Galen Rupp’s Future Isn’t On The Track

Ken Goe Exclusive Galen Rupp’s Days As A 5,000m Runner Are Over, 2017 Looks To Be His Last At 10,000m Ken Goe reports, “Salazar said Rupp would continue to compete in the 10,000 through 2017, but would concentrate on marathon training.”
*MB: Discuss

More US News Of Note

• Robert Ivory, Legendary Buffalo HS Coach, Obituary
• UNC-Charlotte’s Briauna Jones Has Gone From Trackster To US Bobsled Team Member

Russia Sort Of Confesses – Or Does It?

Russia’s New Anti-Doping Chief Admits To NY Times There “… was an institutional conspiracy” To Dope, But Denies It Was State-Sponsored And Wants Everyone To Pay Attention To Fancy Bears 

• Hold On: Kremlin Responds By Saying It Wants To Check Veracity Of Russian Official’s Doping Comments In NY Times “We are not inclined to consider this information as first hand,” as they want to confirm the quote and check the context of the quote.
• Kremlin Says Russian Admission Of Doping In NY Times Was “… distorted and taken out of context.”
• NY Times Fires Back: NYT affirms accuracy of Russian doping story – “All quotes in our story are accurate.”

There Was A Lot Of December 26th Action In The UK

A Recap Of The Many Boxing Day Races In England The biggest news from a US perspective was that NCAA indoor 5,000 leader Marc Scott of Tulsa (13:38)  ran a 29:33 10k.

NCAA XC
Prediction Contest

LRC Scandal? Rigged!? LetsRun.com’s Jonathan Gault Wins LetsRun.com Running Warehouse XC Prediction Contest Insiders dominated the RunningWarehouse prediction contest as in addition to Gault’s win, a guy coached by Karissa Schweizer‘s grandfather won as well. Another winner wrote one of the greatest emails we’ve ever received.

Holiday Distance News 

• Dave Hunter Takes A Look Back At Molly Huddle’s Incredible 2016 And Wonders If It Wouldn’t Have Happened Had She Not Celebrated Too Early In 2015
• Mercy Cherono Gets Engaged In Big Ceremony In Kenya
• British Olympians Tell You Whether They’ll Be Training On Christmas Day Or Not
• Athletics Weekly‘s Nutritional Tips/Rules To Help You Survive The Holiday Season
• Athletics Weekly Says There Is No Reason To Complicate Your Training – Keep It Simple As The Guys In The 1980s Basically Ran As Fast As People Are Doing Today Run 100+ with two hard workouts and you are pretty much set.
• Runners Tribe Looks At Tactical Races And Olympic 1,500m Final And How Some Fans Love Them And Some Hate Them
• Eliud Kipchoge, Janeth Jepkosgei, Benjamin Limo Visit Kids For Christmas At Shoes4Kids Hospital In Eldoret
• 10 Gifts Every Race Director Would Love From plastic ties to port-a-lets, RW has you covered.

Random News On A Slow Holiday Week

• Scientists: Running Could Make You Smarter “A growing body of research has suggested that aerobically challenging exercise can enhance brain structure and function in older adults.”
• A Guide To The College Bowl Season By Chris Lotsbom Where He Breaks Down The Games Assuming It Was A Distance Race And Not A Football Game
• Abel Kirui Wants To Do The London Double – Break His PR At London Marathon – And Then Rock The London WChamps
• Richard Bowker Announced As Vhair-Elect For UK Athletics – Athletics Weekly
• European Athletics – A Look At A-To-Z Of An Amazing Year For European Athletics This is part I – it only covers A through M.
  *Part 2 – N Through Z

Miler News

• Now That’s A Fan: College Runner Delivers On Promise To Tattoo Matt Centrowitz’s Face On His Body If He Won A Medal In Rio York College’s Cameron Sorter got a Rio celebration pic of Centro on his shoulder blade and recently got a chance to hang out and go for a run with Centro himself.
• Recommended Read: Asbel Kiprop Gives Some Insights On His Training And Talks Olympic Disappointment Kiprop said the result in Rio would have been different if his teammate Elijah Manangoi had been in the race as he is a “team player” and helps Kiprop by setting a fast pace.
• RR #2: Q&A Catching Up With Leo Manzano As He Talks About His Career, His Training And Fatherhood Manzano says his 4-year-old son already loves running and had to hold him back because he ran 3 miles and wanted to keep going.
• Want To Be Coached By Nick Willis? Willis And His Wife Are Running An Online Coaching Program For The Mile The idea is to help non-elites train for something that isn’t jogging the local 5K or trying to finish a marathon. Willis says, “The mile can be something you run as fast as you can … Running doesn’t just have to be jogging along.”
• Video: What’s The Race Day Process Like For An Elite Miler? Follow Aussie miler Jordan Gusman as he warms up and psychs himself up to try to run the second sub-4 mile of his career.

An In-Depth Look At What Happened To One Of America’s Greatest Talents

LRC Feature Growing Pains: How Donavan Brazier Went From Breaking A 50-Year-Old NCAA Record To Bombing Out Of The Olympic Trials 21 Days Later In the span of three weeks, Donavan Brazier went from the highest of highs – running 1:43.55 to win an NCAA title by breaking Jim Ryun‘s legendary record – to the lowest of lows – bombing out of the 1st round of the Olympic Trials. What the heck happened and what has the teen phenom and his team learned so history won’t repeat itself? Jonathan Gault tells you in 4,000+ words.
*MB: How did Donavan Brazier go from running 1:43.55 and winning NCAAs to bombing out of the US Trials 21 days later?