The 2017 Drake Relays *Results / Schedule / Start Lists *TV & Streaming (NBCSN Sat. 3 -5pm ET)

• Good Read: The Des Moines Register: “Jenny Simpson Holds Drake Relays Close” Simpson has actually never lost at Drake. She’ll be going for her fifth Relays title in the 1,500 this weekened against a deep American field including Brenda Martinez, Kate Grace and Shelby Houlihan.
• First-Year Director And Former Pro Miler Blake Boldon Is Living His Dream; Wants Drake To “Have An Impact On Every Single Iowan’s Life” Boldon: “Track and field is a sport where it’s got a place for everybody. If you’re big and strong you throw, if you run fast, you’re a sprinter, if you jump, you jump and if you can’t do any of those, they put you in distance.”
• USATF Preview: Over 70 Olympians Set To Face Off At The Drake Relays
• Drake Relays Rio Olympic Rematch Fields These are the events to watch at Drake.

The 2017 Penn Relays Start Thursday *Results / Schedule / Start Lists *TV & Streaming (NBCSN Fri. And Sat.)

• 10 College Story Lines To Follow At Penn Relays The women’s 4 x 1,500 looks to be a great showdown between Villanova, Oregon and Stanford.
• Penn Relays DMR Preview This writer is disappointed that UTEP isn’t sending a team to mix it up with Oregon, Penn State and Georgetown.
• MB: Penn Relays And FloTrack Call Each Other Out On Twitter
  *Edward Cheserek Out Of Penn Relays, Will Focus On Running Very Fast In The Payton Jordan 5,000 Next Week Could Cheserek take down Henry Rono‘s official collegiate record?
  *UO Coach Robert Johnson Says They Are “Playing Favorites” With Cheserek This Year They’re apparently letting him call the shots on his racing schedule.
• Good Read: A Look Back At The Thrilling Battle Between US And Jamaica In The 2007 Penn Relays Boys 4 X 400 The race culminated with future US Olympian Bryshon Nellum anchoring Long Beach Poly HS to the win over the Yohan Blake-anchored St. Jago. Ten years later, it remains the last time a US team won the boys 4 x 400.
• USATF Announce Penn Relay Pools Either Cas Loxsom or Donovan Brazier will run the 800 leg of the SMR.
• Penn Relays High School Relays Preview

Coaches Of Winning Athletes At 2017 Worlds Will Also Get Medals Now coaches can really live vicariously through their athletes.

Women’s Running Insights

• Interesting Read: All-Time Irish Great And Former World 5,000m Champ Sonia O’Sullivan Tells Women Motherhood Is NO Reason To Give Up Sport O’Sullivan talks about her experience coming back from pregnancy to win Olympic silver one year after giving birth and points out that four of the top five women at London were mothers.
• Runner’s World: “5 Things Female Runners Should Know About Their Private Parts”
  *MB: Females get angry over RW Article

Week That Was

WTW 2017 London Was The Fastest Marathon In History, A Mother Of 7 Runs 2:24 In The Marathon, Clayton Murphy Didn’t Run As Slow As People Said He Did, And Might An NCAA Frosh Be The Greatest 400/800 Guy In History?  We break down the past week in running that saw the Virgin London Marathon and the World Relays.

The World Marathon Majors Wants To Expand

LRC Abbott World Marathon Majors Looking To Expand – Signs Deal With Chinese Company To Find Races In Asia And Africa
*MB: World Marathon Majors looking to expand – How many is too many? What criteria should they use? 

More Post-London Marathon News

• Nike Says That Kenenisa Bekele Was Not Wearing Their “Breaking2 Shoes” Bekele was using the standard Zoom Vaporfly 4% shoes, not the “Vaporfly Elite” that are only for the Breaking2 athletes.
• Good Read: Toni Reavis Shares His Thoughts On The London Marathon From “A Viewer’s Perspective” Reavis tries to put Mary Keitany‘s performance in perspective relative to Paula Radcliffe‘s runs and talks about the difference between a pacer and an “escort.”
• London And Boston Running Form Analysis: How Kenenisa Bekele’s Form Hinted That It Wasn’t Going To Be His Winning Day Also form analysis of Mary Keitany, Daniel Wanjiru and the runners in Boston, including Galen Rupp and Jordan Hasay.
  *MB: Kenenisa BEKELE has become a heel striker — WTF?!?
• London Marathon Still Pursuing Russian Doper Liliya Shobukhova For Return Of Prize Money And Appearance Fees They launched legal action against her, but there is no guarantee they’ll actually recover any money.
• Club Runner Josh Griffiths, Who Shocked By Making GB’s World Team Without Even An Elite Bib, Is Self Coached He plans to stay that way through Worlds.
  *Paula Radcliffe Urges Griffiths Not To Rush To Get A Coach
• The British Media Is In Love With This Guy Who Stopped To Help Another Guy Across The London Finish Line Mary Keitany ran 2:17:01, but this journalist writes that the story of these 2:50+ marathoners “has become the defining image of the 2017 London Marathon.” *2nd Article *3rd Article *4th Article *5th Article
  *MB: The heartwarming moment a runner gets a competitor DQed

 2017 Sunday World Relays *Results 

MB: Official 2017 World Relays Live Discussion Thread

LRC Clayton Murphy Anchors US To 4 X 800 Gold And Reaffirms His Status As The Current World #1 David Rudisha, are you training hard? Clayton Murphy is in supreme form right now.
*US Men Talk After Race

LRC Sunday Sprint Recap US Women Fall In 4 X 100, Canada And De Grasse Win 4 X 200, Merritt Wins Exciting 4 X 400, Bahamas Brings Down House In Mixed Relays Scroll down for Saturday recap.

AFP Sunday Recap

Breaking Barriers

Pole Vault World Champion Shawn Barber Announces He Is Gay Shawn becomes one of the more prominent male gay athletes in the world.

The 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon LIVED UP TO THE HYPE!!!!! *Tracking And Live Results

MB: Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread

OMG LRC Mary Keitany Survives Nearly Suicidal First Half And Blitzes A 2:17:01 To Take Down Paula Radcliffe’s Women’s-Only World Record And Win 2017 London Marathon Running history was made as Mary Keitany ran the fastest marathon ever in an women’s-only race and she did so in mind-boggling fashion as she ran the first half more than a minute faster than any woman in history. Tirunesh Dibaba had a historic run as well, putting herself third on the all-time list in 2:17:56. On the American front, Laura Thweatt had a super impressive run, taking almost 3 minutes off her PR to finish sixth in 2:25:38.
*Mary Keitany Won More Than $300,000 Today $55,000 for the win, $100,000 for sub-2:18, $25,000 for the course record and $125,000 for the world record.

• Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread.
• Mary Keitany Sets The Women’s Clean WR!!! 2:16:59
• With even pacing, John Kellogg thinks Mary Keitany could have run 2:15 and change today
• Laura Thweatt 2:25:38 in London, #7 all-time US
• WEJO – PAULA CLAIMS SHE DIDN’T HAVE “PACERS”

What A Battle LRC After An Epic Battle, Daniel Wanjiru Outduels Kenenisa Bekele To Win The 2017 London Marathon A great back-and-forth between Kenya’s Daniel Wanjiru and all-time great Kenenisa Bekele saw Wanjiru win a close race in 2:05:48 as he held off a late charge by Bekele.

• Official 2017 London Marathon Live Discussion Thread.
• KENENISA MF BEKELE
• Bekele has a special watch for London, isn’t that unfair?

Outside Coverage

• Club Runner Without Elite Bib, 23-Year-Old Josh Griffiths, Is Top British Finisher In 2:14:49 He was hoping to hit the Commonwealth Games standard of 2:16:00 but now will be going to Worlds. *Video Of Griffiths’ Finish
• Brit Finishes 100th Marathon In 100 Days In London
• David Weir, Who Hadn’t Won In London Since 2012, Banishes Rio Demons To Win Record 7th London Marathon He revealed post-race he’s been suffering from depression for the last 7 months.

Full Coverage In Our 2017 London Marathon Special Section

Sub-2 Hour News

• The Guardian: Is Nike’s Sub-2 Hour Marathon Attempt Just A Clever Marketing Stunt? Most doubt Eliud Kipchoge will actually break 2 hours, but even if he doesn’t, the hype is still a win for Nike.
• The Guardian: Will Science Help Eliud Kipchoge Run A 2-Hour Marathon? There is talk of Nike’s 4% Vaporflys, some comments from Ross Tucker and we liked the quote from World Half silver medalist and 59:10 man Bedan Karoki: “For me breaking two hours is not possible. Running a half marathon in under an hour is hard enough – after I do it I am sick – so to run the same again for me is much too difficult.”

Previous World Relays News

• Recommended Read A Look At 5 Memorable European Relays (With Video) The videos are great as they include Christine Arron‘s unofficial 9.66 relay from 1998 and a clip of Lillian Board, who tragically died of cancer at age 22 in 1970.
• Justin Gatlin Set To Shine In Usain Bolt’s Absence At World Relays Gatlin led Team USA to the win over Jamaica at the last World Relays in 2015.
• New Relay Coach Orin Richburg Hoping To Change USA Men’s 4 X 100 Trend Of DNFs And DQs Even if he fails, at least he isn’t a past doper.
• Carl Lewis Talks Relays: “The Key Is Simplicity” Lewis doesn’t come out and bash Dennis Mitchell (although he has before), but says he is more hopeful now that Orin Richburg is at the helm. “It’s great to have a coach now who understands a successful system, so that’s exciting for me to see.”
• Andre De Grasse Is Thrilled To Be At World Relays And Says Key To Success Is Patience And Trust
• Olympic Sprint Heroine Elaine Thompson Is Excited For Her 1st World Relays
• Kenyan Women Say They Will Win 4 X 800 We don’t think so.
• Seb Coe Speaks: “There’s Something We Can All Learn From Relays” Did you know Coe actually anchored GB’s 4 x 400 squad a couple of times at the championship level?

Brianna Rollins Gets Suspended

LRC Brianna Rollins, Olympic 100 Hurdles Champ, Is Banned For 1 Year For Not Being Available For Three Drug Tests Utterly idiotic and avoidable. She took the blame but her agency and USATF were noted in the arbitrators decision.
Discuss:  Olympic 100H Champ Brianna Rollins Gets 12-Month Ban For 3 Whereabouts Violations 

Sprint Stuff

• Bahamas’ 2012 Olympic 4 X 400 Gold Medalist Chris Brown Shares His Tips For Sport And Life “Each race I say to myself ‘I have come too far now to give up or throw in the towel.’ I try to treat every competition like it is my last.”
• One We Missed: Teenagers Liv Ryan And Matthew Rizzo Win Famous Stawell Gift Race In Australia The pair took home $40,000 in prize money for winning the historic race which gives athletes a handicap start based on previous performances.
• 2012 Olympic 100H Champ Sally Pearson Talks About The Challenge Of Making The Decision To Be Self-Coached She says she knows it was the right decision as she coached herself back from her latest injury to win the Australian Championships in April.
• 17-Year-Old Gong Luying Stars At Chinese Under-18 Championships Taking LJ Gold, 100m Silver And 4 X 100 Silver

RIP

NJ Running Legend And Two-Time NYC Marathon Champ Tom Fleming Dies While Coaching HS Track Meet The 2:12 marathoner won the NYC Marathon in 1973 and 1975 and finished second in Boston twice.
*MB: RIP: Tom Fleming -1973 and 1975 NYC Marathon champ – has passed away