November 13, 2017 | LetsRun.com

The Big Debate – Olympic Hero or Zero in Tokyo?

Jorgsensen at US 10 MIler

LRC The Big Debate: Olympic Hero or Zero: Gwen Jorgensen Moves to the Marathon, How Will She Do? The LRC team, including a triathlete, debate Gwen’s move to the marathon. We all agree it’s cool she’s taking on this challenge.

Reads That We Enjoyed

After Completing A Night Shift To Finish Off A 70-Hour Work Week, Laura Muir Wins Scottish XC Crown “I managed to complete the whole rotation without getting kicked by a horse,” said a happy Muir.
Hellen Obiri Says She’ll Go For 14:11.15 5,000 WR In 2018 We hope Ayana is in the race as it will make it must-watch drama.
Yet Another Creative Excuse Yumiko Hara – Who Was 6th At The 2005 Worlds In Marathon – Avoids Prison For Shoplifting Charge After Saying Bulimia Turned Her Into A Thief She said that bulimia – caused by her running job – turned her into a shoplifter.
Aries Merritt Remembers When He Broke The 110H WR – It Was A Total Surprise As It Was His Last Race Of The Year And He’d Given Up On The WR “The funny thing was Brussels was the one race that season where I didn’t try to break the world record. It just happened on its own.”
Meet The People Who Like To Run All Over Their State Some guy in Vermont has done a run in all 251 town/cities. Sounds like a neat idea.

More LRC Exclusives

Mary Cain after an xc race last October (photo by Chris Lotsbom for Race Results Weekly) LRC Not Done Yet: Mary Cain Has Been Injured In 2017, Planning On Racing Again in 2018 Cain hasn’t raced or been heard from in almost exactly one year, but LRC has learned she’s planning on racing in 2018. The question now becomes, “How good will she be when she returns?” *Discuss

WTW Flanagan’s Close In NY Was Historically Fast, Jenny Simpson’s Roommate Gets 5th In NY And More What a week. In our weekly recap, we take one last week at the 2017 NYC Marathon and also have an update on new American citizen Sally Kipyego.

Kenyan Marathon Men: Watch Out, Kamworor Says He’s Just Getting Going

Geoffrey Kamworor Now Sets His Sights On Winning His Third Straight World Half Marathon Title Normally there is a big celebration at the Kenyan airport when a champion returns, but Kamworor wanted to keep it quiet. “I didn’t want a lot of fanfare because I believe I have just started doing well in marathon and there is more to come. When that time comes, we shall celebrate.”
Sports Illustrated Q&A With Eliud Kipchoge, Who Talks Breaking2, His Coach Patrick Sang And Other Random Stuff Kipchoge 14 notebooks of workouts for the last 14 years and he’s a big Roger Federer fan.

More On Shalane Flanagan’s Historic NYC Win

Q&A: Shaking, Yelling, Bawling: Shalane Flanagan’s Parents Relive Their Daughter’s Historic Victory Flanagan’s parents, two former running greats themselves, give some interesting insight on her training and younger days.
Mario Fraioli: Significance of Flanagan’s NYC Win Extends Far Beyond The Finish Line “Unlike two-time Olympic medalist and recently crowned Chicago Marathon champion Galen Rupp, Flanagan is empathetic and easy to root for, isn’t continually mired in controversy, and has made herself relatable…”
Athletics Illustrated‘s Chris Kelsall Calls Shalane Flanagan’s NYC Finish Line Celebration An “Indelible Moment”
RunBlogRun: Bill Rodgers Celebrates Shalane Flanagan’s Historic NYC Win

Doping News

Jemima Sumgong Tried To Get A Reduced Ban After Admitting To EPO Use WADA will offer a reduced 2-year ban to athletes who immediately admit to their doping, but Sumgong did not do that at all. She had a whole court case trying to blame a hospital that says they never even treated her.
Good Riddance: US Track Coach Kenta Bell Accepts Lifetime Ban For Encouraging And Administering The Doping Of At Least Six Athletes Bell, the coach of the Thinking Feet TC, also tried to cover up an athlete’s positive test, provided false info to USADA and has a previous doping violation from when he was an athlete himself.
How Convenient: Internal Russian Investigation Tries To Put The Sole Blame On Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov For Doping Scandal They claim they found no proof of the institutional doping laid out in the McLaren report.
*Russia Wants US To Extradite Whistleblower Rodchenkov This is unlikely to happen, though, as Rodchenkov is in a witness protection program. Russia and the US have no extradition treaty.
Shot Put Queen Valerie Adams Could Have Her Winning Streak Of 56 Meets Extended To 95 This thanks to a possible extra backdated ban of disgraced Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk.
GPS Technology Among Ideas To Improve Anti-Doping Suggested At iNADO Symposium There were also calls for convicted drugs cheats to be barred from the medals podium, prize money and setting records … essentially a lifetime ban.
Russia Loses Two More 2014 Winter Olympic Medals After Two Cross Country Skiers Found Guilty Of Doping

More LRC Content

LRC This Is Not Your Older Brother’s BYU Team — The Cougars Are Ready for Their NCAA Moment An in-depth look at the incredible BYU squad which scored just 17 points against Oregon and Stanford this year.

LRC Hours After His Baby Son’s Death, Former Long Jump Star Marquise Goodwin Gets Emotional After Scoring TD Goodwin’s son died after a premature birth and Goodwin saluted him after scoring on an 83-yard TD less than 12 hours later.

Sunday’s News

Shalane Flanagan Gets Huge Opinion Piece In NY Times That Ends In Comparison Of Her Feminism Vs. Trump’s Feminism Can we not keep politics out of the first American women’s win in NY in 40 years?
Saitama International Marathon: After Finishing 4th At Worlds, Kenya’s Flomena Cheyech Daniel Repeats In 2:28:39 In the amateur men’s race, Yuki Kawauchi ran his 2nd marathon in two weeks for only the 2nd time in his career and smashed the CR with a 2:15.
Beirut: Kenya’s Dominic Ruto (2:10:41) And Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba (2:28:38) Ser Course Records In Warm Conditions As More Than 48,000 run
Shanghai: Ethoipia’s Roza Dereje (2:22:43) and South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka (2:08:35) repeat
Istanbul: In Her Debut, Ruth Chepngetich Sets Turkish All-Comers Record (2:22:36) France’s Abraham Kiprotich won the men’s race in 2:11:22.
Spain: Ethiopians Getaneh Tamire Molla And Senbere Teferi WIn Opening IAAF XC Meet Of Year In Atapuerca World Jr. XC champ Jacob Kiplimo was 1 second back as 5,000 world champ Muktar Edris was only 6th.
Air Pollution Is So Bad In New Delhi That World’s Richest Marathon Airtel Delhi Half Marathon May Be Moved To A Different Timme Of Year The pollution is so bad that it’s being called a “gas chamber” and United Airlines has temporarily stopped flying to New Delhi.

Saturday: Camille Herron DESTROYS 100mi Women’s World Record By Running 12:42 (Old Record 13:45) That’s 7:37.6 per mile pace.
Last Week: Sandra Villines Smashes US Transcon Record The soon-to-be grandmother ran across the country in 54 days; the previous record was 69 days. The men’s record is 42 days.
*MB: Sandra Vi going for record across America

NCAA XC Regionals *Results

LRC Georgetown Stays Home, Utah State Makes History And 6 Other Observations From The 2017 NCAA Regional Action And how about Al Cantello of Navy? In his 50th year as coach, he’s gotten the Midshipmen going to NCAAs for the 2nd straight year.

LRC Final Men’s Qualifiers For 2017 NCAA Cross-Country Championships The official NCAA list is out. It’s the same as we projected.

LRC Final Women’s Qualifiers For 2017 NCAA Cross-Country Championships The #30 and #31 teams ended up being different as Indiana got in at #30 and Eastern Michigan at #31 instead of Missouri and Virginia Tech.

NCAA announces 2017 Division III Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships qualifiers

Message Board Talk

Official 2017 NCAA XC Regional Discussion Thread – Find Out Who Is Dancing Here
Flotrack Monopolizing NCAA Coverage – Charging $29.99 for D1, D2 and D3 Nats – Will we ever get anything free anymore!?!? Yep, that’s right. The NCAA is now charging for D2 and D3 nats.
BYU resting guys at regionals
Grant Fisher gets 11th at regionals
Is San Francisco’s women’s team for real?

LRC BYU Men (By Slimmest Of Margins) And Colorado Women Are Your New NCAA #1s In LetsRun.com Cross-Country Fan Polls The LRC faithful have spoken and we’ve got their votes.

Disturbing College News

Ex-Texas Coach Bev Kearney’s Lawyers Are Going To Question Under Oath Mack Brown And Former Texas President Next Week We have no idea why her lawyers think a football coach having sex with a trainer is remotely the same as her having sex with one of her athletes.
“20/20” Aired Special On Friday Night On Former Arizona Throws Coach Who Allegedly Put Knife To Athlete’s Throat – Athlete He Was Romantically Involved With The coach has allegedly admitted to police that he held a box cutter to the athlete’s throat and choked her in his office but he’s turned down a plea deal and he and his wife have sued the athlete, with whom he was romantically involved.
*MB: Anyone watch the 20/20 episode tonight on the former Ariz throws coach?
Loughborough University Throws Coach David Parker Suspended By UK Athletics After Inappropriate Relationship Allegation Parker was the world junior javelin champion in 1998.

More US Distance Stuff

Shalane Flanagan Undecided On Boston 2018 “I want to let (a decision) come naturally. Maybe in a couple of weeks.”
Recommended Read: Arizona Daily Sun: Remembering Marathoner Ryan Shay, 10 Years Later (Part 1 And 2) NAU head coach Michael Smith writes about the “shocking, heartbreaking event that sent [the Flagstaff] community reeling.”
IAAF Profile: Courtney Frerichs In “Fantasy Land” After World Steeple Silver “There’s been a lot of ups, there’s been a lot of downs … I was super happy with the coaching but I was in Portland, I was alone, and it was raining. The move was a bit tough. There wasn’t a lot of sunshine.”

LetsSprint.com

Justin Gatlin Reveals The #1 Mistake Slowing Down Young Sprinters Gatlin said he often sees “high knees” unwisely prioritized over ground force production. “Everybody in sprinting is so stuck on knee lift, knee lift. … But no one is focused on the power you need to put back into the ground.”
Tips On Sport And Life From Germany’s 2015 World 100H Silver Medalist Cindy Roleder Her fashion tip: “It doesn’t matter if casual, sporty or chic, a watch should never be forgotten!”
RIP: Jamaican 1960 Olympic 400 Bronze Medalist Runner Mal Spence, 81
Wayde Van Niekerk’s Coach Ans Botha Is Named Coach Of The Year By The IAAF

LRC’s Tribute To Meb

LRC Meb Memories: A Generation of Greatness: Our Favorite Moments From The Amazing Career Of Meb Keflezighi Between our race previews and our on-site coverage of Shalane Flanagan‘s shocking victory in NYC, we never found the time to give Keflezighi a fitting sendoff. Here, we take a moment to share our favorite memories of one of the greatest distance runners in American history.
Discuss: Remembering Meb: What was your favorite moment his career?

News From Europe

Good Read: Get To Know Dewi Griffiths – The British Sheep Farmer Who Just Ran 2:09 We’ll admit we are developing a man crush on the guy.
*MB: Should we anoint Dewi Griffiths as our new blue collar running hero?
Ireland’s Ciara Mageean Moving To UK To Join Manchester-Based Team New Balance
Eliud Kipchoge And Mary Keitany Named AIMS Best Marathon Runners Of 2017 At Awards At The Gala In Athens On Friday
Wow: WADA Says It Has Obtained Moscow Drug Testing Reports From 2012 To 2015
British Athletics’ Complete Lottery Funding Lists For 2017-18 Released
282 Million Viewers Watched The Diamond League In 2017

Previous European Distance News

Mo Farah Stays On UK Lottery Funding After Switching To The Marathon Farah previously said he had likely ran his last race in a British vest, but this increases the chances he could run for GB again in 2020 in the marathon.
Saturday: Laura Muir Set To Defend Her Scottish Short Course XC Champs Title It will be her first race since Worlds. “I always think cross country at this time of year helps give you a good base for the following season on the track.”
Bizarre: French Man Receives Six Months Of Jail Time For His Controversial Running Attire The man made it a hobby to run around in custom soccer jerseys with names of notorious dictators and terrorists on them.

Some Big Names Finishing Out 2017 On The Roads

December 10: After Chicago DNF, WR Holder Dennis Kimetto To Race The Honolulu Marathon Nick Symmonds‘ chances at winning his debut marathon just took a big hit.
December 17: Kenenisa Bekele And Florence Kiplagat To Compete At Tata Steel Kolkata 25K In India

Another High School Star Chooses The NCAA

Pole Vault Star Armand Duplantis Signs With LSU Mondo’s father Greg Duplantis, mother Helena, and brother Antoine all went to LSU.

Sign Of Respect Or A Cheap Money Grab?

Stadium In Kenya May Be Renamed After The Late Sammy Wanjiru Officials hope that renaming the stadium will attract sponsors who will help renovate the aging facility.