April 12, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Runners Doing Good

LRC Running Helped Prepare Dr. Michael Joyner (The Guy Who Predicted The Sub-2:00 Marathon) To Help Lead Lead The COVID-19 Fight Dr. Michael Joyner is on the leadership team of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project.

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Francie Larrieu Smith’s 10,000m American Record Earns Her USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week Honors Larrieu Smith made it through to the round of 32 in our American Distance GOAT bracket. She’s up against Joan Benoit Samuelson. Vote here.
AP: 40 Years Later, Edwin Moses Still Says The Decision To Boycott The 1980 Moscow Olympics Was “Horrible” Publicly, President Jimmy Carter said it was “one of my most difficult decisions,” but reportedly, in private conversation with an Olympic wrestler he apologized he called it a “bad decision.”
European Athletics Looks Back At Some Running History, When Greece’s Spiridon Louis Won Olympic Marathon Gold At The First Modern Games In 1896 Louis ran 2:58:50 to become Europe’s first Olympic track and field champion.
European Athletics Highlights “Eight Outstanding Sibling Acts” Includes the Ingebrigsten and Borlee brothers.
A Look Back At Linford Christie’s Career The Brit won Olympic 100m gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics with 9.96 seconds.
Paula Radcliffe’s Legacy Lies On As London Marathon Celebrates 39th Anniversary
Top Highlights From The History Of The London Marathon

A Must Read If You Care About Doping Or Justice

LRC The Amazing Story Of How Jarrion Lawson Cleared His Name: He Showed That The Head Of A WADA Lab Provided False Testimony Against Him Jarrion Lawson is free to compete once again after his legal team was able to show that Christiane Ayotte, the head of the WADA-accredited doping control lab at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Laval, Quebec, lied while testifying during his case.
*MB: The amazing story of how Jarrion Lawson cleared himself: He showed the head of a WADA lab provided false testimony against him.

Athletics Calendar Revamp

LRC 3 Thoughts On The World Athletics Championships In Eugene Being Rescheduled To July 15-24, 2022 The first track World Championships in the US will be the earliest Worlds in history. What does it all mean?

LRC World Athletics Says Forget About Qualifying For Olympics Until December And Some Athletes Aren’t Happy “This takes away the last bit of hope of making 2020 a productive, meaningful year in our career” said 2017 steeplechase world champion Emma Coburn. But others, including Olympic pole vault champ Katerina Stefanidi, support the move.

Delayed World Track And Field Championships Set For July 15-24, 2022 Eugene 2021 has been postponed so it doesn’t clash with the Olympics and it was moved up to July from August so it didn’t clash with Euro Champs and the Commonwealth Games.
World Athletics Suspends All Olympic Qualification Until December 1 They are trying to make it fair for different countries which will open up later than others, but we think an ‘A’ standard should count no matter when it happens.
*MB: Overreaction or justified? World Athletics pauses all Olympic qualification until December 1
TrackTown USA’s Organizing Committee Is Back At Work On Postponed Olympic Trials New dates have not been set, but the assumption is they will be scheduled for late June again.
TCS World 10k Bengaluru 2020 Rescheduled From May 17th To September 13th

Quarantine Race Results

Washington Post: “Michael Wardian Set Out For A Virtual Ultra Marathon. He Kept Running For 2½ Days.” It was part of the Quarantine Backyard Ultra and unfortunately for all involved, Wardian ended up winning the race ended with a controversial DQ.
*MB: Coolest or weakest thing ever? Quarantine Backyard Ultra ends with controversial DQ after 250+ miles
*MB: 2020 Quarantine Backyard Ultra Race! Official Race Discussion Thread.
High Schooler Matt Strangio Runs 4:03.57 1,600m Time Trial Strangio’s senior track season is cancelled, but he still is chasing sub-4. He ran in this in breezy conditions, solo for the second half.
*MB: HSer Matt Strangio runs 1600 in 4:03.57 in CA
MB: Farah bombs 6 mile tempo on IG live?
MB: Isaiah Harris time trialed 5,000m PR…. 15:02.

Pole Vault Stuff

France’s Former Olympic PV Champ Renaud Lavillenie Claims “International Home Containment” Title Lavillenie has a pole vault setup in his backyard and used it to clear 5.61m on Saturday. *Video
Mondo Duplantis Auctioning Off His World Record Bib From Torun To Raise Money To Help Fight The Coronavirus Pandemic The current bid is about $1,500.

Tokyo News

Japan Businessman Admits To Giving Gifts For Successful Tokyo Olympic Bid Haruyuki Takahasi admits to giving gifts (including digital cameras and Seiko watches) to lobby IOC officials including Lamine Diack. Takahasi was paid $8.2 million by the Tokyo bid committee to “wine and dine” people who could help Tokyo win the Olympics.
Tokyo Olympics Expects To Secure Athletes Villages And All Competition Venues For 2021 Games The athletes village was scheduled to be sold off in autumn, but organizers are hoping to re-secure it and all 41 competition venues again for 2021.
IOC Confirm Revised Qualification Deadline For Tokyo 2020 Games The qualification period will end June 29, 2021.
Tokyo Government Considering Use Of Olympic Facilities To House People With Coronavirus Symptoms
Daily Rise In Tokyo Coronavirus Cases Passes 100 For First Time
IOC Considering Postponement Of Athletes’ Commission Elections After Tokyo 2020 Delayed To 2021 The current members’ terms would have expired at this year’s Olympics.

Last Week’s Podcast

We Guarantee You’re Entertained
LRC 800m Star, YouTuber, & RunGum CEO Nick Symmonds + Balcony And Backyard Marathons Ranked Listen to the best track and field running podcast on the planet.

Mike Smith Lifts The Veil On Galen Rupp’s Training

LRC Mike Smith Q&A Part II: On Choosing To Coach Galen Rupp, “Defending The Process,” & Rupp’s Human Side Smith said that he was careful not to let preconceived notions cloud his judgment when deciding whether to work with Rupp. “The second we abandon our critical thinking or our process with this stuff … I worry about that.”
*MB: Mike Smith Part II: Smith explains why he agreed to work with Galen Rupp

LRC Mike Smith Q&A, Part I: On Galen Rupp’s Commitment, Restructuring His Training & That 24 X 400 Workout
*MB: Mike Smith lifts the veil on Galen Rupp’s training and talks about what makes him great

March April Madness (Get Your 2nd Round Votes In By Sunday At Midnight)

LRC American Distance GOAT, First Round Recap: Billy Mills Pulls Off Biggest Upset. 2nd Round Voting Now Open A riveting 1st round is in the books and 2nd round voting in our quest to find the Greatest American Distance Runner of All Time is now open. Some of the matchups are amazing. How about: Billy Mills vs. Bill Rodgers, Matthew Centrowitz vs. Dave Wottle, Shelby Houlihan vs. Molly Huddle and Ajee’ Wilson vs. Madeline Manning.

Vote Now Vote In The Men’s Round Of 32!
*Vote In The Women’s Round Of 32!

LRC Has Two Podcasts This Week *All Here

#2 Guest Dr. Michael Joyner Talks COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project + Backyard Ultra Controversial Finish + Olympic Qualifying Cancelled + Eugene 2022 + American GOAT Joyner, the guy who predicted the sub-2 hour marathon, is now working on treatments for COVID-19.

#1 The Mike Wardian Podcast At age 45, has Wardian found his unbeatable event – the Backyard Ultra? Rojo seems to think so as Wardian hardly ever needs to sleep. After running 262+ miles over 63 hours without any sleep, Wardian proceeded to go to work. As of 5 pm Wednesday, he’d slept a total of 4:45 since Saturday morning.
*MB: Meet Mike Wardian – The World’s #1 Runner – Is He The “Eliud Kipchoge” Of Backyard Ultras?

Pros And Cons Of Postponement

AP: Suspension Of Olympic Qualification Gets Cool Reception From Athletes Evan Jager: “I understand freezing the world rankings but I feel achieving the Olympic Standard should still be on the table.”
World 1,500m Champ Timothy Cheruiyot Is Disappointed He Won’t Have A Chance To Try To Break Hicham El Guerrouj’s World Record This Year “At the moment, the Olympic dream is gone, moved to 2021 and the dream chance of running at the higher level at full throttle looks bleak.”
Wesley Korir Hoping To Bounce Back From Injury At The Postponed Boston Marathon In September The postponement was good for him as he is optimistic his injury will be healed by then.
Independent.ie: Tokyo Qualification Pause Will Give Irish Hopefuls More Time

UK News

UK Athletics Head Joahna Coates Says UKA Will “Take A Hefty Blow” If They Aren’t Able To Host The Anniversary Games At The London Stadium She said she is “not prepared to walk away” from talks trying to resolve the dispute with the West Ham soccer team.
Joanna Coates Downplays UKA Bankruptcy Fears UKA will start furloughing staff this week as it looks to cut costs.
New UK Athletics Head Joanna Coates Says UK Athletics Will HAnd Over Full Farah-Salazar Report To UK Anti-Doping
Coates: “We need to not just be an events company.” “We need to bring it back to what this sport is about and that is about encouraging young people to first have a go at something.”
New UK Athletics Head Joanna Coats Shares Her Vision – Says She’ll Sack Anyone Not On Board For “Ethical Success”

US Distance News

Aliphine Tuliamuk Opens Up About How She’s Been Impacted Personally By The Coronavirus Pandemic Besides the Olympics being cancelled, Tuliamuk was planning on starting a family at the end of this year, but with the Olympics being postponed, she and her significant other (who is a healthcare worker), have decided to put off having a child.
Craig Engels Says Post-Race Interviews After The Alberto Salazar Doping Ban Were More Interesting: “It was kind of fun and something new. It brought out a lot of people’s true colors.” Article also includes quotes from Engels and Pete Julian about Engels’ positive personality and beating Matt Centrowitz at USAs last year.
Molly Seidel: “I think I’m too dumb to quit. With all the times that I’ve been knocked down, maybe I’m just too stupid to know that it’s my time to give up.” Seidel admits that when she started, she thought she’d actually end up DNFing the Olympic Marathon Trials.

Random Stuff

Lolo Jones Puts On Two Shirts And Drinks Wine To Dominate Tom Holland’s Handstand Challenge
AP: Runners Still Finding Release On The Road During Coronavirus With gyms and races closed, many people are running together in virtual training groups. A sports cardiologist said anyone running with others should double the recommended six feet of social distancing because of the increase in the amount of air they’re breathing in and out.
RRW: Backyard Marathon Raises $28,000 for Charity Former UK javelin star and now soccer player James Campbell ran a 5:50:33 marathon in his 6-meter backyard.
Britney Spears Says She Was Joking About Running 100m Dash Faster Than Usain Bolt In a since-deleted post, Spears claimed she ran 100m in 5.97 seconds, but has since clarified that she “was joking.”
BAA Donates $100,000 To Boston Resiliency Fund And Contributes Medical Supplies, Food To Local Agencies

With No Current Races, Take This Time To Look Back

NY Times: When The Tokyo Olympics Went Missing Interesting history lesson on how Tokyo was actually supposed to host the 1940 Olympics, but gave them up because of Japan’s war with China. The Olympics were eventually cancelled altogether because of WWII.
MB: Blast from the past. 1998 NCAA XCountry. Goucher over Abdi. Lagat 7th.
A Look Back At When Roger Bannister Ran The First Sub-4 Minute Mile
9.58 – When Usain Bolt Became the Fastest Man In History
World Athletics Watch Parties: Today’s Race Is The 400m Final From The Doha 2019 World Champs
USTFCCCA Looks Back To 1994 When Arkansas’ Erick Walder Jumped 8.74m To Break Carl Lewis’ Collegiate LJ Record
USATF Throwback Athlete Of The Week Honors: Louise Ritter Breaks The Women’s American High Jump Record In 1980 With 1.94m
European Athletics: Remember When … Athens Staged The 2004 Olympic Games
European Athletics Looks Back On When Barcelona Hosted The 1992 Olympics

LRC Tokyo Postponement Coverage

LRC 6 Big Questions In The Wake Of IOC’s Decision To Postpone Olympics To 2021 What happens to Eugene 2021? What happens to people with Olympic qualifiers from 2019? Which athletes gain from the postponement and which ones are hurt by it? And a proposal for what to do with the 2020 US Champs.
*MB: Olympics are officially delayed for up to one year

LRC With Olympics Postponed, Sprint Star Noah Lyles Gets A Taste Of Cross-Country Training Perhaps no one has the potential to gain more from the 2020 Olympics than Lyles, but he’s relieved that the Olympics have been moved to 2021 as he’s been forced to dodge dog walkers while trying to train in a local park.
*MB: Sprint star Noah Lyles talks about 2020 Olympic postponement – “Actually seeing it delayed gives me a bit of security.”

Free Book Chapters – Purchase Your Autographed Book From Craig Virgin Now

LRC “Virgin Territory” Chapter 17: Front Runner Inc: When Pro Runners Had To Pretend They Weren’t Pro Hard to believe guys in their 60s now had to pretend they weren’t pro runners.

LRC “Virgin Territory” Book Excerpt, Chapter 1: Playing It Risky – Craig Virgin’s 1980 World Cross-Country Win Read about Craig’s win at World XC. Coming tomorrow chapter 17 from the book.

Jump Aboard The LetsRun Time Machine

LRC I Was Bored, So I Went Back And Watched The 1998 NCAA Cross-Country Championships Jonathan Gault hilariously revisits the 1998 NCAA XC meet that had it all – Adam Goucher, Abi Abdirahman, Bernard Lagat and even Billy Mills and Jim Ryun – and was held in an era where ponytails were everywhere, cross-country courses featured covered bridges, and James Madison was good at XC.
*MB: Blast from the past. 1998 NCAA XCountry. Goucher over Abdi. Lagat 7th

Random Coroanvirus News

Simulation Reveals The Dangers Of Jogging With Training Partners During Coronavirus Pandemic Viral particles from another runner could infect you even if they are six feet ahead, but running next to them may be safer.
*MB: ‘Horrifying’ simulation reveals dangers of hobby jogging during the C virus lockdowns
MB: Paris Bans Daytime Jogging!! Running Curfew between 10am – 7pm
Runner’s World Article Says You Should Be Cleaning Your Watch/Phone After Running To Help Slow The Spread Of Coronavirus You don’t have to wash your shoes though.
Former French Minister Says Allowing The Tour De France To Take Place Would Be A “Crime Against Humanity”
Cancelled Marathons In Japan Using Phone Apps To Hold Virtual Marathons

Sad RIP News

MB: RIP Italian two-time Olympic 800m finalist Donato Sabia He died from coronavirus at age 56.
MB: Jim Bailey – the world’s 5th sub-4 miler and the 1st sub-4 miler on US soil – has died at 92
MB: Bill McChesney, patriarch of the ‘First Family’ of Eugene’s track and field community, dies at 91

Kenyan Doping News

Asbel Kiprop Still Claiming He’s Going To Clear His Name; Says His Doping Ban Ruined His Marriage And Drove Him To Alcoholism “I think AIU saw me as a stumbling block to what they wanted to achieve and someone wanted to find a way to bring me down.”
Kenyan Marathon Vincent Yator Gets 4-Year Doping Ban Yator’s failed test came at the Gold Coast Marathon last year where he ran 2:09:59.

NCAA Coronavirus News

AP: College Athletics Directors Bracing For Financial Crisis With the cancelling of March Madness and other winter/spring sports, plus the possibility of disruption to the start of football season, ADs are expecting a major loss in revenue. Cancelling March Madness alone cost the NCAA $375 million.
*DyeStat: College Athletic Departments Face Prospect Of ‘Ice Age’ If Football Season Is Severely Impacted By Pandemic
NCAA Division 1 Council Votes To Provide Scholarship Relief, Extend Eligibility For Spring Student-Athletes They also voted not to extend any relief for winter sport athletes who had completed all or part of their regular seasons, but had national championships canceled.
Ken Goe: “Granting Athletes In Spring Sports Another Season of Eligibility Creates Other Problems” The NCAA ruling leaves what to do with scholarships up to individual schools, which means some athletes could have their scholarships stay at the same level while others will have them reduced or even eliminated.
UO Cocah Robert Johnson Is Social Distancing And Thinking About What’s Next He has questions about how the NCAA’s ruling is going to be applied specifically in the PAC-12. He says that Hayward Field would have been ready for this year’s PAC-12 Champs if they had happened.
Ken Goe: If The Coronavirus Forces Colleges To Cut Athletic Programs, What Happens To Track? Goe writes, “It’s possible many athletic directors soon will have to take a meat cleaver to their athletic budgets. … Non-revenue sports such as track and field are money drains.”

A Race Has Been Added To the Calendar And It’s This Saturday – You Can Run It At Home On Your Treadmill If Need Be

LRC Looking For A Race? A Sporting Event To Follow? The Quarantine Backyard Ultra Is Saturday Good news, runners and sports fans. You can compete in this race virtually from home (or watch it from home), and as long as you can run 4.167 miles in an hour, you have a shot at victory. And it’s free to enter.
*MB: 2020 Quarantine Backyard Ultra Race! Official Race Discussion Thread

Update On LRC Coronavirus Patient’s Condition

LRC Update: LetsRun.com Visitor With COVID-19 Continues To Recover Good news as “justthefacts” condition continued to improve over the weekend and his fever is gone.

LRC What’s It Like For A Runner To Have COVID-19? A Long-Time LetsRun.com Visitor Shares His Story Of Being Infected With The Coronavirus A long-term visitor to LetsRun.com wants to share his story of what it is like to have the coronavirus. He also wants a LetsRun.com singlet when he gets better.
Discussion: I tested Positive for COVID here is my story