February 25, 2015 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For February 25, 2015

Quote Of The Day

“(Fair play) starts at the very top of the sport and it permeates its way through to the grassroots. So the tone and style for the sport is set from the top … The spectators going into those stadiums have got to know what they are watching is real … We have to be open about this … I’ve always, always preferred to face the short term embarrassment than the long-term genteel decline … This is not a war we can lose. We have to (fight doping) because the trust and integrity of our sport (is critical). (Our sport) would not have survived three weeks – let alone 33 centuries – if it had been based on anything other than the ability to focus, to have great coaching, to work hard, be dedicated and to have natural talent.”

– Seb Coe talking about the doping problem in our sport in an interview with Brendan Foster, released exclusively to LetsRun.com.

Seb Coe Makes His Case For IAAF Presidency *Splash Page

Day 2: LRCSeb Coe On Trust/DopingSeb Coe is running for the IAAF presidency. He knows many of the most passionate fans of the sport come to LetsRun.com and has filmed an interview that is being exclusively released here. We’ve got his views on doping today. Three more parts coming over the next three days.
*Day 1: LRCIntro and Summary“I take great exception to people from outside our sport trying to redesign our sport because they don’t fundamentally understand the nature, the history and the philosophy of it.”
*Day 3: Growing The Sport Commercially
*Day 4: Marketing The Sport Across 213 Member Federations
*Day 5: A Sub-2 Hour Marathon?

News From Europe: Indoor Champs Are Next Week

800 Runner Mark English Not Feeling The Pressure Despite Being Ireland’s Lone Medal Hope At European Indoors He says he’s got a lot of confidence from the bronze medal he won at European outdoor champs last year.
Greg Rutherford Has Last Minute Change Of Heart And Will Compete For GB At European Indoor Championships Starting March 5th Other top team members include sprinterRichard Kilty, pentathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Chris O’Hare in the 1,500, Jenny Meadows (800) and Kate Avery and Laura Muir (3,000).
The Netherlands And Poland Name Their Teams For Euro Indoor ChampsSifan Hassan, Dafne Schippers (sprints) Eelco Sintnicolaas (heptathlon), Kamila Licwinko (HJ) among the big names competing.
UK Athletics Performance Director Neil Black Talks About GB Medal Hopes For Euro Indoors
IAAF: Volunteers Wanted For The 2015 World Masters Athletics Championships In Lyon, France

Spice Up Your Winter – Photo Of The Year Contest

LRC The Story Behind The Alaskan Flip-Off: The 2013 LRC Photo Of The Year

LRC What’s Your 2014 Running Photo Of The Year? Have you taken a photo or seen a photo that could be the running photo of the year (2014 until now)*. Submit or tweet your entries to us. Winner and/or person who tells us of winner wins $100.

Marathon News

Good Read: Shalane Flanagan Going All-Out For Boston Again Flanagan talks about her devotion to winning Boston, her connection to the race, and Rita Jeptoo drug bust.
18-Year-Old 2:38 Marathoner Alana Hadley Ineligible For The Olympics Due To Her Age She’ll be 8 days too young for IAAF rules. If she finished top 3 at the Trials and couldn’t go, that would be an outrage, but as she’s 44th on the qualifier list, that isn’t expected to be an issue.
*Related Question: Would 2:04:32 2014 Dubai winner Tsegaye Mekonnen Asefa really have been ineligible for the Olympics? He’ll be old enough in 2016, but he was only 18 when he ran 2:04.
Lead Car Takes Top 3 Runners Off Course In Birmingham Mercedes-Benz Half Marathon; 4th Place Runner Gets The Win And Prize MoneyPeter Chebii was winning, with Hansons runners Mike Morgan and Luke Humphrey 2-3, but they ended up 2nd, 4th and 5th with David Marley 1st (68:02). The Hansons Distance Project was understandably upset, tweeting that organizers “dropped the ball.”
Good Q&A With Dennis Kimetto, Who Says Yes, He Did Run To School And Back Each Day As A Kid Interestingly, Kimetto disagrees with Mo Farah as he says “A record is more valuable than beating somebody.”
North Korea Bans Foreigners From Pyongyang Marathon Due To Fears Over Ebola Virus The super-isolated country has some of the strictest Ebola regulations in the world. Hundreds foreigners had already signed up to run the April 12th race.

NCAA Stuff

Quiet Week In NCAA DI Rankings As Top 7 Teams For Men And Women Remain Unchanged Florida men, Arkansas women still #1.
Top 10 Weekend NCAA Marks For Each Event

NCAA Action *All NCAA Results

Weekend Highlights: Two Of The Fastest Weekend DMRs Go To Virginia Tech And Duke (9:28/9:29 Converted) Wisconsin’s Michael Lihrman set a new DI record in the weight throw with 24.87m (the overall record is by DII’s Kibwe Johnson). Missouri’s Kearsten Peoples threw 22.84m to put herself 7th on the all-time NCAA weight throw list.
Albany Men Win Their 10th Consecutive America East Indoor Conference Title*Albany Women Win Their 3rd Straight Indoor Title
Navy Men, Bucknell Women Win Patriot League
Ken Goe: Don’t Bank On Another Oregon Sweep At NCAA Indoor Champs
MB: Solinsky wins 3,000 meters at Virginia Tech
Results: Notre Dame Alex Wilson Invy Baylor women (10:58.52) and Arkansas men (9:28.37) win DMRs. Becca Addison ran 4:30.70 to win the women’s mile over Canada’s Nicole Sifuentes and Rachel Johnson won the 3,000 (9:07.09).
Last Weekend: Shawn Barber Breaks NCAA PV Record For Second Week In A Row With 5.90m (19-4.5)*Distance Highlights*Top 10 By Event
High School: Video: Lexi Weeks Sets HS National Record In PV With 14-3.5 (4.35m)

Poor Kawauchi

Yuki Kawauchi May Take Break From Running After Calf Injury Slows Him To 1:13:36 Half Marathon Finish He was actually heckled by some spectators who shouted “Too slow!” and “Slacker!”

More Mo Farah

Farah Might Delay Move Back To The Marathon Until After 2017 London World Championships
Farah Talks About Doping Scandals On BBC Radio: “We’ve come a long way and are moving forward.” Farah added, “How can we get other countries to apply the same rules as us, how can we be fair?”
Despite WR, The Priority Is Still On Titles For Farah He said he hasn’t ruled out going for Bekele’s WRs at 5,000/10,000, but Beijing Worlds are his focus.

NOP And OTC Distance News

Good Read:Cam Levins Feeling Positive About A Breakthrough 2015 Despite Millrose Setback Levins reveals that he was dealing with an illness before Millrose, where he ran a sub-par 5,000. Those who question his double at the ATI should remember his epic quadruples from college.
*LRC MB Archives: Salazar completely WASTES Levin’s AMAZING fitness on pointless DOUBLES *Cam Levins: performance of the week?? *Cam Levins quadruples again!
Q&A With Irish Miler Ciarán Ó Lionaird O’Lionard isn’t a big fan of running for running’s sake. “I am more of a competitor I would say, than a runner.”

More News Of Note

Q&A With Mo Aman About Joining The OTC “I am at a crossroads in my career and the Olympics are right around the corner again. … I have heard so much about Coach Mark Rowland and how passionate he is about the sport and his athletes that I wanted to see for myself.”
Australia > UK:Australia Sending 4 Full Teams To World XC
Kenyan Press Still Raving About Austin Marathon Crawler – Hyvon Ngetich – Her Awesome Willpower Is What History Is Made Of
Amy Acuff, NCAA HJ Record Holder, Has Developed A Coaching App For All Events – Ianalyze Side-by-side video comparisons and the ability to calculate velocities is included.
Vin Lananna Says Eugene Might Bid For 2021 Worlds, Talks About New NCAA Outdoor Format
Result Of Kenya’s Jr. Athletics Trials – Athletics Kenya Names 28 For Africa Junior Championships In Addis Ababa
Former CU Sprinter Joe Morris Has Relocated To Portland His PRs are 10.24, 20.77 and 47.17.
Jamaican Discus Thrower Traves Smikle Banned For 2 Years
Kenya Will Hold Its First All-Female Half Marathon On March 8th

News From Kenya

Great Read:Renato Canova Says Florence Kiplagat’s WR Was A Surprise Even For Him Last year, her #1 goal was the 13.1 WR with London Marathon 2nd. This year, the goal was the 15km WR but London is the goal as she needs to figure out if she should focus on marathon or 10,000 for 2016.

Doping News

2:26:00 Kenyan Marathon Runner Julia Mumbi Muragagiven Two-Year EPO Doping Ban The 29-year-old was the Japanese 800 and 1,500 HS champ in 2002 and 2003. *MB: More proof Kenyans doesn’t benefit from EPO doping
Seb Coe Says IAAF Will Not “Dance On Grave” Of Russia Despite Doping Crisis, Won’t Ban Whole Country From Competition We almost want to see the ban to change the culture, but imagine if the USA was banned for Lance, Barry and Marion – the non-dopers would be outraged.
*MB: Coe Already Whitewashing Russian Doping Scandal

More Coe News

Seb Coe Campaigning Hard For IAAF Head, Bubka Laying Low, Nowhere To Be Seen

Doping Stuff: Adrienne Herzog Gets 2 Years

Dutch Distance Runner And Boulder Resident Adrienne Herzog Gets Two-Year Doping Ban Herzog has long been linked to drug use and it finally caught up to her. Although of course, she still claims she’s innocent.
*MB Thread
*Good Detailed Look Into Herzog’s Link To Doping Over The Years
*More In The LRC Archives
Seb Coe Doesn’t Think Russia Should Be Banned From Competition After Doping Allegations Coe: “This is not about tap dancing on the graves of Federations. This is actually about helping those Federations …”
Lance Armstrong Pleads Guilty To Careless Driving After He Hit Two Parked Cars In Aspen He got charged about $390.
*MB:Lance Armstrong hits parked car, has girlfriend take the rap

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

Doping Updates

Qatari 1,500 Runner And Former WJ Champ Hamza Driouch Gets 2-Year Drug Ban People were saying Driouch would be the next great miler when he ran 3:50 as a 17-year-old. Saudi Arabia 5,000 runner Hussain Jamaan Alhamdah also got a 2-year ban. Both were caught with the biological passport. *Discuss
Depressing Numbers:New Dutch Study Estimates Doping In Elite Sport Is Likely Between 14 To 39 Percent This is way less than the number of athletes actually testing positive, which is about 1%.

Elite Distance News

March 15: Past Champions Sally Kipyego And Caroline Rotich, Along With Top Americans Molly Huddle And Desiree Linden, Headline Women’s Field For NYC Half Marathon The deep field also includesJoyce Chepkirui, Buzunesh Deba and Annie Bersagel.
Great Podcast Interview:2:14 Marathoner Nate Jenkins (7th At The 2007 Olympic Trials) Making A Comeback From 7 Years Of Injuries To Race At The Boston Marathon Jenkins: “Six weeks ago I was thinking that to run in the 2:15 range would be on that course really phenomenal. Right now I feel like 2:13 is definitely possible. … Yeah, I’m starting to get some big eyes.”
*Some Good Insights Into Jenkins’ Comeback/Training In His Blog
*MB: Nate Jenkins returns to Marathon
You’ve Been Reading, But Have You Been Watching?Video Highlight Reel From The Top Track And Field Action So Far In 2015 Includes the recent WRs by Mo Farah, Genzebe Dibaba and Florence Kiplagat, as well as Jenny Simpson‘s AR.
Good Read:Spikes Talks To Zane Robertson About His Transformation From The 17-Year-Old Who Left New Zealand For Kenya To The Sub-60 Minute Half Runner He Is Now “It [winning bronze at Commonwealth Games] meant all of the hardship had finally paid off. It is something I’ve been aiming for the whole of my life.”
Visit From Pope Francis Will Push Rock ‘N’ Roll Philadelphia Marathon Back To Saturday, October 31st The race is normally on the third Sunday in September and is often used by a tune-up for elites racing Chicago or NYC.

Drake Relays Presented By Hy-Vee Announces First Wave Of 2015 Athletes And Events A highlight will be the addition of an elite women’s 800 with Brenda Martinez andAjee Wilson. Other top names competing include Renaud Lavillenie, Jenn Suhr, LaShawn Merritt vs. Kirani James, and a deep 110H and HJ competition.

Defense In Oscar Pistorius Case Is Challenging Judge’s Decision To Allow An Appeal By The Prosecution The prosecution thinks the judge made a misinterpretation of the law with her original rule of “culpable homicide” for 5 years.

Weight Throwers Michael Lihrman (Wisconsin) And Kearsten Peoples (Missouri) Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week

Running Science

Recommended Read:Steve Magness: “Why Strength Coaches Don’t Know Endurance Training – Domain Expertise, Chronic Cardio, And Confirmation Bias” Magness’ piece begins: “Why do smart people believe dumb things?”
RunnersWorld Article On Why The Latest “Why Running Will Kill You” Study Was BSAlex Hutchinson: “Yes, the conclusion of the study (that “strenuous” jogging is as bad as being sedentary) is based on two deaths over more than a decade of follow-up. (Thank goodness a third person didn’t die, or public health authorities would be banning jogging.)” *LRC Health Archives

Sainsbury’s Birmingham GP Results Race Video

LRC Mo Farah Gets His First World Record, Runs 8:03.40 2-Mile The critics can shut up for quite some time now. Farah went 3:59 for his 2nd mile to get the WR.
*Farah: Vernon Row Got Me Going

Rest Of The Meet

LRC 2015 Birmingham Recap: Matthew Centrowitz & Shannon Rowbury See Winning Streaks Come To An End Some Americans did find success, however, as Ben Blankenship and Jordan Hasay PRed and Erik Sowinski almost did.
*Katarina Johnson-Thompson Sets British LJ Record With 6.93m; Jenny Meadows Wins 800 In 2:01Greg Rutherford won the LJ in an indoor PR and WLing 8.17m.
*Full Meet Recaps: Athletics Weekly & IAAF

Seb Coe Doesn’t Think Track Is Too Dependent On Usain Bolt And Hopes He Stays Involved Even After He Retires “Are we overdependent on Bolt? It would be a bit like saying to the boxing community in the ’60s and ’70s that they are over reliant on Muhammad Ali.”

GB Olympic LJ Champ Greg Rutherford Says He Doesn’t Want His Son To Compete In Doping-Tainted Track And Field Other professional sports aren’t any better; track and field just actually tests. Rutherford was pretty negative as he said, “You might as well throw the sport to the dogs.”

Preview Of March 1st Napa Valley Marathon

Jamaican (Doping) Stuff

Journalist Says Inviting Asafa Powell To Compete At Ireland’s Athlone Grand Prix “Sent Out The Wrong Message” She is of course talking about Powell’s 6-month drug ban last year. That was the headline anyway, but she spends most of the article talking about the Mo Farah – Andy Vernon Twitter battle.
WADA President Craig Reedie And Seb Coe In Jamaica For Anti-Doping Inspection / Check-Up
Jamaica Backs Seb Coe For IAAF President

Week That Was

LRC NCAA Sub-4 Mile Mania, Montana State > Oregon, Colorado Gets Its 2nd Sub-4 Miler (Ever), Florence Kiplagat Nearly Goes 1:04, Drones Film Races, And Break Up With Your Girlfriend To Run Faster … We break down the last week in track and field and apply Isaac Newton‘s “What goes up must comes down” to running and take one final look at the 2015 NYRR Millrose Games. We devote a lot of time to breaking down the greatest day in sub-4 history and discover that Georgetown has 4 sub-4 guys this year, Colorado has had 2 (ever), but everyone should bow down to Montana State.

McFarland USA – HS XC Movie With Kevin Costner – Opens Today

LRC Mini Review:“McFarland USA is a winner … This movie will certainly become a classic on all team bus rides for years to come.” We saw an advanced screening in November and liked it even if it was predictable.
*MB: McFarland USA, currently at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes We should point out it’s down to 77% now – this is far from a “Field of Dreams” type hit.
USA Today: The Real 1987 McFarland, USA Runners Share Their Paths
Meet The Diaz Family That Stars In “McFarland, USA” Brothers David, Damacio and Danny Diaz all were key parts of the 1987 team.
Cleveland.com: “McFarland, USA” Overcomes Cliches To Display The Beauty Of Cross-Country
Thetelegraph.com: Predictable, Pleasantly So
WSJ: “Disney does inspiration on the cheap. … The script is dreadful and everything else suffers from its impoverishment.”
AVClub.com: “A story wherein a white man meets a group of non-whites, helps them realize their potential, and shows them the ocean for the first time.”
Legendary Cross-Country Coach Jim White, The Man Behind McFarland: “It’s all in the attitude.”

Random, But Somewhat Interesting

The Gregoreks Are Now The 8th Father-Son Combo To Go Sub-4 The Keinos have the fastest average – just .02 faster than the Centrowitzes.
Odds Of Having Casino Gambling In Time For Tokyo 2020 Are Slim
Adidas Flies 2 Brits In To Race NYC Subway – The Guys Who #RaceTheSubway
Starting/Timing Glitches Marred AAI Meet In Ireland The entire w60 had to be re-run 3 times as both the photo finish and clock failed to work.
Jaheel Hyde Has Never Beaten Michael O’Hara Of Calabar At “Champs” In The 110m Hurdles
Kelly Sotherton’s 2006 Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Stolen By Thieves

Elite Distance News

Elite American And International Fields Announced For March 15th 2015 United Airlines NYC HalfStephen Sambu faces a field of top Americans, including Meb Keflezighi, Dathan Ritzenhein, Abdi Abdirahman, Matt Tegenkamp and, in their debuts, Chris Solinsky and Andrew Bumbalough.
Recommended Read:Nick Willis Is More Motivated Than Ever To Succeed At Track So He Can Keep Being A Stay-At-Home Dad Willis says he knows it’s a bit late to start “climbing the corporate ladder” and as a pro runner he can train 2-3 hours a day and be with his family the rest of the time. He also questions the idea that runners slow down in their 30s.
Update On Matt Tegenkamp, Who Is Training Looking Towards The 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials Tegenkamp won’t run a marathon in 2015, but is throwing in shorter races like the NYC Half in March.
Ethiopia’s Getu Feleke (2:04:50) And Germany’s Anna Hahner (2:26:44) Will Defend Their Titles At The Vienna City Marathon On April 12th

A Boring Tuesday Got A Little More Interesting Thanks To Twitter

LRC Andy Vernon Calls Out Mo Farah On Twitter: “I would just rather watch a race than the Mo Show.” Is Farah dodging the competition (again)? Vernon believes so and says the 2-mile field for this Saturday’s Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham (of which he is not a part) isn’t strong enough. Farah responded by saying, “Taylor Swift can probably run faster than you!”
*MB: Mo Farah and Andy Vernon go at it in Twitter
*AW Article

Week That Was

LRC Tsegaye Kebede Vs. The USA, Don’t Positive Split The Marathon, Worlds Is Coming, An Improved World Marathon Majors, NCAA Men Vs. NCAA Women And More We recap the week in running.

That Can't Be Good

UCI President Brian Cookson Says “Uncomfortable” New Doping Report Is Coming

Quick Q&A With Andy Bayer

InsideTheGames Asks If “Mega-Events” Are Worth Hosting A look at the cost vs benefit debate countries are asking themselves before they bid to host major international championships.

The World Marathon Majors Are Underway – 2015 Tokyo In The Books *Results

Chumba running away from everyone but Negesse

LRCTokyo 2015: Negesse And Dibaba Get First Major Wins, Stephen Kiprotich = Hero In 2nd, Japanese Twitter Erupts, Lauren Kleppin Risks It All Ethiopians Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba got the major marathon season underway with their first major wins as Stephen Kiprotich showed the Olympic spirit in second, Tariku Bekele bombed in his debut, Japanese twitter went nuts over the marathon, and Lauren Kleppin took a shot at greatness but bombed. *IAAF Recap

*MB: Official 2015 Tokyo Marathon Thread
*Full Coverage

More Weekend Distance Highlights

Dathan Ritzenhein, Jen Rhines Pick Up Wins And $8,000 At Publix Gasparilla Half Marathon 1:03:16 for Ritz with a comfortable win over Abdi. 1:12:34 for a 4-second win by Rhines over Neely Spence Gracey. Discuss Here
*Toni Reavis Article *Earliest Race Of Ritz’s Career
Team USA Wins Three Of Four Team Titles At Inaugural 2015 APA Pan American Cross-Country CupMaksim Korolev was the only individual champ for the US. Justyn Knight won the juniors for Canada. *IAAF
Cool Race: 600m WR Attempt In Canada Is A Bust The 6-man race was won by 400 Olympic silver medalist Leguelin Santos in 1:16.01 (the record is 1:15.12 by Germany’s Nico Motchebon from 1999). Brooks Beasts’ Mark Wieczorek was 2nd (1:17.04) and former 400H world champ Dai Greene 3rd (1:17:59).
Adelaide Track Classic: Jeff Riseley Wins 800 In 1:46.52 Over Aussie NR Holder Alex Rowe Riseley will race Rowe and David Rudisha over 800 next month and said he wanted to prove he shouldn’t be discounted. On the women’s side, Zoe Buckman won th,e 3000 in 8:56.
Moldolva’s Roman Prodius And Poland’s Dominika Nowakowska Win Almond Blossom XC Race In Portugal It was the first time since 1995 that a European runner won both the men’s and women’s races.
Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono (2:09:40) And Portugal’s Filomena Costa (2:28:01) Win Sevilla Marathon

Euro National Championships

Day 2 Highlights From Several European Indoor National Champs: Renaud Lavillenie Clears 6.01m In France, Breaking Sergey Bubka’s Stadium Record Lavillenie also made 3 unsuccessful attempts at a would-be new WR of 6.18m. Other highlights: Sara Moreira 8:56 3,000 win in Portugal, Giulia Viola 8:56 3,000 win in Italy, Zuzana Hejnova 52.76 in the 400m, Kafetien Gomis 8.18m LJ world lead, Czech sprinter Pawel Maslak WLing 45.27 in the 400, Ruth Beitia won a record 14th Spanish indoor HJ title (1.95m).
Day 1 Highlights In Belarus, Svetlana Kudelich set a NR to win the 3,000m in 8:55.94. Poland’s Kamila Licwinko cleared a NR and WLing 2.02m HJ. Christophe Lemaitre won the 60m in France.

Abdi Abdirahman Talks About Going To Africa For The First Time Since He Left As A 5-Year-Old He trained with Mo Farah and says, “It was mind blowing to see the speed and intensity and mileage that Mo did there in Ethiopia.”

USATF Angers Even More Of Its Members

Genzebe Dibaba Does It Again Full XL Galan Results WR Race Video

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Smashes Indoor 5,000 WR By Over 5 Seconds With 14:18.86 In Stockholm Dibaba now holds indoor WRs at 1,500, 3,000, 2 miles and 5,000 thanks to a stupendous performance, during which she hit 2 miles faster than Jenny Simpson‘s AR. *Video
*MB:Genzebe Dibaba Smashes 5000 WR – Runs 14:18.86!!
*IAAF Recap Sifan Hassan and Homiyu Tesfaye ran world-leading 1,500 times of 4:00.46 and 3:34:13; Qatar’s Musaeb Balla ran a WL 1:45.13 and Qatari teen Abadalleleh Haroun ran 45.13; plus a 6.99 WL in the LJ.

IAAF Recap Of Russian Champs: Anzhelika Sidorova Clears World-Leading 4.76mYelena Korobkina won the 3,000m (8:50.39) and 5,000 (15:47.09) but the times were modest in most events (2:02 in w800).