October 4, 2015 | LetsRun.com

USATF 10 Mile

LRCUSA 10 Mile: Molly Huddle Crushes It, Sam Chelanga Gets First USA Title

Top results. Huddle ran 51:44 to win by over a minute over Neely Spence and Alexi Pappas. *Live Blow-By-Blow Thread On Message Board
*Post-Race Interview With Molly And Sam
*Replay Of Live Internet Stream Of Race

More Sunday Results:

Moses Kipsiro (62:18) And Edna Kiplagat (1:08:21) Win Great Scottish Run
Boaz Kiprono (2:16:00) And Joan Kigen (2:36:47) Take Honors At Windy Bournemouth Marathon
In First Race In 4 Years, Sammy Kirui Wins Eldoret Half Marathon In 62:41 He’s got a 61:10 PR. Caroline Jepchirchir (74:01) won the women’s race.
Ben Siwa (62:07) And Lenah Jerotich (71:29) Win Cardiff Half Marathon

Odds & Ends From Saturday

Couch Potatoes Rejoice! A Pill That Mimics The Effects Of Exercise Without Any Of The Hard Work Could Soon Be Available
Runner’s World Talks To Many Top Pros Who Are Happy With USATF’s New Revenue Sharing Plan We personally want to see the numbers. At least 40% of the increased funding should go the pros. Based on past statements, 1.8 million is far from 40%.
1966 Commonwealth Marathon Gold Medalist And Former 2:12 Guy Jim Alder – Who Once Ran 213 Miles In A Week – Gives Free Advice To Today’s Runners
Kenya’s President Fetes World Championships Team, Announces Government Will Give Gold Medalists Nearly $10,000 1 million Kenyan shillings is $9,587.

More Weekend Road Results

Uganda’s World Champ Fred Musobo Dominates Smarna Gora International Mountain Running Race Sarah Tunstall of GBR won the women’s race and series title. The men’s series winner was Switzerland’s Andrew Douglas.
Sunday’s Kuala Lumpur Marathon Cancelled Due To Haze

Doping News

MB: Eunice Sum’s training partner – 1:59 runner Agatha Jeruto – banned for steroids as is 67:32 half marathoner Josephine Chepkoech (link fixed) She’s also represented by Rosa Associates.
*Rosa Associates (Who Represented Jeruto) Hasn’t Made A Statement
Doper Liliya Shobukhova’s Husband Confirms She’s Pumped For 2016 Olympics (translated from Russian) We think she should be ineligible until she pays back her $1,000,000+ in prize money that she owes Chicago, London and the AWMM.

The Real Winners At Worlds

LRC77-Year-Old Legend Wins & The LetsRun.com Jinx Is Real: LRC $200,015 Running Warehouse Prediction Contest Recap

Meet the interesting people who make up LRC and win our contests.

Big City Marathon News

Recommended Read: WSJ Article On The Everyday Non-Pros Who Fight For A Spot At The Olympic Marathon Trials Despite Knowing They Have No Shot At The Games Those interviewed say their careers would be complete if they achieved their dream of qualifying. As USATF’s Jill Greer said, for many the OT are “their version of the Olympic Games.”
Black Lives Matter Leader Sounds Pretty Adamant About Disrupting Twin Cities Marathon Finish Rashad Turner: “I don’t think that us allowing them to finish the race would make them wake up enough. I think that life has to be disrupted.”
*Twin Cities Marathon Organizers Respond To BLM Plans BLM head Turner said he hopes “runners realized they’re not going to be able to finish this race and instead of being angry and complaining, that they join in in the protest …”
*MB: Black Lives Matter plans to disrupt Twin Cities Marathon
The Numbers Are In: You Had To Be 2:28 Faster Than The Standard To Qualify For The 2016 Boston Marathon 4,562 runners had their applications rejected despite having the time standard. As an 18-34 man, you had to run 3:02:32 and as a woman you needed 3:32:32.
Cool Photo Essay From The Berlin Marathon You can check out pics of the elites here, but this essay shows what the everyday marathoner experiences.

Week That Was

LRCWTW: The Kid Playing In The Sandbox At Alan Webb's Practices Is Now A Phenom; How Do Meb, Deena And Sean Wade Do It At 40+; How Many Americans Have A Legitimate Shot At The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Team?

We start with talk about Alan Webb, Craig Virgin, Drew Hunter and “Tinman” before moving to the 2013 World Junior XC race with Matt McClintock, Craig Nowak and Malachy Schrobilgen. We also cater to our 40+ demographic with Meb, Deena and Sean Wade. Plus Eliud Kipchoge proves that the runner makes the shoe, not vice versa.

LRC NCAA XC Weekend Recap: Grant Fisher Doesn’t Need To Redshirt, The Boise State Women Are For Real And The NCAA 1,500 Champs Struggle

Brojos And LRC Get Some Praise

LRC LetsRun.com Founders Robert And Weldon Johnson Named As Two Of “The 50 Most Influential People In Running” By Runner’s World LRC’s founders Robert Johnson and Weldon Johnson (Brojos) are among the 50 most influential people in running according to Runner’s World thanks to you. RW had high praise for the LRC audience, saying the Brojos are the “masterminds behind perhaps the most engaged online community of runners.”
*MB: The 50 Most Influential People in Running – wejo and rojo made the list!

2015 NCAA XC Action Heats Up – A Great Weekend Of Action Rocky Mount. Results Louisville Results Princeton Results UW Results Notre Dame Results Paul Short Results *All Results

Rocky Mountain Shootout: Mark Wetmore Thrilled As His #1 Men And #2 Women Roll Ben Saarel ran unattached as apparently he’s coming back from injury. *Results
*MB: Colorado debuts at Shootout, thoughts?

Louisville: Erin Finn And Michigan Women Win, Mason Ferlic And Iona Men Win (Results)

Princeton: 2015 Princeton Inter-Regional Cross-Country Results – #28 Princeton Women Beat 3 Ranked Teams, #19 Indiana Men Win (Results) The women of Princeton upended No. 18 William & Mary, No. 21 North Carolina and No. 25 Villanova.

UW: Oregon Ducks Claim Team Titles, Edward Cheserek And Aisling Cuffe Win Individual Titles (Results) Lots of big names ran but lots didn’t (Elise Cranny, Jim Rosa, Sean McGorty, Grant Fisher, Jake Leingang and Blake Haney). Sub-4 frosh Matthew Maton was 8th.

Notre Dame: UTEP And New Mexico Roll, Anthony Rotich And Super-Frosh Ryen Frazier Take Individual Titles (Results) UTEP’s super-frosh Jonah Koech (1:46 PR) was 3rd.

Paul Short: GTown Men Upset Villanova (Results) Patrick Tiernan and ‘Nova went 1-2 but still lost to the Hoyas.

USTFCCCA Recap of weekend action

Pre-Race News: LRC NCAA Weekend XC Preview: No. 1s Colorado And New Mexico To Debut, Stanford Vs. Oregon, And Much More
Q&A With Oregon Super-Frosh Matthew Maton Before His Collegiate Debut He says his training is different now as he now is “focused on the workout days, rather than every day needing to be a hard effort.”

MB Talk: Official 10/2-10/3 Weekend NCAA XC Talk – Notre Dame, Paul Short, UW, Rocky Mountain, etc.

News From Europe

Truly Mind-Blowing 52-Year-Old Marathoner Steve Edwards Has A New Goal – 1,000 Marathons In A Sub-3:20 Average Finish Time! He’s run 684 and the first 600 were at an average of 3:15.
Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne And Munich Marathon Organizers Ask German Olympic Federation To Reconsider Not Sending Philipp Pflieger (2:12:50 In Debut) To Olympics The Germans have stupidly set their standard at 2:12:15. *MB: Unreal: Germany’s Philipp Pflieger debuted in Berlin at 2:12:50 – Olympic federation says he can’t go to the Olympics
World Javelin Champ Katharina Molitor Is Also A Professional Volleyball Player
20-Year-Old 12.84 Hurdler Lucy Hatton Turns To Crowdfunding For Rio 2016 Olympic bid She’s already raised £1,520 but should have come to the NCAA. She’d be a star and have everything paid for until she was 22. Donate here.

Shoe Brand/Store News

Interesting Read: GQ: Sneaker Wars: Inside The Battle Between Nike And Adidas Stealing battling for endorsers, stealing employees and filing lawsuits, this rivalry puts the one between Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury to shame.
Turf War Between Nike And Under Armour Gets Political In Portland Nike irate that Under Armour will pay for and sponsor new soccer fields in two Portland parks. Portland mayor even stepped in to try and stop the parks & recreation commissioner from going through with it.
Running Store Owner And Employee Chase Down Vandal Who Had Been Shooting At Windows Afterwards they acknowledged that they were lucky the 6-foot-2 and 265-pound criminal decided to run first and fight second.
Boulder Running Company Stores To Be Re-Branded JackRabbit The Running Specialty Group wants its stores unified under one brand rather than 20 different names as they’ve acquired local stores around the country. If they want to be tottally honest, Finish Line might be a better name as that’s who owns them.

Pro Long-D News: Haile G’s Last Race Will Have To Wait

Haile Gebrselassie Will Miss Great Scottish Run Due To Family Illness Gebrselassie’s sister is sick so he won’t be running in what was meant to be his final competitive race.
Sunday: Dathan Ritzenhein, Sam Chelanga, Abdi Abdirahman Lead Field For USATF 10 Mile Champs Molly Huddle is the favorite on the women’s side as she faces Janet Bawcom, Kara Goucher. Deep races on both sides.
GB Marathoner Lee Merrien Thinks He’s Fit Enough To Get 2:14 UK Olympic Qualifying Time After missing most of last year with a stress fracture in his back, he ran 2:15:30 in Berlin.

The Integrity Of The Sport Is At Stake – Mike Rossi Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Have Been DQed From The 2014 Lehigh Valley Marathon

Lehigh Valley Got It Wrong: The Evidence Is Conclusive: Mike Rossi – The Viral Boston Marathon Dad – Is A Marathon Cheat And Should Never Have Been On The Starting Line In Boston In April, Mike Rossi gained international fame for his snarky response to a letter from his kids’ principal scolding him for taking them out of school for several days to watch Boston. A LetsRun.com investigation has revealed that Rossi’s principal was correct, the kids should never have been in Boston as the evidence is conclusive – their father didn’t legitimately qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon. How confident are we that Rossi cut the course when he “ran” his 3:11:45 BQ qualifier at Lehigh Valley? Extremely. We’ll pay Mike Rossi $10,000 if he qualifies again in the next 12 months – and the qualifying time is 13+ minutes slower – 3:25.
*MB: Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston?

It’s The Weekend Off-Season – Time To Drink

Usain Bolt Is Enjoying His Beer At Germany’s Oktoberfest Once Again
Soon It Will Be Time For US Olympic Marathon Hopefuls To Stop Drinking And Start Training Scott Douglas’s Early 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials Preview – 4+ Months Out The Trials are Feb. 13th in LA.
Evan Jager Is Done With School So He’s Excited To Enjoy Some Total Time Off For First Time As A Pro He says he’ll be “drinking a lot of beer.” We thought he’d prefer the drink on the right.

Upcoming Road Action

Washington, DC: Donnie Cowart Leads Field For Sunday’s Inaugural Navy Mile After Going Sub-4 For The First Time This Summer Cowart first became a runner after getting cut from the basketball and baseball teams as a 5-foot-3, 100-pound middle schooler.
*BBTM: Q&A With RD Lyman Ahead Of The Navy Mile On Pennsylvania Avenue In Washington DC LRC’s Rojo and Wejo‘s mom ran the Pennsylvania Avenue Mile back in 2003.
Japan: A Preview Of Japan’s 2015 University Ekiden Season, Which Kicks Off This Month AGU and fifth Stage star Daichi Kamino are already national celebrities after last year’s record run at the Hakone Ekiden.
Amsterdam Is In 2 Weeks: Olympic Champ Tiki Gelana Will Return To The TCS Amsterdam Marathon In Two Weeks She hopes her injury problems are behind her and hopes a return to Amsterdam, which she won in 2011 before her Olympic gold, re-starts her career.

Sprinters And Field Eventers Making Waves

Sierra Leone Sprinter Who Went Missing After Commonwealth Games And Was Found Living On The London Streets Has His Request For Asylum Rejected Jimmy Thoronka received a lot of attention this past spring and was given thousands of dollars in crowdfunding and even offered a college scholarship. However, now he will have to leave the UK or face arrest and deportation.
*LRC Archives On Thoronka
Athletics Weekly Profile: Where Is Carl Lewis Now? After a lackluster acting career and a failed attempt at politics, Lewis is coaching at his alma mater, the University of Houston.
South African Javelin Thrower Sunette Viljoen Gets In Twitter Spat With Minister Of Sport And Recreation She lost this battle of tweets after some sarcastic replies from minister Fikile Mbalula.
A Day In The Life Of An IAAF High Performance Training Center Athlete This article looks specifically at the HPTC Gold Coast in Australia.
Sanya Richards-Ross Aiming For Gold In Rio Despite A Tough 2015 Season “This may be my last Olympics. … I’m motivated to leave my sport on top. … It’s a different place to be in.”

UK Anti-Doping Chiefs Disappointed By WADA Ruling To Not Ban Thyroid Medication This is the third year UKAD has fought to get thyroid drugs banned and said they will continue to push for it because they feel it is “contrary to the spirit of sport.”