How Shocking Will It Be?

9 am ET MB: Official 2nd WADA Press Conference Live Discussion Thread Dick Pound‘s 2nd report comes out on Thursday morning and we’ll be on the call to Europe, blogging about it as it happens live. He’s promised there will be a ‘Wow’ factor to it.

The 2016 US Marathon Trials Are One Month From Today

• LRC Podcast: Podcast – 1 Month To The 2016 US Olympic Marathon Trials With Special Guest Chris Derrick To celebrate the countdown, we had live radio show/podcast with a guy who may or may not be doing the Trials, Chris Derrick. The show included audio from Hansons-Brooks coach Kevin Hanson, whom we talked to today, as well as insight from Hansons-Brooks star Desi Linden, whom we also spoke with today.
• Dathan Ritzenhein Is Feeling Good About His Prep For The Olympic Marathon Trials “I’ve had great training. I’ve pretty much done everything I’ve wanted to do.”
• Kara Goucher’s Theme For 2016 Is “Woman Up” “I believed in myself enough to get fit and give myself a shot at an Olympic Team. But now it’s time to put my neck on the line.”
• Video Interview: Carrie Tollefson Talks To Deena Kastor About Setting The US Masters Record And Her Buildup To The OT Kastor reveals a ton went wrong in her buildup to Chicago, but she ran 2:27:47.
• Neely Spence Gracey Skipping Olympic Trials To Debut At Boston Marathon She was planning on running the OT when she qualified with a 69:58, but didn’t recover fast enough to feel confident for a February debut.

London Produces Yet Again

LRCInsanely Good Women's Field Announced For 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon - Is This Race Tougher To Win Than The 2016 Olympics?

Doping Updates: More IAAF Dirt Sees The Light

• Uncovered Documents And Emails Show That The IAAF Knew How Serious The Russian Doping Problem Was (42% Of Athletes Tested) As Early As 2009 The IAAF even warned Russian athletics chiefs that athletes were “putting their health and even their own lives in very serious danger.” They also show that IAAF officials at least considered covering up Russian doping ahead of London 2012 as they would make a deal to not make the bans of some athletes public if they accepted shorter bans. *BBC *The Telegraph
• IAAF Officials Deny They Tried To Cover Up Russian Doping Cases Spokesperson says they were emails sent by now banned doping director Gabriel Dollé and the plan was never carried out.
• WADA Concerned By Latest Findings They want their independent commission to investigate, if they haven’t already.

Sad News

• RIP: University Of Evansville Mourns Death Of 20-Year-Old XC Runner Bailey George She died in January after being diagnosed with cancer in October. A new 5K race will fund a scholarship in her honor.
• RIP: Former LSU Track Coach, Murrell Garland, Dies At 82 He was there for 11 years in the 1970s and ’80s.

African Distance News

A History Of Falmouth

LRCBook Review: "A History Of The Falmouth Road Race" By Paul Clerici - A Well-Researched Reference Book On One Of America's Most Beloved Road Races

Dope News

• Finally A Resolution 10 Years Later? Blood Samples In A Barcelona Freezer Could Spark Biggest-Ever Doping Scandal As Operacion Puerto Resurfaces Spanish courts set to release verdict on the appeals by WADA and UCI against the destruction of almost 200 bags which have been stored for 10 years as part of the Operacion Puerto doping scandal.
• Guardian’s Sean Ingle: “IAAF Has Betrayed Athletes, But Law To Jail Doping Cheats Carries Risks” Ingle claims it would have “unintended consequences,” but then fails to really name any. He just quotes an Aussie official who points out that criminal convictions need a higher burden of proof and court cases take longer.
• IAAF Task Force Arrives In Moscow Ahead Of Meeting With Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko They’ll have 2 days of meetings and inspections.
• Martin Bingisser Criticizes The IAAF/IOC System That Gives Too Much Power To Politicians And Not Enough TO Athletes While we agree there, we think he’s wrong when he says athletes “give up all civil liberties” by submitting to out-of-competition drug tests and the whereabouts program.

Weekend High School Action

Latest Doping Stuff: Mo Farah Takes Some Shots

• Mo Farah Calls Out Spain’s Alemayehu Bezabeh For Doping; Says He Wants Lifetime Bans For Drug Cheats Bezabeh beat Farah at the 2009 Euro XC Champs and was later banned for 2 years for doping.
• Steve Magness Criticizes Seb Coe, Saying His Relationship With Nike Put Him In Denial Magness thinks Coe and others at the IAAF ignore what they don’t want to hear and spend too much time in “politician mode.”
• IAAF Will Face More Criticisms From WADA Report This Week, But They Won’t Be Banned Dick Pound: “Like all organisations, there’s an effort to try to distance the organisation from the conduct that occurred … I’m sorry, but these are not people unrelated to the IAAF … this is an IAAF problem. It’s not just a couple of bad people.”
• IAAF Urges Any Witnesses With Knowledge About Extortion Of Moroccan Or Turkish Athletes To Come Forward
• GB Marathoner Disillusioned By Doping Scandals And No Longer Advises Young Runner To Aim For “Hollow” Olympics The 2008 Olympic 6th placer was satisfied when she ended her career, but now looks back in disgust at the areas where she was cheated.

LetsRun.com Debates

LRC LetsRun.com Debates: Is It Time To Panic For Mary Cain? How Many World Records Will Be Set In 2016? Mary Cain‘s 1,500 PR was set in May of 2013. Is this a make-or-break year for her? We analyze that question in great detail and talk about Ajee Wilson and wonder how many world records will go down in 2016?

Doping News

• Dick Pound Says That IAAF Officials, Including Seb Coe And Sergey Bubka, Should Have Acted Quicker To Change Its Outdated Governance Structure “They had a [19th-century] constitution in a 21st-century organisation.”
• Mo Farah On Doping Problems: “I want to be able to race against clean athletes.” He also said, “I’m getting bored of [questions about Salazar].” *Guardian Article
  *Farah Backs Seb Coe To Clean Up The Sport “He’s doing a great job. Obviously it’s going to take time, but he’s all up for it.”
• Dutch Olympic Discus Champion Ria Stalman Admits To Using Steroids Ahead Of 1984 Los Angeles Games
• WADA Confirms That IAAF Bribes And Blackmail Extended Behind Russia And Included Asli Cakir Alptekin Alptekin won 1,500 Olympic gold, but should have been banned before the Games based on her blood profile.

Will History Be Made?

LRCTirunesh Dibaba Is "Training Well" And Planning On Going For Unprecedented 3rd Olympic 10,000 Gold In Rio

Free Training Info

• Sonia O’Sullivan’s Free Training Advice For An Olympic Year: Pushing Too Hard Doesn’t Always Pay *Sonia O’Sullivan is interested to see how Ireland does now that Russian and Turk dopers are being cracked down on.
• Photos Of How Many Top European Athletes Train In The Winter Includes a great video of Greg Rutherford doing stairs with his two labs.

A Look Back At The Geniuses Of LetsRun From 2015

LRCLRC $200,015 Running Warehouse NCAA XC Prediction Contest Recap

Portland World Indoor/Outdoor Champs News – Did $400,000 In Donations Buy 2021 Worlds $40 Million In State Support?

• Register-Guard: Oregon Governor’s Top Aide Was Very Much Against Request For $40 Million In State Aid For 2021 Worlds – After $400,000 In Donations Poured In From Phil Knight, Nike And Others, The Governor Was All For It Emails show Governor Kitzhaber‘s administration was initially extremely skeptical of a $40 million state subsidy request by TrackTown USA. However, after Knight, Nike, and UO officials gave nearly $400,000 to Kitzhaber (who has since resigned in scandal) in a six-week period, Kitzhaber was all for it.
• Nike Giving $13.5 Million To The University Of Oregon For Hayward Field Renovations They have given the first half with the second half dependent on further fundraising.
• Public Gets A First Look At The New Indoor Track Set Up In A Portland Warehouse For World Indoors The warehouse has been dubbed the “House Of Track” and will stage several high performance meets before the track is dismantled and moved to the Portland Convention Center for Worlds.

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”