Are The Penn And Drake Relays Worth Saving?

LRC Arkansas Creates “National Relay Champs” And Like Everyone Else In College Sports Says, “The Only Thing That Matters In Life Is Yourself”  Penn and Drake are the most popular track meets in America. Arkansas has decided they are going to start a new meet – for Power 5 schools only – on that weekend. We wonder what John McDonnell thinks.

NCAA Fan Super Polls Are BAAACK For Conference Action

LRC Who Is Going To Win NCAA XC? Who Will Win Each Conference? 2017 NCAA Cross-Country Fan Polls Are Open National and conference voting now open.

NCAA News: Conference Champs Weekend *Conference Championships Central

• Good Read: DyeStat: Justyn Knight Approaching This XC Season With A New Level Of Confidence After Making 5000 Final At Worlds Knight says he went “fanboy” when he introduced himself to Mo Farah after the 5000 semis in London.
• Register Guard: Oregon’s Lilli Burdon Has Gone From A Mid-D Only Specialist To A Thriving Distance Runner She’s been UO’s #2 runner, but as recently as track season didn’t even want to run 5000 on the track.
• Register Guard: Former Prep Star Tanner Anderson Has Stepped Up In His Junior Year For The Ducks Anderson has contributed in the past, but has broke out this season, leading Oregon with a 17th place individual finish at Pre-Nats.
• USTFCCCA Conference Champs Weekend Preview There are 31 conference championships this weekend.
• Matt Centrowitz Has Been Helping At UO Practices This Fall While Returning To School To Finish His Degree Centro left Oregon after his junior year to go pro.
• SEC Conference Title No. 50 On The Line For Arkansas
• The Stanford Daily: Stanford Gears Up For PAC-12 Champs

Doping Updates

• Spain’s Moroccan-Born 2016 Euro 5,000 Champ Ilias Fifa Detained In Doping Raid In Barcelona He was among 11 people the police detained for selling illegal substances.
• French Distance Runner Riad Guerfi Gets 4-Year Ban After The IAAF Wins CAS Case The two-time national 10,000 champ had been cleared by the French federation “on a technicality,” but the IAAF won their appeal to CAS to reimpose his ban.
• British Sports Minister Steps Down From WADA Foundation Board Due To Brexit She was on the board as a European Union representative, but the UK is leaving the EU.

Non-Pro Road News

• Man Convicted In Bombing Seaside 5K Last Year Gets Life Sentence
• Runner’s World Ranks 22 Weird Running Gimmicks From finish line proposals, to the running of the bulls, to marathon juggling, these are some ways the recreational runners enjoy their road races.
• Harriette Thompson, Oldest Woman To Finish A Marathon, Dies At 94 Thompson was 92 when she broke the record for oldest marathon finisher with 7:24:36 at the RnR San Diego Marathon.

The Marine Corps Marathon Was Sunday *Results

• Desta Beriso Morkama Recovered From Early Race Wrong Turn To Win Marine Corps Marathon In 2:25:14 Morkama and several others went off course, leaving Olympic Trials 24th placer Kieran O’Connor to run a solo 22 miles before Morkama overcame the extra half mile of distance to catch up and take the win.
• Sarah Bishop Just Misses Olympic Trials Standard With 2:45:06 She has a 7-year-old, 5-year-old and twin 4-year-olds.
  *RunWashington.com: Sarah Bishop Turned What Was Supposed To Be A 22-Mile Training Run Into A 2 Minute+ PR
• Recommended Read: Q&A With Five-Time Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifier And Two-Time Marine Corps Marathon Champion Darrell General General is the ultimate blue collar runner as he held multiple jobs working 50 to 60 hours a week throughout his running career while still training and racing at a high level.
• The Marine Corps Marathon Used A Special “Cheating Mat” To Catch Course Cutters There’s no way to know where RD Rick Nealis will put his anti cheating mat. Nealis says he flags more than 200 cheaters each year.

Molly Seidel And Abbey D Are BAAACK

LRCFormer NCAA Champs Molly Seidel & Abbey D'Agostino Go 1-2 At 2017 Mayor's Cup XC And Chart Paths To Healthy Futures

More Weekend Action *Results: *Toronto *Venice *Great South Run

Toronto: Philemon Rono (2:06:52) Breaks All-Comers Record And Wins $50,000 Bonus By 2 Seconds – Marta Merga (2:28:18) Wins Women’s Race (link updated) Dickson Chumba was second in 2:09:11. The women’s race went out in 71:01.

• Venice Turns Into A Farce: MB: EPIC FARCE AT VENICE MARATHON AS LEADERS GO A LONG WAY OFF COURSE
  *The Guardian: “Unknown Local Wins Venice Marathon After Favorites Take Wrong Turn” Eritrean-born Eyob Gebrehiwet became the first Italian to win the race since 1995. Calling him an “unknown local” might be downplaying his talent level, though, as he won in 2:12:16.
  *IAAF Recap Former world U20 5,000 champ Sule Utura won the women’s race in 2:29:04.
  *Video Of Wrong Turn Pretty crazy sight of marathoners running down the highway raising their hands unsure where to go.
• BBC Video: Chris Thompson (48:32) And Gemma Steel (55:25) Win Great South Run 10 Mile
  *Athletics Weekly Recap Chris Thompson on his win: “Winning today shows I am still clearly passionate about it. I think it was my desire to win that won me that – my pure blind stubbornness to win.” *Results

Other Links That We Found On A Lazy Saturday Afternoon

• Great Article: Where Are They Now? A Look At What Happens To Irish NCAA Athletes Each year about 15 Irish athletes come to the NCAA. Some have become famous coaches like Ray Treacy and Marcus O’Sullivan.
• Emma Coburn Likes To Watch TV On The Road Her favorites are The Office [US version] and the Great British Bake Off.
• Ryan Bailey, Who Was 4th In The 2012 Olympic 100, Just Made The 2018 Winter Olympics On Boblsed
• Texas Tech Unveils New Track That Is Part Of New $48 Million Indoor Facility
• Hour-Long+ Podcast With Steeple Medalist Courtney Frerichs
• Luvo Manyonga To Leave University Of Pretoria Training Ground And Train Closer To Home In Port Elizabeth The idea of a former drug addict moving closer to where that addiction began probably is making some people nervous.
• Q&A With University Of British Columbia Steeplechase Star John Gay The 20-year-old NAIA superstar has run 8:36.
• Stephen Francis Steps Down As Head Caoch At MVP – Hands Reins Over To His Brother Paul He’ll still coach select individual pros.
• Did Travis Tygart Play A Role In Covering Up Sex Abuse Allegations For US Swimming? The author seems to think so as Tygart was a lawyer for firm that worked with US Swimming.

News From The Commonwealth

• South Africans Expecting To Rock April’s Commonwealth Games As April Is When Their Nationals Are Anyway
• With No World Outdoors In 2018, The 2018 NACAC Champs In Toronto On August 10-12 Will Get Big Time Attention 15,000 fans are expected to watch more than 600 athletes from 31 countries. A minimum prize fund of C$160,000 (US$128,000) has been allocated for each event and it will be on the CBC.
• Andre De Grasse Is Eager To Get Back Into Competition After Hamstring Injury, 1st Goal Is 9.84 Canadian Record He says the key is to improve his first 30 meters.
• After 4 X 100 Gold, It’s A Different World For Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake The former LSU star doesn’t get how Usain Bolt deals with all his off track responsibilities. “After we’d won the gold and we had all these obligations I said to myself ‘how does Usain Bolt do this every day?’ That’s his life, every day! I’ve got even more respect for him now. It was already at the top but now it’s ‘hey man, hats off to you.'”
• 4 X 100 Gold Medalist Adam Gemili Took Up Track After Soccer Clubs Said He Couldn’t Go To College If He Signed A Pro Contract
• Details Of British Swimmers’s Private Conversations With Team Psychologists Were Disclosed To Coaches And Used Against Them One word – embarrassing.

Women’s Distance News

• Runner’s World: Emma Coburn Just Had The Wedding Every Running Couple Dreams Of Check out some photos from Coburn’s and Joe Bosshard‘s Hawaii wedding.
• Quick Q&A Catching Up With Alexi Pappas Pappas is training for her half debut, has started her own YouTube “vlog” and shares some other random tidbits like her favorite pre-race song and favorite poets/authors.
• New Study Intervenes To Help Female Collegiate Distance Runners Eat Enough Studying 180 athletes at UCLA and Stanford, MD Michael Fredericson found that a significant number of runners weren’t getting adequate nutrition or calories which lead to increased risk of injuries.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Q&A With Stephanie Bruce Bruce talks about balancing training with family life, doping scandals, and her thoughts going into the NYC Marathon.
• Carrie Tollefson Interviews 3-Time Olympian Jen Rhines Rhines talks about mental toughness, nutrition and racing as a master.
• 2011 Worlds 1,500 Silver Medalist Hannah England Elected Chair Of UK Athletics Athletes’ Commission

Sprints And Jumps

• Video Interview: Pole Vault World Champ Sam Kendricks Actually Started Out As A Cross-Country Runner Kendricks says he has a lot of miles on his legs since he started running back in 4th grade and comes from a family of runners with two brothers and a dad that all run.
• Good Read: After Two Disappointing Home Championships At London 2012 And 2017, GB Hurdler Andrew Pozzi Hopes Third Time’s A Charm At Birmingham 2018 CWG 2017 was only Pozzi’s second full season back after five or six foot surgeries, but after being in the shape of his life during indoors, he tore his hip flexor five weeks before Worlds and failed to make the final.
• Usain Bolt To Be The Starter At The Circuit Of The Americas F1 Grand Prix On Sunday
• GB Sprinter James Ellington Has Had Three Surgeries And Is Still In Pain Since His Motorcycle Crash 10 Months Ago, But Is Determined To Compete Again He admits watching GB win 4 x 100 gold at London Worlds was tough as he would have likely been on the squad.
• 2008 Olympic LJ Champ Irving Saladino Talks About How He Overcame His Struggles With Persistent Fouling For years Saladino would either foul out of competitions or not jump far because he was afraid to be too aggressive and foul, but overcame the issue to go out on a high note in his final season before retiring in 2014.