April 08, 2018 Homepage Archive

Where Your Dreams Become Reality

Archived Homepage For April 08, 2018

Quote Of The Day

“You go through all of the different stages … anger, and I’m not an angry person, but I couldn’t speak to [my ex-husband], I couldn’t look at [him], and I didn’t like that because I’m not that sort of a person. I felt rejected – no self-worth – and sorry for the children. Memories of running great races meant nothing. I would have given all of them away just to have peace of mind but that’s only come in the last six months. We had to sell the house and go through all that hassle. It was a tough few years …”

“Yeah, then they [the medals I won during my career] meant nothing. They say the greatest of all gifts is peace of mind and there is no surer saying – it is 100 times better than being a world champion. I had a horrible lump in my stomach for about four years. I was grasping (at straws): ‘How am I going to gain my confidence again? How am I going to make myself feel good?’ I started running races again to seek approval, and to make me feel good about myself.”

– Catherine McKiernan – the country girl from Ireland who 20 years ago won the London Marathon to make herself the world’s #1 marathoner – talking in a nearly 6,000-word feature on her by Paul Kimmage about how hard it was for her to overcome her husband leaving her for another woman.

Lengthy Reads We Really Enjoyed

Paul Kimmage Catches Up With Ireland’s Catherine McKiernan 20 Years After Her London Marathon Win The country girl who never liked the spotlight that came with being a star was a 4-time World XC runner-up who found her home in the marathon where she was the best in the world in 1997-1998, but injuries prevented her from Olympic glory. This nearly 6,000-word piece is much more than about just running – it’s about life – and finding yourself after a devastating divorce.

How Gabby Thomas Developed Into The 200m Collegiate Record Holder At Harvard Coach Kebba Tolbert has done a masterful job. Read all about it in this 3,500+ word piece by Johanna Gretschel.

Assorted Distance News

Andrew Wheating Now Coaching At A Portland High School
Podcast With America’s Fastest Woman With A Full-Time Job – Stanford Invite 10,000m Runner-Up Carrie Dimoff And she’s a mom to boot.
Good Read:Engaged Aussie Distance Runners Ryan Gregson And Genevieve LaCaze Discuss Their Relationship LaCaze: “I would say we are the complete opposite (personalities). When I met Ryan, “I thought how the hell is this going to work?”
Updated Boston Marathon Elite Fields:Sara Hall And Olympic Silver Medalist Eunice Kirwa Withdraw With Injury
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Molly Huddle Huddle talks about going back and forth between track and road, training for Boston and hopes for 2020
Family Of Woman Who Died Last Fall Sues Race Organizers After She Fell In Ocean During The Japanese Race Four Years Ago The family is suing the race for $933,000.

More Commonwealth Games News

Zane Robertson Pulls Out Of Commonwealth Games After Missing Training Due To Injury Robertson says that he “almost broke his hip due to a freak mistake made by a massage therapist.”
Yohan Blake Looks To Bring A Gold Medal To Post-Bolt Jamaica After years of injuries, Blake has never gotten back to the level that saw him run 9.69, but he was 4th at Worlds last year and says, “I’m doing some good work in training and my confidence is coming back.”
Athletics Australia Men’s Long Distance Preview
*More Athletics Illustrated Preview
Athlete In “Serious” Condition After Contracting Malaria

More Weekend International Road Action

Sunday:Wide Open Fields Set For The Istanbul Half Men’s field includes Leonard Langat (59:18), Albert Kangogo (59:25) and Amdework Waleglegn (27:36 for 10K). The women’s race has Joyce Chepkirui (66:19), Dubai Marathon champ Roza Dereje (2:19:17) and Ababel Yeshaneh (67:21).
Sunday:2:10 Man Shadrack Tanui Leads Greater Manchester Marathon Field
Sunday: Kenya’s Patrick Wachira Muriuki (2:10:00) And Ethiopia’s Konjit Tilahun Biruk (2:28:11) The Favorites For The Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon In South Korea
Sunday:Rahma Tusa (2:25:12) Going For Three-Peat At Rome Marathon She’ll face challenges from former Worlds silver medalist Sharon Cherop and a slew of other sub-2:30 women. The men’s race is led by Kenya’s Jafred Chirchir Kipchumba (2:05:48) and Ethiopia’s Girmay Birhanu (2:05:48).
April 22:World Record Holder And Defending Champ Joyciline Jepkosgei Returns To The Gifu Seriyu Half Marathon She faces Eunice Chumba (66:11) and Valary Jemeli (67:50). Defending champ Alexander Mutiso will try to defend his men’s title, but only has the fifth best PR as he faces sub-hour men James Mwangi, James Rungaru and Moses Kurong.
April 29:Fourth-Fastest Marathoner Of All Time (Emmanuel Mutai), Former Olympic Champ Stephen Kiprotich Headline At Hamburg Marathon 2:04:28 man Sammy Kitwara and Ayele Abshero (2:04:23) are also in the field along with several other sub-2:07 men. Six of the women’s field have gone sub-2:30, led by Isabellah Andersson (2:23:41 from 2011) and Shitaye Eshete (2:25:36).

This Weekend’s Action

Arcadia: LRC Cruz Culpepper Gets His First Major Win With 56.8 Final Lap In Mile, Mooney Twins Impress, Great Oaks Wins 5 Of 6 Distance Relays Cruz Culpepper, son of Olympians Alan and Shayne, got his first major high school win and he’s only a sophomore. The winning times in the distance races were 4:13.14, 4:39.63, 8:50.95, and 10:02.56. *Official Arcadia Thread

LRCUSC’s Michael Norman Runs 20.04 Into Wind, Steven Gardiner Runs 19.75 National Record Includes video of Norman’s run.

Rotterdam MB: Kenneth Kipkemoi comes from behind to win Rotterdam Marathon in 2:05:44 in his debut The 33-year-old winner has PRs of 13:03/26:52/59:01 at shorter distances. Visiline Jepkesho won the uneventful women’s race in 2:23:47. *Video Of end Of Men’s Race

Paris MB:Betsy Saina Holds On For Narrow 4-Second Win in 2:22:55, Paula Lonyangata Defends in 2:06:25 The third time was certainly the charm for Saina, who DNFed her 1st two marathons last year, but got the win in #3. Ex-doper Mathew Kisorio, who once said there was lots of doping in Kenya, was 2nd in the men’s race.

Berlin Half MB:Wow: Erick Kiptanui goes for WR (13:32 for 5k), Wins in 58:42!! He was on WR pace through 14k.

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler MB:World Half 4th Placer Jemal Yimer Wins Men’s Race, Buze Diriba (53:45) Wins Women’s, Matthew Centrowitz Runs 50:38. Chris Derrick (46:52, 5th) and Emma Bates (54:44, 7th) were the top Americans. You can watch a race replay here. *Results
*MB: Matthew Centrowitz is running a 10 miler on Sunday morning – Predict his time

USATF: What To Watch, When And Where In The Month Of April

Saturday’s Road Action

Kenya’s Joan Melly Runs Fourth-Fastest All-Time 65:04 To Dominate Prague Half By Over A Minute The men’s race was super-deep as Benard Kimeli won in 59:47 with two more under the hour barrier and 1-6 separated by only 21 seconds.

We Talk To One Of The Sport’s Biggest Stars

LRC Feature The Greatness Of Geoffrey Kamworor: Where Does The Kenyan Star Go From Here? Jonathan Gault talked to Kamworor, who (thanks to his recent win at the World Half Champs) has won a global title in each of the last five years, to see what’s next for one of Kenya’s biggest distance stars.

WSJ:Memo From Nike’s HR Chief Says The Company Fails To Promote Enough Women, Minorities Nike’s global workforce is 50% female, but 71% of the vice presidents are men and 84% of its US vice presidents are white.
*MB: Internal Nike HR memo says the company is too white and too male

IOC Reveal Seven Contenders Interested In Bidding For 2026 Winter Games The cities include Graz in Austria, Calgary in Canada, Sapporo in Japan, Stockholm in Sweden, Sion in Switzerland, Erzurum in Turkey and a joint Italian bid from Milan, Turin and Cortina d’Ampezzo.