September 09, 2017 Homepage Archive

The World’s First Sub-30k On The Roads By A Woman

LRC Joyciline Jepkosgei Smashes 10k Road World Record – Becomes First Woman To Break 30 On The Roads With A Sensational 29:43 The world half marathon record holder wasted no time getting after it as she broke the 5k road WR with a 14:33 split.
*MB: Official 2017 Birrell 10k Dicussion Thread – Women’s Sub-30 WR attempt

More Road News

Ben Blankenship (4:07) And Heather Kampf (4:42) Win Close Races At The Minnesota Mile Blankenship won over Trevor Dunbar, Riley Masters and Patrick Casey, who all were clocked at 4:08 while Kampf beat Kenya’s Monicah Ngige by less than a second. *Results
October 22:Dickson Chumba Going For The Canadian All Comers’ Record At The Toronto Waterfront Marathon Chumba’s PR is 2:04:32 and the Canadian soil record is 2:06:54. Besides the clock, Chumba will have his hands full with defending champion Philemon Rono and Ethiopians Solomon Deksisa (2:06:22) and Endeshaw Negesse (2:04:52).
Sunday:Georgina Rono (2:21) And Evans Sambu (2:10) Will Defend Their Titles At The Taiyuan Marathon In China
Sunday:Kenyan Hilary Maiyo (62:41) Will Defend His Title At The Minsk HalfChristine Moraa Oiga (71:50) leads the women’s race.

Sporting History

Good Read:Extensive Q&A With 1976/1980 British Olympic Steeplechaser Tony Staynings Staynings talks about being an 8-time All-American at Western Kentucky University, compares the ’76 Games with the boycotted ones in ’80 and tells a funny story about how he started running.
Book Review:Browning Ross: The Father Of American Distance Running, By Jack Heath
All-Time Great Carl Lewis To Receive USATF Legend Award
Lisa Rainsberger, The Last American Woman To Win The Boston Marathon, To Be Inducted Into The Michigan Hall Of Fame
UK Athletics To Mark Black History Month With Special Photograph Exhibit

Nick Willis Shares His Wisdom

LRC Nick Willis Q&A, Part II: The Importance Of Moderation, Taoufik Makhloufi’s Absence & Asbel Kiprop’s 5K Potential Willis reveals how he learned his come-from-behind strategy at the 2002 World Juniors in Jamaica – “conserve your energy throughout a race as much as possible and then you let rip on the last lap.”
*MB: Nick Willis shares his wisdom with LetsRun.com

LRC Nick Willis Q&A, Part I: His Abbreviated Buildup For Worlds, The Key To His Longevity, And The Brilliance Of Jenny Simpson

Horizontal Jumping News

Christian Taylor Is Taking A Break From The TJ In 2018 To Run The 400 Taylor’s PR is 45.17 from 2014.
Former World And Four-Time European Long Jump Champion Heike Drechsler Will Work As An Official During The 2018 European Champs Drechsler had her first experience as an official raking the long jump pit during the German Youth Championships.
Video Interview: Christian Taylor Reflects On Winning His First Olympic Gold At London 2012
Tips For Sport And Life From Uruguay’s South American Champs Gold Long Jumper Emiliano Lasa

Cheserek Gets Paid

Edward Cheserek Signs Endorsement Deal With Skechers One of the greatest collegiate distance runners in history, who made his name at a school synonymous with Nike, has signed with Skechers – just as the letsrun.com message board predicted way back on August 21st – actually, make that August 11th.

2017 Diamond League / Track Season Review

Good Read:The Telegraph:London 2017 Captured The Masses, But Usain Bolt And Mo Farah Must Be Replaced A lot of interesting analysis from the 2017 season on the state of the sport, doping and individual athletes. Is Keni Harrison the new Asafa Powell?
So Much For The Gender Pay Gap?Elaine Thompson Tops The 2017 Diamond League Prize Money List With $134,000 While Five Out Of The Top Six Are Women Mutaz Essa Barshim was the first man with $100,000 in prize money to put him 4th on the list.
SPIKES Highlights Some Of The Top Performances From The 2017 Diamond League Season
Random:Learn The Chords For The Diamond League Theme Song

Bolt Updates

Usain Bolt To Get Two Statues In Jamaica, Not Just One One will be at the national stadium and the other possibly in the region where Bolt was born.
Usain Bolt Visits Japan, Says He Wants To Do More Charity Work And Still Contemplating Playing Soccer He also mentioned possibly becoming a track analyst.
Usain Bolt Predicts His World Records Could Stand For 15-20 Years “I think our era … was the best era of athletes. If it was going to be broken, it would have been broken in this era, so I think I have at least 15 to 20 more years.”

Doping Updates

Doping Report Reveals That 30% Of The Athletes At 2011 Worlds Admitted To Doping About half the athletes at Worlds participated in an anonymous survey about doping. Over 30% admitted to doping, but only 0.5% of athletes at 2011 Worlds (where all were tested) tested positive. *AP Article
The Guardian: Sport Doping Study Revealing Wider Usage Published After “Scandalous” Delay The research took almost 6 years to officially come out as the IAAF had issues with it and one author accused them of purposely blocking its release.
AP:Ethiopia Shuts Down Drug Store Selling Banned Substances Ethiopia’s anti-doping office confirmed the pharmacy was offering EPO after they investigated in response to the most recent ARD documentary.

Distance News

Recommended Read:Deadspin:“How A Small-Time Training Group And An Army Program Changed American Distance Running” Take an inside look at how Scott Simmons‘ American Distance Project (ADP) and the army’s World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) has gone from a small group to a dominant presence on Team USA.
Louis Zamperini’s “Unbroken” Story Continues In Sequel “Path To Redemption” The movie will follow Zamperini’s life after WWII and his struggles with PTSD, depression and alcoholism.
Kyle Merber Does A Block-By-Block Rundown Of What Is Going Through His Head During The 5th Avenue Mile
GB 800 Runner Lynsey Sharp Looking To 2018 As A Fresh Start She wants to medal at the Commonwealth Games and is thinking of getting her Masters in International Business to go along with her law degree.

Bad News

RIP: Xavier “Dag” Samuels – Coach Of 400H DL Champ Kyron McMaster – Killed By Hurricane Irma In Tortola
Three High School XC Runners From Tennessee Struck By Truck The three were injured, but are recovering. No charges were made as the police determined “the collision … was unavoidable.”

Who Really Won Worlds?

LRC Who Won Our 2017 Running Warehouse Worlds Prediction Contest? A Londoner, A Guy From Portugal, And A Guy Who Used To Manage The Guam Track Team See who the kings and queens of LetsRun.com are. Our contest winners this time are by far the most impressive group running-wise in the history of contest winners on LRC.

Olympic / Hosting News

Is This A Serious Headline?IPC Concerned Beijing 2022 Paralympics Playing Second Fiddle To The Olympics The Paralympics are second to the Olympics. If the Paralympics were held at a different location at a different time of the year, it wouldn’t get anywhere near as much attention as the Olympics.
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen Should Go To Europe Over Africa In 2023 Worlds will go to Doha in 2019 and Eugene in 2021 and there is talk of an African nation trying to host its first Worlds in 2023.
Birmingham Beats Liverpool To Become UK Candidate For Potential 2022 Commonwealth Bid But Birmingham still has to convince the government to approve the bid.
Vitaly Mutko Welcomes Decision By IPC TO Let Russians Compete As Neutrals At 2018 Winter Paralympics Qualifying Events
Andrew Parsons Elected As New President Of The International Paralympic Committee He will replace Philip Craven, who’s headed the IPC for 16 years.

Upcoming Road Racing

Sunday:Mo Farah Takes On Feyisa Lilesa, Dathan Ritzenhein And Bernard Lagat At The Great North Run Half Marathon In the women’s race, Vivian Cheruiyot will try to defend her title against Mary Keitany.
Kenenisa Bekele Wants To Run 2:01:30 Before Retiring
2018 Boston Marathon Registration Opens On Monday The last two years you had to run more than 2 minutes faster than the qualifying time to get in.

Random / Interesting

Opinion Piece:South African Journalist Calls Oscar Pistorius Case A “Miscarriage Of Justice” The writer argues that South Africa was so eager to prove that justice is equal regardless of position or wealth, that they set on making Pistorius guilty from the start.
Concussion Doctor Says Kids Shouldn’t Play Contact Sports Before Age 18 Track and field made the doctor’s cut for sports that are okay for kids.
What Are The Best-Ever Marks For Place In Each Event? A lot of marks were set this year, especially in the men’s shot put.
Track And Swimming Paralympic Events Cut For Tokyo 2020 There will be the same number of athletes, but fewer medals handed out, which is good because there are still way too many.

NCAA News: Disasters Continue To Impact Early Season XC

Oregon XC Preview Cancelled Due To Air Quality Eugene has a “hazardous” air quality rating due to the forest fires in Oregon right now.
*MB:Snowflakes get victory #2 of xc season: Oregon XC meet is cancelled due to air quality concerns
*Forest Fire Photo Gallery
University Of Miami Cancels Dual Meet Due To Hurricane Irma
Former World 110H Champ David Oliver Named Head Coach At His Alma Mater, Howard University
First NCAA XC Athletes Of The Week Are Kigen Chemadi (Middle Tennessee State) And Militsa Mircheva (Florida State)
HS: MileSplit: Hurricane Irma’s Impact On Florida XC Weekend

More Distance News

Emma Coburn Blogs About Juggling Her Busy Life As Athlete, Race Director And Bride To Be Coburn is racing the Fifth Avenue Mile on Sunday, then is organizing a race in her hometown in Colorado at the end of the month before getting married on October 14th.
Wilson Kipsang Is Confident He Can Lower The Marathon WR In Berlin Kipsang: “If you compare me with those guys (Bekele and Kipchoge), I stand a chance because having broken the world record before, and having more experience …”
One We Missed:Michael Wardian Completed The Leadville 100 Miler And The Grueling Pikes Peak Marathon In The Same Weekend (With Only 6 Hours Rest Between) Wardian finished 10th in Leadville and then won Pikes Peak in a CR.
Athletics Illustrated Q&A With Michael Wardian Wardian talks about being a lacrosse player in college, some of his future crazy ultra running plans and doing his first beer mile.
CNN:Is The Great Wall Marathon The World’s “Most Picturesque Endurance Race?” You can definitely get yourself some pretty amazing race photos.

Upcoming Action

US 20k Champs *Results

LRC Galen Rupp Edges Leonard Korir For 2017 USA 20km Title At Faxon Law New Haven Road Race (Video) Jordan Hasay dominated the women’s race. Rupp won in 59:04 (62:18 half marathon pace). Hasay won in 66:35 (70:14 half pace).
*MB: Official US 20k Champs Discussion Thread
*MB: Vaporfly 4% wins men’s and women’s USA 20K Road Champs
*MB: NOP Salazar Domination: Rupp, Hasay win USATF 20K Champs

Hartford Courant: Hasay Faces New Haven 20K With New Focus
New Haven Register:Olympic Medalist Galen Rupp Joins Faxon Law New Haven Road Race

5th Avenue Mile – Watch It Live Sunday At 1:30 PM ET On NBC

LRCWatch Amazing Mid-D Action Sunday Afternoon: 5th Avenue Mile To Be Broadcast For Free At 1:30 PM ET How will Edward Cheserek do in his pro debut in the 5th Avenue Mile (which – check this out – will be broadcast on NBC)?

RunBlogRun: The Art Of Racing With Jenny Simpson – Cathal Dennehy Explains Why Simpson Is Such A Good Racer
Runner’s World:Can Jenny Simpson Make It Six Victories On Fifth Avenue?
RRWColorado Medalists Emma Coburn And Jenny Simpson Excited To End Seasons At New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile

David Torrence Mile ResultsRace Video

LRCResults: Emily Lipari And Chris O’Hare Win Hoka One One Long Island Miles In the men’s race, Chris O’Hare held off Nick Willis as the three WC finalists went 1-2-3. Brenda Martinez led the women’s race virtually the entire way before being gunned down in the final meters. *Race Video

Chris O’Hare Dedicates Long Island Mile Win To David Torrence
Video:Runners Remember David Torrence At Start And Finish Line Of Long Island Mile *Photos
MB:Official 2017 Hoka One One Long Island Mile Discussion Thread
High School Coach Lalo Diaz Reflects On The Life, Career Of His Former Athlete David Torrence
David Torrence Tribute At HOKA ONE ONE Long Island Mile The race has been renamed the David Torrence Mile in his honor.

The Olympics – Where The Only Ones Dirtier Than The Athletes Are The Officials

The Guardian:“Familiar Whiff Of Corruption Continues To Taint Olympic Games” With the head of the Rio 2016 bid accused of bribes, more scrutiny turns to Tokyo 2020 where there are connections to Papa Massata Diack‘s dirty “Black Tidings” account.
The Guardian: “IOC Selective Blindness Continues But Rio 2016 Scandal Looks All Too Familiar” Marina Hyde writes that the IOC’s response to the latest scandal “has again left more than a little to be desired.”
The Guardian: London 2012 Team Insist Their Bid For The Olympics Was Clean Seb Coe said he’s confident “nothing embarrassing” will be found and London 2012 official Keith Mills said, “When we were bidding for London 2012 we couldn’t buy IOC members a coffee.”
Investigation Opened Into Attempts To Undermine Andrew Parsons’ Campaign For IPC President

Sprint Stuff

Good Read:The San Diego Union-Tribune:“The Uneasy Farewell Of Two Sport Icons” Mark Ziegler compares and contrasts the way Usain Bolt and Floyd Mayweather ended their careers.
Xie Zhenye Completes Chinese Champs 100/200 Double With A 20.20 National Record This after Xie had gotten an upset win in the 100m, running a 10.04 PR to beat NR holder Su Bingtian.
Good Read:IAAF Profile:Germany’s Pamela Dutkiewicz Daring To Dream After Joining The Greats With 100H Bronze In London Against so many top big name hurdlers, Dutkiewicz didn’t expect a medal, but beat out WR holder Keni Harrison for the last medal.
The Telegraph:Perfect Suits, Snap-Back Caps And Hublot Watches: Usain Bolt Shares His Life’s Luxuries Fast cars, expensive watches, amazing locations … the life you could live if you were paid $34.2 million.