2017 Boston Marathon Is Monday

American Women’s Preview: LRC Can Desi Linden End The U.S. Major Drought? How Will Jordan Hasay Fare In Her Debut? The LRC staff is divided on who is America’s biggest hope on Monday – Hasay or Linden.
*MB: Debate: Who will be the top American woman at the 2017 Boston Marathon – Jordan Hasay or Desi Linden?

Full Women’s Preview: LRC Kenyan Stud Gladys Cherono Leads A Field That Includes Former Boston Champs Atsede Baysa, Caroline Rotich & Buzunesh Deba Gladys Cherono is one of women’s running’s biggest talents and appears to be the woman to beat but Edna Kiplagat and Atsede Baysa have 500,000 reasons ($$$) to pull off the upset.

LRC Why Galen Rupp Will (& Won’t) Win The 2017 Boston Marathon An American-born male hasn’t won in Boston since 1983. A healthy Galen Rupp would have a great shot at changing that. The question is – is he healthy enough to win on Monday?

Full Men’s Preview: LRC Lemi Berhanu Hayle Goes For The Repeat Against A Field That Contains 5 Sub-2:05 Guys We break down the elite men’s field that will challenge US Olympians Galen Rupp, Jared Ward and Meb Keflezighi in Boston on Monday.

American Men’s Preview: LRC Olympians Galen Rupp, Meb Keflezighi, Jared Ward & Abdi Abdirahman Headline A Stacked American Field

LRC Six Years After Seeing The First Atomic Bomb Detonate In Hiroshima, Shigeki Tanaka Became The First Japanese To Win The Boston Marathon And soon the Japanese were a marathoning power. Read all about it.

• Good Read: Jordan Hasay Shares Some Thoughts Before Her Marathon Debut Hasay says her favorite marathon workout is a 20-mile long run and her least favorite is a 800/300 workout at faster than race pace which always feel “absolutely horrible.”
• DyeStat Q&A: Catching Up With Boston-Bound Jared Ward Ward says he isn’t in quite as good shape as when he got 6th in Rio, but says his long runs “have been as good as they have ever been.”
• Q&A With Longtime Boston Marathon RD Dave McGillivray As He Prepares To Run His 30th “Solothon” Every year long after the race is over, McGillivray runs the Boston course alone in the dark. He says he won’t run the regular race again until he retires from directing.
• Runner’s World Lists Their “12 Most Important Boston Marathons” A look back at some of the more significant moments in Boston history.
• Details From FBI Interview With Deceased Boston Bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev Revealed The FBI interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 two years before the Boston bombing, but said they saw no evidence of terrorism.
• Boston Marathon Weather Forecast Calling For Temps Starting In The Low 50s With Partial Sunshine

Two Great Athletes Are Retiring; Another Is Just Getting Going

• 29-Year-Old US 800 Star And Expectant Mother Molly Ludlow Announces Her Retirement From Track And Field Ludlow had an impressive career which included 1:57.68 PB (#7 all-time US) and two heartbreaking 4th place finishes at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials.
  *MB: Molly Ludlow to retire!
• 33-Year-Old Bershawn “Batman” Jackson Announces His Pending Retirement Following The 2017 Season The former Olympic bronze medalist and four-time World champ will kick off his last season at the Drake Relays on April 29th.
• MB: NAU Alum And 6-Time All-American Futsum Zienasellassie Joins NAZ Elite

Tracktown Summer Series Is Back For Year #2

LRC TrackTown Summer Series 2.0 To Have Allyson Felix, Bernard Lagat, Nick Symmonds And Sanya Richards-Ross As GMs, Plus Why Nick Symmonds’ Final Season May Be A Short One An improved TrackTown Summer Series is back for year #2. We give you the details, plus the news that Nick Symmonds’ career may not make it into July.

Will Roger Bannister Have To Share His Anniversary With Eliud Kipchoge?

Nike Sub-2 Hour Attempt Set For The First Weekend Of May The attempt will go down at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza F1 track in Italy on either May 6, 7, or 8 depending on weather. The date is very appropriate as May 6th is the 63rd anniversary of Roger Bannister‘s first sub-4 minute mile.

Gender News

• Recommended Read: Runner’s World: Who Was That Guy Who Attacked Kathrine Switzer During The Boston Marathon 50 Years Ago? An interesting/odd fact: RD Jock Semple actually had no problem with Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon, running in the race because she did it unofficially as a bandit. He chased Switzer to try and take away her bib number.
• Caitlyn Jenner Reveals She Has Undergone Gender Reassignment Surgery She says in her book, “I just want to have all the right parts. I am also tired of tucking the damn thing in all the time.” *Discuss
• Eye For An Eye? Des Moines Women’s Half Marathon Charging Men 23% Higher Registration Fee The race website says it is “to reflect the current wage inequality between men and women.”
  *MB: Iowa Half-Marathon charges men 23% more than women

US Action *All NCAA Results

• NYC: Sam Chelanga Just Edges Out Former Olympic Bronze Medalist Thomas Longosiwa To Win UAE Healthy Kidney 10K Chelanga and Longosiwa finished with identical times of 28:21 while Stephen Sambu was 10 seconds back in 3rd. Mamitu Daska won the women’s race in 31:37 over Magdalyne Masai (31:44)
• Sun Angel Classic: MB: Donovan Brazier Wins Sun Angel Classic 800 In 1:44.63
  *Matt Centrowitz Pulled Out With Strained Hamstring Alberto Salazar said “it was just a little tweak,” but he didn’t want Centro to risk racing on it so he did a workout instead.
  *Sun Angel Classic Results BYU’s Shea Collinsworth ran 2:01.51 to beat out former world indoor champ Chanelle Price. Sprint action included wins from Phyllis Francis in the 400 (51.63) and GB’s Chijindu Ujah in the 200 (20.39).
  *Gleb Dudarev Shatters 11-Year-Old Kansas Hammer Throw Record With 72.69m
  *Garrett Starkey Highlights ASU Performances With #2 In School History 5.50m Pole Vault Clearance
• The Big Meet: Cal Men, Stanford Women Win The Big Meet Grant Fisher (3:46) and Elise Cranny (4:21) swept the 1,500s for Stanford and Cranny also took the 800 in 2:05. *Results
  *MB: Video: Grant Fisher 1500m at 123rd Big Meet
• UCLA: Results: Rafer Johnson / Jackie Joyner Kersee Invitational Invy At UCLA Interesting results included American Jr. record holder Candace Hill beating out Olympic LJ champ Brittney Reese in the 100m with 11.29. Reese also took the 200 in 22.68.
• Olympic HJ Champ Derek Drouin Sets Decathlon HJ World Record With 2.28m Drouin finished 4th in his first decathlon since 2010 at the Sam Adams Invy.
• Tennessee Relays: *Results *Double NCAA Indoor Champ Christian Coleman Runs First Open 100m Of The Season In 10.02 To Win Tennessee Relays
  *Brian Williams Breaks Ole Miss Discus Record (61.13m)

Doping News

• Paula Radcliffe Advocates For Making Doping A Criminal Offense In addition to being a bigger deterrent, it would make it easier to catch dopers as police can conduct searches.
• Jemimah Sumgong Getting Caught Gives Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Hope “Looking back at the Olympics, you can pretty much put yourself up one spot. It puts you in a realistic position for doing something better the next time in Tokyo.”
• Polish Canoeist Considering Legal Action Against The IOC For Banning Him For Clenbuterol Positive At 2008 Olympics Adam Seroczyński is angry that he got a 2-year ban while Jamaican sprinters were given a free pass.
  *ARD’s Hajo Seppelt Says The IOC Never Responded To A Request From The Polish Conoe Federation To Retest Seroczynski’s Sample
• Jemima Sumgong’s Drug Bust Will Delay The Naming Of The WMM Series Winner, Which Is Set To Close For This Cycle At Boston Sumgong leads the point standing so they won’t be able to name a winner until her doping case is final.
• Tennis Federation (ITF) President David Haggerty Refuses To Condemn Tournaments’ Decision To Let Maria Sharapova Compete Many players are upset that she’s been given wildcard entries so she can compete immediately after her ban without having to qualify.

Ultra: Two Big 100Ks In The Books

• Results: Jesse Davis And Caroline Boller Win USATF 100K Champs
• MB: Jim Walmsley wins the 2017 Gorge Waterfalls 100k in 8:20:29.

Ultra: Two Big 100Ks In The Books

• Results: Jesse Davis And Caroline Boller Win USATF 100K Champs
• MB: Jim Walmsley wins the 2017 Gorge Waterfalls 100k in 8:20:29.

This Weekend’s Action – Paris & Rotterdam Marathons Are Taking Place *All NCAA Results 

• IAAF Rotterdam Preview: 2017 Rotterdam Marathon Men’s Field Full Of Winners The race director wanted a field full of guys who recently won races as he has 8 of them plus 2017 NYC runner-up Lucas Rotich. Steeple star Paul Kipsiele Koech will make his debut at age 35.
• Paris Is Sunday: 2017 Paris Marathon Elite Field *IAAF Preview *Defending Champ Visiline Jepkesho Hoping To Repeat In Paris
• Hanover Marathon Preview: Frankfurt marathon expected to feature conservative 65 flat first half German NR holder Arne Gabius is finally healthy and hoping to finish his first marathon since 2015. Germany’s Fate Tola intends to attack the course record of 2:27:07 in the women’s race.
• Powell, Gatlin, Collins For This Weekend’s Grenada Invitational – Men’s 100m Is Loaded VCB is also in the meet as is Kirani James.

Coming in Two Weeks Bekele is confident in his fitness as London approaches, “I know what I need to do to win.”

Early May: Japan names young team for 2017 World Relays None of the guys on the 4 x 100 team that won Olympic silver last year are on the team as the oldest member is just 20.
*Christophe Lemaitre leads France’s team

Other Doping News

• The Establishment Of The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) Is A “Momentous” Move For Athletics And Could Form A Template For Other Sports To Follow We certainly agree that track and field deserves credit for being the only sport that really somewhat tries to bust its biggest stars.
• Michael Johnson Says He’s Always Viewed Athletics As A Leader On The Anti-Doping Front We actually agree and that’s a scary thought. It’s really just a huge indictment of the NFL, NBA, MLB and soccer.
• Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Is Upset IOC Didn’t Look Into 2008 Olympic Clenbuterol Positives “They don’t really want to find out the truth. That’s when we’ve (got) a problem, when organisations like the IOC don’t want to know,” she says. The IOC says the amounts were very low and likely due to beet contamination.

Long-D News

• Recommended Read: RRW: Boston By Meb – In His Own Words As Meb Keflezighi prepares to race his final Boston Marathon, he looks back and shares some of his favorite memories from Boston.
• SI.com: Q&A With Joyciline Jepkosgei’s Husband And Coach Nicholas Koech, Who Gives An Inside Look At The Training She Did Leading Up To Her Half Marathon WR Jepkosgei is only 23 years old and doesn’t plan on making a rush to the marathon like many other African distance runners as Koech says her debut will not be for “several years.”
  *IAAF Profile: Jepkosgei Front Running Her Way Into The Record Books Jepkosgei was inspired to take up running herself when watching her husband compete at the 2013 Kenyan Championships.
• Q&A With 2:11 Marathoner Nick Arciniaga On Making The Transition To Ultra/Trail Racing Arciniaga says he isn’t done with the roads, but will make his ultra debut at the North Face 50-mile this December. Long term, he wants to go after the 50K WR and could see himself “running until I’m 90 or whatever.”
  *MB: Uh Oh…Arciniaga (2:11 Mar.) moving to trails
• Racewalkers Petition IAAF To Keep 50K Event In The Olympics There is a push from the IOC to cut the event since there is no women’s equivalent and the IAAF is discussing moving to a half marathon walk rather than a 20K and 50K.