March 11, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Week that Was

LRC WTW: How Did Rupp and Tuliamuk Win? How Did Kipyego Hold Off Linden? USA Drug Cheats and Japanese Marathoning We take a deep dive into the splits of Galen Rupp and Aliphine Tuliamuk’s wins at the Trials and see how Sally Kipyego held off Des Linden.

Bonus Podcasts

LRC Aliphine Tuliamuk Podcast: Smooth Sailing for 25 Miles at the Trials, Eyeing a Medal in Sapporo Hear from the Olympic Marathon Trials champ.

LRC Ben Rosario HOKA NAZ Elite Coach and Coach of 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials Champ Aliphine Tuliamuk How did coach Ben go about the big day, how did he build his team, and what are the plans for Sapporo.

Coronavirus Updates

Molly Huddle Writes About How The Coronavirus Has Affected Her As A Pro Athlete Trying To Make Tokyo 2020 Huddle was affected at the Trials as she had to race in an older pair of shoes because the pair of Saucony flats she ordered never came because the Chinese factory had been shut down.
*MB: Molly Huddle article on Slate – She flew middle seat to ATL and had to race in flats that were worn down
2020 USATF Masters Indoor Championships Cancelled Due To Coronavirus
Coronavirus Strikes Again: Tokyo 2020 Olympic Flame Lighting (March 12th) To Be Held Without Spectators
Italian Olympic Committee Suspends All Sport In Country Amid Coronavirus Outbreak With 366 dead, Italy is the worst hit after China. Up to 16 million people in northern Italy now need permission to travel under quarantine rules.
World University XC Champs Were Also Postponed Due To Coronavirus
MB: Ohio State just canceled classes due to coronavirus
MB: MY SCHOOLS SHUTING DOWN WHITCH MEANS NO SPRING TRACK

Sprint Stuff

Wayde van Niekerk Says He “Still Wants So Much Greater Things” van Niekerk says he’s still hungry and wants to be back competing with the best in the world.
World Athletics Profile: How Motherhood Helped Allyson Felix Find Her Voice Not having her Nike contract renewed after giving birth motivated her to speak out about maternity protection for athletes which spurred Nike to change its contracts.
USA’s Mixed 4 X 400 World Record And Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s World U20 Indoor HJ Record Ratified By World Athletics The team of Wil London, Allyson Felix, Courtney Okolo and Michael Cherry ran 3:09.34 to win gold in Doha.

Shoe Debate/Analysis

Ireland’s 1984 Olympic Marathon Silver Medalist John Treacy Thinks Nike’s Shoes Are “Undermining The Integrity Of The Sport” “I think World Athletics have made a mistake, not only in allowing the advantage, which in my view is unfair, but putting other runners at a disadvantage if they are not wearing this shoe. And I think it needs to be looked at again, urgently.”
Japan Running News: 28 Of The Top 30 Men At The Tokyo Marathon Used Nike Next% Or Alphaflys 10 Japanese men ran under 2:08 in the same race for the first time in history (all 10 were wearing the shoes). Remember, RW’s article said that 94% of finishers at the US Trials wore shoes with carbon fiber plates.

College / HS News

MB: Katelyn Tuohy Sets Indoor 1,500m PR (4:20.81) With Significant Negative Split
Huntington Women Capture School’s First NAIA Title
*MB: Decathlon?! Easy! Two distance athletes combined to run 19 races over 3 days to lead their team to the NAIA title
William Carey Men Win NAIA Champs
Iowa Central CC Men And New Mexico JC Women Win NJCAA Indoor Champs
Former Wesleyan Women’s XC Runners Speak Out On Culture Of Eating Disorders And Injuries Some former runners allege head coach John Crooke pressured them to lose significant amounts of weight. *Discuss
MB: New Jersey Meet of Champs is ONE FOR THE AGES!
Jamaica Carifta Games Trials Day 1 Recap

More Coronavirus News

London Marathon Organizers Fear “Unofficial” Runs If Race Is Cancelled They claim, “There could be a whole lot of other problems if it doesn’t take place” and use the 2012 NYC Marathon as an example (many runners still ran a marathon in Central Park after Hurricane Sandy cancelled the race). However, that is very different because NYC was cancelled two days before the race and many people had already traveled there. London is still over a month away.
Barcelona Marathon Postponed Due To Coronavirus October is going to be a very busy marathon month this year.
Tokyo Organizers Downsize Arrival Ceremony For Olympic Torch Due To Coronavirus The Olympic torch will be lighted on March 12th in a ceremony in Greece and then flown to Japan, arriving on March 20th.
MB: Italy to QUARANTINE 16 MILLION in Eleven States . . . Until April!

2020 NCAA Indoors Are This Weekend

LRC 2020 NCAA Indoors Men’s Mid-D/Distance Preview: Studs Galore & Wide-Open Races We break down the men’s distance action for this weekend’s NCAA Champs which are LOADED with 11 guys under 3:58, 12 guys under 7:50, 4 under 13:30 plus the fastest DMR team in NCAA history.
*MB: 2020 NCAA Indoors men’s fields are LOADED. Who you got?

NCAA’s #1 man at 400 – true frosh of Randolph Ross North Carolina A&T (45.44) – is thriving while running with his dad as the coach He has already improved a ton from HS. In HS, he ran 21.25 and 46.60 and now he’s run 20.85 and 45.44.

3 Mid-Week Recommended Reads

RR#1: Eliud Kipchoge talks in great detail about his 3 previous Olympics He won bronze in 2004, silver in 2008 and gold in 2016.
RR#2: World Athletics profiles Japanese half-marathon NR holder Hitomi Niiya Inspired by Naoko Takahashi’s 2000 Olympic marathon gold, she took up the sport and became a teen phenom but quit at age 25 after finishing 5th at Worlds. She’s been drawn back as she likes to shop and wanted to buy a bag. Now she’s hoping to medal in front of the home fans.
RR#3: BBC: David Rudisha Discusses Battling Back From His Personal Struggles, Weight Gain And Injuries Over The Last Couple Years For A Chance To Win A Historic Third 800m Gold In Tokyo Rudisha hasn’t raced in two years and had a rough year with separating from his wife and his father dying. But he says, “I still feel like I still have something in me. I have not exhausted everything. There is something left in the tank and that is what I want to exhaust before I think of doing other things.”

18-yr old Lester Lescay of Cuba long jumped 8.21m over the weekend If you think that’s good, realize he’s already the world leader at 8.28.

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary Of America’s First And Only Men’s World XC Champion

LRC Craig Virgin Recalls His Epic Victory At The World Cross-Country Championships, 40 Years Later Only one American man has ever won World XC. In his own words, Virgin describes how he survived his four “moments of truth” to win in Paris in 1980, where he celebrated with champagne long into the night.

NCAA News

LSU Stay #1 In Pre-NCAA Champs Men’s Rankings NAU moved up to #2 and Oregon down to #3. Texas is ranked #4.
No Changes To The Top 6 Teams In Pre-NCAA Champs Women’s Rankings LSU, Southern California, Texas A&M and Georgia are ranked 1-4.
Ken Goe: Indications Are The New Hayward Field Will Be Ready For This Year’s PAC-12 Meet Starting On May 16

Women’s Field Event News

British Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson Reveals Her Body Image Struggles Growing Up She says she was “ashamed of my muscles” when she was younger. “I used to look at the photos of myself competing and critique myself. I don’t do that anymore.”
Olympic Discus Champ Sandra Perkovic Sets Early Season World Lead With 65.93m In Croatia
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Meets And Remenices With GB’s 1972 Olympic Pentathlon Champ Mary Peters Peters tells some interesting stories from her day as an athlete including how she trained in the hallways of the school where she worked (as a teacher and secretary) and once ran into and shattered a glass door. *2nd Article
World Athletics Profile On Mondon Duplantis’ Mother Helena, Who Represented Sweden In The Heptathlon At Multiple International Championships

Weekend Road Results *US 15k Champs Results

Marielle Hall Dominates USATF 15k Championships In 48:52; Ridouane Harroufi Wins In 44:42 Hall won over Natosha Rogers (49:50) with Gwen Jorgensen 4th (50:26). Harroufi won by 1 second over Frank Lara as the top 4 finished within 4 seconds of each other. *Discuss

Ethiopia’s Bayelign Teshager (2:08:25), Kenya’s Margaret Muriuki (2:29:57) Win L.A. Marathon Teshager beat out John Langat by 16 seconds while Muriuki won by 3:01 over Ethiopia’s Almaz Negede. *Results
Mao Ichiyama Runs 2:20:29 To Win Nagoya Women’s Marathon And Land Final Place On Japan Olympic Team To the make the team she needed to be the first Japanese woman across the line and do it under the 2:21:47 that Mizuki Matsuda ran to win January’s Osaka Women’s Marathon. Ichiyama did that, winning by over 2 minutes to knock Matsuda off the team.
Kenya’s Evans Chebet Beats Out South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka 2:07:29 To 2:08:05 To Win The Lake Biwa Mainichi Marathon

More Coronavirus Stuff

Athletes Not Yet In Australia Banned From Queensland Classic Meet Due Coronavirus Fears About 35 athletes, mainly from Japan, who were due to come to Australia will not be able to compete in the meet on March 20th.
WADA To Monitor Anti-Doping Activity In Coronavirus-Hit Areas WADA wants to make sure there aren’t “gaps” in testing in coronavirus hit areas.
RW: What Runners Need To Know About Coronavirus
Tokyo Marathon Foundation Donates Extra Masks And Disinfectants To Schools And Hospitals
July 5 Hakodate Marathon (Japan) To Make A Decision By End Of May Whether To Cancel
MB: Should I ditch easy runs until this Coronavirus business is over?
MB: The Boston Marathon CAN NOT be cancelled because it’s higher priority than other events
MB: Coronavirus is inevitable so why the useless containment

More Shoes / Trials

Rojo Speaks It’s Official: Nike’s Vaporfly Shoe Technology And World Athletics’ Shoe Rules Have Ruined The Marathon (At Least Temporarily) The Olympic Trials and the first 3 super-elite marathons of 2020 show one thing: shoes really matter and they are creating an uneven playing field in the sport.

Coronavirus In The News

NYRR cancels this weekend’s NYC Half
Kenya imposes 30-day international travel ban for its athletes due to coronavirus It’s not like there were that many big races to go to anyway.
Coronavirus is starting to impact the finances of Kenyan athletes “The virus is bad and it will affect the economy because many people depend on the races in Asia, Europe, Australia and other continents. What they earn from these races trickles down from managers all the way to our relatives,” said one athlete.
Kenya’s Sports Cabinet Secretary is called to speak before Parliament to talk about whether Tokyo 2020 will be safe for athletes
Penn Relays organizers monitoring coronavirus outbreak If they follow the lead of the Ivy League office, which stupidly canceled its basketball tournaments on Tuesday, then the meet has little chance of happening.
It’s possible the Champs 2020 will be held without spectators even in Jamaica The issue is people coming from the US or elsewhere might have the disease. Jamaica just confirmed its 1st case and it was a young girl who arrived from the UK.
Announcement as to whether Champs 2020 will be cancelled entirely will be announced within 24 hrs says Jamaica’s Health Minister
PodiumRunner: Worried That Your Race Will Get Cancelled Because of Coronavirus? How to Cope

Mid-D News

Denver Post: Is Cruz Culpepper, Son Of Olympians Alan And Shayne, The Next Great American Miler? Culpepper just missed breaking 4 minutes indoors when he ran 4:00.10 to become the third-fastest 17-year-old in US history behind Jim Ryun (3:59.0) and Marty Liquori (3:59.8).
Nick Willis Secures New Zealand 1,500m Title In 3:42.94 He held off a late-charging Julian Oakley by just .05. He said part of his motivation was you get a lot of points for running at nationals with a quick time. Angie Petty won the women’s race in 4:18.14.
World Athletics Profile On Aussie 800m Record Holder Catriona Bisset Bissett talks about how she overcame her issues with depression, anxiety and an eating disorder to go from 2:09 to 1:58 over the course of two years.

Random But Interesting

1996 Olympic Shot Put Silver Medalist John Godina Ran His First Half Marathon Last Week In Atlanta “I see why people get hooked on this now because it’s more than just a sport. It’s something you can do forever.”
German Florian Neuschwander Breaks 50K Treadmill World Record He ran 2:57:25 to break the record by 1:38 which was set just six week earlier.
Japan’s National Public Broadcaster NHK To Provide Tokyo 2020 Olympic Coverage In 8k

Doping News

27 People, Including Trainers And Veterinarians, Indicted In Horse Racing Doping Scheme One horse trainer is accused of working with someone else to “quietly dispose of the bodies of dead horses,” rather than report those horses’ deaths to authorities. *Discuss
Jo Pavey And Other British Athletes Call On Authorities To Investigate UKA And Its Use Of Alberto Salazar And Thyroid Meds Former GB 800m runner Emma Jackson believes high levels of thyroxine, prescribed by a UKA doctor, ruined her career.
AIU Says They’re Taking On Potential “Rampant, Unchecked” Doping In The Marathon They have found that in 2018, in non-World Marathon Major races, 70 to 80 percent of the podium finishers didn’t have any out-of-competition tests in the 9 months leading up to the race.
CAS Hears Case For Five Russians Appealing Their Banns Including 2012 Olympic HJ Champ Ivan Ukhov
WADA Fail With Bid To Hold Russia Doping Case Hearing In Public WADA had asked for the hearing to be staged in public “to ensure that everybody understands the process and hears the arguments” and RUSADA agreed, but it sounds like either the IOC or Russian Olympic Committee prevented it.

Gender News

InsideTheGames: IOC Attempt To Find Balance Between Fairness And Inclusion In Debate Over Transgender Athletes The IOC dropped the ball on this one as their current rules require trans women athletes to keep testosterone levels under 10 nanomoles per liter when women’s levels normally range from 0.12 to 1.79 nmol/l. And many would argue transgender athletes shouldn’t be allowed to compete in the women’s category at all.
IOC Approve Joint Flagbearers And Quotas For Increased Gender Balance At Olympics Flags can now be carried by one man and one woman.
World Athletics: Gender Leadership On The Rise At All Levels Of Athletics
WA Vice President Ximena Restrepo: “Gender Equity Is Fundamental To Making Athletics Grow”

Distance News

Good Read: Riley Masters Write About His First Sub-4 He ran 11 Years Ago “As I looked over at the clock and saw 3:59.97 next to my name, I was completely euphoric. Seconds earlier my body was as heavy and exhausted as it had ever been. In an instant, I felt immortal.”
Jake Riley Discusses Making The Olympic Team In Dramatic Fashion In Podcast Interview With Carrie Tollefson Riley also talks about his training and plans for Tokyo 2020.
Citius Mag Podcast: Jacob Riley Explains How He Ran the Race of His Life to Make the Olympics + His Remarkable Comeback Story
*Podcast With Riley’s Coach Lee Troop
Japanese Olympic Marathon Team To Visit Grave Of Kokichi Tsuburaya To Inherit Legacy Of Late 1964 Olympic Bronze Medalist
Carrie Tollefson Does Podcast Interview With Meb Keflezighi Breaking Down The Olympic Marathon Trials
Jo Pavey Encouraged Women And Girls To Get Active For International Women’s Day Last Weekend

Jarrion Lawson Cleared

Jarrion Lawson Cleared To Compete By CAS (link fixed) Lawson said he ate tainted beef and CAS apparently has agreed with him. Seems like a win for due process. *Discuss
Previous: A Life On Pause: Jarrion Lawson’s Career Hangs In The Balance As He Fights His Four-Year Doping Ban – And The Global Anti-Doping System

LRC Book Review

LRC Book Review: “Sporting Gender” Offers Much-Needed History And Context On A Challenging Topic Written by medical physicist Joanna Harper, the book is part scientific explainer, part history lesson, part personal story and attacks a tricky subject from multiple angles.