February 10, 2017 | LetsRun.com

2017 RAK HALF Marathon Mania

LRC Peres Jepchirchir Runs 65:06 Half Marathon World Record And Collapses At Finish! updated What a race! The world half marathon champ Jepchirchir had to run a world record of 65:06 to defeat Mary Keitany. Jepchirchir ran 30:33 from 10k to 20k (a time that only 2 Amercians have ever run faster than) to pick up the $100,000 world record bonus. Bedan Karoki won the men’s race. We break it all down.
*MB: Race of the Year (So Far): 2017 RAK Half Marathon Starts at 9:45 PM ET – Official Discussion Thread.
*MB: Peres MF Chepchirchir: 65:06 WR at RAK

Pre-Race Dibaba: “Training has gone very well.”

The 2017 NYRR Millrose Games Is Saturday Watch Live Over The Air On NBC 4-6pm ET Free Meet Preview

News and Notes From Today’s Press Conference LRC Centro Isn’t Dodging Anyone, Kate Grace Talks About Her Switch to Nike & More From the 2017 Millrose Games Press Conference We share our news and notes from today’s press conference.

LRC America’s Muslim Olympic Champion Dalilah Muhammad Reacts to Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration – “It’s Just Unfortunate” Find out what America’s first-ever Olympic 400 hurdle champ has to say about Trump’s executive order on immigration.
LRC The Inside Scoop: How Fast Will The Races At the 2017 Millrose Games Be? Here Are The Times The Rabbits Are Shooting For
LRC A Fan’s Guide To The 2017 Millrose Games: Centro Steps Up To Face The Studs In The 3K; Murphy-Andrews Showdown & Rowbury Vs. Hassan Vs. Grace Headline Wanamaker Miles Millrose is the most historic indoor meet in the world and our preview is even better. We break it down for your in 4,200 words. Your welcome.
Elder Matt Centrowitz Will Fulfil The Promise He Made To His Son And Get His First Tattoo On Friday He promised he’d get a tattoo if Matthew won gold in Rio. He’s chosen “Christ the Redeemer.” Speaking of ink, have you bought Matt’s book yet? We highly recommend it. Buy it now as the first LetsRun.com Virtual Book Club meeting is in two weeks.
*LRC Legendary Athlete, Father And Coach Matt Centrowitz Just Published An Autobiography – We Suggest You Read It
Robby Andrews Is Confident Heading Into Millrose’s Wanamaker Mile – “Currently, my training is going well.”
HS Record Holder Armand Duplantis Ready To Take On NY At NYRR Millrose Games Last weekend, he vaulted a ridiculous 18 feet, 9.25 inches (5.72 meters). There has only been on 19-foot vault in Millrose history and the kid is only a junior in HS.
HS Star Brandon McGorty Running Against Pros In 1,000 At 2017 NYRR Millrose Games His PR is 2:25.81 last year in Virginia. The national indoor record for 1,000 is 2:22.28 (Robby Andrews) and the Virginia record is 2:23.68 (Alan Webb).
Kaela Edwards Has A Huge Goal For Millrose – Jenny Simpson’s 4:25.91 Collegiate Record Her PR is just 4:32.14.

Friday Genzebe Dibaba (3:58.80 1500) and Joanna Jozwik (1:59.29 800) Post World Leaders at Copernicus Cup in Poland Dibaba was going for the WR of 3:55.17 but came up short. Erik Sowinski ran 1:46.84 for 3rd in the 800 while Ronnie Baker (6.46) and Barbara Pierre (7.11) ran world leaders in the 60. *Results

Week That Was

LRC The Week That Was In Running: The Colorado Milers, Snow Cross Nationals, Callum Hawkins, Amy Cragg And More Plus a funny clip of Jenny Simpson delivering good news on national football signing day.

Doping News: Dawn Harper-Nelson Tests Positive

US 100 Hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson Gets 3-Month Drug Ban She tested positive for a substance used in diuretics and masking agents which she said was caused by prescribed blood pressure medication.
AP: “Russia Picks Fight Over Doping After IAAF Ban Extended” If you’re waiting for an apology or sincere admission of guilt from Russian officials, don’t hold your breath.
One Thing We Agree On: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko Says Coaches “Do Not Understand How To Work Without Doping” Should “Retire”
Athletics Illustrated’s Chris Kelsall Isn’t Happy That Disgraced Turkish Miler Asli Cakir Alptekein Has Returned From Her Shortened Ban Alptekein was initially banned for 8 years, but had it reduced to 4 for providing info on the Diacks.
Seb Coe Is “Sad” His “Friend” Nick Davies Was Sacked From The IAAF Coe disagrees with critics who said Davies’ punishment was too lenient.
BBC Video: Seb Coe Denies Misleading British Parliamentary Committee Over Russian Doping Cover-Up He says he’s too busy to appear before the committee again.
Russia 2012 Olympic 400H Champ Natalia Antyukh Announces Her Retirement After Being Stripped Of Her 4 X 400 Medal Due To Her Teammate’s Doping Offense

News From Oregon

Register Guard: Track Town Gives The Eatons A Royal Send-Off A capacity crowd of 300 at the TrackTown Tuesday meeting in Eugene gave them two standing ovations.
*Ken Goe In The Oregonian: The Eatons Enjoying Retirement And Being “Fun-Employed” The two have kept busy since retiring with a number of projects including helping with a fantasy track and field game.
Ken Goe Profile On Oregon Hurdler Alaysha Johnson Johnson talks about her sociology studies and work promoting better relationships between police officers and minority groups which included doing a night ride-along.
University Of Oregon Reconsidering A “Draconian” Liability Waiver For Track And Field Volunteers They caught some flack for a new waiver that would force volunteers to give up a lot of legal rights in the event of an injury caused by university negligence.

More Road Action From The Weekend

Neely Spence Gracey Wins Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Half Marathon In 71:02 Spence Gracey is passing on a spring marathon this year to focus on the half but plans to run one in the fall. *Results
Kenyans Julius Keter (28:48) And Gladys Yator (32:15) Pick Up Big Prize Money At All-America City 10K In Texas There was a total of $28,800 prize money on hand with $4,700 going to the winners. *Results

Some Big News From The IAAF: Russia Will Miss Worlds

IAAF Votes Unanimously To Maintain Russian Ban Through The 2017 London World Championships The IAAF task force head Rune Andersen said Russian officials still fail to acknowledge the problem and that the plan is now for Russia to not be reinstated until November 2017.
*The Telegraph Article

*IAAF Freezes All International Transfer Of Allegiance With Immediate Effect Are the days of Turkey, Qatar and Bahrain dominating “European” championships over?
*IAAF Publish Qualification System And Entry Standards For 2017 Worlds

Road / XC Results

Japan: 60:24 Was No Fluke: Scotland’s Callum Hawkins Smashes British Half Marathon Record In Japan As He Wins Kagawa Marugame Half In 60:00 Hawkins got a dominant win, beating Ethiopian record-holder Atsedu Tsegay by almost a minute. Bahrain’s Olympic marathon silver medalist Eunice Kirwa won the women’s race in 68:07 over Amy Cragg (68:27).
*Amy Hastings-Cragg 68:27 In Marugame! That’s a big PR (69:50) and moves her to #4 all-time in the US.
Kenya: Lilian Kasait Stuns Olympic 1500 Champ Faith Kipyegon To Win South Rift XC Championships She won handily by 28-seconds while former World XC champ Japheth Korir won the men’s race. At the Central Rift XC Champs, Viola Kibiwott beat out world steeple champ Hyvin Kiyeng while Abraham Kiptum took the men’s race.
Portugal: Yemaneberhan Crippa And Irene Cheptai Cruise To Almond Blossom XC Titles This year the race served as the Euro Club XC Champs with Turkish teams taking the men’s and women’s team titles. *Results *Full Race Video
Japan: Kentaro Nakamoto Wins Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon In 2:09:32 USA’s Jeffrey Eggleston was 27th in 2:18:42.

“If Matt Centrowitz writes a book, you buy it and read it.”

LRC Exclusive LetsRun.com Exclusive: Read Chapter Two of Matt Centrowitz’s New Book “Like Father, Like Son” LetsRun.com doesn’t beat around the bush. Neither does Matt Centrowitz. He’s so confident you’ll like his book, he’s letting you read a whole chapter for free. Purchase the book now and come back at the end of February and participate in the first ever LetsRun.com Virtual Book Club.

LRC Legendary Athlete, Father And Coach Matt Centrowitz Just Published An Autobiography – We Suggest You Read It An autobiography by a man who failed every single class in middle school and was in trouble with the law but went on to set an American record in the 5k, make two Olympic teams and raise a son who broke America’s 108-year Olympic drought in the men’s 1,500 has a lot of potential. Add in the fact that he roomed with Bruce Jenner and skipped school to hang out with Steve Prefontaine on the day he died and you’ve got a must read. Purchase Like Father, Like Son: My Story on Running, Coaching and Parenting now and be a part of the 1st-ever LetsRun.com Virtual Book Tour in one month.

Alysia Montaño Gets 2 Huge Upgrades As Mariya Savinova Gets Punished

LRC Breaking: Alysia Montaño Just Won Two World Championship Medals At 800 Meters The Court of Arbitration for Sport has banned Russian Mariya Savinova-Farnosova for four years and stripped her of her 2011 and 2012 gold medals and 2013 silver. In addition to Montaño getting two medals, Caster Semenya is now a two-time Olympic champ.
*Savinova Banned Based On “Clear Evidence” Including ABP Data

**Nitro Athletics #2 *Results**

Dennis Mitchell Would Be Proud Usain Bolt’s All-Stars Win Nitro Meet #2 In Absurd Fashion All Australia had to do to win was walk the baton around the track in the 4 x 100 but they dropped the stick and got -10 points in a penalty instead of 40 for a win, but the national TV audience was told Australia was the winner. Bolt was taking it seriously and said he’d file a protest if the score wasn’t correct.
*Daily Mail: Usain Bolt Furious At Referee Error At Nitro Athletics
*Australian Sprinter John Steffensen Beats Usian Bolt … In Practice And With A Huge Head Start
*Revived Kerron Clement enjoyed Nitro #2 even though his team was last
*IAAF Recap Of Nitro #2 Ryan Gregson won the elimination mile in 4:03.

More Mid-Week Action Pascal Martinot-Lagarde Wins 60H In 7.51, Olympic Heptathlon Champion Nafissatou Thiam Excels In Triathlon In France The triathlon is where you do 3 events of the multi.

Coming In May Stacked Pole Vault Will Take Place At 2017 Pre Classic With All 3 Olympic Medalists + Shawn Barber Renaud Lavillenie, who set his outdoor PR in Eugene, will be looking for a record 5th straight win in Eugene.

LRC’s Jon Gault Goes To The Super Bowl

LRC What’s It Like To Go To The Super Bowl (And Watch Your Team Storm Back From 25 Down And Win) LRC’s Jonathan Gault went to the Big Game and fortunately for him he didn’t leave early. He tells us what it’s like attending a Super Bowl in person.

Discuss: Jon Gault’s Rules for the Superbowl: 1) Cheer for the Patriots, not against the Falcons and 2) Don’t be an asshole

Assorted Admin News

Throwing Transparency Out The Window? IAAF Council Agree On Plan To Scrap Major Events Bidding Process Events will now be awarded through a “targeted recruitment partnership” between the IAAF and specific cities.
Some Kenyan Athletes Upset Over The IAAF Freeze On Nationality Changes Eliud Kipchoge, David Rudisha and Milcah Chemos were all wary of the the citizenship rules being put in place.
Kenyan Officials Support IAAF Stopping Allegiance Switches To Protect Young Athletes
Kenyan Government Official Scoffs At USATF For Pulling Out Of The World Under-18 (Youth) Championships Over Terrorism Fears The official called the move “far-fetched” and challenged the US to come up with the real reason for their withdrawal.
Kenyan Olympic Committee Disbandment Declared Illegal By Kenyan Courts The court found that sports minister Hassan Wario had no legal right to disband NOCK and did it for “ulterior motives.”
Yelena Isinbayeva Named As An Ambassador For Winter World Military Games In Sochi This Month

Random But Interesting

11-Year-Old New Zealander To Run A Half Marathon In Antarctica Quinn Gardiner-Hall explains that while it can get down to minus 21 with the windchill, you can’t wear too many layers because “you don’t want to sweat because it can turn into ice all over your body.”
Interesting Video: NYC Professor Studying Rivalries Has Found That They Can Improve Performance And Have Psychological And Physiological Effects
New Research Finds Post Run Carbs May Mean Healthier Bones

Post-Weekend NCAA News

MB: Ben Saarel Runs 4:01.49 Mile At CU Home Meet The NCAA altitude conversion puts his time at 3:55.53. CU’s Dani Jones won the women’s race in 4:39.50 which converts to 4:32.61.
NCAA DI Athletes Of The Week Are Tennessee And Arizona Sprinters Christian Coleman And Sage Watson Watson set a collegiate and Canadian 500m record in 1:08.40 while Coleman ran 6.51 in the 60 to put himself tied for 8th best in NCAA history.
Event-By-Event Top 10 NCAA Marks From The Weekend Distance highlights included Indiana’s Daniel Kuhn (1:46.42) and Virginia Tech’s Hanna Green (2:03.31) in the 800 and a 9:03 3,000 by Indiana’s Katherine Receveur.
Big Jump Highlights NCAA DI Men’s Rankings Florida, Oregon and LSU stayed 1-3, but Virginia moved from 12th to 4th.
Top 5 Women’s DI Rankings Remain Intact As Oregon Stays On Top

Super Saturday Was Full Of Action *Full Results

LRC Six Takeaways From Some Fantastic Action Across The Globe On Super Saturday What a day. Laura Muir and the Kenyan-born Americans were fantastic.We give you the highlights as we doubt you can spend all of Sunday and all of Saturday glued to your TV or PC.

USA XC: Leonard Korir Wins, Aliphine Tuliamuk Dominates As Do Scott Simmons’ Kenyan-American Men Scott Simmons-coached athletes swept the top 4 places on the men’s side at the USA XC champs as Leonard Korir got the win. Aliphine Tuliamuk dominated the women’s race.
*OK State’s Michelle Magnani Wins Jr. Girls Race
*CSU Pueblo’s Paul Roberts Wins Jr. Boys Race

ATI RRW 2017 Armory Track Invitational Full Recap: Ajee Wilson And Sammy Watson Impress With Fast 600m Times In the men’s mile Andy Butchart impressed and the men’s 3,000 was physical and featured shoves and elbows between Drew Hunter and Daniel Winn.

Super Saturday Talk On Our The Fan Forum

More Weekend Track Coverage *All NCAA Results

Iceland’s Anita Hinriksdóttir Runs National Indoor Record Of 2:01.12 The 21-year-old took .44 seconds off her own NR with what is the second fastest time in the world this year. *Race Video
IAAF Indoor Round-Up: Poland Piotr Lisek Becomes The 10th Pole Vaulter To Join The 6-Meter Club Indoors Lisek cleared 6.00m to win in Germany before losing to Shawn Barber the next day in France. Sandi Morris beat out Olympic champ Ekaterini Stefanidi with 4.71m and elsewhere, 41-year-old Kim Collins ran 6.52 (a 40+ record) to beat NCAA indoor champ Ronnie Baker while Lea Sprunger ran a 400m world lead (51.46).
UTEP’s Jonah Koech Runs 4:02.59 Mile At Altitude In Albuquerque The time converts to a 3:57.31 mile at sea level. In the 800, 600m record holder Emmanuel Korir won in 1:46.75. *Results
BU Scarlet And White Invy Results: Virginia’s Zack Herriott Runs 13:45 In the miles, pro Megan Krumpoch won in 4:35 while Syracuse’s Joel Hubbard ran 3:59.
Armand Duplantis Breaks His Own High School Pole Vault Recod With A 5.72m Clearance The mark qualifies him for Worlds, where he’ll represent Sweden.
Ukraine’s Alina Shukh Scares Her Own World Junior Pentathlon Record With 4,542 Points To Win The Tallin Multis Meet Estonia’s Kristjan Rosenberg won the men’s heptathlon.

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 2009 The LetsRun Phenomenon

Midweek News Of Note

Mike Tirico To Replace Bob Costas As NBC’s Olympic Host In 2018 Costas held the job for 24 years.
Prince Harry Beats Prince William And Kate Middleton In Sprint At Charity Event This is proof that one should never get married and never have kids if you want to keep running as your #1 priority.
Tokyo Prosecutors Question Japanese Olympic Head Over Controversial Payments To Consulting Firm With Ties To Papa Diack In international business, it’s sadly often a fine line between consulting and bribery.
2018 World Indoors In Birmingham Will Likely Start With A High Jump Only Day It was going to feature 3 days of competition but now organizers want to run the high jump on the night of the opening ceremony.

Another World Record For Dibaba

LRC Genzebe Dibaba Gets World Record #6, Runs 5:23.75 For 2,000 Meters In Sabadell, Spain She destroyed the 18-year-old indoor record by 7 seconds and also beat Sonia O’Sullivan‘s outdoor mark of 5:25.36.

*IAAF Meet Recap Poland’s Adam Kszczot won the 800 in 1:46.31 while Euro silver medalist Adel Mechaal won the 3K in 7:48.

Vivian Speaks

Good Read: Vivian Cheruiyot Prepares To Move To The Roads And Reflects On The Best And Worst Moments Of Her Track Career Cheruiyot isn’t approaching the marathon as a career afterthought as she talks about winning Olympic marathon gold and breaking the WR.
Vivian Cheruiyot Thinks “Running A Marathon In Under Two Hours Is Impossible” She has “no problem” with the 2-hour project, and thinks Eliud Kipchoge can break the WR, but feels “1:59:59 is setting the bar too high.”
Vivian Cheruiyot Talks About Motherhood, Retirement And Future Plans She wants to have another child after the 2020 Games and retire when she is 40 years old (2023).

GB Track News

After A Career Full Of Foot Surgeries, GB Hurdler Andrew Pozzi’s Patience Is Starting To Pay Off Pozzi has had at least five or six surgeries, but now currently holds the 60H world lead and 4 of the 8 fastest times this year.
Laura Muir Going For The British And Maybe Even World 1,000m Record At The Birmingham GP On Feb. 18th Muir: “I never thought when I was younger that I’d be in the position to be going for a world record.”
Andy Vernon Wants To Step Up To The Marathon In 2018H He’s skipping indoor to run a half this winter and hopes to get under 61 minutes.
The Telegraph: Meet Jazmin Sawyers: From The Olympics To The Voice In 6 Months You want to talk about versatile, the Olympic LJ 8th placer is working on her law degree, won a bobsled silver medal at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics and now has earned a place on the TV show The Voice.
British Athletics Publishes London 2017 Selection Polices They won’t be able to use travel costs as an excuse to cut the team for this one.

Jamaican Sprint Stuff

Nesta Carter Returns To The Track This Weekend For His First Competition Since Losing His Beijing Olympic Gold Carter hasn’t raced for 17 months due to a combination of injury and his positive drug test. He hasn’t been suspended yet as he is still appealing his case with CAS.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Braces For Another Challenging Year As She Teals With Toe Injury That Impeded Her In 2016 Fraser-Pryce says it’s still not fully healed hasn’t ruled out getting surgery on it.
Video: Yohan Blake Says He’s Injury Free And Happy With The Way His Training Is Going Ahead Of The 2017 Season
Puma Signs Seven Jamaicans From The MVP Track Club Among the seven are Olympic 400 bronze medalist Shericka Jackson and and World shot put bronze medalist O’Dayne Richards.

US News: USATF Pulls Out Of World U18 Champs

Team USA Pulls Out Of World Youth Championships In Kenya Due To Terrorism Concerns This was the last year for the event and several other countries including the UK and New Zealand have pulled out as well.
SPIKES: “Erik Sowinski Explains Why He Loves Life On The Road” While most US runners are racing and training in the US during indoor, Sowinski is racing on the European circuit and even did some training with Poland’s World silver medalist Adam Kszczot.
Good Runner’s Tribe Q&A With Molly Huddle All About Her Marathon Debut In NYC This Past Fall Huddle says the earliest she’d do another marathon is spring 2018, maybe London or Boston and that she’d like to run the marathon at Tokyo 2020.
Donald Trump Says He “Doesn’t Know” If The Immigration Ban Will Hurt The LA 2024 Bid

Upcoming: Amazing Women’s Field At Friday’s RAK Half

Friday: “Greatest Ever” RAK Half Marathon With A Slew Of Olympic Medalists And World Beaters Going Head-To-Head The women’s race will see Mary Keitany take on Tirunesh Dibaba, Jemima Sumgong and World Half champ Peres Jepchirchir while Stanley Biwott leads the men’s race against World XC silver medalist Bedan Karoki, Augustine Choge and Solomon Yego (58:44).
March 19: Olympic Marathon Champ Jemima Sumgong Will Clash With Vivian Cheruiyot And World Marathon Champ Mare Dibaba At The Lisbon Half Marathon The men’s race has three sub-60-minute runners, led by James Mwangi (59:07).
March 26: NCAA Champ Patrick Tiernan And Brett Robinson Lead Announced Aussie Men’s Squad For World XC
Not Upcoming: Kenya’s 2017 First Lady’s Half Marathon Cancelled Due To Ongoing Doctor Strike This was to be the 4th edition of the annual race.

Meet The Freshman Who Is Taking The NCAA By Storm

LRC Who Is Emmanuel Korir – The Freshman The Set A World’s Best In The 600m? “I Think He Could Be A World Champion In The 800” UTEP coach Paul Ereng knows a thing or two about 800-meter phenoms – he used to be one himself, winning Olympic gold in 1988 as freshman at the University of Virginia. Now Ereng’s got one on his hands in the form of Korir, the freshman who set a world indoor best of 1:14.97 for 600m last weekend (since surpassed), and he thinks greatness lies in Korir’s future.