December 6, 2018 | LetsRun.com

Thursday Night Marathoning

Live Now: MB: Official 1st Ever Abu Dhabi Marathon Discussion Thread – Abraham Kiptum goes for some BIG BUCKS!

LRC Marius Kipserem Upsets Half Marathon WR Holder Abraham Kiptum In 2:04:04 At Inaugural Abu Dhabi Marathon, But Was The Course Short? The splits make no sense. We’re supposed to believe a 2:06 guy went 62:35-61:29 to run 2:04:04, running a big negative split in 70 degree temps with a 13:55 5k from 30 to 35k.

Pre-Race LRC One Of The World’s Richest Marathons Is Taking Place Tonight At 9 PM ET – Get The Inside Scoop On The Inaugural Abu Dhabi Marathon Here

The Week That Was

LRC WTW: Valencia Keeps Impressing As A Running City, Sacramento Is Olympic Trials Qualifying Central, And Who Is Running Sub-2:08? America isn’t the one running sub-2:08 (or sub-2:12 for that matter), which makes us wonder should the men’s marathon standard be changed to 2:28.

USATF News

Former World Triple Jump Record Holder And Two-Time Olympian Willie Banks Defeats Stephanie Hightower For Spot As USATF’s IAAF Council Representative Banks defeated Hightower in a 391-217 vote. Banks noted that Hightower made some “missteps” by not campaigning much and accusing Bob Hersh of making “racially charged” comments when she replaced him in 2014.
USATF Q&A With Hall Of Fame Inductee Bob Hersh
*LRC Archives: #WeAreUSATF – It’s time to show them you care -Final Editorial on Bob Hersh-Stephanie Hightower

2018 NXN Results Full Coverage

LRC Girls: Katelyn Tuohy Breaks Course Record As Summit HS (Oregon) Stops Fayetteville-Manlius Win Streak Tuohy was impressive and Summit HS became the first West Coast team ever to win NXN.

LRC Boys: Loudoun Valley Repeats With Lowest Score Ever, Liam Anderson First Under 15:00 It was a record-setting day with a course record (course is only 5 years is old) and LV breaking its score from last year for lowest ever.

DyeStat: Katelyn Tuohy Overcomes Pressure And Nerves To Capture Second Straight NXN Title Tuohy: “I definitely went out way too fast, got pretty excited, and paid for it toward the end. I was more happy with how I finished mentally than with my time.”
DyeStat: Summit Girls Break Through At NXN
*MileSplit: A Recap Of The Historic Girls Race At NXN
DyeStat: Loudoun Valley Becomes First Team To Win Back To Back Boys NXN Titles
DyeStat: Kashon Harrison Repeats As Kristin Fahy Adds To Family Legacy At Foot Locker West Regional Harrison was the first back-to-back boys winner since 1998 while Fahy followed in her brother’s footsteps to become the only sibling winners in meet history.
Runner’s World NXN Recap

MB: Official 2018 NXN Discussion Thread
MB: Tuohy will NOT win NXN
MB: Winning NXN and flying first class
MB: Did Liam Anderson set the NXN course record today?!

Pre-Weekend

Degitu Azmeraw Returning To Defend Her Title At The Kolkata 25K In India On the men’s side, Kenenisa Bekele‘s 1:13:48 India all-comers record is the goal for 58:42 man Eric Kiptanui and Ethiopia’s Birhanu Legese.
A Record Eight Countries Will Compete At The Asia & Oceania 24 Hour Championships In Taipei City
IAAF: Spanish All-Comers’ Records The Goals At Sunday’s Valencia Marathon

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.

Euro XC Champs Are December 9th In The Netherlands

Great Britain Names 40-Strong Team For European XC Champs Team includes Dewi Griffiths, Andy Vernon and former NCAA XC champ Kate Avery.
Can Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa Win His Fifth Successive Individual Medal At Euro XC Champs? Crippa is eligible for the under-23 race and would be the favorite, but has decided to skip ahead and race the top men in the senior race.
Germany Selects Team Of 30 For Euro XC Champs In Tilburg
EA: Spain Selects Strong Senior Men’s Team For Tilburg

Doping / Corruption

Kenya’s Kipyegon Bett Says He Won’t Appeal Doping Decision “Since It Involves A Lot Of Money That I Don’t Have At The Moment” Not to mention he would almost certainly lose considering they have him on an EPO positive and missed tests (some reports say he refused to take a test, others say he missed three out-of-competition tests).
Latvian Athletics President And Former Long Jumper Ineta Radevinca Tests Positive In London 2012 Retests She was 4th place and carried Latvia’s flag at the Closing Ceremony. If her suspension is upheld, she’ll make the third finalist from the 2012 women’s LJ to be retrospectively DQed.
MB: Asbel Kiprop on Living Under Doping Cloud
Leaked Documents Claim FIFA Ethics Judge Blocked Potential McLaren Investigation Into Doping In Russian Soccer It is suspected this was a ploy from FIFA to make sure doping in Russian soccer wasn’t investigated before the World Cup.

The 40th Foot Locker XC Is Saturday

LRC 2018 Foot Locker Preview: Meet Sydney Masciarelli, The Latest Prep Phenom, & Can Cole Hocker Bounce Back From NXN To Win In San Diego? We introduce you to Sydney Masciarelli, the 5’10” phenom who we think will win the Foot Locker crown in her first season of cross country running.
*MB: Offiical 2018 Foot Locker XC Discussion Thread – And your 2018 winners will be….

LRC Q&A, Part II: Marc & Joan Hunter Explain Loudoun Valley’s Supplemental Work & Respond To Claims That They Recruit Transfers While the Hunters admit they have benefitted from transfers, they do not recruit and say they have actually talked several families out of transferring into their district.

LRC Q&A, Part I: Marc & Joan Hunter, Coaches Of Back-To-Back NXN Champions Loudoun Valley, Discuss Their Training Philosophy & How To Build A Champion The masterminds behind the boys back-to-back national champs share some of their secrets to the LetsRun nation.
*MB: How to win NXN two years in a row? Joan and Marc Hunter Q & A

News From The IAAF

LRC IAAF Announces Tougher 2019 World Championships Entry Standards – Which Ones Were Changed The Most? The women’s 1,500 mark is now a full second tougher at 4:06.50 and the 10k drops all the way down to 31:50 from 32:15. The men’s 10k is now 27:40.

Budapest Officially Awarded 2023 IAAF World Championships They were the only candidate under the IAAF’s new model which ended bidding and introduced a ~~corruption~~ consultation process.
*MB: 2023 IAAF World Championships awarded to Budapest (Hungary)
WADA And The IOC Could Learn Something From Track And Field: IAAF Upholds Doping Ban On Russian Athletics Federation The ban is in place pending full access to doping data stored in the Moscow lab and financial compensation for the IAAF’s investigations. This is how it should work, you unban them after they fulfill the terms, not before.

Weekend NCAA Coverage

MB: FAST women’s indoor 5k – Ednah Kurgat, Weini Kelati, Sharon Lokedi, Allie Ostrander all run 15:16-15:14!
USTFCCCA Recap: Grand Valley State Men And Women Sweep NCAA DII Cross-Country Championships Individual titles went to Marcela Laguera of CSU Pueblo and Sarah Berger of Grand Valley State, who came out on top in the muddy conditions. *Results

Running With The Buffaloes 20 Years Later

LRC Q&A: Adam Goucher Talks Running With The Buffaloes, His Greatest Running Memories, & The Stress Of Becoming A Whistleblower Against Alberto Salazar & NOP Goucher reveals that he thinks a resolution is looming soon in the Nike Oregon Project doping case. “I think it’s coming very, very soon, but until there is that ultimate resolution, you’re just kind of waiting.”
*MB: Breaking: Adam Goucher says he thinks a resolution to the Salazar/NOP doping investigation is “coming very, very soon”
*MB: If Adam Goucher graduated in 2018, would he get a shoe deal?

LRC Where Are They Now? Catching Up With the Members Of The 1998 University Of Colorado XC Team 20 Years After “Running With The Buffaloes“ We catch up with the key figures from Running With The Buffaloes 20 years later.

LRC Running With The Buffaloes At 20: Author Chris Lear Reflects On The Running Cult Classic In An In-Depth Interview
*Purchase Here
*MB: Running with the Buffaloes 20 years later – We catch up with Adam Goucher, Chris Lear and the Buffs

Pro Distance News

MB: Germany’s 3:58 Woman Konstanze Klosterhalfen To NOP? An article translated from German says she’s in Oregon being coached by NOP’s Pete Julian, but technically is “not part of the project.”
Vivian Cheruiyot Looking Forward To Making Her Olympic Marathon Debut At Tokyo 2020 First Cheruiyot will try to defend her London Marathon title and then says she’ll decide if she’ll run World Champs.
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Olympic Marathon Trials 6th Placer Kellyn Taylor Taylor talks about her marathon career and what’s next as well as being a pro athlete and a firefighter.

Pre-NXN News

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

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

USATF Marathon Champs *USATF Results

USATF Champs: Emma Bates Runs 2:28:18 To Win In Her Debut, Virtual Unknown Brogan Austin Comes From Behind To Defeat Matt Llano In 2:12:38 Stephanie Bruce 2nd on women’s side.
*RRW: Brogan Austin, Emma Bates Win USATF Marathon Titles At Cal Int’l Marathon
*Stellar Local Coverage From The Sacramento Bee: “Who were all those runners in the street? Competitors in the California International Marathon.”

*Official 2018 CIM Thread
*EMMA MF BATES
*Is CIM the Vaporfly 4% of Marathons? – ThonQuestion

Pre-Race:

RRW 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.
RRW: His Arteries Repaired, Andrew Colley Is Ready To Run His First Marathon Colley had to have two surgeries on his legs to fix a rare condition which prevents blood flow.
RRW: Recovered From TCS NYC Marathon, Stephanie Bruce Seeks USA Marathon Title In Sacramento

Marathon Sunday: Fukuoka, Valencia

Fukuoka: Yuma Hattori Runs 2:07:27 To Become First Japanese Winner In 14 Years Yemene Tsegaye was 2nd, Yuki Kawauchi 10th (2:12:03). Japan now has 4 men under 2:07, 16 men under 2:10 and the USA has 1 under 2:12.
*Live Fukuoka Thread

Valencia: Leul Gebresilase 2:04:30, Tsegaye Kebede 4th In 2:05:20, Ashete Dido Wins Women’s In 2:21:14 4th fastest ever for Kebede, who used to be the world #1.

GB’s Stephanie Twell Runs Strong 2:30:12 Marathon Debut In Valencia The time makes her second-fastest GB woman this year.
Italy’s World Marathon Silver Medalist Valeeria Straneo Running Her First Marathon In Two-And-A-Half Years This Weekend In Valencia The 42-year-old has the fastest PR in the field (2:23:44), but after dealing with injuries for the last few years, she said she’s just happy to be back on the starting line.

NCAA Cross-Country Banquet Photo Gallery (60+ Photos)

Non-Elite News

Traffic Cameras Catch More Than 250 Runners Cheating At The Shenzhen Half Marathon In China There were 18 runners with fake bibs, three imposters and 237 course cutters. The included gif shows a bunch of runners cutting through trees from one side of the course to the other. The race organizers are banning them all for 2 years. Good on them. *CNN Article
Runner’s World: Interesting Stats From Last Year’s Strava Data Apparently a lot of Strava runners are getting a cold beer afterwards and as always, Thanksgiving was the most active day of the year in the US.

US Distance News

Extensive Q&A With US Olympian John Gregorek Gregorek qualified for the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, but only ran in 1984 because of the 1980 boycott. Gregorek talks about that, his 8-time All-American collegiate career, and his 3:53 miler son, Johnny.
MB: Adam Goucher rips Alberto Salazar and Rupp on Citius Mag Podcast Goucher says Salazar wasn’t actually interested in coaching him and wanted Goucher there as a training partner for Galen Rupp. We’re publishing our Goucher Q&A tomorrow.
MB: Parker Stinson being coached by Dathan Ritzenhein
Martin Hehir Talks Ahead Of His Marathon Debut At CIM About Training As A Pro While Going To Med School Heir is coached by Chris Fox as part of the new Reebok Track Club. Fox says, “We’re all amazed by him. I’ve been around professional runners for the last 30 years. Everyone just naps [between workouts]; Marty goes to med school. He’s a different guy.”