January 29, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For January 29, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“I’m a big fan of the marathon, and I run the marathon every year. … It’s a really special place for me. I love the Boston Marathon finish line and everything it represents. And it didn’t deserve to be covered by snow, so I shoveled it off. … I think it’s cool that a ton of people have gotten behind the idea and support the idea that the finish line isn’t just a strip of paint in the road, that it means so much more to us as a community of Boston and of runners. … I’m no hero, I’m just a nut who loves the marathon. The real heroes are the people who were out there clearing the streets and sidewalks, the [Boston Police Department], and the [Boston Fire Department] who risk their lives every day to keep people safe.”

– Boston bartender and runner Chris Laudani talking about why he took the time to go shovel off the Boston Marathon finish line during this week’s blizzard. A photo tweeted of Laudani went viral and there was a search via social media to identify him.

Our Weekly Recap Is Back

LRC WTW: Is 2015 The Beginning Of The End For Bernard Lagat Or The Beginning Of A Truly Special Year? Shannon Rowbury, Cas Loxsom And Moses Mosop Off To Good Starts; One Japanese Marathoner Is Better Than The Entire USA (Again) What do Emma Coburn and Cas Loxsom have in common? Who makes more? Sprinters or distance runners? Meet the new NCAA leader in the 800 from Los Angeles. All of that, plus a distance race that crushed the NCAA football television game in TV ratings?

Pole Vault Legend Sergey Bubka Officially Running For IAAF Presidency Against Seb Coe He and Coe are currently vice presidents in the IAAF. In 2013 Bubka made an unsuccessful run for the IOC presidency.

Kenyan Updates: Another 8 Drug Bans

IAAF Bans Eight More Kenyans For Doping~~No big names, mostly B-list marathoners.~~ The best result we could find was Emily Chepkorir‘s 2:32:31 from the Nairobi Marathon in 2011Flomena Chepchirchir‘s 2:23:00 from Frankfurt 2013.
David Rudisha Says His “Training Is Going On Well Without Any Problems” He’ll open his season at the Melbourne World Challenge on March 21. “I am currently doing my hill work speed and fat-leg training in search of endurance. With time, I’ll switch to track for speed work.”
Don’t Worry About Asbel Kiprop’s XC DNF Last Weekend Kiprop dropped out of the 10K Discovery Kenya XC race, but said the race was just for training.
Doper Matthew Kisorio Focused On Making Kenyan World XC Team And Trying To Win A Medal He was 4th at the 2011 race.
Kenyan Secretary For Sports, Hassan Wario, Announces Formation Of The Kenya Anti-Doping Council

European Stuff

Poland’s Kamila Licwinko Clears World-Leading 2.00m HJ At German Jumps Meet She tied her own NR while Spain’s Ruth Beitia cleared 1.96m to set a national masters record. Russia’s Aleksandr Gripich won the PV in 5.70m.
Irish Miler Ciarán Ó Lionáird Blogs About His Early Years Of Training, Giving Some Insight Into The Irish Club System He offers a bunch of sample workouts and training weeks as well as overall training philosophy.
Former London Marathon Race Director David Bedford “A Little Surprised” About The Lack Of Drug Testing At UK Road Races Drug testing is expensive. We’d rather see anti-doping authorities go after top athletes than people winning sub-elite races. That said, some races could surely afford to pay for it themselves.
EA Recap Of Lotto Crosscup In Belgium, Which Had A Belgian Winner For The First Time In 14 YearsLouise Carton won the women’s race while Ethiopian Tasama Dame won the men’s.
Czech Republic’s Eliska Klucinova Sets Big PR To Win Pentathlon At Combined Events Meet In The Netherlands At the same meet world heptathlon bronze medalist Dafne Schippers opened her season with a 7.20m 60m and Czech athlete Adam Sebastian Helcelet won the heptathlon.
Final Entries Confirmed For February 1st European Club Championships: Spain’s Two-Time Euro Champ Alemayehu Bezabeh Leads Field

Other Elite Distance News

IAAF “Personal Bests” Interview With Nick Willis Read about Willis’ greatest achievement, best piece of coaching advice and why his favorite sports team means he is a “glutton for suffering.”
Daily Emerald: Internal Competition Drives Oregon’s Distance Men Parker Stinson: “If you have an off day, it’s really hard. It’s already a really competitive practice.”
Brooks Beasts Sign Dorian Ulrey And Matt Hillenbrand
*MB: Dorian Ulrey to the Brooks Beasts

LRC Remembering LRCer Van TownsendThe running world lost one of its bright lights this week with the death of Van Townsend.
*MB: RIP Van Townsend: Share Your Respects Here

Pro Indoor Track Heats Up This Weekend – 2015 Camel City Elite Races And Armory Track InviteSchedules, Streaming And Television Information Full ATI Entries

LRC Brandon Johnson Discusses His Injury-Plagued 2014, His New Coach Joaquim Cruz, And His Goals For 2015 Johnson was the talk of US track in 2013 but was nowhere to be seen in 2014 as a shift from 50 to 60 mpw to 80 to 90 mpw backfired. Before his season opener at the Camel City Elite Meet in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Saturday, Johnson talks about what it’s like to room with Dathan Ritzenhein, his coaching change to an Olympic gold medalist and how his training has been going “awesome.”
*MB:Is mileage overrated? Brandon Johnson ran 1:43 on 50-60 mpw, 1:46 on 80 to 90?

Q&A With Cory Leslie Ahead Of This Weekend’s Camel City Mile Where He’ll Face Leo Manzano And Will Leer Women’s mile has Shannon Rowbury, Morgan Uceny and Heather Kampf.
David Oliver And Jason Richardson Will Race 60H
$40,000 In Prize Money Up For Grabs At Camel City

ATI: Galen Rupp Returns To Armory For First Time Since High School On Saturday
*Full ATI Elite Entries Team USA DMR has Erik Sowinski, Matt Centrowitz, Pat Casey and Mike Berry.Galen Rupp and Cam Levins are in mile and 2-mile. 800 has Ajee Wilson, Mary Cain and Laura Roesler. Abbey D’Agostino, Jordan Hasay, Treniere Moser and NCAA 5000 champ Marielle Hall in the 2-mile.
*MB: Armory Track Invite: USA Men’s DMR WR Attempt, Wilson v Cain v Roesler @800, Rupp Double- 2 Mile WR Attempt Off

More Upcoming Action

Friday/Saturday: MB:BU Terrier Heat Sheets
Preview Of Hunter Track Clasic In Australia: Jeff Riseley In The 1,500
Bring Back The Mile 2015 Tour Events AnnouncedJack Bolas and Heather Kampf won the inaugural Tour titles in 2014.
*BBTM “Pick The Winner” Contest Starts Saturday Get a chance to win free running gear.
*BBTM Campaign Now 3 Years Old
Feb. 8: Yuki Kawauchi Headlines February 8th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon He’ll face a decent field that includes Tomoya Adachi (2:09:59) and Shuji Yoshikawa (61:58 half).
Feb. 14: Olympic Gold Medal Winner Jenn Suhr Will Add To NYRR Millrose Games’ Rich Pole Vault Tradition
Mar. 28: IAAF Release Official World XC Champs Bulletin With Tons Of Meet Info

News From Russia

Talk About Sending The Wrong Message:Russian Athletics President Valentin Balakhnichev Says He Will Fight Any Attempts To Strip Banned Racewalkers Of London 2012 Medals With the storm of accusations facing Russian athletics, is now the time to fight on behalf of their doped up athletes? Last week, five racewalkers were banned and had results from 2009 onward annulled, but not the Olympics.
Russian Athletics Federation To Sue German ARD TV Channel Over Doping Scandal They claim that some of the German narration in the documentary “did not match the real words” the Russian athletes were speaking.
Get Out Before They Kick You Out?2004 Olympic 800 Champion Yuri Borzakovsky Retiring He’ll run his last race Sunday at the Russian Winter meeting in Moscow.

News From Down Under

Australian National 10,000 Champ Brett Robinson Wins Briggs Athletics Classic 5,000 In 13:43.13 Over David McNeill And Ben St. Lawrence Former NCAA champ McNeill was 13:45.56) and St. Lawrence 13:52.51. *Full Meet Video*Results
Nick Willis Will Race Against Zane and Jake Robertson And Augustine Choge Over 5,000 On February 26th In New Zealand Willis: “I’m pretty nervous because there’s a lot of pride on the line. It’s just like when you’re playing table tennis with your mates in the garage next to your house, you want to make sure that you don’t lose to anybody.” He also will compete in the NZ Speedgolf Open on Feb. 21st.

US Marathon Champs Are In March

Elite Field Announced For 2015 USATF Marathon Championships At The LA Marathon Men’s field has Ryan Hall, Shadrack Biwott, Matt Llano, 61:30 half marathoner Scotty Bauhs (debut) and ultra-marathoners Sage Canaday and Max King. Women’s side led by Janet Bawcom, Brianne Nelson and Sara Hall in her debut.
Hall Excited To Make Her Debut: “I’ve fallen in love with the marathon distance just watching so many of Ryan’s races. He makes it look like so much fun out there.” Her coach Steve Magness talks about her impressive range as last year she was competing well over distances from the mile to the half. He says even during marathon training she’s still been able to bang out 29-second 200s on the track.
*MB: Sara Hall Running LA
Matt Llano: “There’s a big learning curve with a race that long, and even though I received advice from some of the world’s top marathoners before Chicago … … there’s something to be said for lessons that resonate better through experience.”
LA Marathon CEO Tracey Russell: “This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive fields in the history of the [LA] marathon.”

Random But Interesting

10 Runners Complete 7 Marathons On 7 Continents In 7 Days The “World Marathon Challenge” has an entry fee of $36,000. The fastest marathon of the week was 3:17:11.
The History Of Indoor Track: When And Where Was The First Indoor Meet? The day: November 7th, 1863. The place: Ashburnham Hall in West London. The first meet had just four running events and a TJ.
How Far Do Top Male Tennis Players Run In A Match? It varies by playing style as David Ferrer recently ran ~10,000m over three rounds while Novak Djokovic only covered somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000m through three rounds.
Runner And Frequent RunnersWorld Model Nikki Delventhal A Contestant On TV Show “The Bachelor” Apparently there is a wedding dress mud run that she’s expected to do well in.
Boston 2024 Calling On City’s Wealthy To Donate Towards Olympic Campaign The group of doners is known as the “Founders 100” with entry starting at $50,000. They’re hoping to raise $75 million.

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.”

Doping News

Athletics Kenya Official Barnaba Korir Questions Why The Eight Recently-Banned Athletes Were Allowed To Compete For A Year Or More After Testing Positive One of the banned runners is Flomena Chepchirchir, who ran 2:23:00. Korir: “Some of these athletes were found positive nearly two years ago and AK have been sitting on the reports from IAAF. How could they wait for two years to act? These are old casualties and I am sure AK still have some others they are sitting on.”
Athletics Illustrated Opinion Piece: “To The IAAF: Ban Russia Now”Christopher Kelsall: “Russia is no longer innocent until proven guilty. Currently there are at least 68 Russian athletes serving suspensions for doping related infractions, this is far and away the most in the world and is offensive to the fair play credo of the sport.”
Former 400H World Champ Dai Greene Says He Thinks Recently-Banned Welsh Duo “Were Very Hard Done By”Rhys Williams and Gareth Warburton both got short bans after taking an allegedly contaminated supplement.
WADA Head David Howman Says Doping Is A Public Health Issue, Not Just A Problem In Elite Sport “Too many people are taking too many substances they don’t even know … As a society we would be shocked at the amount of stuff that our children are taking.”
New Anti-Doping Agency Of Kenya Will Will Get Assistance From China And Norway’s Anti-Doping Agencies

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce And Nesta Carter Opening Their Seasons Saturday At The Queen’s/Grace Jackson Meet In Jamaica

Random But Interesting

Nike And Design Firm Form Idea For An “Athlete’s Plane” The currently hypothetical aircraft would have massage tables, beds, spacious bathrooms and, more than likely, an astronomically high price ticket.
Study Finds Pre-Run Ibuprofen Won’t Improve Performance It was found that ibuprofen didn’t help with performance for runners who were sore as they actually performed relatively worse in a treadmill test to exhaustion.