London Marathon Is Sunday And It’s Time To Get Excited

LRC 3 Massive Reasons To Get Excited For London: Kipchoge Vs. Farah, Women’s Race For The Ages, Huddle And Sisson Trying To Run Fast Eliud Kipchoge vs. Mo Farah (and the field) on the men’s side, the greatest women’s field ever assembled, and Americans Molly Huddle and Emily Sisson trying to run fast.

Recommended Read: Runner’s World Catches Up With Eliud Kipchoge Ahead Of His London Marathon Title Defense Kipchoge talks about several topics with some great quotes on training and doping. Comparing running to driving a Ferrari he said, “If you concentrate on the rear mirror, you’ll crash and cause an accident.”
*MB: Kipchoge: “I have been doing all things at 80 percent”

Week That Was

WTWWTW: Asbel Kiprop Is Dirty, Michael Norman Is Super-Fast And So Is Divine Oduduru, Plus The Quax Family Vs. The Centros

A Good And Bad Read From The NY Times

• Good: NY Times: “For Kenyan Runners, Winning Can Be A Road To Ruin” Like lottery winners in the US, some Kenyan runners who “hit it big” with a major marathon win and payday still eventually find themselves right back in poverty. *Discuss
• Bad: NY Times: “Why Don’t Women Get Comebacks Like Tiger Woods” The author implies sexism is the reason women can’t have a comeback, but then compares athletes like Woods (who just won the Masters) to a retired athlete like Suzy Favor Hamilton. If Hamilton all of a sudden found herself in Olympic medal-winning shape, we’re sure she’d have plenty of sponsors lining up.
  *MB: NYT Article wonders why women like Suzy Favor Hamilton don’t get comebacks like Tiger Woods did (except for Serena)

Distance News / Road Results

Asbel Kiprop’s 4-Year Doping Ban Upheld By Athletics Integrity Unit
*Asbel Kiprop: “I’m innocent.” “It’s sad that the world will believe that I am guilty of taking the performance-enhancing drugs and yet I have been at the forefront of fighting doping in the sport.”
*Daily Nation: Why Asbel Kiprop’s Multi-Pronged Doping Defence Failed
*Capital Sports: Kiprop Insists On Innocence Despite Ban
*MB: Kenyan doper Asbel Kiprop (1500m), banned for 4 years by AIU due to convincingly made out case, can still appeal to CAS

Crescent City Classic 8:58 Steepler Celliphine Chespol Wins Women’s 10k Title In First-Ever 10k In 31:40
*7:58 Steepler Jairus Birech Wins Men’s Crescent City Classic 10k Title In 27:52
*Kevin Castille (30:52) And Jen Rhines (35:34) Win Masters Titles
*MB: CELLIPHINE CHESPOL: her potential at 17 yrs old, greater than Kenenisa Bekele – Vipam
*MB: Parker Stinson goes for broke but still ends up top American He ran 29:10 the hard way – 14:04 – 15:06.

• Uganda’s Jackson Kiprop (2:10:39) And Ethiopia’s Meskerem Hunde (2:33:32) Win Nagano Marathon In Japan Kiprop beat out Derese Geleta by just  -seconds.
• International Road Recap By IAAF: 59:56 And 68:04 Half Marathons In China Lead The Way (link fixed)
• MB: Tirunesh Dibaba Is OUT Of The 2019 London Marathon As She’s Pregnant With Child #2
• 3-Time Comrades Champ Bongmusa Mthembu Comes From Behind To Win Two Oceans As Gerda Steyn Repeats As Women’s Champ It was close at the finish as the article says Mthembu only passed Sintayehu Legese 4km from the finish and Legese ended up 4th. *Top 4 Results
  *MB: Zach Ornelas Two Oceans 56k, 3:19, 9th overall The MB poster says he’s the 1st American ever in the top 10.
  *Male Runner, 35, Dies During Two Oceans Half Marathon
• USATF 1 Mile Road Championships Is Tuesday In Iowa – Masters, Lipari Eye Repeat But They’ll Have Plenty Of Competition Kyle Merber, Lawi Lalang, Nikki Hiltz, Shannon Osika, etc.
• Kate Avery’s Comeback From Injury Is Going Well, But She’s Not Quite Back To Training Like She Used To

Sprint / Vault News

• Coach Thinks Kiwi 17-Year-Old Sprint Star Eddie Osei-Nketia Can Also Star For All Blacks Sevens In Rugby He’s already run 10.19 and 20.76 at 17.
• Kiwi Pole Vault Star Olivia McTaggart Will Need Surgery After Pole Snaps (Video)
• The Great Clyde Hart, 85, Is Finally Hanging Up His Stopwatch After This Season Best known for coaching Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner to Olympic 400 gold, he doesn’t want to be remembered as a 400 coach. “I was a track coach.”
• Kendall Ellis Making Her Pro Debut At Mt. SAC Ellis is doing just fine financially but her former USC teammate Jaide Stepter has been a pro for years and still doesn’t have a contract even after running 50.63 last year.
• DuckSports Profile On Oregon Sprinter Cravon Gillespie, Who Will Be Competing At His Former Stomping Grounds At Mt. Sac.
• HSer Matthew Boling Runs 10.11w, Garners Headline In Italian Press As “The Fastest White Ever?”

More Boston Leftovers

• Good Read: Outside: Scott Fauble Explains Why He Shares All His Training On Strava “This isn’t a sport like football or basketball where you can out-game plan somebody. You show up and you’re either fit or not. Whether you share your training or not isn’t going to change how fit or unfit you are.”
  *MB: Scott Fauble Wants to Tell You His Strava Secrets
• Good Read: Former Track Star Who Lost Feet To Frostbite Ran A World Best For Double Amputees At Boston Marko Cheseto ran 2:42:24 to beat the previous world best of 2:42:52 from 2010.
  *MB Archives: ESPN documentary on UAA runner, Marko Cheseto
• Ireland’s Fionnuala McCormack Looking Toward Tokyo 2020 After 11th Place Finish In Boston McCormack set a 44-second PR just 6 months after giving birth to her daughter, Isla.
• AP: Marine Running Marathon For Fallen Friends Crawled To The Boston Marathon Finish Line When Micah Herndon‘s legs seized up, he crawled the last 100 yards to the finish. He says he uses running to help deal with post-traumatic stress from his time overseas. *NBC News Video
  *MB: Marine crawls over finish line in Boston: Overdone?
• MB: China bans 3 Boston Marathon cheats for life for giving country a bad name
• Interesting: The Telegraph Looks Back At When Katherine Switzer Was Chased By An Official For Wearing A Bib During The 1967 Boston Marathon Switzer was running with her nationally ranked hammer thrower boyfriend (future ex-husband) Tom Miller, who was removed from the Amateur Athletic Union for body checking the official who tried to wrestle away her bib.
• Joan Benoit Samuelsonn Crushed Her Goal With A 3:04 At The Boston Marathon The 61-year-old wanted to run within 40 minutes of her 2:35:15 winning time from 40 years ago, but topped that by coming in less than 30 minutes over that time.
• Lawrence Cherono Dedicates His Boston Marathon Victory To His Family “I want to dedicate my win to my wife and my brother who gave me all the support during my training.”
• How Did The Celebrities Do At This Year’s Boston Marathon? Former Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson ran the BAA 5k in 31:54 and her her husband, NFL player Andrew East, ran 4:43:05 for the marathon.
• RW’s Most Inspiring Photos From Boston Did you know Meb Keflezighi was the Boston grand marshal?

Notre Dame And Paris 2024

• IOC Pledges $562,000 To Help Restore Notre Dame Ahead Of The 2024 Paris Olympics France’s president says he wants to see Notre Dame restored within five years.
• InsideTheGames‘ David Owen: “Notre Dame Fire Will Change Paris 2024” Owens writes, “The disaster may provide embattled French President Emmanuel Macron with an opportunity, for a time, to conjure a much-needed sense of national unity …”

News From The IAAF

• World’s Largest Ever Athletics Exhibition Opens In Largest Shopping Mall in Doha – Will Stay Open Through Worlds During the opening ceremony Lasse Viren donated the pair of shoes he wore when running the marathon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Seb Coecontributed the spikes and vest he wore when winning the Olympic 1500.
• IAAF Releases Consensus Statement On Nutrition For Athletes Looks like mostly basic info (nutrition and protein can help rehab muscle injuries for example), but with 16 different articles there is sure to be some good information in there.

Sprint Stuff

• Recommended Read: USA Today Profiles Noah Lyles And His Journey Going Pro Right Out Of High School Also includes a video with interviews with Lyles, his mother and his coach. Talking about the “next Usain Bolt” Lyes says, “Whatever Usain did was awesome. … I see that as a great way to say, ‘I’m going to break that, and then I’m going to get even bigger than him.'”
• Kenya Not Sending 4 X 100 Or 4 X 400 Relay Teams To The IAAF World Relays Apparently the only one they hit the standard in was the men’s 4 x 400, but the IAAF didn’t ratify the meet it came at. Kenya will still send 4 x 200 and mixed relay teams where there were no standards.
• RIP: New Zealand’s First Female Olympic Gold Medalist And Former Long Jump WR Holder Yvette Corlett Has Died, Aged 89 She won the LJ at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games.
• Jamaica Names 80-Strong Team For Carifta Games Includes the Ato Boldon-coached Briana Williams.

NCAA Stuff

• UCLA College Admissions Scandal: LA Times Alleges Parents Paid $100,000 To Get Their Daughter Into UCLA As A Track Athlete Reportedly a woman athlete got into the school and onto the track team even though former UCLA track coach Mike Maynard said she wasn’t “athletically up to the performance level” of UCLA, but he felt “manipulated” into listing her as a recruit.
• South Carolina’s Quincy Hall And The University Of The Incarnate Word’s Sarea Alexander Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week Hall set the NCAA 400m lead with 44.53 while Alexander tied the NCAA LJ lead with 6.60m.
• No Changes To The Top 3 Men’s Teams In Updated Men’s NCAA Rankings Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Florida sit 1-3 while LSU moved up from 6th to 4th.
• Top 3 Women’s NCAA Teams Remain Unchanged With Southern California, Texas A&M And Arkansas LSU moved up one spot to 4th.

Tweets By letsrundotcom