Trail / Ultra News

• Jim Walmsley Wins World Mountain Running Championships “Long Race” In Argentina Walmsley ran 3:12:16 for the 41.5k course to win by almost a minute as Romania’s Cristina Simion won the women’s race.
  *MB:Jim Walmsley World Mountain Champion!!
• US Gets Double Victory From Joe Gray And Grayson Murphy In World Mountain Running Champs 14k Race
• Kara Goucher Finishes 3rd At The North Face Endurance Challenge 50k Goucher ran 5:30:57 as Corinne Shalvoy won in 5:00:10. Nicholas Handel won the men’s race in 3:58:11.
• Nick Butter Becomes First Person To Run 196 Marathons In 196 Countries

Assorted Distance News

• Podcast Interview With Retired Mid-D Runner Phoebe Wright On Her Time Running For Nike And Some Of The Recent Hot Topics In The Sport Wright: “When you’re in a powerless position and the rest of your career is totally dependent on what you do, you aren’t going to burn bridges. You don’t have many bridges to walk across.”
• Short Video Interview With Molly Huddle About The Olympic Marathon Trials Course In Atlanta Huddle talks about what kind of runner she thinks will excel on the course and how she may adjust her training.
  *LRC Archive: LetsRun.com Previews The 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials Course – Where Cross-Country Meets The Marathon
• From Last Week: Kenya’s John Kipkorir Komen (2:16:34) And Greece’s Eleftheria Petroulaki (2:39:00) Win Athens Marathon
• Nutritionist And Physiologist Krista Austin:“One thing I will not do is bash Alberto Salazar because there’s a system that failed him just as much as a system that has failed Mary Cain.” Austin worked with Amy Yoder Begley whens hee ran for NOP to help her lower her weight.
  *MB: The system failed Alberto Salazar

More On Weight Issues And “Fat Shaming” In Women’s Running

• NY Times:Amy Yoder Begley Also Says Alberto Salazar Ridiculed Her Body For Years Begley recounts how Salazar not only criticized her body (even when she was in the 112 to 116 pound range), but made fun of her laugh, tried to keep her from being friends with her teammates and attempted to make her and Kara Goucher enemies.
  *MB:Amy Yoder-Begley tells NY Times Alberto Salazar asked her to sign a contract saying she would not befriend her NOP teammates
• The Telegraph:British Female Athletes Reveal Culture Of Fat Shaming Some athletes say they felt “bullied” about their weight by the head British coach, Charles van Commenee, in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics.
• Exercise Scientists, Including Ross Tucker, Talk About The Facts And Misconceptions Surrounding Body Weight And Elite Sport Performance Exercise physiologist and strength coach Richard Blagrove: “Putting someone on a scale every week doesn’t always tell a coach much. If your metabolic rate slows down, your body will overcompensate, meaning you aren’t losing much weight after all.”
• The Guardian’s Sean Ingle:“High Time That Nike And The IAAF Did The Right Thing By Athletes” Ingle writes, “The stars of track and field need a powerful and independent union to protect them from abuse from the sportswear giant and the mismanagement of the governing body.”

Salazar News

Sports Illustrated Writes 4,000+ Words on Cain’s Allegations on Salazar: Inside the Toxic Culture of the Nike Oregon Project ‘Cult’Chris Chavez‘s article includes Salazar’s full statement in response to Cain’s allegations plus quotes from Julian, Ritz, Cain, her father and others.
*MB: Mary Cain, her father, Ritz, Julian and others talk in-depth with Sports Illustrated includes Salazar’s full statement 

Salazar Apologizes/Defends Himself To Ken Goe “On occasion, I may have made comments that were callous or insensitive over the course of years of helping my athletes through hard training. If any athlete was hurt by any comments that I have made, such an effect was entirely unintended, and I am sorry. I do dispute, however, the notion that any athlete suffered any abuse or gender discrimination while running for the Oregon Project.”
*MB: BREAKING – Kara Goucher attacks Ken Goe on Twitter. Denies him interview request 

LRC Commentary Don’t Believe The Spin, Nike’s Treatment Of Mary Cain Is Very Much In Line With Its #1 Core Value: Win At All Costs Since its inception, Nike’s #1 message has been win at all costs. Not a surprise since Nike was named after the winged Greek goddess of victory. But winning often doesn’t come easy, so sometimes people take drugs or purge themselves to get to the top.

• CAS Says Alberto Salazar’s Appeal Will Be Held In March At The Earliest Doctor Jeffrey Brown has also appealed his ban. They both “requested additional time to file their written submissions and evidence.”
• Kara Goucher After Mary Cain’s Story:“[A coach] shouldn’t be talking to you about your relationship, or your weight, or your body, or the size of your butt. That’s not a place a coach should be.”

The US Olympic Marathon Trials Will Be Here Before You Know It (Feb. 29th)

LRC  The Road to Sapporo: Assessing the Women’s Field at the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials From Jordan Hasay (50%) to Stephanie Bruce (5%), we break down the odds for the contenders at the 2020 US Olympic Trials.

LRC  The Road to Sapporo: Where the US Men’s Marathoners Stand 3+ Months Out From the Olympic Trials Jonathan Gault breaks down the Americans’ chances of making the 2020 Olympic marathon team – from Galen Rupp (90%) to Dathan Ritzenhein (5%) and Benard Lagat (5%).

MB: Who are the favorites for the 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials? We tell you here.

More Athlete Blowback To Diamond League Cuts

• Triple Jump World Record Holder Jonathan Edward Critical Of Diamond League Event Cuts Edwards tweeted, “There are so many things wrong with World Athletics decision re Diamond League events but what Usain Bolt showed athletics is that it’s not about events but personalities and to exclude and alienate one of the sport’s true stars (Christian Taylor) is beyond comprehension.”
• GB Distance Runner Andy Butchart Considering Boycotting The DL After IAAF Cut The 5000m “I will try to not run as many Diamond Leagues and boycott and do other things. Because the IAAF right now is just a bit iffy.”
• Tianna Bartoletta Blogs About DL Cuts: “Diamonds Aren’t Forever” Bartoletta rips the IAAF and questions the research and justifications for the events they chose to cut.
• Scottish Sprinter Beth Dobbin Is Concerned For “Future Of The Sport” After Diamond League Cuts She is angry the 200m won’t be included in the DL and seems to be worried this could be a stepping stone to events being cut from the Olympics.

Mary Cain Makes Serious Allegations Against Alberto Salazar And Nike

LRC Nike, Alberto Salazar and Top Pros Respond To Mary Cain’s AllegationsNike has issued a statement saying they will start an immediate investigation of the “troubling allegations” while Cain has confirmed she did try to rejoin the team in April of this year. Additionally, three former NOP members have said Salazar was very focused on the weight of his female athletes, but Salazar has issued a forceful denial of Cain’s allegations, writing to Ken Goe, “To be clear, I never encouraged her, or worse yet, shamed her, to maintain an unhealthy weight.”
*Salazar Denies Cain’s Allegations Salazar tells Ken Goe that both of Cain’s parents, including her father who is an MD, were deeply involved in her training and aware of all supplement she was on. He says when Cain struggled “to find and maintain her ideal performance and training weight” he referred her to a female doctor. He also shared a text message from April where Cain wrote, “Thanks again so much for a great trip — I’m excited to be working together again and I really want this.”

LRC Full Transcript of NY Times Video: Mary Cain Says She Was “Emotionally And Physically Abused By A System Designed By Alberto [Salazar] And Endorsed By Nike”In an explosive New York Times video essay, Cain claims she was pressured by Salazar to lose weight (to get down to 114 pounds) and was weighed in front of teammates and “publicly shamed” if she didn’t hit weight. She also says Salazar wanted her to take birth control pills and diuretics to shed pounds – the latter of which is against track and field’s rules according to Cain. Cain also says she became suicidal and started to cut herself and says when she told Alberto Salazar and Darren Treasure that she was cutting herself that “they pretty much told me that they just wanted to go to bed.”
*MB:Explosive New York Times article: Mary Cain breaks silence about NOP

• Former NOP Runner Jackie Areson Speaks Out About Alberto Salazar On Instagram She says Salazar was “obsessed” with weight and called her fat and said she had a huge butt, even when she was setting PRs. She also says Salazar bashed Jenny Simpson for her weight in 2012 and says NOP’s Darren Treasure was “just as bad” as Salazar.
• Writer Elizabeth Weil Regrets The Positive Piece She Wrote On Mary Cain And NOP For The NY Times In 2015 “In hindsight I got it so wrong.”
• Shalane Flangan reacts “I’m so sorry @runmarycain that I never reached out to you when I saw you struggling. I made excuses to myself as to why I should mind my own business. We let you down. I will never turn my head again.”
• Mary Cain and her mother go on Good Morning America
• Amy Yoder Begley On Twitter:“After placing 6th in the 10,000m at the 2011 USATF championships, I was kicked out of the Oregon Project. I was told I was too fat and ‘had the biggest but on the startling line.'”
• Mary Cain Story Picked Up By People Magazine On twitter, Jonathan Marcus was the meet director for the 2015 Oxy meet and confirmed Cain’s story about Salazar yelling at her in public for “gaining weight.”

The Weekly LRC Podcast

LRC Podcast 2019 New York City Marathon Recap + Look at 2020 US Olympic Marathon Trials, New Shoes, World Marathon Majors Expansion? New York City is in the books and the Olympic Trials on the horizon.

One Final Look Back At NYC

LRC 4 Final Thoughts On The 2019 New York City Marathon: The NY Men’s Field Was Shallow, Desisa DNFs Early and Adidas Surprises? We take one final look at the NYC Marathon where for the first time all-year half the podium spots were taken by non-Vaporfly wearing athletes.
*MB: Stat of the Day: Heading into NY, 33 of 36 (91.67%) podium finisherss at the AWMMs in 2019 were wearing Vaporflys.

NCAA Updates

• Vin Lananna Sees “Boundless” Potential As New Director Of Virginia’s XC And Track Programs Lananna talks about how he wanted to be a “hands-on coach” again and shares his thoughts on the future of Virginia.
• UC Santa Barbara Men’s And Women’s XC And Track Programs Cited For NCAA Violations UC Santa Barbara self-detected and self-disclosed the violations which for the XC team, included mandatory logging of training in the summer.
  *MB: UC Santa Barb Athletes Punished for Running on Off Days
• NAU, BYU And Colorado Stay Ranked 1-3 In Week 6 NCAA Coaches’ Poll Oregon had a huge jump up from 16th to 6th.
  *Men’s Regional Rankings
• Arkansas And Stanford Women Remain 1-2 In Week 6 NCAA Rankings BYU moved to 3rd and Washington down to 4th.
  *Women’s Regional Rankings
• Colorado’s Joe Klecker And New Mexico’s Weini Kelati Are NCAA Athletes Of The Week At PAC-12, Klecker became the first Buffalo to win an individual title since 2007 while Kelati dominated at Mountain West Champs.