2016 Was A Record Year For LetsRun.com - Thank You For Your Running Obsession!
– Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell talking about LetsRun.com in an introduction to a feature on how LetsRun.com operates in Outside magazine by Charles Bethea. The piece is entitled, “How a Ragtag Crew of Almost Journalists Created Running’s Most Controversial Website.”
- Galen Rupp may be running Houston Half Marathon and going after Ryan Hall's 13.1 American record
- OFFICIAL...How many miles did you run in 2016?
- Famous moon photo gov't. doesn't want you to know about. Shows UFOs leaving the surface of moon.
- Massive drop in 400 time...WHY?!
- Melissa Bishop got robbed - come on LRC, take a stand!
- Elise Cranny is a bio major with a 3.98
New Year’s Eve Action
Brazil: Madrid: African 10,000m Champ Eritrea’s Nguse Amlosom and Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei Win San Silvestre Vallecana in Madrid Donn Cabral was 8th in 28:53.
New York: Sarah Pagano, Andy Vernon Win NYRR Midnight Run
January 2 Boston Champ Lemi Berhanu Wins Xiamen Marathon in 2:08:27 Comes Up Short of Chinese All-Comers Record of 2:06:19 Beijing Marathon champ Meseret Mengistu won in 2:25:58.
The Latest On The Anti-Doping Front
- Awesome Development Ethiopia Is Going To Try To Hand Out Lifetime Bans To Drug Cheats
- NYT Affirms The Accuracy Of Russian Doping Story – “All quotes in our story are accurate.”
- Professor: Sports Federations Will Face Obstacles In Sanctioning Individual Russian Athletes “I think what will be a problem is individual cases with individuals pleading I was forced to do it or I didn’t know how it was done,” said Dionne Koller, director of the Center for Sport and the Law at the University of Baltimore.
- Lance Armstrong Says His #1 Goal For 2017 Is To Rejoin The Cancer-Fighting Community As A Difference Maker
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
Looking Ahead To 2017
- Bolt To Focus On Enjoying 100 In Final Season Without Too Much Stress “I think we have done the bulk of the work over the 10 years we have been working, so now it’s my last season. The focus is on the 100m, and I will just be trying to enjoy the season, not too much stress”
- After World Indoor Gold, Olympic Bronze Kiwi Shot Putter Tom Walsh Looking Forward to 2017 “I wouldn’t be doing this sport if I didn’t think I could break the world record. So I want to give it a real go and it’s been around for too long.”
Upcoming Action
- Olympic Champ Omar McLeod Will Face Jason Richardson At Millrose Games The meet is Feb 11th this year.
- Liberty University’s New $30 Million Banked Indoor Track Looks Great, Set To Open January 7
- Elite Field For January 29th’s Osaka Women’s Marathon Released – Field Includes American Serena Burla
- Olympic 400H Champ Dalilah Muhammad Will Compete In Europe Indoors For 1st Time In 2017 At Birmingham’s Müller Indoor Grand Prix In Feb. The Birmingham meet is one of 5 meets that are part of the IAAF indoor tour. The series kicks off with the NB Indoor Grand Prix in Boston (Jan 28th) – the only US meet in the tour.
*Eilidh Doyle Will Face Muhammad
Week That Was
LRC WTW: Europe’s Teen Phenoms Appear To Be The Real Deal And Buzunesh Deba Breaks The Boston Marathon Course Record We look at foreign transplants, junior phenoms and note it’s been 975 days since an American went sub-2:10 in the marathon. We also discussed the ailing Miruts Yifter, the 1980 Olympic 5k/10k champ, who passed away on Thursday.
2016 Was A Record Year For Us In Terms Of Traffic – Thanks For Visiting
An Inside Look At How LRC Operates How a Ragtag Crew Of Almost Journalists Created Running’s Most Controversial Website Author Charles Bethea embedded himself with us during the US Olympic trials and got a behind-the-scenes look at how we operate. His article in Outside magazine includes some really nice quotes from Tim Layden, “… their best quality is that they don’t give a shit about offending people,” and Nick Willis, “It gave me a ton of inspiration. LetsRun is one of the primary reasons high-quality coaching and training have improved in America.”
*MB: Long Article on Letsrun… in Outside Magazine
Enjoyed The Article Above?Then Check This Article On LRC’s Founding From Marathon and Beyond In 2009The LetsRun Phenomenon
This One Got Left Out in New Year’s Honors:Sir Roger Bannister made Companion of Honour by Queen in New Year’s Honours List Bannister already was a knight. Only 54 living people have the honor. More on the Companion of Honor here.
2017 Races To Get You Excited
August: One Big Thing to Look Forward to in 20017: Ezekiel Kemboi Fired Up for 2017 Worlds, Says Training is Going Well The world’s greatest steeplechaser retired and then unretired at the Olympics after being DQd. Good new for track fans is they get him for one more year.
Next Month: Barcelona: Florence Kiplagat To Target Her World Record (And Possible 1:05:00 Barrier) At eDreams Barcelona Half Marathon In February 1:05:09 is her current record.
NC: Paul Chelimo, Melissa Bishop, David Oliver, Leo Manzano Headline JDL Fast Track 5th Annual Camel City Elite February 4th in Winston-Salem North Carolina.
A Lot Of Athletes Are Looking For New Contracts: Paul Merca: Jeremy Taiwo, Brooks Only American Male Olympian In 2016, Gets Dropped After Earning #8 World Ranking
*Brooks Responds They are Focusing on Track Athletes
The Ageless Wonder
Ed Whitlock – 85-Year-Old Marathoner – Gets Nearly 1,500-Word Feature In NY Times By Jere Longman The title of the article is appropriately, “85-Year-Old Marathoner Is So Fast That Even Scientists Marvel.”
2-Hour Marathon
Ian O’Riordan Takes A Look At 2 Hr. Marathon: It’s The Last Everest Of Athletics He notes some sports scientists don’t think it will be broken until 2075. He also wonders if Athletics Ireland should have a concerted effort to break John Treacy‘s Irish record of 2:09:15.
End-Of-Year Awards And News
- Coach Ben Rosario Of HOKA ONE ONE Northern Arizona Elite Wins $25,000 2016 Allan Steinfeld Development Award From Running USA Rosario does a Q&A and shares his favorite moment from 2016.
- Jerry Schumacher Edges Alberto Salazar For FloTrack American Distance Coach Of The Year – Wins $10k
- Fair Or Foul? International Writers Name Usain Bolt, Not Michael Phelps Or Lebron, The 2016 Athlete Of The Year
- And The Opposite Of An Award On Official IOC Website, Mo Farah Was Stripped Of His Two Gold Medals From Rio Temporarily After Hackers Got InDavid Rudisha also temporarily lost his gold.
- Scientists Look Back On The Year A Look Back At What Scientists Discovered In 2016 Can Make You A Better Runner From drinking cherry juice and coffee before you run to doing weighted squats, the scientists (who set distance running back 15-20 years in the ’80s) weigh in.
New York News
- Jeff Benjamin Offers A Humble Solution To “Eugene Fatigue” For 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials – Hold It In NYC We 100% agree and think it’s absurd that every major meet is held in Eugene.
- Olympic Champ Omar McLeod Will Face Jason Richardson At Millrose Games The meet is Feb 11th this year.
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.
End-Of-Year Cheer
Mo Farah Is Knighted And Jessica Ennis-Hill Becomes A Dame It’s Sir Mo Farah from here on out.
*Mo Farah Says Knighthood Is A “Dream Come True”
New Zealand: Valerie Adams Becomes New Zealand’s Youngest Dame She’s only 32. For more on Dames and Knights, click here.
She Said Yes: Wayde van Niekerk Gets Engaged And Is On Cloud 9 A great year for the South African with a world record, gold medal, and engagement.
And Some Jeer: Indian Olympic Association Stripped Of Government Funding And Suspended After Giving Honorary Titles To 2 Corruption-Tainted Officials
A New World Record Was Set This Week / Jordan Who?
Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki Smashes His Own World Junior Shot Put Record With 22.96m Heave Considering he’s an Olympic finalist with a 23.17 outdoor PR, it’s not a shock. Jordan Geist has his work cut out for him.
2016 Is Almost Over – 2017 Will Be Here Before You Know It
- US Distance Stars Share Their New Year’s Resolutions From do more yoga (Huddle/Linden) to write a handwritten note every month (Centro), RW has you covered.
- British Athletics Stars Share Their New Year’s Resolutions
Runner’s World‘s 10 Most-Read Stories Of 2016 Game of Thrones fans, RW’s article on Margaery Tyrell‘s 3:51 showing at the London Marathon cracks the list.- Gabriele Grunewald Is Meg Bellino’s 2016 Human Of The Year For Her Cancer Fight
- BBTM The Best Mile/1,500 Moments Of 2016 From Drew Hunter and Genzebe Dibaba‘s exploits indoors to Matthew Centrowitz‘s gold outdoors, it was quite a year.
- Might A Legendary HS Record Fall In 2017? After Massive Indoor Heave, Jordan Geist Admits Michael Carter’s Legendary Outdoor Record From 1979 is “… sitting in the back of my mind.”
More Look Backs At 2016
Good Read Nikki Hamblin Says Helping Abbey D In Rio Won’t Define Her “If the same sort of scenario happened in the street you wouldn’t just get up and walk away. It just so happens that it took place for me in front of a few hundred TV cameras.”
- Andre De Grasse Selected Canadian Male Athlete Of Year Over Sidney Crosby And Derek Drouin De Grasse got 43 first place votes, Crosby (hockey) 18, Drouin (high jump gold) 2.
- The Guardian‘s Andy Bull Takes A Look Back At The Chaos And Brilliance Of The Rio Olympics
- BBC Golden Moment Video: David Rudisha Looks Back At Rio Gold
- Video: Elaine Thompson Talks To BBC About Her 100-200 Double In Rio
Rupp Running Boston!
LRC Analysis LetsRun.com Breaks Down Galen Rupp’s Boston Marathon Debut – Will He (And Should He) Be The Favorite? How Well Suited Is He For The Course? + Conspiracy Theories GaloreAn American-born man hasn’t won the Boston marathon since 1983. That very well may change in 2017. In this LetsRun.com debate, the LRC staff goes back and forth about Rupp’s Boston debut. They start by debating if Rupp is the favorite but before it’s all over the venture into the conspiracy theory front: Is it possible that the Nike sub-2 attempt was created to water down Boston to ensure Rupp’s victory?
*MB: Galen Rupp to run Boston Marathon. He will need volunteers to hand him new hats throughout the race.
*MB:Calling it now, Rupp wins Boston 2017 2:07:04, prove me wrong.
LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”
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Flo Has Now Won the Medal of Honor
