opener In Sprints And Throws

OTB:

Weekend XC Action

Two-Time World XC Champ Emily Chebet And Bronze Medalist Teklemariam Medhin Win Cross Internacional de Italica XC Race In Spain Medhin beat a deep field that included top 2014 steepler Jairus Birech (2nd), World and 10,000 bronze medalist Paul Tanui (4th). Chebet beat Mercy Cherono, who was leading but fell behind after a fall.
Former World Jr. 10,000 Bronze Medalist Geoffrey Kirui Wins Kenya Defence Forces XC Champs Over 38-Year-Old Mark Kiptoo Selah Busiene just barely upset World half-marathon champ Gladys Cherono to win the women’s race.
Lily Partridge And Adam Hickey Win British Athletics Cardiff Cross Challenge

Paula Radcliffe Talks About Her Expectations For The 2015 London Marathon “With the foot issue and training at 2/3rds of what I used to, I don’t really have a goal in mind other than to try and run as well as I can and enjoy the experience and the fact that 18 months ago I never ever thought I would be able to reach this point.”

Greek Think Tank Determines That 2004 Athens Games Cost Greece $7.5 Billion Articles states that this “didn’t significantly affect the debt-heavy country’s finances.”

News From Kenya

Kenya Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario Tells Top Athletics Kenya Officials To Resign Over The Increased Recent Doping Scandals “People like [Rita] Jeptoo have now joined the other side of disgraced athletes like Marion Jones, and they belong to the hall of shame and not hall of fame.”
2nd Article: Hassan Wario Claims AK Officials “Refused To Cooperate” With The Goverment’s Anti-Doping Task Force
Dennis Kimetto Talks About Facing His “Friend And Mentor” Wilson Kipsang In London And Bringing The World Title Back To Kenya In Beijing Kimetto has never run at a major championship, but says he’s committed to doing the World Championships if he is selected by AK. Why wouldn’t they select the WR holder? Well, it’s AK.

Doping News

Lenghthy Post By Discus Olympic Champ Robert Harting, Who Says He’s Lost Trust In WADA And It Was Obvious The Russians Were Cheating (translated) On the Russians: “I see increasingly acne, changes in body composition … suggesting anabolic steroids and growth hormone. Especially severe it is when you see women in training camp … Some have deeper voices than my grandpa.”
Rita Jeptoo Will Wait Up To 3 Months Before Hearing Her Drug Ban Sentence
“Ben Johnson” Steroid Still Responsible For More Doping Cases Than Any Other In 2014 26 years after Johnson tested positive for stanozolol at the Seoul Olympics, that drug is still responsible for the most yearly drug busts.
Former World Champion Figure Skater Carolina Kostner Gets 16-Month Ban For Helping Her Race Walker Ex-Boyfriend Alex Schwazer Avoid A Doping Test

News From Kenya

Former World Jr. 10,000 Bronze Medalist Geoffrey Kirui Wins Kenya Defence Forces XC Championships Over 38-Year-Old Frankfurt Marathon Champ Mark Kiptoo Selah Busiene just barely upset World half-marathon champ Gladys Cherono to win the women’s race. Kiptoo: “Here I competed with Kirui, who is 15 years younger than me, but I tell you age counts for nothing. It’s just about experience and preparation as well as focus and commitment.”
Caleb Ndiku Wins 2014 Kenyan Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Ndiku was also named Sportsman of the year while Eunice Sum was Sportswoman. Outstanding performance went to Dennis Kimetto and javelin star Julius Yego. *2nd article

Important News From Africa

Despite Daughter’s Death, Stephen Kiprotich Is Headed To Kenya To Try To Get In Shape For Tokyo Marathon On Feb. 22nd Many were speculating he wouldn’t race. “I know it is going to be tough but I will concentrate and try to put up a good show.”
Caleb Ndiku Is Out Of World XC, Still Hoping For Great 2015 But Flying To Austria For 3 Weeks On Knee Injury Which No Longer Is A Minor Problem

Doping News

A “Very Productive” Discipline Hearing With Rita Jeptoo Was Held Thursday In Kenya, Committee Will Meet Again In Two Weeks They got a lot of useful info they need to spend some time looking at.
We’ll Believe It When We See It: Russian Athletics Head Guarantees Doping Will Be Eradicated In Country Soon “I will guarantee to you that in the near future, after carrying out a difficult process, we will clean our hands of this dirt. We are not working to support doping – we are fighting against it.”

News From America

Set Your DVRs: Two Armory Meets – Armory Track Invitational And Millrose Games – Will Be Broadcast On NBCSN As 2 Of 4 Meets Of USATF Championship Series The dates are Jan. 31 and Feb. 14.
*Sam Ritz (4:16) And Mady Clahane (4:58) Win Millrose Games Trials
Powerful Long Island And So Cal USATF Associations Call On USATF To Change Its Decision To Nominate Stephanie Hightower, Not Bob Hersh The Athletes Advisory Committee is also upset.
Maine Woman, Who Ridiculed Looters In Ferguson, MO For Stealing, Is Accused Of Defrauding Boston Marathon Victims’ Fund – The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram *Discuss On The MBoard
Carrie Tollefson Interviews Will Leer About His Beard Leer’s gf doesn’t like it but Leer says “Sometimes it takes smelling like an old sock to get people away from you on the track.”
Maybe This Will Put Oregon In A Better Mood After The Ducks Got Thrashed By Ohio State Eugene’s World Junior Champs Gets Gold Medal For Sustainability From Council For Responsible Sport (CRS)

2015 Virgin Money London Marathon Women’s Field

LRC Four Thoughts On The 2015 Women’s Race Which Features The “Fantastic Four” From Kenya Nothing in our beloved sport can equal the 2015 men’s London field but the women’s equal is pretty special with 3 former champs in Mary Keitany (2:18:37), Edna Kiplagat (2:19:50 PR), and Priscah Jeptoo (2:20:14 PR) plus the fastest half runner in history – Florence Kiplagat. We break it down for you.
*Paula Radcliffe is running, but will announce on January 30th is she’s in elite race or not Amazingly, Radcliffe hasn’t raced London since 2005.
*Press Release From London Organizers
*RRW: London Marathon Women’s Field Does Not Disappoint
*LRC Archives From Last Week: Is The Men’s Field The Greatest Ever?

Less Than One Month Away

LRCGet Your Butt To Boulder, Colorado For The USA XC Afterparty One Month From Today

Steve and Sara Slattery are hosting the party and want runners, non-runners, and LRCers to be there.

Random But Interesting

Usain Bolt Tweets Out Pictures Of Babies Doing His “Lightning Bolt” Victory Pose You can see more on Bolt’s twitter page.
Interesting History Lesson: Why Did Cuba’s Former 800 WR Holder Alberto Juantorena Threaten To Punch A Young Journalist At The First Athletics World Cup In 1977? Journalist Olaf Brockmann tells the story.
Irishman Wins 100K Race In Antarctic In -22F (-30C) Conditions Keith Whyte ran 9:26:02 (9:07 mile pace). He said one of the worst parts was it was “constant daylight” and he went three days before the race without decent sleep.
Tribute To Olympic Journalist Gustav Schwenk, Who Recently Passed At Age 91 Schwenk had an impressive career, reporting on 15 Olympic Games. A highlight of his career came in 1960 when his knowledge of the rules actually contributed to a 100m world record.

Houston Half (USATF Champs) And Full Results Photo Gallery

LRC Diego Estrada (60:51!) And Kim Conley (69:44) Very Impressive, Win 2015 USA Half Marathon Championships Estrada dominated the race by almost a minute in 60:51 (7th-fastest US performance ever) as Jared Ward was 2nd, Meb 4th. Conley won by just over 30 seconds in 69:44 (she’s now #8 on US list) over Brianne Nelson & Janet Bawcom. Recap, analysis, results.
*RRW Article