April 25, 2020 | LetsRun.com

Seb Coe Talks And We Listen

LRC Seb Coe Talks To LetsRun.com About Suspending Olympic Qualification, Whether To Eliminate The “Off Year,” & More We spoke with Coe on Friday and share four highlights. Coe defended World Athletics’ decision to pause Olympic qualifying, called on the US to stage more high-quality professional meets, and explained how Jim Ryun helped him earn his first Olympic gold.

The Penn Relays Aren’t This Weekend But Here Are Two Recommended Reads

Sports Illustrated: Over 125 Years, The Penn Relays Have Endured Everything. That Streak Just Ended. A look back at some of the amazing history behind the meet that has endured through wars and national emergencies.
A Look Back At Usain Bolt’s 2010 Historic Return To The Penn Relays Ten years ago Bolt lead the Jamaican team to victory in the USA vs the World 4 x 100 in a meet record 37.90. Looking back on that day, commentator Ato Boldon said, “The volume got to a point where it ceased to become noise and it was just a deafening roar. That’s not supposed to happen when you have headsets on.”

RIP

Throwback Thursday

LRC I Was Bored, So I Watched The Insane 2007 World Cross-Country Championships In Kenya The 2007 World XC meet was one of the most memorable in history. The UNBEATABLE Kenenisa Bekele was not only beaten – he quit mid-race while in medal position with only 800 meters to go. A truly insane day of racing in the heat of Mombasa, Kenya, that featured future Olympic champions Asbel Kiprop, Mo Farah, Stephen Kiprotich, Taoufik Makhloufi, Vivian Cheruiyot, and Tirunesh Dibaba.
*MB: Throwback Thursday: I Was Bored, So I Watched the Insane 2007 World XC Champs in Kenya

From The LRC Archives LRC 2007 World Cross-Country Championships Recap From Mombasa, Kenya: Controlled Chaos With people climbing into trees to watch, Wejo wrote, “The atmosphere was crazy. A party, a sporting event, a carnival, a once in a lifetime event with tremendous national pride associated with it all rolled into one.”

*TBT#2: I Was Bored, So I Went Back and Watched Ritz, Webb, & Hall Battle at the 2000 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships
*TBT#1: I Was Bored, So I Went Back and Watched the 1998 NCAA Cross Country Championships

Bored Because Of Covid-19? Read This Free Book Excerpt

LRC When Henry Rono Went From 15:40 To A 13:06 World Record In Two Months This excerpt from Richard Amery‘s new book, The Five and Ten Men, about the 10 men who have held the 5 and 10,000 WRs is a fascinating read.

LRC Book Review: “The Five And Ten Men” By Richard Amery Need to brush up on your distance running history? Richard Amery‘s book offers a comprehensive history of the sport from Paavo Nurmi to Kenenisa Bekele, told through the 10 men to hold both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter world records. *Purchase here.

Previous Free Book Excerpts From Craig Virgin – Purchase Your Autographed Book From Craig Virgin Now

RIP Neil Black

Former UK Athletics Performance Director Neil Black Dies At Age 60 A UKA statement said Black died over the weekend, but did not give a cause of death. He stepped down from his role as performance director after Alberto Salazar was banned.
Mo Farah Pays Emotional Tribute To Neil Black “I have lost a good friend! Known him since I was 14 years old. Neil supported me all the way in my career since I was kid!! My heart is broken … I wouldn’t be where I am today without Neil Black … no one knew me like he did!! We lost a great man.”
Dina Asher-Smith, Hannah England And Others Pay Tribute To Neil Black
PA Media: Neil Black, The Physiotherapist Who Rose To The Top Of UK Athletics
MB: Former UK Athletics director Neil Black DEAD at 60

Doping News

Track Agent Robert Wagner Caught On Tape Saying He Could Supply PEDs Gets Backdated 2-Year Drug Ban Wagner was caught on tape by undercover reports, saying he could get them testosterone and HGH for an actor they said was training for a film. Wagner had connections to Justin Gatlin and the scandal led to Gatlin firing his coach Dennis Mitchell, who was also implicated.
*Robert Wagner Free To Work In Athletics Again As His Ban Was Backdated To April 2018 When He Was Provisionally Suspended
*MB Archives: Justin Gatlin embroiled in new doping scandal
iNADO Chief Claims There Are Misconceptions That The Coronavirus Has Opened The Door For Doping He says even if there is less testing, anti-doping agencies do much more than that to combat cheaters.
Opinion Piece: Kenya And Russia Keep On Doping

NCAA News

NCAA Relaxes Freshman Academic Eligibility Standards For 2020-21 Due To Coronavirus They won’t have to submit a SAT or ACT score and their classroom work during this year will be disregarded if they earned at least a 2.3 average in 10 courses before their senior year.
NCAA Indoor 5,000m Champ Alicia Monson Turns Professional The former Wisconsin runner signed with Total Sports.

It’s Boston Marathon Day For The First Time In 124 Years, There Will Be No Boston Marathon In April

MB: Boston Marathon Re-airing all day on Olympic Channel All times Eastern: 10 am 2017, 1pm 2017, 4pm 2018, 7pm 2019, 10pm 2014, midnight 2015. Jon Gault will be on a HOKA NAZ Elite video chat on 7:30 pm.

LRC Monday, But No Marathon: What I Miss Most About The Boston Marathon Jonathan Gault shares what he misses most about the Boston Marathon as for the first time since 1896 there will be no Boston Marathon in April.
*MB: It’s Patriots Day but there is no Boston Marathon – What do you most miss about Boston?

Boston Marathon Organizers Urge People Not To Run The Course On Boston Monday Today The BAA statement said, “For the first time in Boston Marathon history, we are urging anyone considering running the Boston Marathon course this week to stay home.
Scott Douglas: The Best Moments From The Last 45 Years Of The Boston Marathon
Runner’s World: The 13 Most Important Boston Marathons They start with the first in 1897 and go through to Des Linden‘s win in 2018.
AP: From Hopkinton To Boston, Marathon Absence Is Seen And Felt
You Can Run The Boston Marathon Virtually With An App

Boston MB Talk:

The Latest Covid-19 Related News

Haile G Has Donated £30,000 To Covid-19 Fund, But Is Very Worried About Things Apparently, he’s barely sleeping as he’s so worried about his employees. *MB: Haile G donates £30,000 to Covid-19 fund, but is worried about its impact and not sleeping more than 4 hrs as a result
How New Zealand Shot Put Star Tom Walsh Is Spending His Coronavirus Lockdown An interesting read. From riding an ebike, to lifting an insane amount of weight, to drinking beers, he shares all.
1980 US Olympians Reflect And Compare The Cancellations And Postponement Of Sports This Year To The Olympic Boycott “Not one life was saved by the 1980 boycott, but we know lives will be saved by the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games.”
The Diamond League Opener Was Supposed To Be In Doha This Weekend; Instead A Video Conference Was Held With Keni Harrison, Mutaz Barshim, Tom Walsh, Thomas Röhler And Katerina Stefanidi They talk Doha, the Diamond League, self-isolation and even watched some track and field highlights.
Group Starts Petition To Use Tokyo Olympic Dorms To House Homeless During Covid-19 Crisis The homeless problem is tiny in Tokyo as compared to the US.
*MB: Guess how many homeless people there are in Tokyo
Denver’s Red Rocks Park Has Been Closed For A Week If you work out there, you get a $999 fine.
Reigning Down Two Oceans And Comrades Champ Bongmusa Mthembu Reflects On Two Oceans Cancellation And Comrades Postponement “But as I said, the most important for now is to comply with the rules and regulations of the country. We can’t be worried about Comrades while the rest of the world is trying to fight this virus. Let us fight the virus first and then we can focus on running races.”

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.

The Championship Is Here – Voting Ends Sunday

LRC Jim Ryun & Deena Kastor Voted As The Greatest Men’s And Women’s American Distance Runners Of All Time LetsRun nation has spoken and voted Jim Ryun and Deena Kastor as the greatest men’s and women’s American distance runners of all time. Ryun took down Frank Shorter in the men’s final while Deena Kastor came from behind to knock off Jenny Simpson in the women’s final.

LRC Who Is The Greatest American Distance Runner Ever: Jim Ryun Or Deena Kastor? And then there were two. You’ve named Deena Kastor and Jim Ryun as the greatest women’s and men’s distance runners in US history, but of the two, who had the better career?
*MB: The Final Is Here: Deena Kastor or Jim Ryun – Who is the American GOAT?

Face Mask News

Washington City Paper: Do Runners Need To Wear Face Masks? Apparently people in more populated areas have been getting very angry about runners going by them without face masks. Dr. William Schaffner, the medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, says the chances of catching coronavirus from a runner going by on the street are “very, very low” but runners should probably still wear masks if they’re running by a lot of people, even for symbolic reasons.
Organizers For A Japanese Marathon Produce Masks From Bib Numbers
Japanese Comedian Blasts “Dumbass Runners” Who Run Without Masks

Track And The NFL

Video: Ato Boldon Details Track Vs. NFL Speed Myth “There is no formula for converting a 40 (yard) to 100m. … There’s a difference between football speed and track and field speed.”
MileSplit: The Track Resumes Of First Round NFL Draft Choices Joe Burrow, the top pick in the NFL draft ran 13.32 for 100m and 25.94 for 200m as a sophomore.

Isn’t This Excessive For A Non-Profit?

Rich Perelman: Was It Even Max Siegel’s Idea To Extend With Nike or Did Two Ex-Nike Execs, Who Eventually Were Paid $23.75 Million, Come Up With It? Plus Perelman wonders if Siegel’s $3 million in deferred compensation was only agreed to after Vin Lananna was suspended. *Discuss

USATF Defends Itself To Washington Post For Paying Max Siegel $4.2 Million $1.2 million in 2018 and $3 million over the next four years. USATF does admit they didn’t want to put down $4.2 million on the tax form but the accountant made them.
*Discuss

MB: After delay, USATF reveals Max Siegel made $1.2 million in salary plus $3 million in deferred compensation Sarah Lorge Butler has the details.

Mo Farah News

Mo Farah Talks About His Training Durig COIVD-19; Says He Doesn’t Mind Running On The Treadmill “I’m one of these people, I’m weird. … I love the treadmill.”
Mo Farah Thinks Tokyo Delay Could Boost His Medal Chances “It is probably, in my honest opinion, not a bad thing for me because it gives you a bit more time to train for it, to do more races, because I would have gone from the marathon and then the following year straight to the track.”
Mo Farah Gives Props To 99-Year-Old Veteran Who Raised More Than $30 Million For The National Health Service (NHS) Charity Tom Moore initially targeted $1,000 by walking 100 laps in his garden.

Event Cancellation/Rescheduling Stuff

Athletic.net Launches App To Host Virtual Track Meets Athletes will be able to submit times with video for short events or GPS data for longer distances.
New Balance Nationals Outdoor Moved To July 16-19 They were originally scheduled for June 18-21. They are allowing athletes to use marks from indoors or 2019 outdoors to qualify.
World Athletics Forms Outbreak Prevention Taskforce For Endurance Events The task force will provide guidelines for endurance events during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Russian Track And Field Federation Postpones All Meets In May

Top Tips From The Pros

LRC HOKA ONE ONE Pro Runners Give Their Best Advice To High Schoolers Want some simple training advice?

And The Amateurs: Great Read: 7,000+ Words On Life And How To Run A 2:29 Marathon At Age 44 Wired‘s Nicholas Thompson didn’t break 3:00 until age 29. Now at 44, he’s a sub-2:30 guy. “To Run My Best Marathon at Age 44, I Had to Outrun My Past.”
*MB: Nick Thompson: 7,000+ Words on Life and How To Run A 2:29 Marathon at Age 44

Athlete Lockdown

Mondo Duplantis Shares Video Of His Homemade Pole Vault Pit Setup In His Parents’ Backyard The video is in English and you can read the article translated here.
Q&A With Bulgarian Sprinter Ivet Lalova-Collio As She Prepares To Target Her Fifth Olympic Appearance In Tokyo In 2021 Talking about training during the coronanvirus, the 35-year-old says, “I keep saying that athletics is a ‘poor’ sport – we don’t need that much to do what we do. … Even if we have to run on the street or have to run on the stairs in our building, we are going to make it!”
*MB Archives: Ivet Lalova Blows Employee #1 a Kiss…
GB Sprinter Adam Gemili Writes About Being In Lockdown In Florida “I haven’t seen the rest of my training group for so long I’ve started to forget what they look like.”

USATF Lays Off 11% Of Its National Office

MB USATF lays off 11% of its workforce (7/65). Max Siegel’s salary reduced from 1.1 million to 900k Sports Business Daily broke the news. Siegel’s salary is being reduced by 20%. Does anyone know if Nike is paying its full sponsorship this year?

More Administrative News

The Athletics World Cup Event That Was Held In London Last Year Is Believed To Have Cost UK Athletics Nearly £2 Million Hey, at least they are trying to innovate.
The NY Times Has The Details On USADA’s New Virtual Drug Testing You still actually take a test but the tester is only watching via webcam. They watch you prick your blood but don’t actually see your genitals when you urinate (like they do in an in-person test), but they do make you dip a temperature strip into the sample to prove it’s recent. *USA Today
Great News As A Result Of Its Widely Successful First-Ever Marathon Grand Championship, Japan Will Keep Its Single-Race Olympic Marathon Trials Format For 2024 Paris We must admit their format is pretty brilliant although they haven’t committed to the 2024 race automatically selecting two athletes (which we hope they do).

News From The UK

Great Idea Brit Asks People To Run 5k And Then Ask For A £5 Donation To Health Care Workers And The “Run For Heroes” Campaign Has Raised £2 Million And to think her goal was only £5,000. “I thought £5 isn’t too much of a big ask, 5km isn’t too far to run and it still feels like a sense of achievement, and if you nominated five other people in your social channel to do the same then, hopefully, it would continue to spread.”
From The Athletics Weekly Archives: 27 Years Ago, The Unsponsored Eamonn Martin Was The Last Brit To Win The London Marathon The marathon debut for the 34-year-old 13:17/27:23 guy was a smashing success.

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

Odd Ways To Train Through Lockdown

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Funny Video: Katarina Johnson-Thompson Competes In Home Heptathlon Against Her Dogs Even includes official commentating and slow-mo replays.
Russian Man Runs Around His Bed For More Than 10 Hours In An Effort To Replicate Completing A 100km Ultramarathon Dmitry Yakukhny was supposed to run a 250km ultra in the Sahara Desert this month, so did this instead.
European Athletics Catches Up With Greece Pole Vaulter Emmanouil Karalis Karalis put out a joke video pole vaulting into his bed. He says he’s jealous of Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie who have pole vault setups in their backyard.

This Week’s Podcast

LRC Greatest American Distance Runner Final Four, Alicia Monson Joins Us After Turning Pro, LRC Visitor Of The Week Listen to the best track and field running podcast on the planet.

More Cancellations, But There Will Be At Least One Meet In June

Diamond League Postpones Two More Meets In June (Pre Classic And Paris) Due To Coronavirus The Oslo Bislett Games is being changed to an alternative format called the “Impossible Games.” The event will have athletes take part in a “one-off showpiece event” following social distancing rules. It will include a WR attempt from 400H world champ Karsten Warholm and a PV showdown between Mondo Duplantis and Renaud Lavillenie.
*Ken Goe: No New Date Has Been Set For The Postponed Pre Classic
*Norway’s World 400H Champ karsten Warholm Targetting The 300m Hurdles World Best In Oslo Warholm will run a solo race targeting the 34.48 world best mark (he’s already run 34.26 indoors).
*Seb Coe On The Impossible Games: “This is really positive news for athletes and fans and promises, even in this early stage, to be another great night of athletics from the Bislett stadium.”
European Athletics Championships Cancelled Because Of Coronavirus Th event was scheduled for August 25-30 in Paris. *Euro Champs Will Not Be Rescheduled Due To The Crowded 2021 Calendar
Seb Coe Says He Would Relish The Chance To Target The 2022 Treble (Worlds, Euros And CWG) If He Was Still Competing “Training was what I did to compete. Competition was what I woke up in the morning for.”

No One Is Winning Road Races, But LRCers Are Still Winning

LRC Meet The Winners Of The Running Warehouse / HOKA ONE ONE Marathon Trials Prediction Contest Meet the winners, including a guy who shared a locker with the late Sammy Wanjiru. We’re also still looking for visitor “Old is as old does.”

Coronavirus Comes For Berlin

MB: The 2020 Berlin Marathon Won’t Happen As Planned In September As Germany Extends Ban On Large Events Through October The German government has banned all events of more than 5,000 people through October 24th. It’s not been officially stated whether the marathon will be outright cancelled, postponed or move to an elite only race. *Discuss

The Chicago Marathon Is Allowing Runners To Cancel Their 2020 Race Entries Runners who do choose to cancel will have guaranteed entry into the 2021 race, but they don’t get a refund and have to pay again in 2021.

Olympic News

US Olympic And Paralympic Committee Bracing For Cuts; Says Tokyo Olympic Cancellation Would Be “Devastating” The USOPC is facing cuts up to 20%. Talking about the Tokyo Games being cancelled altogether, a letter from the CEO said, “We would survive such a scenario, but the impact would be severe.”
IOC And Japan Clash Over Who Pays For Additional Costs For Postponing Tokyo 2020 The IOC has been forced to backtrack after “irritating the Japanese government” by saying the prime minister had agreed to cover the additional costs.
Tokyo 2020 Staff Member Tests Positive For Coronavirus The man in his thirties has been placed in in quarantine.

Previous GOAT News

Rojo Speaks LetsRun Got It Wrong. Joan Benoit Samuelson Had A Better Career Than Jenny Simpson
*MB: Has LetsRun nation lost its mind? Jenny Simpson is currently beating Joan Benoit in the voting for Greatest American Ever
*MB: Rojo goes home DEVASTATED. Simpson def. Benoit Samuelson

Olympic Qualification Debate / Will There Even Be An Olympics?

USATF Hopes So New Dates Set For 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Trials Will Be Held June 18-27, 2021 Existing ticket holders will automatically have their tickets transferred to 2021 unless they want a refund.
Japanese Virus Expert Is “Very Pessimistic” About Tokyo 2020 Taking Place Next Year Kentaro Iwata said, “Japan might be able to control this disease by next summer, I wish we could, but I don’t think that would happen everywhere on Earth …”
Euromeetings Group Asks World Athletics To Reconsider Their Freeze On Olympic Qualification Their statement stated, “In explaining to our sponsors and supporting institutions the need to stage athletics meetings in 2020, we unfortunately have lost one key argument: the possibility of Olympic qualification.”
Irish Sprinter Phil Healy Backs World Athletics’ Olympic Qualification Freeze “Let’s say we got to compete at [Euro Champs], and that’s a high category event, but Americans obviously couldn’t compete, that’s not fair that we get that opportunity to boost our chances of qualification and they don’t.”

Track Flashbacks

Athletics Weekly From The Archive: Kelly Holmes’ Athens Olympic Double Here is their coverage when Holmes won 800m and 1,500m gold at the 2004 Athens Games.
World Athletics Watch Party: Watch The Men’s 110 Hurdles Final From Doha 2019

This Week’s Big Talk

LRC Meet Madeline Manning Mims – The Greatest American 800m Runner Ever? If you missed this week’s podcast we made our talk with Manning Mims its own podcast and have a few highlights of our talk. Manning Mims ran her first 800 by accident, and broke the then world record as a high schooler. 2 years later she was the Olympic champ. 14 years later she was still winning the Olympic Trials.