Wow 2015 World Champ in pole vault, Sean Barber, tested positive for cocaine at Olympic Trials but wasn’t banned as he got it after kissing a woman in a ‘Craigslist casual’ encounter Both the woman, and her now ex-boyfriend who watched some of the encounter, testified at his hearing.

2016 BOA Chicago Marathon Is Sunday (8:30 AM ET)

LRC The Comeback: How Luke Puskedra Bounced Back From 4th Place At The Olympic Trials And His Daughter’s Cancer Diagnosis To Prepare For Sunday’s Chicago Marathon Puskedra’s 14-month-old daughter Penelope, who was diagnosed with neuroblastoma two days after the Trials, is now cancer-free. That’s allowed Puskedra to focus on cranking out 130-mile weeks (in singles!) in preparation for Chicago.

Women’s Preview: LRC 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon Women’s Preview: It’s a Clash of the Kiplagats as Florence and Edna Square Off on the Streets of Chicago The women’s field in Chicago has a total of seven women with PRs under 2:25 including the Kiplagats, Boston champ Atsede Baysa and Kenyan Olympian Visiline Jepkesho. Serena Burla (8th at Olympic Trials), Alia Gray (10th at Olympic Trials) and Sarah Crouch (2nd American at Boston) are the top U.S. entrants.

Men’s Preview: LRC Dickson Chumba Goes For The Repeat As Americans Luke Puskedra, Elkanah Kibet & Diego Estrada Do Battle No one has repeated in Chicago since Sammy Wanjiru in 2010 (the final race Wanjiru would ever run). Chumba is the best of a shallow men’s elite field that also features two-time London champ Tsegaye Kebede and two-time world champ Abel Kirui looking to resurrect their careers.

• LRC Americans Luke Puskedra, Elkanah Kibet & Diego Estrada Talk About Their Chicago Marathon Buildups Puskedra thinks he’s in similar shape to last year when he was a big surprise, Estrada says he’s purposely going in undertrained and Kibet might be in the best shape of the three.
• Two-Time World Champion Edna Kiplagat A Recent Addition To The Chicago Marathon Women’s Elite Field
• RW’s “Ones To Watch” In Chicago Besides the elites, there is 61-year-old airline pilot David Walters, who won his age group by 20 minutes last year before bumping Dickson Chumba to first class on his post-race flight.
• Edna Kiplagat: “I must be alive to the fact that some younger athletes are pushing hard to take control of the races …”
• Florence Kiplagat Says Her Training Has Gone Well Ahead Of Her Title Defense At The Chicago Marathon Kiplagat hopes that running alongside fellow Kenyan Valentine Kipketer will help push her to a faster time than when she ran much of the race alone last year.
• After Placing 10th At The Olympic Marathon Trials, Alia Gray Shooting For A Sub-2:30 Finish In Chicago

Marathon / Road News

• First Trailer For Mark Wahlberg’s Boston Bombing Film, “Patriots Day” Released In case you’ve been living under a rock or in isolation in the woods, the trailer informs you that the movie is “based on true events.”
• AIMS To Honor Haile Gebrselassie With Lifetime Achievement Award
• MB: Was The Great Scottish Run Half Marathon Short? Satellite maps and GPS data question if the course change this year led to an inaccurate distance.
• Brit Ben Smith Completes 401st Marathon In 401 Days Smith raised $316,000 for anti-bullying charities as he was bullied in school for being gay and tried to take his own life when he was 18.
  *MB: Ben Smith: The Real Marathon Man UK
• The Portland Marathon Will Go On After “Squabbles” Between Organizers And The City’s Fire Department Threatened The Race RD Les Smith pushed back at the fire department’s extra security requirements, saying they’ve used an effective medical plan for 27 years.
  *MB: Portland Marathon: what a mess!
• Four American Masters Records Go Down In One Race At The Syracuse Festival Of Races 60-year-old Brian Bilcher ran 16:39 to take 19 seconds off the 60-64 record.
• Olympic Triathlon Champion Gwen Jorgensen Running Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile This Weekend

Week That Was

WTW Usain Bolt Races Celebrities, Callum Hawkins Impresses, So Does Iona, Arizona XC Team Chases A Knife-Wielding Thief, And Pick Your Parents Wisely Want to know what’s going on in the running world? This is your weekly read.

Upcoming Road Action: Chicago Is Sunday

• Sunday: Defending Champions Daniel Salel And Mary Wacera Lead Strong Field For BAA Half Marathon Salel will face Silas Kipruto (59:39) and Daniel Chebii (59:49) while the women’s race has Diane Nukuri (69:12).
• Next Week: Q&A With “Mr. Amsterdam” Wilson Chebet Chebet will be running the Amsterdam Marathon for the 7th year in a row. He made his debut here, has the CR and has won it 3 times.
• Next Week: Good Read: Running Has Given Former Kenyan Cattle Rustler Julius Arile Lamerinyang A New Lease On Life From his early teens, Arlie carried a gun and stole cattle. After losing many of his friends to the violence, he traded his gun for running shoes and now is a 2:10 guy targeting the win at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
  *Tim Hutchings Will Commentate For The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Live Stream Live stream starts at 8:15AM.
• December 4: Stephanie Bruce Running CIM Marathon In Her First Marathon Since Taking Time Off For Two Pregnancies Bruce has a 2:29 PR and ran her last marathon in 2013.
  *CIM Adds American Performance List Bonus To Its Prize Purse Getting in the top 10 for 2016 (2:15:52/2:35:00) will get you $5,000 and top 25 (2:20:41/2:41:18) $2,000.

Field Eventer News

• Gotzis Hypo Meeting Is Still On Ashton Eaton’s Bucket List Eaton has never competed at the legendary multi-event meet, having pulled out twice with injury.
• Jessica Ennis-Hill Debating Between London 2017 Worlds And Having More Children
• Catching Up With Olympic Pole Vault Bronze Medalist Sam Kendricks Kendricks wasn’t disappointed with bronze in Rio and said, “We have a saying in track and field that ‘every medal is a gold medal.'”
• 2012 Olympic HJ Silver Medalist Erik Kynard Returns To His Alma Mater Kansas State As An Assistant Coach
• IAAF First Impressions Q&A With South Africa’s Olympic Javelin Silver Medalist Sunette Viljoen Viljoen wasn’t always focused on javelin as she also did sprints and jumps and her first international competition was in the HJ.

Post-Weekend NCAA/HS XC

• Notre Dame’s Anna Rohrer And Mississippi’s Sean Tobin Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Rohrer beat top runners from Providence and New Mexico to win at home at the Notre Dame Invy while Tobin won the men’s race.
• Three New No. 1 Teams In Week 4 NCAA D1 Women’s XC Regional Rankings
• Men’s Updated Regional Rankings
• DyeStat State-By-State Weekend High School XC Highlights

Interesting Reads

• Good Read Meet Norman Peart – The Man In Charge Of Keeping Usain Bolt’s Finances In Order And Him Out Of Trouble Since He Was In HS Bolt: “Mr. Peart has been with me since 2002, and he is now considered family. My parents and he worked as a great team in my early years as a professional athlete. And that I consider very important to my success. Yes, they teamed up on me during my teenage years and terrorised me.”
• If Only She Hadn’t Been Sick: Jenn Suhr Vaults 16-5¼ (5.01) In Hometown Exhibition As More Than 1,000 Show Up To Watch The mark would have won gold in Rio.
• Laura Muir Is Having Trouble Doing Her Vet Rotations As All Of The Pet Owners Want To Talk To Her Abour Her Running For good reason; the British 1,500 record holder was magnificent in 2016.
• Belarusian Who Carried Russian Flag At Rio 2016 Paralympics Opening Ceremony “Rewarded” With Free Moscow Apartment
• After Finishing 6th In Olympic 5,000 Final At Age 24, Brit Andrew Butchart Wants A Medal In 2017 Little-known fact – he’s close to Andy Murray as the mom of Butchart’s girlfriend is the partner of Andy Murray’s dad.
• British PV Record Holder Holly Bradshaw Reflects On 2016, Looks Ahead To 2017 Bradshaw has struggled with back pain in recent years but says, “I’m now at the point in my career where if I’m fit I can and should win medals.”
• Meet “The Iron Nun,” An 86-Year-Old Ironman Athlete
• The Latvian Chemist Who Designed Meldonium Met With The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Last Month In An Ultimately Unsuccessful Attempt To Have The Product Removed From The 2017 Prohibited List
• South Africa’s Olympic Javelin Silver Medalist Sunette Viljoen Shares How She’s Risen Through The Ranks Since HS

Happy 60th, Seb!

• Seb Coe Turned 60 On Thursday – UK Journalists Share Their Favorite Coe Memories
• Seb Coe Going On A Global ‘Time For Change” Road Show Throughout October And November
• Coe Releases ‘Time For Change” Documents Ahead Of Road Show – Coe: “It is time to leap, not to tip toe.”
• “(Reforming The IAAF Is Seb Coe’s) Hardest Job Ever” Says Steve Cram
• Coe Admits That Usain Bolt Will Leave A Hole In Global Sport But Says It Will Be Filled
  

More News From The UK Jessica Ennis-Hill “Close” To Decision On Whether She’ll Retire Or Not We think there is little chance that a Brit would retire with Worlds in London next year. It doesn’t make financial $en$e.

It’s Not Too Early To Start Thinking About Christmas Gifts

LRC Book Review: Run The World By 2:30 Marathoner Becky Wade Is An Easy And Fun Read That Anyone Who Enjoys Running And Travel Will Enjoy Rather than embark immediately upon a professional career, Wade – an All-American at Rice and 2016 Olympic Trials qualifier – spent a year visiting running cultures across the globe. The result is Run the World, a fun log of her running adventures in 22 different countries, including Japan, Finland, Switzerland and New Zealand.