2015 Boston Marathon Is Monday

LRC2015 Boston Marathon International Men's Preview: Which Of These Men Will Snap The American Win Streak At One?

Angry Reactions To AK Announcements

• Kenyan Athletes React Angrily To Athletics Kenya Agent SuspensionsWilson Kipsang and others have spoken out, calling the move “unprofessional.” Kipsang also said, “AK is not trustworthy of handling finances … They cannot manage well the over 250 athletes in the two camps.”
• Wilson Kipsang:“We want to make it clear that we are not contemplating switching managers and that our contracts are still valid and will remain valid.” “We strongly believe that the move was malicious and politically driven, a way crafted to frustrate some athletes.”
• Former Distance Legend Moses Tanui Says Isaiah Kiplagat Didn’t Name The Appropriate Person As Interim PresidentLt. Gen. Jackson Tuwei was named interim president, but isn’t technically second in command. Tanui also criticized the banning of agents without evidence as it will hurt the athletes.
• Commonwealth Games 1,500 Champ Faith Kipyegon Defends Her Banned Coach And Closed Training Camp Coach Charles Ng’enowas accused of sexual harassment and poor coaching, but Kipyegon says that’s not true.

We Knew It’d Been Too Many Days Without A Doping Ban

• MB: Spanish XC Champ Mohamed Marhoum Tests Positive For EPO The Moroccan born runner pulled out of World XC Champs last month saying he was “sick,” but in reality had failed an out-of-competition test. *Google Translated Article
• South African Sprinter Simon Magakwe Gets 2-Year Ban For Failing To Provide A Urine Sample

Olympic Spots Will Be On The Line At World Relays The top 8 finishers in the men’s and women’s 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 will qualify for the 2016 Games.

Upcoming Action

• Kenyan Patrick Terer Will Return To Defend His Title At The Prague Marathon On May 3rd The 2:08:07 man will face Peter Kirui (2:06:31) and three other sub-2:08 men. The women are led by Ethiopians Yebrqual Melese (2:23:23), Tadelech Bekele (2:22:51) and Ashete Bekere (2:23:46).
• Tyson Gay Will Compete In The 100 At The May 9th Jamaica Invitational Gay took the place of Justin Gatlin who recently withdrew. Other confirmed athletes are Walter Dix, Ryan Bailey, Nesta Carter and Nickel Ashmeade.
• Mutaz Essa Barshim Will Face Stacked HJ Field At 2015 Pre Classic Includes Olympic champ Ivan Ukhov, Olympic medalists Derek Drouin and Erik Kynard and 2011 World champ Jesse Williams.
• France’s 2-Time European Heptathlon Champ Antoinette Nana Djimou And Russian Euro Indoor Champ lya Shkurenev Added To Fields For Hypo Meeting In Gotzis On May 30-31 Previously announced include Ashton Eaton for the men and a stacked women’s field of Jessica Ennis, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, Dafne Schippers, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Morgan Lake.
• Jessica Ennis Will Return To The Olympic Stadium For Sainsbury Anniversary Games In July She hasn’t decided which event(s) she’ll compete in, but could end up facing fellow BritKatarina Johnson-Thompson.

Boston Is In Less Than A Week

• Stacked Fields Set For BAA 5K: Molly Huddle Is Defending Champ And Ben True Goes For His Third Win True faces Sam Chelanga, Stephen Sambu and Lawi Lalang while Huddle is up against BAAA Distance Medley champ Mamitu Daska.
  *Past Boston Champs – Morio Shigematsu (JPN, 1965), Jaqueline Gareau (CAN, 1980), Geoff Smith (GBR, 1984/85), Greg Meyer (USA, 1983), Lorraine Moller (NZL, 1984), And Lisa Rainsberger (1985) – Will Also Run BAA 5k Joan Samuelson, Gelindo Bordin and Amby Burfoot will run the full 26.2.
• Morgan Uceny, Heather Kampf, Gabe Grunewald Lead Field For BAA Invitational Mile Uceny is a three-time champ. Chris O’Hare leads the men’s field.
• 2:16 Marathoner Tyler Andrews Attempting Treadmill Half Marathon WR On April 19th At Boston marathon Expo Andrews is trying to break his own 67:18 WR to raise money for educational projects in Peru. *Website
• Q&A With Former Marathon WR Patrick Makau Ahead Of The Boston Marathon Makau says his favorite workout is 10 x 2,000m in 5:40 with 1 minute recovery (200m jog).
  *Video With Makau Talking About His Strength/Interval Training
• BAA And Abbott Anounce Multiple-Year Sponsorship Of The Boston Marathon Sponsorship complements Abbott’s title sponsorship of the World Marathon Majors.

Women Distance News

• Recommended Read:84-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Says Running Saved Her LifeSylvia Weiner was the only one in her family of 10 to survive the Holocaust and was in a concentration camp together with Anne Frank. Weiner went on to become the first official Boston Marathon masters winner.
• RRW:Flashback To Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 World Record At The 2003 London Marathon 2003
  *MB:April 13, 2003 – Guess what happened 12 years ago today? Where were you/what was your reaction?
• IAAF “Personal Bests” Q&A With Emma Coburn Coburn shares her top achievement and disappointment, favorite venue and greatest indulgence.
• Shalaya Kipp Signs With Oiselle The 2012 Olympian is part of the group with Emma Coburn who train under Mark Wetmore in Boulder.

Sunday Marathons *Rotterdam Results

• Paris: Mark Korir Gets Surprise Win In Paris In 2:05:49, Meseret Mengistu PRs By Nearly 6 Minutes To Win Women’s
• Milan: 41-Year-Old Kenneth Mungra Runs Masters WR To Win Milano Marathon In 2:08:44 Lucy Karimi won the women’s race in 2:27:35.
• Rotterdam: Abera Kuma Wins Rotterdam In 2:06:47Asami Kato won the women’s in 2:26:30. Reid Coolsaet ran 2:11:24 as the Canadian record still stands.
• Vienna: Sisay Lemma Wins Vienna Marathon By Nearly 5 Minutes In 2:07:31; Maja Neuenschwander Wins Women’s (2:30:09)
• Chile: Kenya’s Luka Rotich Lobuwan (2:11:53) And Peru’s Ines Melchor (2:28:18) Win Santiago De Chile Marathon
• Brighton: Kenyans Duncan Maiyo (2:10:15) And Pennina Wanjiru (2:34:24) Win Brighton Marathon
  *Brits Stephanie Twell (32:49) And Jonny Taylor (29:13) Win Brighton 10K

Friday Never Happened – Ignore Everything You Read Coming From Wilson Chebet

LRCWilson Chebet Says The Quotes Attributed To Him - Saying Meb Keflezighi Was A Rabbit, Guaranteeing Victory In 2015 - Were Made Up

• Arcadia (The Stanford Of HS Distance Running) Is Fri. /Sat.: 10 Must-See Races 20 boys broke 9:00 last year.
• Jesse Squire: This Week’s Best Matchups Harvard vs. Yale and Cal vs. Stanford make the list.
• USTFCCCA Weekend Preview
• Oregon’s One-And-Done Transfer Will Geoghegan (Dartmouth) Is Doing More Than Getting Third At NCAAs – He’s Also Tutoring The Ducks
• Austrian 1:46 Man Niki Franzmair (The One Getting Tutored) Loves Running For The Ducks
• Andrew Wheating’s Free Coaching Advice – Don’t Listen To Audio Books Or Stand-Up Comedy On Your IPod While You Run
• Q&A With NCAA Mile Champ Leah O’Connor Her three goals for outdoors are “happy, healthy and fast.”
• Q&A With Colorado 1,500 Runner Jake Hurysz
• Tracktown USA Feature On Arizona State NCAA Champs Shelby Houlihan And Bryan McBride Houlihan, who is from Iowa, fell in love with ASU because she hates winter.
  *MB: Louis Q on Houlihan: I think she’s very similar to Jenny Simpson in that she can run everything from the 800 to the 5k.
• Profile Of UF Coach Mike Holloway, Who Is Very Thankful Lyle Knudson Hired Him Way Back In 1986

Boston Is Coming – A Week From Monday

• Running Times Catches Up With Matt Tegenkamp, Jeffrey Eggleston, Nick Arciniaga And Fernando Cabada Before Boston Can one of them break 2:10? Teg: “The message from (NYC Half) is that I can run 10 miles with Meb and Dathan, who’ll be in Boston.”
• Amy Cragg (Hastings) Says Her Training Is Much Farther Along Than Last Fall When She Was 5th In Chicago
• Boston Marathon Contender Dathan Ritzenhein Has Been Getting Advice From Former Boston Champ (And Neighbor) Greg Meyer About His Boston Debut
• Next Saturday: Molly Huddle (Defending Champ) And Ben True (2-Time Champ) Will Headline Next Saturday’s BAA 5k – LetsRun.com True will face Sambu and Lalang.
• Past Boston Champs – Morio Shigematsu (JPN, 1965), Jaqueline Gareau (CAN, 1980), Geoff Smith (GBR, 1984 And 1985), Greg Meyer (USA, 1983), Lorraine Moller (NZL, 1984), And Lisa Rainsberger (1985) – Will Run BAA 5k – LetsRun.com Joan Samuelson, Gelindo Bordin and Amby Burfoot will run the full 26.2.
• Morgan Uceny, Gabe Grunewald And Chris O’Hare Will Headline BAA Mile Next Saturday

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.

The Boston Marathon Is Coming

• Q&A With Former WR Holder Patrick Makau, Who Talks About His Marathon Buildups, Including Mileage And Hill Work Makau has ambitions of eventually getting back his marathon WR.
  *5 Things You Didn’t Know About Makau Before he ran marathons, he started off digging boreholes to bring water and electricity to his community in Kenya.
• Q&A With Joyce Chepkirui Ahead Of The Boston Marathon Her marathon PR is only 2:30, but she has a 66:19 in the half. She’s also cousins with Geoffrey Mutai.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Quick Video Interview With Meb Keflezighi
• Champions Return For Boston 2015:Joan Samuelson, Lisa Rainsberger, Gelindo Bordin, Amby Burfoot Among Those To Run Boston Marathon, While Six Champions To Race In B.A.A. 5K

Boston Bombing Trial Updates

• Jurors Begin Deliberating Charges Against Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev After Lawyers Make Their Closing Arguments
  *Victims Present In Court For Closing Arguments
• Oops:Running Times Published A Poorly-Phrased Tweet Last Week About Finishing The Boston Marathon “In One Piece” It didn’t get the best reaction on Twitter as the Boston bombing trial is going on, but it was swiftly deleted.