2015 Pre Classic Is Friday-Saturday *TV And Streaming *Schedule And Entries

Update: LRC Chris Derrick Has “Re-Aggravated An Old Injury” That “Took Longer To Clear Up” Than Expected – Will Run At USAs

Saturday Men’s Preview LRC Can Centro And Leo Challenge In A Special Bowerman Mile? Can Evan Jager Challenge In His 2015 Steeple Debut? Plus Amos Vs. Aman At 800 The Bowerman Mile will highlight as usual as Ayanleh Souleiman, Silas Kiplagat, Asbel Kiprop and Ronald Kwemoi will look to recreate last year’s fireworks while Americans Leo Manzano and Matthew Centrowitz shoot for sub-3:50. The 800 also includes Taoufik Makhloufi and three-time world champ Ezekiel Kemboi makes his ’15 steeple debut.

Saturday Women’s Preview LRC Will Genzebe Dibaba Get The 5,000 WR? Will Molly Huddle Get The 5,000 AR? Plus Jenny Simpson Vs. Shannon Rowbury And A Totally Loaded 800 Dibaba will target sister Tirunesh‘s 14:11.15 WR with Molly Huddle also in the field looking to run fast. The 800 is loaded with American stars Ajee Wilson, Brenda Martinez, Alysia Montaño and world champ Eunice Sum, while Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury tackle Sifan Hassan in the 1,500.

LRC Preview Of 2015 Friday’s Distance Night: Can Mo Farah Run Fast In The 10k? Will Galen Rupp Be In Form After Disappointing Indoor Campaign? The action on Friday night should be riveting and we break it down for you. Plus an American has never won a DL 5,000 and we guarantee that streak will continue.

Pre Talk On The Boards:

• Mary Cain Is Taking a Break from the Nike Oregon Project
• Geoffrey Kamworor Will drag Mo Farah
  
• Pre Classic is the chance to revive the 10K
•  Rupp to pace Pre 10K (gedanken experiment) 
  
• Chris Derrick not in the Pre 10k
• Will Rupp finally take the white-guy 5k record from .Dieter Baumann at The Pre Clasic?
• “Absolutely Stacked” Pre 5000m is Incredibly Weak
• Rupp will NOT break 13 at the Pre 5k… Bank on it

Outside Articles On Pre

• Ken Goe: Mary Cain Takes A Break From The Nike Oregon Project
• Good Read: Genzebe Dibaba Talks About Hopefully Carrying Her Indoor Success To Outdoor And Says Her Coach Thinks She Can Run 14:10 In the past, the extreme rainy season in Ethiopia and/or injuries have hindered her training for outdoors. Last summer she trained in Europe and she wants to keep doing that, and is hoping for big things.
• Ken Goe Profile Piece: “At Long Last, Galen Rupp Is Within Reach Of The Mountain Top” Rupp thinks he can win gold in 2016.
  *MB: Galen Rupp/Oregon project training article, pics and video
• Video: Interesting Video On New Zealand Twins Jake And Zane Robertson And Their Story Of Living/Training In Africa Interviews with Jake and Zane on how they left home at 17 years old to live and train in Africa and with their mom about how she has gone years at a time without seeing them.
• World Jr. 400H Champ Jaheel Hyde Will Make His DL Debut At Pre
• Ryan Bailey, Mike Rodgers, Tyson Gay, Nesta Carter In Men’s 100
• Trackalerts.com: 400s Will Be Great At Pre

More Pre Classic Coverage In Our Pre Special Section

Non-Distance News

• Ashton Eaton’s Words Of Wisdom: Compete Against Your Competitors. Not The Clock, Watch What You Eat, Listen To Your Body
• Justin Gatlin Remains Focused On Usain Bolt: “My job is to push him.”

Who Knew?

• Former 400m World Champ Ana Guevara, Now 38, Is Already A Senator In Mexico *Guardian Video Feature On Guevera
• In Addition To TV Commentating, Ato Boldon Is Now Coaching An Elite HS Girl

The Legend Of Steve Prefontaine Continues To Grow – Steve Prefontaine Gets His Own Graphic Novel

LRC Book Review The Art Of Running By Matthew Crehan – A Graphic Novel Telling The Story Of Legendary US Distance Runner Steve Prefontaine Over the years, movies, books, T-Shirts – just about everything imaginable – have been made to tell the inspiring life story of Steve Prefontaine. But now for the first time, there is a comic book graphic novel that tells his story.

Sprint Stuff

• Yohan Blake Says He’s Back At Full Fitness, But Won’t Be Rushing To Jump Back Into Competition He might get back into racing sometime in the next month, but is taking the long-term approaching looking ahead to Rio 2016.
• Profile Piece On Asafa Powell: “A Man Who Divides Opinions” If opinion is divided, this author is definitely on the pro-Powell side as he writes Powell is “unfairly criticized” for not coming through at major championships.
• This Morning: Usain Bolt Press Conference In Ostrava Bolt didn’t even know who he was racing, probably because his biggest competition will be a Kenyan. (Actually not as bad as it sounds as Carvin Nkanata ran 20.14 this year).
• Watch Out World: Calabar High School Will Become First High School In Jamaica To Get A Synthetic Track Jamaican high schoolers do most of their training on dirt or grass.
• Dafne Schippers’ 10.94 NR Is The Fastest Time By A European Since 2004
• After 11.02 Record, Diana Asher-Smith Wants To Be First British Woman Sub-11
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (200), Pedro Pablo Pichardo (TJ) And Jasmin Stowers (100H) Added To Field For Rome DL Meet Next Week

Ostrava Golden Spike Meet Is Tuesday

• Usain Bolt In The 200, Asafa Powell In The 100; David Rudisha In The 600; Asbel Kiprop In The 1,000 France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse is also in the 1,000. Olympic silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel vs. former World XC champ Japheth Korir in the 5,000. Current world leader Dawit Seyaum (4:00.96) is in the 1,500, Christian Taylor in the TJ, Bogdan Bondarenko in the HJ.
• Video Interview With Usain Bolt Literally Minutes After Stepping Off The Plane In Ostrava
• Usain Bolt Says He’s Getting In Much Better Shape Than He Was At The Start Of The Season And Will Be Focusing On 200 Training In 2015 He said his coach (Glen Mills) is expecting a fast time in Ostrava based on his recent workouts.

Big Upsets At Track Meet In Eldoret, Kenya

• Unheralded Nancy Chepkemoi Gets Shock Victory In 1,500 Over World 5,000 Silver Medalist Mercy Cherono Chepkemoi ran 4:06.5 to Cherono’s 4:07.2. World Relays DMR silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot won the men’s 1,500 in 3:41.3 as Asbel Kiprop sat out of the final. Elijah Kipchirchir took the 5,000 (13:51.8); Willy Komen the steeple (8:37.2).
• Little-Known Emmanuel Kipsang Gets Upset In 10,000 Over Geoffrey Mutai And Drug Cheat Matthew Kisorio Kipsang ran 28:26.2 at altitude to beat Mutai’s 29:06.1 and Kisorio’s 29:06.2.
• 17-Year-Old Sandra Chebet Wins Women’s 10,000 In 34:51 As Her “Twin Sister” Emily Chebet (Not The World XC Champ) Was Second (34:53)

• Friday: Asbel Kiprop Runs 3:36.09 1,500 In Kenya One coach said it was worth a 3:28 at sea level. If you believe in the NCAA conversions for altitude, this is very plausible since a 3:36.09 in Flagstaff (slightly lower elevation than Eldoret) converts to 3:28.22.
  *MB: Asbel Kiprop “Blasts” a 3:36 in Kenya

British Sprinting And Doping

• GB’s 1980 Olympic 100m Gold Medalist Allan Wells Accused Of Doping By Former Teammate In BBC Documentary Wells angrily denied the accusations which this same teammate (who admitted to doping) has made in the past.
  *MB: 1980 Olympic 100m Champion, Scottish Allan Wells, accused of doping in a BBC documentary
• GB 400 Hurdler Rhys Williams Wins In His First Race Back From Doping Ban At Welsh Regional Championships He ran 53.45.

Q & A With America’s Revelation For 2015

Q&AFrom Excavation Grunt To The U.S.'s Fastest Man At 1,500: Ben Blankenship Discusses His Journey And His Breakthrough 2015 Season

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.