Might Galen Rupp Run The Marathon Trials?

LRC Galen Rupp Is Running A Half Marathon This Sunday; Will He Do The Olympic Marathon Trials? Is Galen Rupp serious about doing the Olympic Marathon Trials this time? Does he possibly have a better shot at Olympic gold in the marathon than in 10,000?
*MB: Galen Rupp Running Half Marathon in Portland This Weekend; Will He Run Marathon Trials?

NCAA Distance News

• Good Read: Aggressive Attitude Helped Molly Seidel Win NCAAs Seidel and her coach talk about her transformation from injured freshman (who appeared to be yet another victim of “the Foot Locker curse”) to two-time NCAA champion.
• Coach Dan Ireland Trying To Find More Of A Balance Between XC And Track Success At Columbia Ireland: “[The previous coach was like] ‘OK, we can win the conference in cross. … I’m going to bring in 15 cross runners, I don’t care if we have any track kids.'”
• MB: 3 collegians broke 13:55, 5 broke 15:50 for 5000 at Boston University Season Opener over the weekend

Ashton Eaton May Retire After Rio

• Ashton Eaton Confirms That He’ll Defend His World Indoor Heptathlon Title In Portland, The City Where He Was Born More surprising news was that the almost 28-year-old said he may retire after Rio 2016, and if not then London 2017.
• Recommended Read: Ashton Eaton Writes An Event-By-Event Recap Of What Was Going Through His Mind When He Broke His WR To Win Gold In Beijing Eaton credits his amazing 45.00-second 400 in the decathlon to running the 400H in 2014 and to watching and taking advice from other elites.

Sponsorship / Money News

• Daily Relay’s Kevin Sully Looks At Andre De Grasse’s Reported $11.25 Million Contract He points out how De Grasse’s deal is so much more than Alan Webb got ($250,000 a year) in 2002 was considered a “monumental deal.”
• New Balance To Replaces Asics As NYC Marathon Sponsor Is it bad for Asics that we didn’t even know they were a NYC sponsor?
• IAAF Launches World Indoor Tour Four meets in February with the overall winner in every event getting $20,000 in prize money and automatically qualify for World Indoors.

News From South Africa

• Judge Grants Bail To Oscar Pistorius, Extends House Arrest Sentencing is set for April 18th. In the meantime, Pistorius’ lawyers will appeal his murder conviction to South Africa’s Constitutional Court.
• Athletics South Africa President Aleck Skhosana Found To Be “Grossly Negligent” After Failing To Take Action Against Major Scandal Several Years Ago The SA Olympic committee is asking Athletics SA why they chose Skhosana despite the allegations of corruption which surrounded his previous organization.

Women’s Pro Distance News

• Meseret Defar Wins In Her First Race Back From Pregnancy At The Montferland Run 15K She ran 50:04 in her first race since September 2013. The men’s race was close with Abraham Cheroben getting the win as he and Geoffrey Yegon both clocked 42:54.
• Caster Semenya Gets Married To Her Girlfriend
  *MB: Caster Semenya Marries Girlfriend
• IAAF Personal Bests Q&A With Canada’s 800 World Silver Medalist Melissa Bishop Bishop is best friends with a hammer thrower and thinks Ashton Eaton is the greatest athlete she’s ever seen.
• Extensive Q&A With Canada’s Sasha Gollish, Who Finished 2nd Behind Kara Goucher At The RnR San Antonio Half Up until two years ago, Gollish was a triathlete but has made huge improvements since focusing more on running (Sunday was a 9-minute PR).
• Marathoner Who Missed OT Standard After Being Sent Wrong Way Qualifies At CIM Samantha Bluske ran 2:47:20 in April after running an extra mile, but qualified with 2:41:10 at CIM.

2015 NXN *Girls Results *Boys Results *Highlight Video

MB: Official 2015 NXN Live Discussion Thread

LRC NXN RecapJunior Casey Clinger Wins Thrilling Boys' Race At 2015 NXN; Great Oak (CA) Claims First Team Title

LRC NXN Recap:Katie Rainsberger - Daughter Of A Boston Marathon Champ - Wins 2015 NXN Title As F-M Girls Win 9th Title In 10 Years

*Good Read: F-M Coach Bill Aris Writes About His Life, Coaching And His Stotan Philosophy

There’s More Money In Track Than You Might Think

• Andre De Grasse Goes Pro – Signs With Puma In Richest Initial Deal In Track History – $11.25 Million The Canadian will no longer be running for USC as he’s joined Trayvon Bromell, who signed with New Balance, in the pro ranks. Nike has lost the battle for the top sprinters in the world on the men’s side.
• Good Read: Trayvon Bromell Thinks He And De Grasse Could Be “The Next Biggest Things” Bromell says he “would have been crazy” not to go pro when the opportunity was offered to him.
• Podcast: Andre De Grasse Says Puma Made Him An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse
  *MB: Andre De Grasse has gone pro, allegedly for min of $11.25 million – could go as high as 30 million!!

 A Lot Of Great Action Set For This Weekend

Say It Ain’t So

LRCDid Mike Rossi - The Viral Marathon Dad - Try To Cheat LetsRun.com Out Of $10,000 On Saturday?

Book Review – The Animal Keepers Is Certainly A Keeper

LRC Book Review"The Animal Keepers" By Donn Behnke - A Terrific Tale Of What It Means To Be A Team