2015 Rotterdam And Paris Are Sunday Morning (Saturday Night West Coast) *Streaming Info / Watch Live

LRC Spring Marathon Season Is Here 2015 Rotterdam And Paris Women’s Marathon Previews Two-Time Chicago Champ Atsede Bayisa headline in Paris – Rotterdam is barely worth mentioning.

LRC Men’s Marathon Previews – Bernard Koech Goes For Win In Rotterdam Which is Almost of WMM Quality Is Rotterdam worthy of WMM Status? Rotterdam has four men who’ve run sub-2:05 and eight men who have gone sub-2:07, including last year’s runner-up Bernard Koech and ’11 WC bronze medalist Feyisa Lilesa. Paris is wide open as 13 men have broken 2:08; 12:51/26:51 man Vincent Chepkok will also run in his 2nd career marathon.

2015 IAAF World Relays Are At The End Of The Month – Good News And Bad News

• Justin Gatlin Commits To World Relay Champs – Track Fans Will Get To See Him Clash With Bolt!
• David Rudisha Opts Out Of World Relays We guess we could have broken this story as the date of his previously-announced 600m WR attempt in Ostrava is the same day as the Relays.
• Good News USA Fans:Eunice Sum, Janeth Jepkosgei And Mercy Cherono Are “Kicked Out” Of Kenya’s IAAF World Relays team We’re not sure if we’d use the words “kicked out” like the paper, but they won’t be going as they didn’t attend the first trials. A stupid decision by Kenya, who should just hand the 4 x 800 gold to USA now. Asbel Kiprop Will Be Biggest Star At Kenya’s Relay Trials
• Teams From Botswana, Nigeria And South Africa Are Competing In 4 X 400 At Kenya’s World Relays Trials

Other Marathon News

• Last Year’s Boston Runner-Up Says He Thought Meb Was The Rabbit
  *MB:2014 Boston runner-up on Meb: “I thought he was a pacesetter … I lost the title last year to an Eritrean turned American”
• Rick Hoyt Will Compete In 2015 Boston Marathon Once Again, But A Local Dentist, Not His 74-Year-Old Father, Will Be PushingDick Hoyt retired after last year’s race at age 73.
  *Dick Hoyt Will Be Grand Marshall
• MB: Health experts urge runners not to train for 2015 London Marathon on Friday (no joke)
• Sub-Two Marathon Might Fall In London On July 19th (In 4-Person Relay) Good luck. You have to average 28:26 per 10k to get it.
• Distance: Fionnuala Britton Aiming To Finally Triumph At Great Ireland Run On Saturday WC silver medalist Valeria Straneo is the favorite for the women. Leonard Komon and Japhet Korir headline the men’s field.
• Peter Kirui, Nicholas Kemboi And Emily Chebet Are Running Hapalua, Hawaii’s Half Marathon, On Sunday

More Sprint News

• Great News:Yohan Blake “Says “Training Is Going Really Well” And He Wants To Double At Jamaican Champs We’ll soon find out if this is true or just an attempt to get the appearance fees for Blake, who has missed most of the last two years due to injury, back up.
• Michael Johnson Just Finished Filming A New Nike commercial, Will Wear Golden Shoes
• South African Cornel Fredericks Has Injured Achilles, Out 4-6 Weeks, Won’t Compete In South African Champs The 48.14 400H man is medal threat if healthy.
• One We Missed:2015 Stawell Gift Was Last Weekend In Australia – Race RecapMurray Goodwin, the son of a former Aussie 800 champ, got the men’s win as Grace O’Dwyer, the daughter of a former runner-up, won the women’s title.
• China’s 17-Year-Old Wu Yuang Runs 47.33 400m He ran 48.40 indoors as a 16-year-old this winter.

Bizarre Marathon Stuff

• Have An Extra $12,700 To Throw Around? You Could Run Today’s North Pole Marathon The race has 45 entrants who will face temperatures as low as -40 degrees.
• Loch Ness Marathon Offers $75,000 Reward For Selfie With Loch Ness Monster
• Today Is The 4th Stage Of The Marathon des Sables, The Ultramarathon In The Sahara Desert The 6-day, 156-mile race features temperatures up to 122 degrees.

• Sergey Bubka Releases His IAAF Presidential Campaign Manifesto*AP Article
• Business Commission, Increased Grants For Federations And Tracks For All Are Key Ideas As Bubka Launches IAAF Presidential Manifesto
  
• Bubka Wants Business Closer To Athletics If Elected IAAF Chief

Descending Order List Available For 2015 World Youth Championships Who are the world’s fastest youth in each event? Right now the US has the top men’s 800 runner with Terrell Jackson at 1:51.17. Kenyans dominate events longer than that.

RIP Former Team USA And Long Beach State University Coach Dave Rodda

NCAA / High School News

• Daily Relay’s Jesse Squire Asks “Why Do We Do Things This Way?” In The NCAA Squire talks about how the entire focus of the NCAA season is getting qualifying marks rather than competing and laments that Edward Cheserek and Eric Jenkins had to jog the Stanford 10,000 just to get a mark.
• AP: “Billions For March Madness, But Pennies For Olympic Gold” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun: “College sports have never had more revenue than they have today, but college [Olympic] sports programs are being cut. It’s kind of upside down.”
• Oregon’s Matthew Maton Kicked Off Summit HS Team After Some Kind Of Falling Out With Coaches Maton’s mother is quoted saying the coaches had a “grudge” against him and cites weird jumping jacks.
  *Summit Coaches Say It Was Maton’s Choice To Leave And He Is Welcome Back Anytime*2nd Article
  *MB: Matthew Maton runs 2 mile in 9:03 as an unattached athlete; kicked off HS team?
• Sam Stabler (Lamar) And Remona Burchell (Alabama) Are DI Athletes Of The Week Stabler PRed by 25 seconds, running 13:30 to win the Stanford 5,000, while Burchell ran 11.04 into a 2.5 m/s headwind.

Bolt / Sprint News

• Usain Bolt’s Coach Glen Mills Isn’t Worried About Facing Justin Gatlin “We take all competitors with a level of seriousness and I don’t see Gatlin as a joke, but the truth of the matter is Usain at his best doesn’t have much to worry about …”
• Usain Bolt To Compete At 2015 World Relays In The Bahamas We’re glad Bolt will be there, but think this meet should be every 4 years instead of every year.
• IAAF Recap Of CARIFTA Games: 16-Year-Old Christopher Taylor Wins U18 400 In 46.64 And Anchors Jamaica’s 4 X 400 To The Win World 400H champ Jaheel Hyde won triple gold in the 400H, 110H and 4 x 400. Barbados’ Mary Fraser won the 800 (2:11.63), the 1,500 (4:41.44) and the 3000 (10:27.91). In the U20 400, Jamaica’s Akeem Bloomfield won in 45.85. *Full Results

Sprint Stuff

• Recommended Read:“Imagine If Picasso Had Never Picked Up A Paintbrush … That Would Have Been The Equivalent Of A World Without Jeremy Wariner Running Track” Great profile talks about how he ran 50 seconds in his first 400, almost did football instead of track at Baylor and his rise to 2004 Olympic gold and 2008 silver.
• Glen Mills Urges Usain Bolt To “Protect His Legacy” Mills: “I told him that despite the fact that he has achieved all that he has set out to achieve in the sport … he has to maintain the standard that he has set for himself … That has got to be the motivation going forward – protect your legacy.”
• Good Read: NY Times Writer Visits Jamaica To Talk To Usain Bolt And Go To Jamaican Boys And Girls Champs Talking about Jamaican sprint dominance, former WR holder Dennis Johnson said, “Every little kid running in kindergarten believes they could be Usain Bolt. We’re going to dominate sprint for the next 50 years.”

Distance News

• After Coming In As Not “A Superstar Recruit,” Kaitlyn Benner Has Impressed At Colorado, Winning US Junior XC Champs And Getting 27th At Worlds CU coach Heather Burroughs: “She has surprised us. It’s not an insult, I think, for us to say that she’s gone way beyond what we expected …”
• Ethiopians Girmay Birhanu (2:07:26) And Meselech Melkamu (2:27:24) Win Daegu Marathon
• MB: Matthew Maton runs 2 mile in 9:03 as an unattached athlete; kicked off HS team?

Updates From Africa

• Troubling: Former 5,000 World Champ Benjamin Limo Resigns Position As Athletics Kenya Branch Chairman Over AK’s Unwillingness To Combat Doping Limo claims that AK does not look out for athletes’ interests and protects managers and coaches who are connected with doping.
• AK Boss Isaiah Kiplagat Says There Might Be Some Foreign Agents Banned Or Arrested Next Week
• Moses Kipsiro May Flee Uganda Due To Death Threats From Coach Peter Wemali
• PAAK Launches “Run Clean” Campaign To Fight Doping In Kenya

Jumps News

• Athletics Weekly Profile Of HJer Mutaz Essa Barshim Barshim talks about winning bronze at London 2012, going for the WR and how he got his start in track as a race walker.
• Interesting:Study Finds Male High Jumpers And Pole Vaulters Embrace Risk More Than Women Male jumpers in top-level athletics events are more likely to pass on heights and the tactics often pay off.
• Yelena Isinbayeva Has Sights Set On A Spectacular Farewell As She Wants To Set A Pole Vault WR That Will “Stay For 100 Years” “I have a 5.10m jump on my mind but at the same time, I think that 5.15m is the limit for women.”

Very Interesting Running Science Articles

• Exercise Physiologist Ross Tucker Explains The Pain And Pacing Strategy Of The 800 Meters Tucker talks about the fine line between going out hard, but not too hard. “If you run an even-paced 800, you’re under-performing. The guy who slows down the least is usually the winner.”
  *MB: The PAIN of the 800 meters explained by an exercise physiologist
• Science Looks At The “Second Wind” … Does It Exist And What Causes It? Very likely it involves either neurochemical or psychological factors.

More Distance Stuff

• If You’re In Flagstaff: Documentary On Caballo Blanco (From The “Born To Run” Book) Premiering April 27th In Flagstaff The documentary on Micah True is titled Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco.
• Kids Today: High Schooler Takes Selfie While Leading XC Race; Photographer Catches Shot Of It And Wins Award The runner sprinted to the front to get the shot, but ended up finishing 61st of 81 runners.
  *MB: How would you react if you were this kids coach?

Week That Was

LRCWeek That Was: A Final Look At World Cross 2015, How Good/Bad Was The US, The Mercedes Marathon Drops The Ball, And More

Olympic News – Bye Bye Boston, Hello LA?

• Recommended Read Alan Abrahamson: Boston 2024 Is Doomed: Be Done With It – USOC Should Bump Boston, Pick LA As “America’s Olympic City.” An informative read. Abrahamson thinks LA should be named as the next city to host the Games no matter when we win them. Abrahamson does live in LA.
• 2004 Olympic 110H Champ Liu Xiang To Announce Retirement Next Week, Reports Say Given it’s the year 2015, his retirement announcement will come via Weibo according to the Shanghai Daily.
  *MB:Liu Xiang To Retire

Mid-D/Distance News

• David Rudisha, Blanka Vlašić, Ajeé Wilson Join Usain Bolt At adidas Grand Prix In New York On June 13 If you live in NYC and don’t attend this one, you no longer have the right to call yourself a track fan.
• Sweet: David Rudisha Will Go After 600m World Record In Ostrava On May 26th
• Mark English Signs 2-Year Sponsorship With Sky Sports He’ll be in the 600 race with Rudisha.
• 28th Marathon des Sables Is Taking Place This Week In The Sahara
  We thought this was one of the hardest races in the world until we learned about the Barkley (Ultra) Marathon in Tennessee.
• Meet The Two Australian Athletics Commentators Who Have A Cult Following

Track Distance News

• One Everyone Missed? Sarah Baxter Made Her Collegiate Debut With A 4:29.54 1,500 For 6th Place At Willamette Invy The race was won by Oregon’s Frida Berge in 4:23.99. Both raced unattached. *Full Results
• Good Read:Lauren Fleshman Blogs About Struggling With Injury Issues And “Identifying Her Life Through Running First” Fleshman had hoped to make USAs this year and get the 15:20 standard for Worlds, but that’s not looking like it will happen right now.
• April 3-4: Entries For 2015 Stanford Invitational: Stacked Fields In Every Distance Event Men’s 10K: Edward Cheserek, Eric Jenkins, Futsum Zienasellassie. Women’s 10K:Shalane Flanagan, Dominque Scott, Kate Avery. Men’s 1,500: Lopez Lomong, German Fernandez, Stanley Kebenei, Andy Bayer (also listed in steeple). Women’s 5,000: Emma Bates, Gabe Grunewald, Marielle Hall.

2015 World XC Special Section *Results

LRC Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor Wins 2015 World XC Champs To Officially Arrive As A Star; Fierce Team Battle Goes To Ethiopia On The TiebreakerKamworor and teammate Bedan Karoki hammered from the front as Africa put on a clinic on how to run XC as Chris Derrick was the top non-African in 24th.

Women:19-Year-Old Agnes Tirop Becomes Youngest Winner Of World Cross Since Zola Budd Ethiopia won the team title as the US women, led by Sara Hall in 20th, were 7th.

Juniors:Letesenbet Gidey Leads Ethiopian Sweep Of Medals In Girls Race
*Ethiopia’s Yasin Haji Wins Junior Boys Race As Kenya Wins Team Title

LRC 4 Takeaways From An Awesome World XC Champs: Get Used To The Name Geoffrey Kamworor, The Vindication Of Sara Hall, LRC Is Popular In China, And African Domination Is A Good Thing The long trip to China proved to be well worth it. Have we finally found a rival worthy of Mo Farah?
LRC Interviews: Chris Derrick Talks After Finishing 24th *Brett Robinson 28th *Ryan Vail 34th *Bobby Curtis 37th

More in our World XC Special Section

3 World XC Getty Images Photo Galleries:
1) Pro Photos From Getty Images
2) NewRojo’s Women’s Photos
3) New Rojo’s Men’s Race Photos

LRC Lisbon Half Photos

The Search For A Better Running Shoe

LRCThe Most Popular Running Shoe On LetsRun.com Is … Not Made Anymore … The Nike Pegasus+ 30Thousands of you filled out our detailed running shoe survey in the fall and more of you ran in the Nike Pegasus+30 than any other shoe. Only problem is all of you need to find a new shoe, help us out below:

LRCThe Improved LRC Running Shoe Survey Is Back – Three Minutes To A Better Running ShoeThe running shoe buying process sucks and we want to improve it with data. We took your reviews from the fall, made a running shoe beta site, and have improved our survey to ask you what shoe your previously ran in. We now need more reviews from you on the latest shoes.