Incredible Journalism: 5,000+ Words On ESPN On The Tragic Passing Of Madison Holleran Holleran, a UPenn freshman, seemingly had it all – looks, brains, athleticism, a loving family – but her life ended in suicide last year. ESPN’s Kate Fagan tells her story.
*MB: ESPN Story About Madison Holleran

Week That Was

WTWOne More Look At Timothy Cheruiyot Vs. Ben Blankenship, Who Ran Well At Stanford, Who Just Missed, Poolside In The Bahamas, And A New Prep Star?

MB: HS girl Christina Aragon HUGE PR 4:16; #5 AT!
We Agree: IAAF World Relays Creates Model For Future Sporting Events

Team Battles At Bolder Boulder And At Peacthree

• Shalane Flanagan Named Captain For Team USA For July 4th’s 1st-Ever Team Battle At AJC Peachtree Road Race Gebre Gebremariam will captain Ethiopia, Daniele Meucci Team Europe and  Yusuke Hasegawa Team Asia in the battle that will feature $81,000 in team prize money ($42,000 for winning team) in the race that will be broadcast on NBCSN for the first time this year.
• Bolder Boulder Alters Pro Team Race To Help Support U.S. Olympians The US gets 9 entrants (others just 3) as before but the top 3 are on team #1, next three team #2, and final three team #3. If a US team won, they’d get $45,000 (international winners get $15,000).

News From The UK

• Jo Pavey To Miss World Championships “To Focus On Olympics” It seems to us that the 41-year-old mom wants to focus on her kids and take it low key before gearing up for 2016.
  *MB: What the hell does this mean? Jo Pavey will miss 2015 Worlds to focus on 2016 Olymipcs?
• Profile Of English XC Champ Charlie Hulson At age 21 in February, he won the English champs despite having a 5k PR of just 14:24, before finishing 55th at Worlds.
• English Archbishop Uses Muslim Mo Farah As Example Of Why Immigrants Shouldn’t Be Fared Immigration apparently is a hot-button issue in the upcoming elections in the UK.

News From Kenya

• Team Kenya Returns Home From World Relays – Former Olympic Champion, Wilfred Bungei, Blames Coach Sammy Rono For Debacle But Athletics Kenya Defends Him The biggest problem was the selection format. Not all of the biggest stars wanted to have to run two qualifying meets and Athletics Kenya says they’ll re-examine that for 2017.
• MB: Catherine Ndereba survives armed robbery by 5 men outside her home in Nairobi

Bad News From Africa

• Uganda Runners Hit By Health Scare As It Comes Out Sexually Promiscuous And Abusive Coach Peter Wemali Has HIV Moses Kipsiro: “I know of many senior male runners who have unknowingly shared girlfriends with Mr. Wemali. Some are even married to runners that once had affairs with him.”
• 2-Time World Marathon Champ Catherine Ndereba’s House Was Robbed A gang of five waited for her to get home and then held her at gunpoint while they robbed her house.

Sad: A Beloved Track Coach Dies At State Meet

• RIP: Beloved Florida Track Coach Jeff Sommer Dies From Heart Attack At State Meet A former athlete said, “He’s definitely the definition of a coach. He loved all of his runners; he didn’t care if they were fast or slow.”
  *Former State Champ Coached By Sommer: “He died doing what he loves to do … … Nobody knows when their time is up. With him, he took life and grabbed it by the moment and he loved every single minute of it.”
  *Sommer’s Last Letter Of Recommendation Gets One Of His Athletes A $20,000 College Scholarship
• RIP: Japanese Official Yubi Inoue Dies At Age 84

Oregonian’s Ken Goe Talks To PAC-12 Network Coordinating Producer About Difficiulties Of Having Track On Live TV Will O’Toole: “It’s definitely a challenge. Things are so spread out and so much is happening.”

More Pro News From The Weekend

• Kenyans Lani Rutto And Cynthia Limo Win Lilac Bloomsday 12K
  *MB: Americans Luke Pusekdra and Blake Russell win $5,400 for finishing 12th. Runner-up won just $4,500
• Nick Arciniaga Wins Capital City Half Marathon In Columbus, Ohio He ran 65:56 to beat Craig Leon. He said he wanted to preview the course as it will host US Half Champs for the next 2 years.
• Daily Relay’s Monday Morning Run: Kevin Sully Says Sanya Richards-Ross’s World Relays Perfomances (4 X 400 & DMR) Were The Best Of The Week Sully also pokes fun at US baton exchanges in the 4 x 200 and Kenya sending something well below their “A” squad.

Random

• Woman Seeking Man She Kissed At The Boston Marathon Gets Letter From His Wife On a dare, Barbara Tatge reversed the Wellesely tradition and kissed a man while running the Boston Marathon. Afterwards she tried to find him, but turns out he’s married. *RW Article
  *MB: Wow – Woman seeking man she kissed at marathon hears from his wife

Sunday World Relays Sprint Action With Video *Results *LRC Photos

LRCUS Wins Golden Baton And 7 Of 10 Relays, But Gets Beaten By Jamaica In W4 X 100 And Drops Stick In M4 X 200

• Tyson Gay Responds To Usain Bolt’s Criticism About Getting Reduced Drug Ban Gay: “That’s his (Bolt’s) opinion and I will respect his opinion, and that’s the way it is.”
• US Athletes Quotes From Final Day Of World Relays
• Richard Kilty Says He Felt “Let Down” By His Fellow GB Sprinters Who Didn’t Go To World Relays They ran with a “B” squad and narrowly missed qualifying automatically for the 2016 Olympics. “We all have our individual aspirations but the relay’s a massive thing and we could have qualified for Rio automatically here.”
• UK Headline: “‘Tainted’ United States Team Issues Challenge To Beaten Usain Bolt”
• Three GB Relay Teams Secure Olympic Spots
• IAAF Recap: USA Successfully Defend Golden Baton
  *Men’s 4 X 400 *Women’s 4 X 400 *Women’s 4 X 100 *Men’s 4 X 200 *Women’s 4 X 800 *Men’s DMR

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.