The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials Are Going To Be Amazing

Breaking News Chris Derrick Reveals That He’s Training For The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials The men’s Trials just continue to get more and more interesting as Derrick has confirmed to LetsRun.com that he is currently training for the Trials. Only 10 men in US history who have a 10,000 PR faster than Derrick’s 27:31 have ever raced a marathon.
*MB: Breaking: Chris Derrick, “I am currently training for the marathon trials”

A Little Random, But Interesting

• 2:11 Marathoner Bob Hodge “HODGIE-SAN” Remembers A 20+ Mile New Year’s Day Run With Bill Rodgers
• Athletics Weekly Looks At Athlete Superstitions And Finds Scientists Say They Actually Help Performance They “can distract an athlete from anxiety or nerves.”
  *MB: Pre race rituals & superstitions post here!
  *MB: What did you do the day before and the day of your best race?
• Australia Won’t Ban Athletes From Using Social Media In Rio Many thought they would as they had previously hinted they’d urge people to “tweet or compete” after a swimmer famously said it cost her Olympic gold in 2012.
  *MB: Australians were considering banning all Olympians from social media – decide not to 
• A Bad Year For Sport? Not For Nike And adidas Nike’s stock was up 29% on the year while adidas soared 55%. The article doesn’t mention Under Armour, which was up over 50% mid-year before closing up more than 20%.

Footballers In The News

• Nice Article On Former Double World Jr. Gold Medalist Margus Hunt, Who Is Thriving For Cincinnati Bengals In case you aren’t aware of Hunt, read up on him below as he’s a FREAK.
  *MB: Margus Hunt – 6-8, 280lbs – More raw Decathlon talent than Ashton?
  *MB: How many of you have heard of Margus Hunt? Elite T&F athlete who looks to be going to the NFL
• Bills WR Marquise Goodwin Will Attempt To Qualify For 2016 Summer Olympics Goodwin, who only has 3 catches over the last 2 years, was a 2-time NCAA champ who competed in 2012 in the LJ. He also wants to do World Indoors.

Doping And Rio $ News

• Spanish Agency To Investigate Whether Athletes Jumped Fence At New Year’s Road Race In Spain Reports on Facebook said athletes were jumping the fence to avoid doping controls at the San Silvestre Crevillentina 10km.
• Rio Olympic Stadium Is Without Water Or Electricity After Not Paying $225,000 In Utility Bills
• Swiss Anti-Doping Says It Won’t Work With IAAF Until WADA Doping Investigation Concluded

RIP To A Local Legend

• Recommended Tribute: WP: “Charlottesville Mourns A Moving Landmark, ‘Running Man’ After He Is Hit By An SUV” 55-year-old Philip Weber was a local legend in Charlottesville and known to most only as “Running Man.” He earned his fame from running miles and miles on the roads every day since the 1980s, always shirtless and in short shorts regardless of the weather.
• NBC29 WVIR Video: Community Remembers Charlottesville’s “Running Man”
• Great Profile/Video On “Running Man” From This November Weber lived a simple life and got by with not much money so he could spend more of his time running. He put thousands of miles on each pair of shoes, repairing them as he went with duct tape and Shoe Goo.
• MB: Charlottesville Runners – Did you know ‘Running Man’? Killed by SUV?

Indoor Stuff

• Kenya Will Be Choosing Their World Indoor Squad By Committee Rather Than Trials Might be hard to choose runners in January based on “current form.”
• Roof Of Texas Tech Indoor Training Center Collapses Due To Heavy Snow Thankfully, no one was hurt and the building was actually scheduled to be torn down and replaced this spring.

LetsRun.com’s Look Back At 2015 *Year-End Rankings

Wejo A Look Back At 2015: Tsepo Mathibelle Is My Athlete Of Year, Evan Jager’s 8:00:45 Is My Race Of Year, Plus My Unknown Person Of Year And One Regret Wejo hands out high praise to two unknowns – one literally and one figurative. The anonymous source at the IAAF for Hajo Seppelt‘s work is is Person of the Year and Tsepo Mathibelle, who blew up at Worlds, is his Athlete of the Year.

Rojo: The Year Of Doping And Corruption, No One Is Too Big To Fall, Domination By Stars On The Men’s Side And New Faces On The Women’s Rojo is far from depressed by the doping/corruption scandals of 2015 as it shows no person is too big to fall. He has high praise for Hajo Seppelt and Vitaly and Yuliya Stepanov, looks at the domination by stars on the men’s side and new faces on the women’s side, plus the emergence of Eric Jenkins and Emily Sisson.

Gault Kipchoge’s 2:04:00 Without Insoles, Dibaba’s 3:50:07, Bolt > Gatlin, The Greatness Of Montaño, Symmonds, Farah And Cheserek What a year: Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:04:00 with his shoes falling apart, Genzebe Dibaba ran 3:50.07 with both her shoes, Bolt defeated Gatlin, and Montaño, Symmonds, Farah, and Cheserek kept winning.