March 17, 2017 | LetsRun.com

Friday afternoon action: Irish team tries to break Hoka One One NJ/NY’s 16:12 4 x mile WR – Comes up well short with 16:26

WTW

LRCThe LetsRun.com Awards: Who Were The Biggest Winners Of The Winter Season? + How Important Is It To Be A NCAA Star If You Want To Be An Olympian?

This week we take a look back at the whole 2016-2017 winter campaign and hand out awards. In the end, we bow down and praise Woody Kincaid, Brie Oakley, Mondo Duplantis, Laura Muir, Derek Thompson, Charlene Lipsey and Sam Chelanga. Then we analyze how important it is to be a total stud in college if you want to make the US Olympic team. All of that and much more.

The 2017 Boston Marathon Will Be Here Before You Know It And Galen Rupp Will Be There

Administrative News

Paralympic Organizers Say 4.1 Billion People Watched The Paralympics In 2016 Someone on the message board finds that figure hard to believe.
Good Idea: A Race Was Held In Belarus On International Women’s Day To Promote Awareness Of Domestic Violence
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Organizers Want Usain Bolt To Come Even Though He Won’t Be Competing

GB News

Jessica Ennis-Hill Announces She Is Pregnant With Her Second Child Ennis-Hill is enjoying retirement so far as she said, “When you’re training and competing all the time … you’re constantly working towards something, so you’re always a bit stressed and anxious, but I don’t have that now.”
Remaining Tickets On Sale For 2017 Worlds The sale includes a “Bolt ticket” which only costs $11.58 for a child.
*Athletics Weekly: “Laura Muir Sparks London 2017 Ticket Rush” Apparently the women’s 1,500 final session is the most “in-demand” ticket since they went back on sale. However, note the 1,500 is on the final closing day with both 4 x 4 relays.
GB Announce Full Strength Team For 2017 IAAF World Relays They are sending the “best possible” 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 squads after they received criticism in 2015 for sending weaker squads. *BBC

A Result We Missed: Christo Landry Ran 63:06 To Defeat Scott Smith And Meb Keflezighi At The Gasparilla Half In Tampa, FL Stephanie Bruce ran 72:52 to win the women’s race over former US marathon champ Esther Atkins.

Upcoming Road Action: NYC Half Is Sunday

RRW: United Airlines NYC Half Is A Marathon Of Sorts For Amy Cragg Cragg decided not to run a spring marathon with the hope that focusing on the half will help her improve in the full in the long term.
Molly Huddle And Stephen Sambu Return To Defend Their Titles At Sunday’s NYC Half
April 9: Course Record Holder And Defending Champ Lusapho April Returns To The Hannover Marathon He’ll face German record holder Arne Gabius while Germany’s (formerly Ethiopia’s) 2:25 woman Fate Tola leads the women’s race.
April 23: Shuko Genemo Will Return To Defend Her Vienna City Marathon Title She set her PR here last year with 2:24:31 and faces 2:23 woman Meseret Mengistu.
Pittsburgh Marathon To Host The 2018-19 USATF Half Marathon Championships

We’ve Lost One Of Our Own

LRCRest in Peace Our Friend - Running Legend Ed Whitlock Dead at the Age of 86

The sport lost one of its great ambassadors.

CBC: Ed Whitlock, 1st Septuagenarian To Run Marathon In Under 3 Hours, Dead At 86 Eric Gillis (10th in Rio Olympic marathon) says, “Ed inspired me to simplify my training with his no fuss, no frills, run long approach. Most of all though, I admired this calm, easy going, approach to life.”
Canadian Running World Reacts To The Death Of Ed Whitlock Sheila Reid says Ed ran faster than her in the 1,500 in 2005.
MB: Share Your Remembrances Here

Centro Sr.’s Book Gets Some Publicity

Matt Centro’s Sr Gets Q&A In Washington Post About His Biography And His Son’s Olympic 1,500m Gold

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 Review Legendary Athlete, Father And Coach Matt Centrowitz Just Published An Autobiography – We Suggest You Read It

Sad News

LRC RIP: Dr. Norbert Sander – 1974 New York City Marathon Champion and Long-Time Armory President CEO – Has Died Unexpectedly At Age 74

The 2017 NYC Half Is Sunday

LRC Women’s Preview: Molly Huddle Goes For The Three-Peat (And The American Record?) Against Amy Cragg & Desi Linden Can Huddle get the AR? Will Emily Sisson arrive as the next US distance star? We’ll find out on Sunday.

LRC Men’s Preview: Feyisa Lilesa Faces Callum Hawkins, Meb, Abdi, Chris Derrick And Diego Estrada Can Callum Hawkins keep his hot streak going or will the Flagstaff-based Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lelisa get the win? Who will be the top American? And what does Chris Derrick think of Nike’s new Zoom Vaporfly shoes – should they be banned?

Doping News With A Slightly Positive Angle To Them

Roger Bannister says track and field’s rampant doping being him “extreme sadness” – hopes USADA and WADA can kill it off so track can have a revival “It pains me a lot, but I still believe there is something very healthy underneath the whole of this activity and I long to see this brought into ascendancy again.”
Proof positive that not all dopers are bad people – particularly when they grow up in a state where everyone was doing it 1991 World 100 & 200 champ Katrin Krabbe now helping terminally ill in a hospice Her official title is “dying companion” which she rejects wholeheartedly, “Dying companion? I am a companion for living!”

Outdoor Track Is In Full Swing South Of The Equator

New Zealand Track Nationals Are This Weekend – Free Live Stream Starting At 4pm ET On Fri. & Sat. *Schedule, Start Lists, Results

400 Stars Share Their Secrets

Hosting News: Who Will Take The 2022 Commonwealth Games?

Post NCAA Sprint Analysis

LRC Post NCAA Sprint News: Edward Cheserek May Never Win The Bowerman Thanks To Christian Coleman, The Oregon Women Are Amazing, And Brother/Sister History In The Multis The future of US sprinting is all of a sudden very young.

More NCAA News: Interesting Read: Washington Post: “As NCAA Money Trickles Down, Even Tennis Coaches Are Out-Earning Professors” For example, the Kentucky basketball coach makes $8.6 million while even the coaches in non-money making sports are earning more than the school’s professors.
Post-NCAAs Update On 2017 Program Of The Year Standings The Oregon women are dominating while the Arkansas men are just ahead of the Ducks.
Ken Goe: “The College Regular Season Will Be MIA At Hayward Field” The $68 million renovation project for 2021 Worlds means that there might not be a regular season at Hayward for three years.
How Did The Brits Do At NCAAs? Kentucky’s Tim Duckworth broke the British heptathlon record while Josh Kerr‘s upset mile win over Edward Cheserek was obviously a highlight.
List Of All This Year’s DI All-Americans

Sprint Stuff

Sydney McLaughlin May Skip World Champs Even If She Makes The Team McLaughlin is signed with Kentucky and says she wants to “just get ready for college” and “enjoy myself.”
40-Year-Old Sprint Legend Kim Collins Will Retire After This Year’s World Champs Collins talks a bit about his 22-year career and you’ll never guess what the slowest 100m he ever ran was …………………………. 21-seconds.
No World Relays For Usain Bolt Next month’s World Relays won’t be part of Bolt’s swansong season and he reveals his last race on Jamaican soil will be at the Racers Grand Prix in June.
GB’s Richard Kilty Says He “Ran Like A Kid At School” To Win The Euro 60m Title Kilty gave some good advice on stopping to appreciate your successes: “If you say next, next, next, you’ll come to the end of the road and think: ‘I wish I had enjoyed that moment a little bit better.'”
Track-Stats.com Analyzes The Difference Between Top 60m And 100m Sprinters Could height and weight variations be what makes some sprinters 60m or 100m specialists?

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

2017 World XC: Only 9 Days To Go

Spain’s Adel Mechaal Isn’t Scared To Race The World’s Best – He’ll Be In Uganda For Next Weekend’s World XC Champs And this is after he won both the European 3,000 and Spanish XC crowns this winter.
Athletics Legend Tegla Loroupe Will Lead A Team Of Refugee Athletes At World XC She held a similar role for the refugees in Rio.

Deena Kastor Looks Back Fondly At Her World XC Experiences: “My best years as an athlete have been when I’ve incorporated XC into my season.” Kastor had many World XC appearances (including 7 consecutive), finishing second twice, once to Paula Radcliffe and the other to Ethiopia’s Worknesh Kidane.
Kampala, Uganda Set To Host The Largest World XC Meet In More Than A Decade It will be the biggest the meet has been since 2006, although the numbers get a boost from the new mixed relay race.
World 10K 8th Placer Timothy Toroitich And Former Olympic Marathon Champ Stephen Kiprotich Lead Uganda Team For Home World XC Champs
Australia’s First And Only Champ Benita Willis Shares Her World Cross Memories
Spain Name Team Of 24 Athletes For World XC
British Athletics Officially A Joke: UK Announces World XC “Squad” No senior men and only four senior women will make the trip to Uganda.
GB May Be Forfeiting World XC But They Announced Yesterday They Are Sending “A” Teams To World Relays

Will Sub-2 Go Down This Spring? We Say No!

Ed Caesar In Wired: “Nike’s Controversial New Shoes Made Me Run Faster” Caesar, the journalist following Nike’s sub-2 project and author of “Two Hours,” writes that Nike’s new controversial Vaporfly shoes have him “running more like a Kenyan than I ever had before.”
Team Of Researchers At The University Of Houston And University Of Colorado Claim The 2-Hour Marathon Can Be Broken Now Their mathematical “calculations” show that four and a half minutes could be shaved off the current record through lighter shoes, a collaborative drafting strategy and ideal course “like a paved loop through a pine forest.”

Not Your Everyday Running News

Seattle Female Runner Uses Moves From Self-Defense Class To Fight Off A Rapist The man, a registered sex offender, was hiding in a bathroom stall where she stopped during a run, but she was able to fight him off and lock him in the stall until police arrived.
*MB: Seattle rapist goes away DEVASTATED after attacking female marathoner
UK Transgender Runner And Former UK Mountain Running Champion Lauren Jeska Gets 18 Years In Prison For Attempted Murder Of UK Athletics Official Jeska had a dispute with UKA on her eligibility to compete as a female since she had not provided samples of her testosterone levels. She stabbed one UKA official in the head and neck and injured two others. *The Guardian Article *BBC
Video: Crazy 40+ MPH Wind Brings Runners To A Standstill In French Road Race Runners going over a bridge were hunched over as they tried to not be blown over by the strong gusts.

Crouser Family Throwing News

Olympian And Former NCAA Javelin Champ Sam Crouser Retires From The Sport Crouser’s dad, a former elite thrower himself, said his son never fully recovered from a college knee injury and “felt content to be done.”
Olympic Champ Ryan Crouser Will Headline A Deep Field For The Pre Classic Shot Put This May He’ll face Rio silver and bronze medalists Joe Kovacs and Tom Walsh and former World champ David Storl.

US Distance Interviews

Good Read: Q&A With Desiree Linden Who Says She’s Going For The Win In Boston “At a certain point, there’s a handful of us who have been saying that for years and it’s like, ‘Either deliver or shut up about it.’ … I’m going to be able to be more aggressive than ever before.”
Video Interview: Hassan Mead Speaks About The Reissued Travel Ban Somali-born Mead is upset about the ban, but doesn’t expect it to affect his own travel.
Podcast Q&A: Carrie Tollefson Interviews Kate Grace