The US Marathon Champs, Fukuoka and Valencia Are Sunday

LRC 2018 CIM/USATF Marathon Champs Preview: What To Watch For In The Deepest Marathon In America Will a veteran take home the titles or might a debutante – like Haron Lagat or Marty Hehir in the men’s race or Emma Bates in the women’s – win?
*MB: Official 2018 CIM Prediction/Discussion Thread

LRC Emma Bates thinks she can win the US marathon title on Sunday in her 26.2 debut Coached by a UPS driver and living in a house without electricity or water, Emma Bates says victory is the #1 goal.

Valencia: LRC Watch the Valencia Marathon For Free On Sunday – 2:05:15 and 2:24:48 All-Comers Records Are In Jeopardy Three sub-2:05 guys and seven sub-2:07 and three-sub 2:24 performers will attack the records. Watch it live at 2:30 am ET Sunday (8:30 local).

Fukuoka: MB: Might There Be A 1st Japanese Winner Since 2004 With a relatively weak international field and ten recent Japanese men who have broken 2:10, it’s possible a Japanese man wins for the 1st time since 2004. Race is at 10:10 pm ET on Saturday.

NXN Is Saturday *Live Webcast Sat. @ 12:30PM ET

LRC 2018 NXN Boys’ Preview: Loudoun Valley (Va.) Tries To Become First Boys’ Repeat Champs In What Should Be A Tight Race The individual race is hard to predict as well but the top 10 boys in the country are all doing NXN.

LRC 2018 NXN Girls’ Preview: Katelyn Tuohy Eyes Repeat & Will Fayetteville-Manlius Be Beaten For The First Time Since 2013? (Hint: Probably) FM has won 11 of the last 12 girls national HS XC titles, but that streak should end on Saturday in Portland.

*DyeStat: NXN Boys Projections: Loudoun Valley Faces Big Challenge From FM And Great Oak
*DyeStat NXN Girls Projections: Naperville North, Summit, Great Oak Pencil Out As Co-Favorites

NCAA Cross Country Banquet Photo Gallery (60+ Photos)

Week That Was

LRC WTW: A Plan For King Cheserek, Celliphine Chespol Gets Paid, A Race Director Doesn’t Have To Die In Shame We’ve come up with a brilliant plan for Edward Cheserek to end his winter season at the World XC Champs. Plus some free coaching advice and a 55-year-old is tearing it up on the roads.

Young Stars In The News

• Sydney McLaughlin Chooses Her New Coach, 2004 Olympic 100H Champion Joanna Hayes Hayes is currently a volunteer assistant at USC.
• Video: Meet New LSU Freshman Mondo Duplantis How do you create a teen phenom? You start pole vaulting at 4 years old with a pole vault mat in your back yard.

European News

• Former World 400H Champ Dai Greene Reveals He’s Been Hindered By A Botched Hernia Surgery For The Last 5 Years In 2013 he received implants that frayed and become entangled with nerves. Greene explains how the complications brought him from best in the world in 2011 to barely racing over the last 5 years.
  *BBC Video Interview: “Dai Greene ‘Bitter’ Over Mesh That Almost Ended His Career”
• Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa And Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf Take The Wins At Warandercross XC Meet In The Netherlands The race was on the same course in Tilburg that will host the Euro XC Champs on December 9th.
• Ingebrigtsens Lead Norway’s Team For The European XC Championships On December 9th Nothing like some good old sibling rivalry to kick off the holidays.
• France’s Jimmy Gressier And Hugu Hay Hoping To Repeat Their 1-2 Finish At European U23 XC Champs
• European Discus Champ Andrius Gudzius And European Javelin Bronze Medalist Liveta Jasiunaite Are Lithuanian Athletes Of The Year

International Distance Results

• Lonah Chemtai Salpeter Smashes The CR And Her PR With A 2:24:17 Victory At The Florence Marathon Salpeter had struggled with the marathon previously with a PR of only 2:40, but dominated here by more than 6 minutes. Ali Abdu Gelelchu won the men’s race in 2:11:32.
• World 10,000m Bronze Medalist Agnes Tirop And World 10,000m Under-20 Champ Rhonex Kipruto Win Tuskys Wareng XC Race In Kenya They got brand new Mazda Demio cars for their wins.
• Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo And Kenya’s Eva Cherono Get Convincing Wins At The Alcobendas XC Race In Spain It’s been a solid undefeated month for Kiplimo as this made his third win in three weeks.
• Ross Millington And Charlotte Arter Win Liverpool XC Challenge/Euro XC Trials

African Distance Updates

• IAAF Profile: “Now Back To Full Health, Joshua Cheptegei Excited To See What 2019 Brings” Cheptegei’s achievements over the last several years (which include his recent 15k world best and double gold at the Commonwealth Games), are even more impressive considering all the injury issues he’s dealt with.
• World 800m Bronze Medalist Kipyegon Bett Gets 4-Year Doping Ban Bett was actually caught on two offences as he tested positive for EPO, but had already been serving a provisional suspension for evading a doping test.
  *MB: Kenyan EPO doper Kipyegon Bett (800m) hit with 4-year ban from Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU)
• December 9: Half Marathon WR Holder Joyciline Jepkosgei Is Making Her Marathon Debut In Honolulu 9th She said they had the option to make her debut at Valencia last month, but wanted to run a smaller race with no pressure so she didn’t get discouraged if it’s a poor result.
  *Good Read: Joyciline Jepkosgei Talks About Making Her Marathon Debut And How She Would Have Pursued Pro Running If It Wasn’t For Her Then Boyfriend, Now Husband, Nicholas Koech “I lost interest and started some business instead to hustle. … [My husband] asked me why I had stopped running and encouraged me to train and enter local races in 2011.”
• David Rudisha Hoping For A Comeback Year In 2019 After Recovering From Two Years Of Injuries
• The Guardian: Former Aussie Pro Matt Fox Shares Some Insights From His Month Stay In Eliud Kipchoge’s Village Fox was impressed by how flexible Kipchoge’s training group was about training. They had a plan, but it they weren’t “anal about sticking to it” if changes needed to be made.
• Coming Off His NYC Marathon Disappointment, Geoffrey Kamworor Focused On Defending His World XC Title

Manchester Road Race *Top Results

RRW The King Is Back! Edward Cheserek Destroys Paul Chelimo, Breaks Manchester Course Record On the women’s side, Celliphine Chespol won over Buze Diriba and Emily Sisson. *Hartford Courant Article
*Discuss

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: MB: Emily Lipari (16:00) And Sam Parsons (13:47) Win Silicon Valley Turkey Trok 5k As she comes back from childbirth, Shannon Rowbury ran 16:44 145 days after giving birth, reminding us how amazing Gwen Jorgensen‘s 15:15 was (178 days after giving birth).

Interesting Read RW: How The Turkey Trot Became The Most Popular Race In America It all started with an 8k in Buffalo in 1896 that had 6 entrants and 4 finishers.