This Weekend’s Action

• RRW Amy Cragg Racing Prague Half On Saturday – Views Race As Stepping Stone To 2020 Success Many me be surprised that Cragg, who hasn’t run a marathon since running 2:21:42 in Tokyo in February 2018, isn’t doing a spring marathon.
• IAAF’s Weekend Road Preview: Ruth Chepngetich (2:17:08 Dubai 2019) And World Half Champion Netsanet Gudeta To Clash At Istanbul Half This Weekend Guye Adola leads the men’s field.

Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Is Sunday (Watch Live For Free 7:10 AM ET)

• Defending Champions Jemal Yimer And Buze Diriba Return To Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run LetsRun.com’s Kelsey Bruce will also be racing.  You can watch it live (or on demand later) for free at 7:10 am ET on Sunday here.
• Great Read: Bethany Sachtleben, Who Is Racing Cherry Blossom This Weekend,  Took An Unconventional Path To The Olympic Marathon Trials After being home schooled in HS, when she walked on to the team at George Mason and was told to do 1k workouts, she had no idea what to do as she’d never done a workout in her life.
• MB: Amazing: 2:31 US Marathoner Bethany Sachtleben had no idea that runners ran workouts when she started running in college 

Carlsbad 5,000 Is Sunday As Well (Watch Live For Free AT 3:00 PM ET)

• Toni Reavis: Carlsbad 5,000 – World’s Most Famous 5,000 Road Race Was Going To Be Shut Down This Year Had Not Ashley Gibson & Meb Keflezigh Purchased It Having someone who understands elite running in charge is critical.
• MB: Carlsbad 5000 is Sunday. King Ches WILL break the new bogus WR of 13:29 You can watch the elite pro races for free starting at 3 pm ET.
• Next Weekend: BAA 5k And Mile Ennounced. Hagos G, Ben True, Drew Hunter And Justyn Knight Are All In The 5,000

Week That Was

LRC WTW: 7 Final Thoughts About World XC + Emily Sisson Delivers Is Burundi on its way to being the newest East African distance power? How in the world did the US men lose to Tanzania? Plus Dom Scott went for it big time (and blew up big time) and a look back at Eliud Kipchoge‘s four runs at World XC.

News From Oregon

• Ken Goe Says There Was An “Elephant In The Room” At The TrackTown Tuesday Meeting Goe says it was unfortunate that Lauren Fleshman, a USATF board member, didn’t address the situation with Vin Lananna. Goe laments how Fleshman used to be very outspoken about USATF, but “now that she is part of the power structure, her voice has been silenced.”
• Despite Winter Snow Storms, Hayward Field Construction Remains On Schedule UO Spokesperson Molly Blancett: “When it’s complete, it’ll be the finest track and field in the world.”
• Register-Guard: “Eugene And Lane County Planning Now For Influx Of Visitors During 2021 IAAF World Championships” Eugene is expected to get 50,000 daily visitors during Worlds.
  *KVAL.com: “With Eye Set On 2021, Eugene Prepares For The World Stage”

Boston Is In Less Than Two Weeks

• Sara Hall Says She Feels Like She’s “In The Best Cardiovascular Shape” Of Her Life As She Prepares To Make Her Boston Marathon Debut Hall never thought she’d still be running professionally at 36 as her dream was “to do development work in Africa [living] in a mud hut.” But she says she’s enjoying it more than ever and set PRs in the full and half last year.
• Two-Time World Marathon Champ Edna Kiplagat Looking To Reclaim Her Boston Marathon Title Kiplagat won Boston in 2017, but lost last year to Des Linden.
• RW Looks Back At Five Of The Worst Weather Days In Boston Marathon History
• Brooks Puts Out A Boston Shoe With A Map Of Boston’s Public Transit Line (“The T”)
• AP: No Known Threats To The Boston Marathon, But Police Still Urge Caution Six years on from the Boston bombing, some security measures used include surveillance cameras, helicopters and “plainclothes officers” mingling in the crowds.

Sprint Stuff

• After Ending His 2018 Outdoor Season Early With Injury, Andre De Grasse Was Back In Action At Last Weekend’s Florida Relays De Grasse anchored Canada to wins in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200. Their 38.34 was a 4 x 100 world lead and beat the USA team with Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, who were only 4th in 39.07.
• Jamaican Journalist Argues That The False Start Rules Should Be Less Harsh For Young Athletes Among the reasons they’d like to see this is that the noise in the stadium during Jamaican Boys & Girls Champs is so loud that kids have a hard time hearing the starter’s instructions.
• Video: Usain Bolt Briefly Comes Out Of Retirement To Race A Motorcycle Taxi In Lima Spoiler alert: Bolt won.
• Aries Merritt Donates The Spikes He Wore Setting The World Record To The IAAF Heritage Exhibition In Doha Merritt wore the spikes at the 2012 Brussels Diamond League when he ran 12.80 seconds.
• RIP: Olympic Hurdler And Former UNC Coach Charles Foster Passes Away At 65

Ultra / Trail News

• MB: Ultra discussion: thoughts on the Georgia Death Race controversy? Race officials marked the course wrong, sending 10 to 15 runners off course. They ended up running an extra half mile, but subtracting 200-400 feet elevation, so the RD gave them a 60-minute time penalty!
• GB 100k Champ Sophie Mullins Designed Her Own App To Calculate Her Nutrition For The Race She explained there is a balance between eating enough, but not too much. “You couldn’t eat too much or you’d be sick, which defeats the purpose when you’re getting the food in for fuel.”
• New Zealand’s Greig Hamilton Was The Second Last To “Tap Out” (DNF) At The Barkley Marathon There were no finishers this year. John Kelly, one of only 15 who have ever finished the race, only did two of the five laps saying he was “no longer having fun.”
  *MB: The 2019 Barkley Marathons – Zero Finishers
• Runner Still Missing After Starting Malaysian Trail Race 10 Days Ago He was last seen around 20k into the 25k race.