2015 IAAF World Relays Are Sat./Sun.

W4 X 800: LRC The U.S. Has A Great Chance To Defend Its Crown The US is the most dominant 800 nation in the world. Want proof? We’ve got it.

M4 X 8: LRC Men’s 4 X 800: Can The U.S. (Or Poland) Upset Favored Kenya? Can Team USA upset Team Kenya, which nearly coughed up a huge lead last year? If you were the Team USA coach, who would you anchor? Robby Andrews or Duane Solomon?

• MB: Breaking: Asbel Kiprop is OUT of IAAF 2015 World Relays – Double gold for Team USA in DMR and 4 x 800? 
• Ferguson Rotich says Kenya will do well in 4 x 800
• Words of Wisdom from Bahamas star Chris Brown – Never give up, be humble, stay patient
• Demetrius Pinder ready for World Relays
• Five Races to Watch at the 2015 World Relays

Marathon News

• 2015 BOA Chicago Marathon Lottery Acceptances Announced – 2015 Chicago Marathon By The Numbers 36% of lottery entrants got in. 15% of the field were guaranteed to charities.
• Athletics Weekly Editor Says London Is The Best Marathon “In my view, the race has clearly the best elite fields, the best course, the best and most enthusiastic crowds and the best organisation,” said Steve Smythe, who is a bit biased as he’s run it 34 times.
• Man Runs 2:29 In London Dressed As Spider-Man
  *MB: Man – i mean moron – ran 2015 London Marathon in 2:28 dressed as superman

Distance Updates

• Athletics Kenya To Name Beijing World Marathon Team Next Week
• Phoebe Wright Blogs About A Solid Third Place Finish In The Drake Relays 800 Wright has struggled in recent years and said she “forgot what it feels like to run well.” Here, her 2:01.65 time wasn’t super fast, but she got a lot of scalps and won a big (both in size and amount) check.
• Running Times Q&A With Leah O’Connor, Who Says “I’m Just Now Falling In Love With Running” O’Connor talks about how she got her start in running, making big improvements and becoming a steepler, and goals for this year including making Worlds.
• Good Read: Kyle Merber Blogs About Training In Flagstaff This Winter Reads more like a story than a blog.
• Extensive Gary Cohen Q&A With US 1980 Olympic Marathon Team Member (The Year We Boycotted) Benji Durden Benji talks about finishing 3rd in 2:09:57 at the 1983 Boston Marathon behind 2 Americans, the 1980 Olympic boycott and more.

Sprint Stuff

• Q&A With Carl Lewis On His Botched National Anthem Rendition In 1993, Jamaican Doping, State Of US Sprinting Lewis on the entitlement culture of student-athletes today: “We’ve got kids now who are used to getting rewards for mediocrity.”
• Carl Lewis’s Son Graduates From Basic Combat Training Apparently he struggled with the physical training when it came to pushups/situps, but then blew everyone away in the run (he did 2 miles in under 13 minutes).
• Fox News Profile On Top US Hurdler Aleec Harris: “From Troubled Teen To Olympic Hopeful”
• Former Top Jamaican 400 Runners Fear Lack Of Training Knowledge Is Hurting The Future Of Top High Schoolers Former Jamaican Olympians say that coaches overtrain their 400m runners.
• Jamaican Columnist Proclaims Sherone Simpson Is “Back” After Dealing With Career Of “Adversity” Two weeks ago she pushed Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the 200, finishing only .01 behind.

Post-London News

• Wilson Kipsang Says Eliud Kipchoge Beat Him Because He Has More Fat “Towards the last kilometre, Eliud was a bit stronger than me because I couldn’t resist the cold. Since I have less fat, it was not easy to resist such a pace in such conditions …”
• Eliud Kipchoge: “A champion is not made when he succeeds, a champion is made when you look back at the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months he has spent preparing.”
• Tigist Tufa Will Use Her $70,000 In Prize Money To Buy A Car And Help Her Family
• Kipchoge Plans Low-Key Celebrations In Kenya “I’ve won races a lot over the last couple of years and I am a low-key person so there will be no big celebrations.”
• Some Bizarre Events / Costumes From The London Marathon
  *More Crazy Costumes From London
• The Telegraph: “Why The Best Sports Stars Struggle To Retire” We’re glad Paula Radcliffe got to go out with one last run.
• How Did Celebrities Do At The London Marathon
• Video: Runner Stops To Propose To His Girlfriend During The London Marathon

• Pre Classic 800 Will Have Nijel Amos, Mo Aman, Duane Solomon, Adam Kszczot, WJ Champ Alfred Kipketer, Taoufik Makhloufi
• Former Champions Heather Kampf And Craig Miller Return For Medtronic TC Mile On May 14th

Non-London Road Action

• Despite Fall, Annie Bersagel Wins Dusseldorf Marathon In New PR Of 2:28:29 Marius Ionescu of Romania won the men’s race in 2:13:19.
• Lucas Rotich (2:07:17) And Meseret Hailu (2:25:41) Win Hamburg Marathon Titles
• Ethiopia’s Hayle Lemi Berhanu Takes Warsaw Marathon In 2:07:57 As Top 6 Finish Within 32 Seconds Of Each Other Ethiopian Fatuma Sado won the women’s race in 2:26:25.
• Kenya’s Ezekiel Kiptoo Chebii (2:12:00) And Monica Jepkoech (2:33:42) Win Rock ‘N’ Roll Madrid Marathon
• Kenyans Ernest Ngeno (2:11:47) And Helena Kiprop (2:31:36) Win Yellow River Estuary Marathon In China

2015 Drake Relays *Results *Friday Results On 1 Page *Des Moines Reg Special Section

Friday: LRC Ajee Wilson Takes Down Brenda Martinez For $20,000, King James Beats Michael Johnson’s Meet Record, Loyola (Ill) Upsets Arkansas

• Full Coverage

Jamaican Sprint Stuff

• Usain Bolt Trying To Improve His Fitness Through Diet “I haven’t had KFC for about four months, which is killing me.”
• Ato Boldon Interviews Yohan Blake, Who Says That Training Is Going Well In 2015 As He Comes Back From Injury “I love the sport. You really feel the weight when you’re watching from the stands when you know you can be out there winning a medal.”

Feature On Anthony Rotich’s Quest For 3rd Straight NCAA Crown He’d be only the 3rd man in history to win 3 straight. He wants to open at sub-8:30 next week at Stanford.

Feel-Good Post-Boston Stories

• Last Year, A Dude Was Going To Drop Out Until Spectator Gave Him A Beer … This Year, He Has Another One At Same Spot
• Elaborate Marriage Proposal At Boston Marathon Finish Line
• Lost Wedding Ring Found On Boston Course, Owner Gets It At Finish Line

The Search For A Better Running Shoe

LRC The Most Popular Running Shoe On LetsRun.com Is … Not Made Anymore … The Nike Pegasus+ 30 Thousands 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:

LRC The Improved LRC Running Shoe Survey Is Back – Three Minutes To A Better Running Shoe The 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.