Chicago Marathon Is Sunday At 8:30 AM ET

LRC Aaron Braun And The Question All Runners Eventually Face – “Should I Hang ‘Em Up?” In the summer of 2016, Aaron Braun was on the brink of retirement. Now he’s back, doing what all runners do: chasing the dream.

Pre-Race MB Buzz

• Chicago Elite Marathon Field. Who is the favorite? 
• Who else is ready to watch Rupp DOMINATE in Chicago this Sunday?!?!? 
• Predict my Chicago time based solely on 4 weeks randomly selected from my training cycle. 
• Renato Canova, what can you tell us about Abel Kirui’s training for the upcoming Chicago Marathon? 
• Chicago Marathon weather not looking great, other options? 

Kenenisa Bekele Responds To Jos Hermens

LRC Kenenisa Bekele “Dismayed” By Jos Hermens’ Comments About His Professionalism After Berlin Marathon, Vows To Break World Record Bekele is confident that the best is yet to come for him at the 26.2-mile distance. “I definitely will break it before my retirement. For all the skeptics, I will show them with my hard work,” Bekele said, waving his hands with confidence. “I want to seize my future. And I don’t want anyone to get into my way of proving myself.”

Previous: LRC Jos Hermens: Kenenisa Bekele Must Become More “Professional” If He Is To Realize Marathon Potential

US Distance Stuff

• Pretty Cool: One Photo Captures Three Neck-And-Neck Races At The USATF 10-Mile Champs The men’s race, women’s race, and the “equalizer bonus” all came down to a sprint finish between Leonard Korir, Shadrack Kipchirchir, Sara Hall and Notosha Rogers. Korir Kipchirchir ended up winning the men’s race as well as the $10,000 bonus for beating Hall by 1.2 seconds.
• RunBlogRun: What Do Elite Distance Runners Do In The Off Season? Cathal Dennehy talks to Emma Coburn, Colleen Quigley, Brenda Martinez, Jenny Simpson, Nick Willis and Chris O’Hare about their off-season activities.
• Kevin Castille Breaks The Men’s 45-49 World 5K Best With 14:29 Win At The USATF Masters 5K Champs In Syracuse The previous best was 14:31 by Kenya’s Wilson Waigwa back in 1994. Sascha Scott won the women’s race in 17:50.
• Emma Coburn Is Now A Race Director As The Elk Run 5K In Her Hometown Of Crested Butte, CO Is In The Books 500 runners participated, including Olympians Paul Chelimo, Courtney Frerichs and Aisha Leer.
• Flotrack Video Profile: Futsum Zienasellassie – Take Nothing For Granted
• Leo Manzano Speaks To Kids At McFarland High School

US Weekend Results: USATF 10 Miler *Results

• Shadrack Kipchirchir (47:33) Beats Out Leonard Korir By Less Than A Second To Win USATF 10 Mile Champs; Sara Hall Takes Women’s Title In 53:43 Hall beat out Natosha Rogers by 2 seconds while Aliphine Tuliamuk was 3rd.
• Kirubel Erassa (4:06) And Eglay Nalyanya (4:45) Win The Navy Mile In Washington DC This was the final stop on the Bring Back The Mile road series with Ben Blankenship and Emily Lipari the overall series winners.
• Joseph Gray And Ashley Brasovan Win USATF Trail Half Marathon Championships *Results

Justin Gatlin Won’t Take A Knee

Justin Gatlin Says He’ll Stand For National Anthem If He Wins An Exhibition In Brazil This Week Racism exists but Gatlin’s dad was in the Army for 26 years.

Interesting News From Japan

• Japan’s Yuta Shitara Wants To Run Another Marathon Real Soon – Maybe Before The End Of The Year (Fukuoka?) We think that’s foolish and think Tokyo would make more sense but his twin brother (with PRs of 13:40/27:52/61:12) is doing Fukuoka. “I’m the kind of guy who likes to race a lot. I get kind of lazy if there’s too much space on my calendar.”
• Japan’s 100th Ekiden Season Will Begin On October 9th – It Looks Like Tokai University Is Set To Dominate Tokai is coached by Hayashi Morozumi, Suguro Osako‘s HS coach, who focuses on XC type training.

And Elsewhere: 

• Meet Greg Duplantis: Pole Vault Coach, Former US Olympian And Father To Mondo He says 5.90m surprised him in 2017 and that they’ll be more “selective” in their competitions in 2018.
• Man Who Runs Marathons With Palestinian Flag Is Denied A Tourist Visa For Chicago Marathon And he’d already purchased his tickets.
• Which DL Meets Had The Most (Zurich) And Least (Stockholm) WC Medalists?

Other Links That Make The Cut

• Bizarre: Youth Olympic Games Will Hand Out Medals For Combined XC/Track Performance Everyone will do both, so if you are 2nd in the 3,000 and 4th in XC, that’s six points and the lowest total wins gold.
• Birmingham Unveils Grand Plans For 2022 Commonwealth Games Bid UK Government has agreed to back Birmingham’s bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and guarantee costs that could total £750 million.
• RIP: 37-Year-Old Missouri HS XC Coach Brian Simpson Killed In Head-On Collision While Driving Team To Meet
• Justin Gatlin Talks To Esquire About Age, His Diet, And Beating Usain Bolt
• Free Tips From Discus Star Dani Stevens She won silver this year 8 years after she won gold at age 21.

$$$ News

• Recommended Read: Outside: Is It Worth It For Shoe Companies To Sponsor Runners? Brooks brand manager Steve DeKoker: “You need people to authenticate your brand. By that, I mean you need the best people in the world validating that your product is legitimate and that your products can perform at the highest level.”
• Usain Bolt Is One Of The Highest-Paid Celebrities Of The Year He’s 88th on the Forbes list, ahead of some actors/singers like Kevin Hart, Britney Spears and Katy Perry. Remember, Bolt was 23rd on the list of highest-paid athletes.

Sport Politics

• Good Read: NY Times: NFL Protests Draw Attention And Comparisons To 1968 Olympic Black Power Salute The article actually focuses not on Tommie Smith or John Carlos, but white Australian Peter Norman, who was ostracized for years for standing with the two Americans during their protest. When Norman died in 2006, Smith and Carlos flew to Melbourne to be his pallbearers.
• Reuters: US House Republican Speaker Paul Ryan Opposes Protests During National Anthem “People are clearly within their rights to express themselves how they see fit. My own view though is that we shouldn’t do it on the anthem.”

Upcoming Marathon Action

• Good Read: Competitor: Meb Keflezighi Prepares For His Final Race At The NYC Marathon “Honestly, it can’t come fast enough. People know it’s my last one. I want it to be over. They don’t. It’s been a lot of pressure over the last 27 years – a lot of weight on the shoulders internally and externally.”

• Dennis Kimetto Still Wants To Lower His 2:02:57 World Record Kimetto says he knew they weren’t going to get his mark in Berlin when he saw the muggy conditions.
  *MB: What do Kenyans think about Rupp? The article mentions Kimetto’s competition in Chicago being Stephen Sambu and Zersenay Tadese, but no mention of Galen Rupp.
• October 15: Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Abera (2:04:24 PR) Leads Amsterdam Marathon Elite Field He’ll face 2:05:54 man Amos Kipruto (2:05:54) as well as Zane Robertson and Edwin Kiptoo (59:26 half PR) in their debuts.
  *MB: ZANE ROBERTSON to debut at AMSTERDAM MARATHON
• Edna Kiplagat Has Her Eyes On The NYC Marathon Title Kiplagat will have her work cut out for her going up against Mary Keitany, who will be chasing a 4th title.
• Prize Money Significantly Increased For March 2018 Armory NYC Indoor Marathon At The Armory $3,000 to the winner with an extra $4,000 for a WR (2:21:48 for the men, 2:42:30 for women).
• Study Finds Bank Of America Chicago Marathon Brings More Than $282 Million To Chicago Economy