Andrew Wheating Retires

LRC Former Oregon Great Andrew Wheating Retires at Age 30, A Look Back at the Highs and Lows of His Career Tons of glory as a Duck and a 3:30.9 1500m before he even signed his Nike contract. A look at his career. Discuss: ANDREW WHEATING RETIRES
*Favorite Andrew Wheating moment?

Distance News

• Recommended Read: NYC 5th Placer Allie Kieffer Blogs About Her Physique/Weight: “My Weight Has Nothing To Do With How Good A Runner I Am” Kieffer says she’s faced comments about being “too big” for a runner her whole career and at one point it pushed her to cut too many calories and get a stress fracture. She says that now, “I feel lucky that I’m no longer so young and impressionable.”
  *MB: Allie Kieffer responds to comments about her weight/physique — SELF magazine article
• 2016 Foot Locker Runner-Up Nevada Mareno Transfers From Stanford To NC State She joins a team that includes sisters Wesley and Ryen Frazier whose father coached Mareno for part of her HS career.
  *MB: It’s OFFICIAL! Nevada Mareno transfers to N.C State

Sprint News

• Wayde Van Niekerk Successfully Completes One-Month Rehab Program In Qatar Van Niekerk had surgery in October after tearing a knee ligament during a rugby game.
• Jamaican Athletes May Face Obstacles Getting US Visas For “Extraordinary Ability” An American immigration lawyer is accusing the the US consulate of rejecting athletes saying they aren’t “extraordinary” enough, even though they don’t have the expertise to make that call.

Starting Off 2018 With A Bang

• January 14: Ten Past Champions Headline Super Deep Fields For 2018 Chevron Houston Marathon And Aramco Houston Half Marathon In the women’s half, Molly Huddle and Jordan Hasay take on US soil record holder Mary Wacera (66:29) and Edith Chelimo (65:52). Alex Korio Oloitiptit (58:51) leads a men’s half field with Olympic silver medalist Feyisa Lelisa, Callum Hawkins, Stephen Sambu, Diego Estrada, Sam Chelanga, Luke Puskedra, and Bernard Lagat. In the men’s marathon, defending champ Dominic Ondoro takes on Bazu Worku (2:05:25) while last year’s women’s half winner Veronicah Nyaruai Wanjiru makes her marathon debut against Mamitu Daska (2:21:59).
• January 26: Some Great Races Set For Dr. Sander Invitational (Formerly Armory Invy) With Clayton Murphy Vs Robby Andrews In The 800 And Kate Grace And Lauren Johnson In The Mile Craig Engels is in the men’s mile and Ajee Wilson and Charlene Lipsey in the women’s 800. Courtney Okolo leads the springs, Ryan Whiting the throws and NCAA champs Karissa Schweizer and Ariana Washington are also competing.
• February 3: Genzebe Dibaba Returns To The Meeting Karlsruhe 1500 To Take On German Mid-D Stars Konstanze Klosterhalfen And Gesa Felicitas Krause Dibaba set the indoor WR at 3:55.17 at this meet four years ago.
• February 6: World 1500 Champ Elijah Manangoi And World PV Champ Sam Kendricks Added To Fields For The Dusseldorf Indoor Meet The men’s 800 meanwhile has World silver and bronze medalists Adam Kszczot and Kipyegon Bett.

2017 Is Over

• Who Were the Most USADA Drug-Tested Runners of 2017? Galen Rupp topped the list at 16 times while Shalane Flanagan and Ajee Wilson were the most tested females with 12 tests.
• Interesting: Toni Reavis – Marathoning 2017 By The Numbers Reavis compares the number of sub-2:10s since 2010 and breaks them down by country. At a glance, besides Eliud Kipchoge‘s 2:00:25, it looks like the marathon has hit a bit of a plateau.
• IAAF 2017 End-Of-Year Sprints Review Usain Bolt bombed, Wayde Van Niekerk delivered while Tori Bowie and Dafne Schippers impressed for the women.
• 2017 Diamond League Review – Part 1 Highlights from Doha through Paris. *Part 2 DL Review Lausanne through Brussels.

The LetsRun.com World And US Rankings Are Here – Who’s #1?

LRC  Women’s Steeple: Emma Coburn Is The World Champ, But Beatrice Chepkoech Is World #1 It was a crazy year in the women’s steeple, making the rankings super difficult but we think we got it right and the US women are #4 and #7.
*Discuss: Men’s and Women’s Steeple World and US Rankings: US Women Go 1-2 at Worlds, But American Men Go 3-4 in Rankings, USWomen 4&7 

LRC Men’s Steeple Conseslus Kipruto Kicks His Way To World #1; USA’s Evan Jager Is #3 In World, Stanley Kebenei #4 Kipruto is king of the steeple, but 2 Americans in the top 5 is impressive.

LRC Women’s 3/5k: 2017 LRC World & US Rankings, W 3K/5K: Hellen Obiri Reigns Supreme, Shannon Rowbury US #1 Obiri was dominant this year and gets the top spot. *Discuss 3k/5k Rankings Here

LRC Men’s 5,000: M 3K/5K: Muktar Edris Edges Mo Farah For Top Spot, Paul Chelimo #3 Mo Farah‘s loss at Worlds cost him the #1 ranking. *Discuss 5k Rankings Here

Previous LRC Rankings: *M1,500: Manangoi And Centro #1 *W1,500: Faith Kipyegon #1, Jenny Simpson #3 In World *Women’s 800 *Men 800

Distance Q&As

• Recommended Read: Extensive Q&A With NCAA XC Champ Justyn Knight Knight talks about winning NCAAs, his favorite competitors, running heroes, how he started running, and future plans.
• Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Q&A With Adam Goucher Goucher talks about the possibility of leading running retreats, stem cell treatment, and life at home with his wife Kara and Colt.
• Q&A: Kids Interview Jenny Simpson Asked what most frightens her, Simpson said, “Sometimes when I am warming up, it makes me really nervous because I am thinking about all the people who are watching and cheering for me, and I don’t want to let them down.”
• Good Read: Lengthy Interview With Women’s Running Pioneer Joan Lamb Ullyot Ullyot was on the US team for the first International Women’s Marathon in Germany in 1976 where she finished 6th and wrote the first training book for women.

More Year-End Reviews

• IAAF 2017 End-Of-Year Sprints Review Usain Bolt bombed, Wayde Van Niekerk delivered while Tori Bowie and Dafne Schippers impressed for the women.
• IAAF End-Of-Year Mid-Distance Reviews No one dominated their event like Caster Semenya did the women’s 800.
• T&F News Event-By-Event #1 Men’s Rankings Team USA took four #1 rankings from Justin Gatlin, Sam Kendricks, Christian Taylor and Ryan Crouser.
• T&F News Event-By-Event #1 Women’s Rankings Keni Harrison, Brittney Reese and Kori Carter were the three Americans to make the list.
• Top 10 Olympic Bid Stories Of 2017: Part 1 Because it’s the IOC, most of the stories are negative.
• Shaunae Miller-Uibo Is Bahamas Female Athlete Of The Year
• World High Jump Silver Medalist Yuliya Levchenko Voted Ukrainian Athlete Of The Year
• DyeStat’s Favorite Photos Of 2017
• Athletics Weekly Month-By-Month 2017 Highlights
• List Of All The European Records That Went Down This Year
• A-Z Of European Athletics In 2017 (Part Two)

Road News

• Matt Hughes (51:18) Battles -22 Degree Conditions (With The Wind Chill) And Snow-Covered Roads To Win Boxing Day 10 Miler In Canada Two-time national XC champ Ross Proudfoot and Olympic marathoner Reid Coolsaet were 2-3.
  *MB: Canadian Steeple Olympian Matt Hughes wins 10-miler (51:18) in “feels like -22C” temps. Whoa.
• Sunday: Defending Champ And Three-Time Winner Cornelius Kangogo Going For A Fourth Title At The Corrida Pedestre Internationale de Houilles 10K One of the top contenders will be GB’s 60:00 half marathoner Callum Hawkins. Kenya’s Stacy Ndiwa (31:37) is the favorite in the women’s race.
• January 7: Former World Champs 5,000 Bronze Medalist Moses Kipsiro Headlines At The Safi Half Marathon In Morocco Kipsiro faces a slew of contenders, including Ethiopia’s Terefa Debela (60:22 half PR) and Getaneh Molla (60:34 PR). The women’s race is led by Zerfie Limeneh (71:02) and Zinash Debebe (71:04).

RIP Jamaican 1960 Olympic 4 X 400 Bronze Medalist Malcolm Spence, 81

Russian Doping Updates

• IOC Accused Of “Cowardice” For Failing To Help Protect Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Russia has been pushing for Rodchenkov’s extradition and his lawyer thinks the IOC should step in and tell Russia they must stop.
• Vitaly Mutko Steps Down As Head Of Organizing Committee For The 2018 FIFA World Cup Mutko claims he’s taking time away to focus on fighting against his lifetime Olympic ban.
• Russia Paralympic Committee Holding A Qualifying Meet With 50 Athletes Despite The Fact That They’re Still Banned From Pyeongchang 2018 A final decision on Russian Paralympians hasn’t been made yet (the IPC is separate from the IOC).
• Non-News: Vladimir Putin Does Not Plan To Attend Winter Olympics