We Reveal The $ecrets Of The Sport

LRC How To Turn Pro In Track & Field, Part II: Signing The Shoe Contract So you’ve hired an agent. Now it’s time to secure a shoe deal. Do you go for the biggest offer, or the one that lets you work with your preferred coach? Do you chase bonuses or go with a smaller, more secure contract? And what about that reduction clause thing? We explain it all in Part II.

LRC How To Turn Pro In Track & Field, Part I: Finding An Agent What happens between an athlete’s final NCAA race and their professional debut? From finding an agent to signing a contract, our three-part series tells you everything you need to know.
*MB: LRC Investigates: How To Turn Pro In Track & Field

Related: From The 2018 Archives: LRC Pro Runners’ Salaries: How Much Do Professional Runners Make? We Unveil One of The Sport’s Biggest Secrets

Vaporfly News

• Unfit Journalist Puts On Vaporflys, Knocks 2.5 Minutes Off A 42-Minute Run
• Paula Radcliffe On Vaporflys: “I’m kind of sitting on the fence a little bit with how much the shoes on their own are distorting the competition.” Go to the last 35 seconds of the interview from Radcliffe, who is doing the commentary in Dubai.
• From Paul Tergat’s Filas To Eliud Kipchoge’s Alphaflys, AW Shoe Guru Looks At History Of Carbon Fiber-Plated Shoes Tergat set his marathon WR in shoes that had a fiber plate.
• Wall Street Journal Produces 8-Minute Video On Vaporfly Controversy

Women’s News Of Note

• Foot Locker Champ Zofia Dudek Has Long-Term Vision For Track She wants to be competing in the middle of the summer – at World Juniors in Kenya – but is feeling good after taking 2 weeks off following XC.
• Saitama International Marathon To Be Discontinued The women’s elite race which was only 5 years old featured a $6.4 million budget but only 1 elite Japanese woman ran it last year as the pros didn’t like it as it was so hilly. Amateurs, however, love it and it may be brought back in 2021 as it’s one of Japan’s biggest races with 20,000 runners.
• What’s A Week Of Training Like With Team Boss (Joe Bosshard’s Group)? Aisha Praught-Leer Shares A Week Of Her Training The hard days are hard and include weights and the easy days are easy.
• How Katie Izzo Has Gone From Breaking Her Tibia And Fibula In 2016 To A 15:13 Indoor 5,000 For Arkansas Her PR for Cal Poly was 16:08.
• Olivia Baker Talks About Her Bittersweet 2019 Campaign Her first year as a pro saw her finish 4th at USAs but she didn’t have the 2:00.60 standard which would have gotten her to Doha as Ajee won the DL. The Stanford grad now trains in Austin, TX where she has a running book club with Keturah Orji.
• After Making The 800m Final In Doha, Ce’Aira Brown Is Considering Doubling Up In The 800 And 1,500 At The 2020 Trials “I’m with the 1,500 girls on strength days and the 800 girls on speed days.”

Random Olympic News

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe Claims Tokyo 2020 Will Mark New Era For Japan Just Like It Did In 1964 1964 marked the return to the world for Japan after WWII. In the final event of the Olympics, a 19-year-old who was born in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb fell, was the last person to finish the marathon.
• HJ Star Maria Lasitskene Lashes Out At Russian Federation As She’s Fearing She’ll Miss A 2nd-Straight Olympics We feel for her but what is the IAAF supposed to do when it came out recently that Russia “forged documents to justify a whereabouts violation by (men’s) high jumper Danil Lysenko.”
• What Happens If An Earthquake Hits The Tokyo 2020 Olympics? The Japanese have a plan.
• It’s An Olympic Year And Two Recent Oregon Track And Field Grads Are Getting Ready For The … 2022 Winter Olympics Venessa D’Arpino and Spenser Schmidt have earned spots on the USA Bobsled and Skeleton.

Olympic / Admin News

• This Won’t Get Confusing For Local Viewers:Five Japanese Television Networks Will Take Turns Broadcasting Tokyo 2020, Rotating On A Daily Basis According to Kyodo News, the move is intended to counter the country’s national broadcasting organisation NHK.
• Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Becomes A Brand Ambassador For Visa, Signs Endorsement Contract
• Pavel Kolobkov Steps Down From Role As Russian Sports Minister After Entire Russian Government Resigns The entire government resigned after President Vladimir Putin‘s annual state-of-the-nation address where he proposed several changes to the constitution.
  *Russian Government Resignation Throws Spotlight On Putin’s Succession Plans
• Tokyo 2020 Torch Relay To Visit Town Near Fukushima Declared No-Go Zone
• Safety Concerns Prompt Rio Judge To Order Closure Of Olympic Park
• Seb Coe Inaugurates New NACAC Headquarters In Nassau, The Bahamas

Looking Ahead

• February 19:Selemon Barega Announced The 3000m For The Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais In Liévin, France Also announced is Orlando Ortega vs. Pascal Martinot Lagarde in the 60H.
• The 2020 Diamond League By The Numbers The season will span 147 days, starting in April for the first time.

The Decade Has Ended

LRC LetsRun.com’s Decade Awards: Alberto Salazar Is Our Person Of The Decade + Best Runner, Best Upset, Doping Excuse Of The Decade, & More! In a decade marked by controversy, it’s fitting that Alberto Salazar is our Person of the Decade as controversy clung to Salazar like a paper clip to a magnet. Plus who wins our world and US athlete of the decade honors?

LRCUS And World Runners Of The Decade: Jenny Simpson, Matthew Centrowitz, Caster Semenya And Eliud Kipchoge 

LRC 2019 LetsRun.com World And American Rankings: Donavan Brazier And Ajee’ Wilson Are World #1s The 6th annual world and US distance rankings are here and for the first time ever two Americans are #1 in the world in their events.

• Rojo Speaks: The 2010s Are History: It Was Both The Best And Worst Of Times For Track And Field Fans What a crazy decade. From Chris Solinsky‘s 26:59 at the start of the decade to Brigid Kosgei‘s 2:14:04 at the end, there were plenty of high highs but the lows were also big as well as Olympic champs at 800, 1,500, steeple and the marathon were all banned from the sport. What does it all mean? LetsRun.com co-founder Robert Johnson looks for meaning and tries to figure it all out by taking you back in a time machine to January 1, 2010.