LRC 2017 Prague Half Marathon Preview: Galen Rupp & Jordan Hasay Tune Up For Boston – Will Galen Rupp Break Ryan Hall’s 59:43 American Record? 9 days before Alberto Salazar won Boston, he set a 10,000 PR on the track. So we fully expect Rupp to set a half marathon PR tomorrow – will he get the AR as well?
*RRW Galen Rupp Downplays His AR Chances Before 2017 Prague Half Marathon – “I just have to get a race in.”
*MB: Prague 1/2 predictions? Rupp ftw? – Official 2017 Prague Half Live Discussion Thread
*MB: Jordan Hasay is running 100 miles a week just 2-3 weeks out from Boston
*IAAF Preview Violah Jepchumba will try to defend her title against African 10K bronze medalist Joyciline Jepkosgei while the men’s race also has road 10K WR holder Leonard Patrick Komon, Olympic 10K bronze medalist Tamirat Tola and 59:15 man Barselius Kipyego.
RRW: Americans Shannon Rowbury, Paul Chelimo To Take On International Rivals At Sunday’s Carlsbad 5,000 Rowbury faces Viola Lagat, former All-American Dominque Scott and Neely Gracey while the men’s race has 2012 Olympic silver medalist Dejen Gebremeskel, Will Leer, GB’s Andy Vernon and Aussie Collis Birmingham.
These Thieves Are Lucky She Didn’t Run Them Down: Former Steeplechase World Champ Milcah Chemos Robbed At World XC In Uganda She had her smart phone and cash stolen from her. She saw some boys running away, but the policemen she went to for help just laughed at her.
Russia’s Mariya Savinova Launches CAS Appeal Over Her Doping Ban And Stripped Medals Savinova was banned for 4 years and lost her 2012 Olympic, 2011 World and 2010 European golds.
May 13: Shanghai Diamond League Meet WIll Have 13 Olympic Champions Distance headliners include David Rudisha, Faith Kipyegon, Ruth Jebet and Almaz Ayana.
Even Sprinters Can’t Touch Her At Their Own Event: Caster Semenya Takes Down Former World 400m Champion Amantle Montsho In South African 300m Race Semenya ran 37.22 seconds to just miss beating the 17-year-old SA national record by .20. Montsho was .22 back in second while World 400H finalist Wendal Nel was third.
Good Read #1: Wayde Van Niekerk Has His Sights Set On A Sub-43 Second 400m “I’m not someone that necessary likes counting my chickens before they hatch, but at the age of 24, achieving a record that’s been there forever … you still feel that you’ve got so much more to prove.”
Historic Women’s Race: LRC Perfection: The Kenyan Women Perfect Score The World And Go 1-2-3-4-5-6 At 2017 World XC Champs The Kenyan women more than lived up to their favorite status as they put on a show for ages today at the 2017 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships. Team USA was 5th.
*Jr. Girls: Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey Leads Squad Over Kenya In Team Battle
MB: Official 2017 IAAF World XC Live Discussion Thread
4 X 2k: LRC Kenya, Thanks To Asbel Kiprop, Goes Wire-To-Wire To Win Inaugural Mixed Relay At 2017 World Cross-Country Champs Team USA was 6th as Paul Chelimo took Team USA from 9th to 6th.
Kenya’s John Lotiang (61:11) And Ethiopia’s Ayantu Gemechu (70:26) Win Warsaw Half Marathon
Wayde Van Niekerk’s Agent Pete Van Zyl Calls Athletics South Africa “A Bunch Of Clowns” For Scheduling Their National Champs The Same Weekend As The IAAF World Relays ASA said they expect the athletes chosen for World Relays to skip the national meet, passing up the opportunity for a great domestic meet as they have four sub-10 sprinters this year.
LRC 2017 World XC Press Conference Highlights: Olympic Champs Asbel Kiprop, Faith Kipyegon, Stephen Kiprotich And Seb Coe About XC’s Importance With XC Legend Paul Tergat The stars were out in full force with Kiprop, Kipyegon, Kiprotich, Coe and Tergat.
LRC Her Dreams Became Reality: Canadian Champion Sasha Gollish Will Run World XC After An 8-Year Break From The Sport Gollish quit the sport as a 20-year-old but recommitted herself at age 32 in 2014 and has improved rapidly since, winning the Canadian and NACAC XC titles this winter. She’ll lead Team Canada on Sunday.
LRC Could We See Asbel Kiprop Vs. Genzebe Dibaba On Sunday? Everything You Need To Know About The New 4 X 2K Relay At World XC The IAAF has spiced things up with the 1st-ever mixed gender relay where it’s up to the teams to decide when to run each gender. Former World Jr. XC champ Asbel Kiprop is a fan as he’s back at the champs for the 1st time since 2007.
Podcast Interview With Ryan Hill Ahead Of The 2017 Outdoor Season
LRC Photos Of Eliud Kipchoge Working Out In Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite Shoes On our way to Uganda for the World XC champs, we made a detour to spend the day with the world’s greatest marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge.
May 5: Elaine Thompson Vs. Dafne Schippers Vs. Veronica Campbell-Brown Will Be One Of The Meet Highlights At This Year’s Doha Diamond League Meet Other meet highlights will include LaShawn Merritt vs. Kirani James at 400, Olympic champ Ekaterini Stefanidi vs. Sandi Morris in the PV and Mutaz Barshim vs. Erik Kynard in the HJ.
Injured Dennis Kimetto Not Ready To Call It A Career Yet Kimetto withdrew from this year’s Boston Marathon with injury and hasn’t raced since 2015 Worlds, but says, “I am not giving up. I am not taking it easy … One step back, two steps in front.”
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
Recommended Reads: Lengthy 3-Part Blog Series By Japanese Citizen Runner Yuki Kawauchi In the first part, Kawauchi talks about the “miracle in Fukuoka” where despite a sprained ankle, he fought through to finish 3rd (top Japanese man) and make the 2017 World team.
Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor Breaks Collegiate Decathlon Record With A Score Of 8472 Points He broke Trey Hardee‘s mark from 2006 by 7-points. Afterwards Victor said, “I don’t think my record will last as long as Trey’s did. I think it will only last a few months, until I do my next one.”
Paul Tergat Enters Running To Replace Kip Keino As NOCK Chair The candidates aren’t finalized, but Keino is expected to attempt to seek another term although new rules in the NOCK constitution prohibit it.
Turkish Distance Runners Elvan Abeylegesse And Gamze Bulut Officially Sanctioned By The IAAF These doping positives were announced earlier, but now that the sanctions are official that means Shalane Flanagan (2008 Olympics) and Kara Goucher (2007 Worlds) will get silver medal upgrades from Abeylegesse and Bulut will lose her 2012 Olympic silver.
Good Read: Marathoner Teal Burrell Credits Giving Up TV For A Year With Helping Her To Qualify For The Olympic Marathon Trials In addition to dropping her PR by 10 minutes to 2:42:13, Burrell also used her year away from the boob tube to finish her PhD and read 35 books.
May 5: Hot Races Set For Doha With Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba And Margaret Wambui Re-Matching Over 800m The women’s steeple will be stacked as well with all of the top 6 from Rio, led by Olympic Champ Ruth Jebet, Hyvin Kiyeng and Emma Coburn.
NXN Champ Brie Oakley Wins In Photo Finish With Allie Schadler In Girls Mile At Chandler Rotary Invitational Oakley was given the win in 4:46.97 to Schadler’s 4:46.98, but at the 1600m split, Schadler was actually winning 4:45.39 to 4:46.43.Checking In With Andre De Grasse, Who Answers Questions On His “Bromance” With Usain Bolt De Grasse says “there isn’t really a bromance,” but Bolt was impressed when De Grasse tried to challenge him in Rio.
Oklahoma High School State High Jump Record Goes Down As Vernon Turner Clears 7-5 For To Put Himself #6 All-Time (Includes video.)
LRC Video Tour Of 2017 World Cross-Country Course And Its PIT With Photos Wimps should stay home as this pit has the “PIT,” two steep hills, one with a 90-degree turn, is almost never straight. Repeat that 5 times.
LRC Women’s Preview: A Comically Loaded Kenyan Team Should Roll, Can Alice Aprot Win Worlds Like Her Brother? The Kenyan team is loaded and includes 1,500m world champ Faith Kipyegon.
LRC The World’s Greatest Foot Race – 2017 World XC Champs Senior Men’s Preview: Can Geoffrey Kamworor Lead Kenya To Team Gold? Can The Americans Medal? Geoffrey Kamworor is looking to become the 1st man since 2006 to successfully defend his world cross-country crown. Can he do it? If he falters, who is likely to win? Can the Americans possibly pick up their first individual medal since Alberto Salazar‘s silver in 1982? They’ve certainly got a good chance, particularly if Olympic 5,000 silver medalist Paul Chelimo, who is in Uganda ready to race the 10k (but currently only on the 4 x 2k relay), somehow ends up running.
LRC U.S. Champ Leonard Korir Says The American Men Can Win Team Gold At World XC The US men have never won team gold.
MB: Sad News: Gabe Grunewald fighting cancer once more She posted the following on Instagram: “The sun is shining on us, even on our darkest days. I am so done with cancer, but unfortunately it is not done with me. Let my faith be bigger than my fear.”
Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer And Riker Hylton Both Deny Evading Or Refusing Drug Tests
LRC WTW: Noah Droddy And Emily Sisson Rock NYC, The Slow Twins Rise Up, Ed Whitlock Dies And The US Olympians Doing Boston And A Disgraceful Hitler Analogy We break down some great half marathon action from across the globe, wonder when some mid-20s Americans will make their marathon debuts and say goodbye to a legend.
MB: Sub-4 High Schooler Michael Slagowski Leaves Penn State For the time being Slagowski is going back home to work with his high school coach.
LRC RIP: Dr. Norbert Sander – 1974 New York City Marathon Champion And Long-Time Armory President CEO – Has Died Unexpectedly At Age 74
April 9: Deep Field Set For UAE Healthy Kidney 10K As Stephen Sambu Faces Sam Chelanga And 2012 5,000 Olympic Bronze Medalist Thomas Longosiwa On the women’s side, two-time Frankfurt Marathon champ Mamitu Daska faces off against 31:55 woman Veronicah Nyaruai.
Former IOC Marketing Director Says Olympic Bidding Process Has Become “Toxic” He credits social media with discouraging cities from bidding: “Politicians are being faced with having to justify whether it’s a good idea or not and most politicians, most sports bodies, have done a very poor job at explaining the rationale.”
Kenyan Olympic Committee Finally Passes Constitutional Changes To Avoid IOC Suspension Under the new rules, none of the current committee members have voting power at elections and Kip Keino is apparently actually ineligible for re-election.
Epic Men’s Race: LRC Geoffrey Kamworor Defends His World Cross-Country Crown And Denies Host Uganda A Fairy Tale Ending Kamworor cemented his status as the biggest young talent in the sport by coming from 12 seconds down on the final lap to overcome a heroic effort by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei. Team USA went for it big time but came up short of a medal.
Jr. Boys: Dreams Become Reality: Jacob Kiplimo – The Winner Of The U20 Race – Is A Name You May Want To Remember The guy who turned heads by running 27:26 at the reported age of 15 last summer sent the home crowd into a frenzy as he won Uganda’s first-ever World XC gold. Trust us, the crowd went nuts.
Oregon Coach Robert Johnson Says The Ducks Won’t Focus On The Triple Crown “It’s already been stated the white elephant has been taken out of the room. And now it’s just back to business as usual …”
Chris Zablocki (2:21:48) And Laura Manninen (2:42:30) Break World Indoor Marathon Records At The Armory NYC Marathon They each bagged $6,000 for winning the race and breaking the record.
Common Sense Wins: Frank Fredericks Steps Aside From IAAF While Being Investigated Over Olympic Bid BribesLRC Video Tour Of 2017 World Cross-Country Course And Its PIT With Photos Wimps should stay home as this pit has the “PIT,” two steep hills, one with a 90-degree turn, is almost never straight. Repeat that 5 times.
LRC Women’s Preview: A Comically Loaded Kenyan Team Should Roll, Can Alice Aprot Win Worlds Like Her Brother? The Kenyan team is loaded and includes 1,500m world champ Faith Kipyegon.
LRC The World’s Greatest Foot Race – 2017 World XC Champs Senior Men’s Preview: Can Geoffrey Kamworor Lead Kenya To Team Gold? Can The Americans Medal? Geoffrey Kamworor is looking to become the 1st man since 2006 to successfully defend his world cross-country crown. Can he do it? If he falters, who is likely to win? Can the Americans possibly pick up their first individual medal since Alberto Salazar‘s silver in 1982? They’ve certainly got a good chance, particularly if Olympic 5,000 silver medalist Paul Chelimo, who is in Uganda ready to race the 10k (but currently only on the 4 x 2k relay), somehow ends up running.
LRC U.S. Champ Leonard Korir Says The American Men Can Win Team Gold At World XC The US men have never won team gold.
Olympic Discus Champ Christoph Harting Shares His Tips For Track And Life Harting says he stays off social media completely. “There is a whole world do be discovered outside of your smartphone or computer. When I was young we got to know each other by talking to each other in person.”
LRC Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Bonus For Pros By 35% The pro runners take a cut at the expense of wheelchair racers and charity. Discuss: Abbott World Marathon Majors Reduces Prize Structure to Pro Runners by 35%
Jamaica’s Former World 400H Silver Medlalist Kaliese Spencer And World Champs Relay Bronze Medalist Riker Hylton Charged With Doping Violations They are both accused of “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.” Hylton claims he left the stadium before anyone told him he was supposed to be tested.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.
LetsRun.com Founders Named as Two of “The 50 Most Influential People in Running”
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American Strong: The Untold Story of How American Teamwork Helped Meb Keflezighi Win Boston
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