Distance News

• Toni Reavis Writes About How 2019 Was A “Sub 2:10 Bonanza” 2019 didn’t just break the record for sub-2:10’s it destroyed it. There were 150 sub-2:10’s in 2016, 186 in 2017, 164 in 2018 and a ridiculous 293 in 2019. What could have changed?
• David Rudisha Admits He Needs To Lose Some Weight As He Looks Ahead To Tokyo 2020 “I am working on shedding off some weight then see how my body reacts to the training.”
• Kenya’s Former Tokyo Marathon Champ Sarah Chepchirchir Banned For Doping She was provisionally suspended in February and now has an official 4-year ban for EPO. Kenyan runners Mercy Jerotich Kibarus and James Kibet have also been provisionally suspended by the AIU.

Russian Doping News

• Chair Of The British Athletes Commission Quits WADA Over Refusal To Ban Russia From All Sport Victoria Aggar: “I simply can no longer be a part of an organisation that places politics over principle.”​
• Former WADA President Dick Pound: Taking Off The Gloves – Russia Called To Account” “The velvet glove treatment did not produce the hoped-for conduct change within Russia’s sport-doping culture.”
• AP: WADA Committee Chairman Defends Partial Russian Ban Jonathan Taylor: “We have to be careful as well, because those who say it should be blanket ban … it’ll be thrown out in court. We have to focus on what happened in 2018 and ’19. That was the cover-up of the cover-up of the original doping.”
• USOPC Chair Concerned About How Russians Prove They’re Clean
• WADA Director General Olivier Niggli Admits There Is A “Great Polarization Of Athlete Views” On Russia
• Reuters: Russian Track Athletes Could Still Be At Tokyo 2020 As Neutrals

Voting Now Open – 64 Races … 32 Remain … 1 Champion

LRC Race Of The Decade, First Round Recap: Kenenisa Bekele’s 2019 Berlin Win Defeats Yuki Kawauchi’s 2018 Boston Win In Controversial Fashion, Plus Des Linden Takes Down Shalane Flanagan The first round of December Madness – LetsRun.com’s 64-race battle for RACE OF THE DECADE – is in the books and the action was spectacular. The matchup between the GOAT – Kenenisa Bekele and his win in Berlin in 2019 – and the people’s champ in Yuki Kawauchi and his 2018 Boston win is a battle that track and field fans will be talking about for decades as it featured a controversial finish and was decided by a single vote. In another instant classic, Des Linden‘s 2018 Boston victory knocked off Shalane Flanagan and her 2017 NYC win.

LRC What Was The Race Of The Decade? Round Of 32 Voting Now Open Some of the 2nd round matchups are salivating. Which was a better race – Kenenisa Bekele‘s Great North Run win in 2013 or his 2:01:41 2019 Berlin Marathon shocker? What about Mo Farah and Galen Rupp going 1-2 in the Olympics versus Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs going 1-2 at Worlds?  How does this year’s historic women’s 1,500 final at Worlds compare to the 2016 Olympics men’s 1,500 final? Or what about the 2019 world’s women’s 400 vs. the 2016 Olympic women’s 400?

Links That We Found Interesting

• Hmm … They Advertised On LRC And Then Sales Took Off Strava’s 2019 Data Reveals The Fastest-Growing Shoe Is HOKA Carbon X, Not Nike Vaporfly Or NEXT% The Hoka Carbon X gets great reviews on the LRC shoe site as does the Next%. Those links will take you to them and also shows you the best prices.
• Meet Andrew Davies, Who Set The British 40+ Marathon Record In Valencia At 2:14:38 He PRed in the 11th marathon of his career at age 40 and no, he wasn’t wearing the Next%s. He was wearing a New Balance prototype.
  *MB: Guy wearing New Balance’s prototype – not Next% or Vaporflys – smashes British 40+ marathon record
• Inspiring Read 2008 Olympic 800 Champ Wilfred Bungei Talks About His Battle With Alcoholism And Hopes He Will Inspire Others Bungei admits to driving drunk with his kids in the car and being so drunk he missed the birth of a child as he was found near death in a ditch. However, after entering rehab in 2012, he hasn’t had a drink in 7 months.
• Olympic Dreams Of Orthodox Jewish “Marathon Mother” Beatie Deutsch Take A Hit As 2020 Marathon Is Rescheduled For Sabbath Three years ago, she was a non-runner. Now the mother of 5, who makes her own racing skirts out of men’s dri-fit shorts, is an Olympic hopeful with a 2:36 PR.
  *Paralympic Marathons To Stay In Tokyo For 2020 Games
• World Athletics Takes A Look At The Rise Of African Road Races Want to run a marathon in Zambia? You can now and the President and 1st Lady might be running next to you.
• What To Do If You Have (Or Notice) An Abusive Coach? Here’s How You Can Report Them To The SafeSport Helpline
• Spokane’s $42 Million Indoor Sports Complex And Hydraulic Banked Track Will Look Spectacular The design video is pretty darn cool but will it really generate 26-46,000 hotel stays a year? That would be great if it does. *Spokanesportsplex.org
• Nike Hypocrite: Ultrarunner Robbie Britton Doesn’t Like Nike But He’s Not An Idiot And Bought Their Next% Shoes
• Shalane Flanagan Uses PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) Injections, But Does It Even Work?

Our Weekly Recap

WTW: Katelyn Tuohy Three-Peats, Pacemaker Wins Abu Dhabi, Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifiers Galore Katelyn Tuohy won her 3rd-straight NXN title. What does that mean for her future success? Plus a pacemaker won $100,000 in Abu Dhabi and there were a TON of Olympic Trials qualifiers at CIM.

Vaporfly / Russian Doping / Administrative News

• IAAF Tells Fox Business That No Edict On Legality Of Vaporflys Will Come Before The New Year “I don’t anticipate there being any news before our office closes for Christmas. Any announcement is likely to be in the New Year.”
• Vote Now! What Is THE Best Diamond League Moment Ever The Diamond League has existed for 10 years. What was the greatest moment ever?
• Russian HJ Star Maria Lasitskene Pens Op-Ed: “I Am A Russian World Champion And I Demand Answers” Where She Slams Russia “Why has barely anything changed? How come our athletes continue to systematically use banned substances, how come coaches linked to doping continue to work with impunity and how come our sporting officials continue to falsify official documents?”
• Travis Tygart Says Russia Just “Gets Emboldened” By The Doping Sanctions
• Australian Athletes Are Told They Will Be Stripped Of Their Medals In Tokyo If They Stage Protest On Medal Stand Against Doped-Up Russians
• Vladimir Putin Signals Russia Will Appeal Against 4-Year WADA Ban
• Brtish Olympic Association Formally Responds To The Recent Legal Challenge Brought Against The BOA’s Interpretation Of The IOC’s Rule 40 In The UK
• Abu Dhabi Named World’s Leading Destination For Sports Tourism

International News

• Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov Wonders How Any Russian Athletes Can Prove They Are “Clean” After WADA Finds Crucial Data From The Moscow Laboratory Was Deleted And Manipulated The reality is no one can ever prove they are clean.
• Pacemaker Reuben Kipyego Explains Why He Stayed In And Won $100,000 At Abu Dhabi Marathon In 2:04:40 “For me, the conditions were ideal and the course was beautiful.”
  *Abu Dhabi Named World’s Leading Destination For Sports Tourism
• A Profile Of Efrem Gidey, The Eritrean-Born Runner Who Won European Bronze For Ireland In The U20 Race
• Sapporo Budgets $6.5 Million For Road Repairs For Olympic Marathon
• Queensland Government Approves Australia’s 2032 Olympic Bid
• Former Marathon World Record Holder Wilson Kipsang Survives Sunday Night Car Crash With Truck In Kenya The crash comes just months after David Rudisha also was involved in a serious crash.

Tokyo 2020 Marathon News

• Japan Running News: Additional Cost Of Moving Olympic Marathons And Race Walks To Sapporo Expected To Total Almost $100 Million $100 million to put on 5 hours of races? That’s embarrassing and apparently that bloated doesn’t even include local expenses such as repaving the roads.
• Tokyo 2020 Reveals Refund Policy For Men’s Marathon Tickets They’ll be offering a straight refund. There are no tickets for the men’s and women’s marathon in Sapporo as there is no fixed seating along the course.

USATF End-Of-Year News

• Donavan Brazier And Dalilah Muhammad Named USATF Athletes Of The Year (Jesse Owens And Jackie Joyner-Kerseee Awards)
• Athing Mu Named USATF Youth AOY Jeannie Rice was named masters AOY after setting the 70-74 half-marathon WR with 1:37:07.
• Lawrence Johnson (Coach Of Dalilah Muhammad) Named Nike Coach Of The Year
• Dozens Honored At USATF Annual Meeting Awards Breakfast Gabriele Grunewald won two awards including the Toyota Humanitarian Award.
• 2020 USA Indoor Champs Will Return To Albuquerque